A7 Inside and Out

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
This evening found a new use for BHS. The gym area became an evacuation site for about 100 city residents forced from their Laurel, Pearl, Cohansey, and Washington Street homes when police found potentially explosive materials in a N. Laurel Street residence during a drug bust.

The story had a happy ending. The materials were safely detonated and the residents were returned by van, car, and school bus to their homes in about two hours.

Being here at BHS to witness the temporary shelter setup was quite sobering however. Initially, authorities feared they might have to house 1,500 to 2,000 residents in BHS. If a catastrophe of that magnitude ever happened, the logistics of such an operation would be daunting.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
As Act IV of Othello begins, an enraged title character shockingly slaps Desdemona, leaving arrivals from Venice astonished at the change in the once-devoted Moor.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
Since I had been out so much recently with the HSPA Institute, we thought it would be wise to hold a makeup session today.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this date in 1974, the first issue of People magazine, a weekly publication featuring entertainment and social-interest news, hits the newsstands and a new age of celebrity journalism begins.

WRAP IT UP
American author John Steinbeck, who was born on this date in 1902, had this interesting thought on the subject of writers and writing: "In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
More bad news on the contract issue here. A final meeting aimed at avoiding the lengthy process of fact-finding to resolve the dispute between the Bridgeton Education Association and the school board failed last night.

Negotiatiors for the two sides entered the session with 13 items in dispute and were only able to tentatively agree on one.

The BEA represents about 500 teachers, secretaries, and cafeteria employees who have been working since September without a contract. Under the fact-finding scenario, it would be doubtful that the contract could be settled before school dismisses in June.

Since the earliest the board indicated it could meet would be May, the negotations would probably drag on through the summer, meaning teachers might be asked to start a second year without a new contract.

Obviously, this news did not sit well with BEA members and you can expect escalating actions aimed at forcing the board to sincerely negotiate soon.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
The final scenes of Act III of Othello introduced yet another character into the tragedy, Cassio's lover Bianca

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
Students completed their reading of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, discovering that istead of revenge and mayhem Prospero allows his reason to triumph and offers forgiveness and freedom to all characters.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Author and poet Robert Penn Warren died on this date in 1986 at age 84. His Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, All the King's Men, was made into a movie in 1949. The movie swept the Academy Awards, winning Best Picture, Best Actor (for star Broderick Crawford), and Best Supporting Actress (for Mercedes McCambridge).

WRAP IT UP
The Best Play award winner of 1962, "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feeling So Sad", opened in New York City on this night (and for 454 performances).

Not the longest run on the Great White Way, certainly, but one of the longest titles of a show. Imagine standing at the ticket booth and asking for tickets to "ODPDMHYITCAIFSS".

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
It was a second day of the Language Arts portion of the off-site HSPA Institute.

Today we had 25 juniors for instruction. Again, the students were hard workers and behaved magnificiently. Here's hoping they perform as well on the state-manadated graduation test next week.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
Continuing Act III of Othello, students encountered the widening rift between an insanely jealous Othello and an unsuspecting Desdemona.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
Students worked on exercises aimed at helping them better understand subject-predicate agreement issues.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Anthony Burgess, the British novelist and critic best known for his controversial novel A Clockwork Orange (1962), was born on this date in 1917.

Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange, set in a violent future in which gangs of adolescents terrorize society, earned him enormous publicity. For the characters in his book, he invented a language composed of a combination of words from English and American slang and the Russian language. The work gained a cult following after the release in 1971 of the motion-picture version by American director Stanley Kubrick. Burgess's prolific literary output during the 1960s and 1970s was characterized by skillful verbal inventiveness and pointed social satire.

WRAP IT UP
"Readers are plentiful: thinkers are rare," Anthony Burgess said. As a 21st Century English teacher I agree with the seond part, but I even wonder about the number of readers today. Too much stress, too many diversions, too much pace, too little time to read.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
We conducted the HSPA Language Arts Instititute today at the Gia's Catering Hall.

Thirty-two juniors received intensified instruction in the four areas of the state-mandated test - persusaive reading, narrative reading, persuasive essay wriring and picture prompt creations - as well as test taking tips in general.

The students were extremely well behaved and worked diligently. Hopefully, the instruction will help them on the three days of testing next week.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
Students began Act III of Othello, where they discovered the first mention of a handkercheif which will play a central role in the tragedy.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
Students worked on exercises designed to help them avoid sentence fragments and run-on sentences in their writing

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this date in 1938, Variety reported casting for the film The Wizard of Oz.

Variety reported that MGM cast Judy Garland as Dorothy, Ray Bolger as the Tin Man, and Buddy Ebsen as the Scarecrow for the film. However, Ebsen never appeared in the film. Over the summer, he and Bolger swapped parts, but Ebsen dropped out after just nine days of shooting when he was poisoned by his makeup. Jack Haley replaced him.

But Ebsen was later to come to small screen as family patriarch Jed Clampett, the head of those Beverly Hillbillies.

WRAP IT UP
For most of his life, Beatle George Harrison believed he was born on Feb. 25th. However, he found a birth document later in his life which showed that today was actually his birthday. Harrison, who died this year from cancer, was always known as the quiet Beatle. On his former group he once had this to say: ""Having played with other musicians, I don't even think the Beatles were that good" George, you were entitled to your opinon, but on listening to the Fab 4 even forty years later, I think they were truly "that good."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
We had a special assembly for 9th and 10th graders today sponsored by the Power 99 rap radio station out of Philadelphia.

While the idea might have sounded nice, the behavior of the students headed back to classes after the auditorium program was abominable. And, although I had senior classes and didn't attend, I understand some of the program's content was pretty objectionable, too.

I hope someone addresses this situation to make for better programs and bahavior in the future.

FOR YOUR (HONORS EYES) ONLY
We continued with Act II of Othello.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We began a sprint to the finish of The Tempest with the first scenc of Act V where Prospero decides to forgive his brother and his cronies for stealing his dukedom.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this day in 1868, William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) DuBois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. A brilliant scholar, DuBois was an influential proponent of civil rights.

DuBois' childhood was happy, but during adolescence he became aware of a "vast veil" separating him from his white classmates. He devoted most of his life to studying the position of blacks in America from a sociological point of view. He took his doctorate at Harvard but was unable to get a job at a major university, despite his impressive academic achievements and the publication of his doctoral thesis, about the slave trade to the United States in the mid-1800s. He taught at Wilberforce College in Ohio, then spent a year at the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote his first major book, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899). The book was the first sociological case study of a black community.

DuBois came to national attention with the publication of The Souls of Black Folks (1903). The book explored the thesis that the "central problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line." One controversial essay attacked the widely respected Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, which trained blacks in agricultural and industrial skills. DuBois accused Washington of selling out blacks by advocating silence in civil rights issues in return for vocational training opportunities for blacks.

In 1909, DuBois helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He edited the association's journal, The Crisis, from 1910 to 1934, reaching an audience of more than 100,000 readers. But he resigned after an ideological rift with the group. In 1935, he published Black Reconstruction, a Marxist interpretation of the post-Civil War era. At Atlanta University, where he later taught, he founded a review of race and culture called Phylon in 1940 and the same year published Dusk at Dawn, in which he examined his own career as a case study of race dynamics. He rejoined the NAACP from 1944 to 1948 but broke with the group permanently after a bitter dispute. He joined the Communist Party in 1961 and moved to Ghana, where he became a citizen in 1963, the year of his death.

WRAP IT UP
Regular readers of this blog know we almost always feature a quotation in this section. However, since conformity (and repetition) are the hobgoblins of little minds, it's time for a change. Today, we will feature the actor and director of a 1969 movie. Peter Fonda, son of actor Henry Fonda, brother of actress/activist Jane Fonda and father to actresss Bridget Fonda, was born on this date in 1939. And his 1969 movie - Easy Rider - is still viewed as a cinematic time capsule of that turbulent period. Every time I hear "Born to Be Wild" I still picture Fonda and Dennis Hopper heading out on the highway.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
In another effort supposedly designed to improve test scores, administrators have ordered all teachers to analyze their grade distribution statistics for the seond marking period.

I fear there is only one certain outcome of this unwelcome mandate - more justifiable grumbling about yet more unnecessary paperwork.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
With me absent (a workshop for the HSPA Institute), students moved on to Act II of Othello.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
Again, without me, students began Act V of The Tempest.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this day in 1950, Welsh poet Dylan Thomas arrived in New York for his first reading tour of the United States. His four U.S. tours were wildly successful but ended with Thomas' death at age 39.

Thomas was born and raised in Swansea, Wales, where he was a poor student. He dropped out of school at age 16 and became a newspaper reporter. Before he turned 20, he won a newspaper poetry contest. His first book, Eighteen Poems, was published in 1934, followed by Twenty-five Poems in 1936.

At age 21, Thomas moved to London, where he met Caitlin Macnamara in a pub. Although the lively Irish girl did not initially find him attractive, his charm won her over, and the pair married the following year, the beginning of a long, tumultuous, and ultimately unhappy marriage.

Despite the couple's domestic turmoil, they had three children. Meanwhile, Thomas published several highly acclaimed books, including Deaths and Entrances in 1946 and Collected Poems in 1953. His powerful style, combining compassion and violence, made his readings in the United States a success. However, during his tours, he drank recklessly. In 1953, he collapsed after drinking 17 whiskeys at the White Horse Inn on Hudson Street in New York City and died at age 39.

WRAP IT UP
Here's an interesting thought on the subject of education from American author John Gardner: "Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
The school is preparing for the state HSPA test, which will be administered to all BHS juniors during the first week of March.

I will be involved in the HSPA Institute planning workshop tomorrow, which means a substitute for my students right in the middle of Shakespeare. The Institute will offer students intensified training in HSPA skills and is set for next Tuesday and Wednesday at the Gia's catering hall. Hopefully, it will help students maximize their efforts on the test, which they must pass to graduate.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We finished Act I of Othello with the villianous Iago's declaration of his hatred for Othello.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We completed Act IV of The Tempest with a frustrated Caliban concerned that his dreams of seeing his master Propero killed won't come to pass.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
American author Carson McCullers was born on this date in 1917. The central theme of her novels is the spiritual isolation that underlies the human condition. Her characters are usually outcasts and misfits whose longings for love are never fulfilled. In her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940), a deaf-mute is the focus of a circle of sad and tormented people. The Member of the Wedding (1946; dramatization, 1950), her best-known work, is the tender story of a lonely adolescent girl.

WRAP IT UP
Another noted American female author, Amy Tan, was born on this date in 1952. Tan, the author of The Joy Luck Club, once said: "Who knows where inspiration comes from. Perhaps it arises from desperation. Perhaps it comes from the flukes of the universe, the kindness of the muses."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
A staff meeting was held today to analyze the results of last year's state test. Obviously, as one of New Jersey's poorest districts, our findings were not encouraging, especially in light of the unrealistic mandates of President Bush's No Child Left Behind mandate.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We were joined today by two Swedish exchange students, Isabella Nilsson-Ehn and Emelie Westergren. Isabella and Emelie will be staying for a month and then two of our seniors, Sarah Blizzard and Ashley Wuzzardo, will travel to Sweden as part of our exchange with Eskilstuna.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
Students visited the library to select a biography or autobiography for this marking period's independent reading.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
American author Toni Morrison was born on this date in 1931. Her fiction is noted for its spare poetic language, emotional intensity, and sensitive observation of life.

Her first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970), is the story of a girl ruined by a racist society and its violence. Song of Solomon (1977; National Book Award) established her as one of America's leading novelists. It concerns a middle-class man who achieves self-knowledge through the discovery of his rural black heritage. Her later fiction includes Beloved (1987; Pulitzer Prize), a powerful account of the legacy of slavery, and Jazz (1992), set in Harlem in the 1920s.

WRAP IT UP
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, on this date in 1885. Over the years, Huckleberry Finn has become the target of book censors across America. Speaking of censorship, historian Henry Steele Commager had this to say: "Censorship always defeats it own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
As expected, much of the regular meeting of the Bridgeton Education Association (BEA) was devoted to explaining possible actions aimed at trying to end the contact stalement between the teachers and the city school board.

The next negotiating meeting is scheduled for the end of this month. Here's hoping for an agreement.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We continued reading Othello, finding out that the title character has married his love Desdemona.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
Given the fact that we've just had a four-day break, we spent the period reviewing the plot and characters in the first three acts of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
The National Congress of Mothers was organized on this day in 1897 in Washington, DC by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst.

At first, the objectives of the organization were devoted to child study. The National Congress urged parents to study the school curriculums that were being used in the schools their children attended. The Congress also suggested that parents, both mothers and fathers, should take reading courses that provided information about children and schooling.

The group later changed its name to the National Congress of Parents and Teachers or the NPTA with local groups known as the PTA (Parent-Teacher Associations). The first State Congress of the NPTA was organized in New York in 1897. And one of the first major projects the PTA worked on was the extension of kindergartens to the elementary school grades.

In recent years many local PTA groups emphasized greater involvement of students and are known as Parent-Teacher-Student Associations or PTSA.

WRAP IT UP
Pianist Thelonious Monk, one of the pioneers of the bop (or bebop, if you prefer) movement in jazz, died of a stroke in New York at the age of 64 on this date in 1982. Monk began playing in Harlem clubs in the late 1930s. Monk was a staunch proponent of playing your own style, not catering to public whims. "“I say, play your own way," he once said. "Don’t play what the public want — you play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doing — even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years.”

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
Everyone was getting set today for our four-day Presidents Day extended weekend. Breaks are always appreciated.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We began Othello today with Iago and Rodrigo warning Brabantio that Othello has abscounded with his daughter Desdemona.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We finished Act III of The Tempest with Antonio convincing Sebastian to kill his brother, Alonso, and become King of Naples.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
American composer George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue was performed for the first time on this day in 1924. The 26-year-old Brooklyn-born Gershwin played the piano part in the concert in New York City.

Gershwin collaborated with his brother, Ira, on hit songs including "I Got Rhythm" and on musical comedies and revues that included Lady Be Good (1924), Funny Face (1927), and Of Thee I Sing (1931), the first musical comedy to win a Pulitzer Prize. Gershwin composed a string of hits in the 1920s and '30s, writing for musical comedies, but his more serious work started with Rhapsody in Blue, a sweeping blues symphony that was later orchestrated by American composer Ferde Grofe. Gershwin actually composed two versions: one for jazz bands and another for full orchestras.

The symphony influenced other composers to use rhythms and melodies derived from jazz in their work. Gershwin's other serious works include An American in Paris, written in 1928 and used as a ballet for Gene Kelly, "I Got Rhythm," and "Someone to Watch Over Me." In 1997, a music scholar studying Gershwin's original score for Rhapsody in Blue discovered some 24 measures had been cut out by the publisher. The Boston Pops performed the rediscovered version for the first time in 1997. Gershwin's masterpiece, jazz opera Porgy and Bess, which blends African-American folk music, jazz, Tin Pan Alley, and classical styles, was first performed in 1935. Gershwin died of a brain tumor two years after the opera was first performed, shortly before he turned 39.

WRAP IT UP
Charles Darwin, whose writings on evolution changed the way man views himself and is still the subject of debate, was born on this date in 1809. Darwin, the consummate scholar, had little patience with those who stayed stuck in their current thinking. He once said: "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
It looks like the contract dispute between the teachers and the school board may be escalating. A parley between the two sides this week was called off and the Bridgeton Education Association (BEA), which represents the teachers, has scheduled an action meeting for tomorrow to discuss what actions to take in light of the stalemate.

Teachers have been working without a contract since September. Patience is a virtue, but as the talks drag on patience becomes harder to promulgate.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We introduced our next play - Othello by William Shakespeare. We will be focusing on what the play has to say about the eternal themes of:
-- violence
-- racism
-- love
-- power
-- good and evil

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We began Act III of The Tempest, where Ferdinand and Miranda pledge their love to one another under the calculating, watchful eyes of Miranda's father, Prospero.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Considering the ongoing controversy about the propriety of the Super Bowl halftime show this vignette about TV and censorship seems quaint. On this date in 1960, host Jack Paar walked off NBC’s Tonight Show. The previous night, Paar had told a joke during his monologue, and although Paar didn’t say “toilets,” but “water closets,” it offended the NBC censors, who cut the joke (a total of four minutes) out of the show. Paar was incensed when he found out, so on this night he complained about the NBC censors, said “good night” and left. (He returned on March 7, following a trip to Hong Kong, and stayed around for another two years as host of Tonight.)

WRAP IT UP
Inventor Thomas Alva Edison was born today in 1847. In perhaps one of his most famous utterances, Edison was credited with saying: "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
I guess you could call it a command performance. I was asked to repeat my Padeia workshop on rubrics to the History Department. To view three informative sites on rubrics, you can check the links in the Jan. 30 entry in this blog.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We assigned projects to explore the theme of the individual and the society which we have been examining for the past few days.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We had a comprehension check on Act II of The Tempest. Based on those results, most students seem to be developing a good understanding of Shakespeare's play.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
New York's Broadway was the scene of a special premiere this day in 1949, as Arthur Miller's drama Death of a Salesman debuted. Honors students will get a chance to explore the tragic tale of Willy Loman and his family later this year.

WRAP IT UP
One of the recurring motifs in Death of a Salesman is the nature of failure. Alex Haley, the noted author of Roots who died on this date in 1992, had this to say on that subject: "I wasn't going to be one of those people who died wondering what if? I would keep putting my dreams to the test - even though it meant living with uncertainty and fear of failure. This is the shadowland of hope, and anyone with a dream must learn to live there."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
Once again, I must admit I have been negligent. I should check the email link on this blog regularly, but I haven't been. A reader (yes, believe it or not there are some of you out there) let me know I hadn't responded to her email. In the future, I will try to be more diligent in responding to posted emails. It's infuriating to send a message and get no response.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We explored W. H. Auden's poem "The Unknown Citizen" focusing on its theme of the increasing alienation inherent in modern life.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We read the comic scene in Act II of The Tempest where Trinculo, Stephano, and Caliban meet amid drunken circumstances.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this day 40 years ago, The Beatles made their first American appearance on Ed Sullivan's Sunday night TV show. And, cliched as it may sound, the world was never quite the same again after the debut of John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

WRAP IT UP
The Beatles often sang about love, especially in their early years. Alice Walker, the American author of The Color Purple who was born on this day in 1944 had this to say on the subject of love: " I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with all my heart."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
The winter weather continues to have an impact here. Ice caused yet another 90-minute delayed opening. Also, during third period, portions of BHS suffered a short blackout, but power was restored and the shortened day continued.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
In light of all the controversy surrounding this week's Super Bowl halftime show and singer Janet Jackson's breast, we looked at another TV phenomenon - the Beatles first appearance on the Ed Sullivan. Amazing how much a people, a culture, and a country can change in 40 years.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We began Act II of The Tempest and were introduced to several survivors of the giant storm including the counselor Gonzalo and the King of Naples.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this day in 1937, John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men, the story of the bond between two migrant workers, is published. He adapted the book into a three-act play, which was produced the same year. The story brought national attention to Steinbeck's work, which had started to catch on in 1935 with the publication of his first successful novel, Tortilla Flat.

WRAP IT UP
Former President Ronald Reagan, known as the great communicator, was born on this day in 1911. "The most terrifying words in the English langauge are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help," Reagan, the darling of conservatives, once said.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
This education business can sure produce strange stories. Here is one for the archives from The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

A second-grader's one-day suspension from Sunnyside Elementary in Stanton Heights left her parents with one question: What the hell?
Brandy McKenith, 7, of Stanton Heights, was home from school Tuesday after being suspended a day earlier for using the word "hell" in class.

McKenith said she used the word after a classmate said, "I swear to God."

"I said, 'You're going to go to hell for swearing to God,'" the girl said.

Pittsburgh Public Schools spokeswoman Pat Crawford said the student code of conduct prohibits profanity, but does not provide a definition of what profanity is.

Without a solid definition, the district could run into problems enforcing the policy, said Witold "Vic" Walczak, legal director of the Greater Pittsburgh chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Hell, to some, is a dirty word," Walczak said. "To others, it's blasphemous, and to others, it's a part of everyday lexicon. Given that, it is a gray area.

"My gosh, why don't you just talk to the kid? It seems pretty Draconian."

McKenith's classmate told the teacher what McKenith said, landing her in Principal Laura Dadey's office.

McKenith's father, Wayne, said he believes his daughter's story and her suspension left him flabbergasted. He and his wife, Cynthia, complained about the suspension in a letter yesterday to Dadey.

"She's never been suspended," he said. "I never heard of 7-year-old being suspended, anyway."

Even Brandy was surprised at her punishment.

"Why would I get suspended for something stupid?" she said.

Crawford declined to comment further about the incident.

"As a teacher ... basically you want to maintain a particular decorum in the classroom," said school board member Patrick Dowd, a teacher at the privately operated Ellis School. "What that means exactly, that's where you have policy."

Dowd, whose district includes Sunnyside, said he spoke to Wayne McKenith and school administrators about the incident, but believes the school board's role will be to look at the broader policy issue.

That's all McKenith is asking for.

"It's the principle," he said. "You've got to draw the line somewhere. Use some reasonable judgment. Kids are bringing guns and knives to school. ... They've got dope. And we're worried about 'hell?'"

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We analyzed e.e. cummings marvelously strange poem "anyone lived in a pretty how town."

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We finished Act I of Shakespeare's The Tempest, with Prospero using his magic to cause the sparks of love to fly between his daughter Miranda, and Ferdinand, the son of the King of Naples.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this day in 1959 Carson McCullers hosted a small luncheon
party in order that seventy-four-year-old Baroness Karen
Blixen-Finecke (Isak Dinesen) could meet Marilyn Monroe. By all
accounts, the three women hit it off wonderfully -- though Arthur
Miller says the legend of them dancing together on McCullers's
marble-topped dinner table is an exaggeration.

WRAP IT UP
William S. Burroughs, the Beat author of Naked Lunch who was born on this day in 1914 once said: "Paranoia means having all the facts."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
It was a schoolwide Paideia seminar today. The subject was math, which of course causes shivers for all of us numbers-phobic English teachers. Of course, I know math teachers feel equally uncomfortable conducting seminars in their "dreads" such as poetry or fable.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
Since I was at Jim Camarote's funeral today (for background see the Feb. 2 entry), students worked on editing concepts related to using pronouns correctly.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
The same assignment as above for students here.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this day in 1968 Neal Cassady died at the age of forty-one.
Cassady was not only Jack Kerouac's wheelman on the trips that
inspired On the Road but a direct influence on Kerouac's style.
Ken Kesey and others who were friendly with, or married to, or
driven by, or audience for Cassady all say that "Fastestmanalive"
talked as he drove -- at overwhelming speeds and to uncertain
places.

WRAP IT UP
On this date in 1974 Patty Hearst, 19-year-old daughter of William Randolph, was kidnapped by the radical black organization the Symbonese Liberation Army. In those tumultous days, many feared the a US revolution was just around the corner. Abbie Hoffman, one the eras most radical spokesmen had this to say on the subject of revolution: "Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit." Hard to see all these SUV driving yuppies today as one-time revolution proponents.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
For those of you planning to attend Cumberland County College and who aren't in our new dual credit English program at BHS here is some writing news you need:

It's the policy of the English faculty that no paper containing a sentence fragment, run-on, or comma splice will receive a grade higher than C. In English 101, introductory and concluding paragraphs must contain a minimum of five sentences each. Body paragraphs should contain at least eigh sentences each.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We analyzed lyrics for the Bob Seeger song "Feel Like a Number" and Emily Dickinson's poem "I'm Nobody."

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We continued with Act I of The Tempest and were introduced to two of Shakespeare's magical creations, the spirit Ariel and the monster-like Caliban.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Amercian illustrator Norman Rockwell was born on this date in New York City in1894. Enormously popular, Rockwell specialized in warm and humorous scenes of everyday small-town life.

Best known for his magazine covers, notably for the Saturday Evening Post, he developed a style of finely drawn realism with a wealth of anecdotal detail. Rockwell's poster series on the Four Freedoms was widely circulated during World War II.

WRAP IT UP
Actor Boris Karloff, who will forever be rememeber for his creepy Universal monster roles especially Frankenstein, died on this date in 1969. Of his Frankenstein role Karloff once said: "The monster was the best friend I ever had."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
I lost a great friend and Bridgeton High School lost one of its biggest sports supporters late last week when James Anthony Camarote died Friday evening at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia after a brief illness.

Born in Bridgeton, Jim, who was 56, had lived in Upper Deerfield Township with his wife Lynda (who is employed at Indian Avenue School) since 1979.

He was a graduate of Bridgeton High School in 1965 and was president of his graduating class. A varsity football player for the Bulldogs, Jim graduated from Western Kentucky University in 1969.

A community activist, he served on the Upper Deerfield Township Board of Education for over ten years and was also active with the Upper Deerfield CER (Community Education Recreation Committee). He was a longtime avid sports fan and for years was a supporter of the Bridgeton High School athletic program. He was a member of the Bulldog Booster Club at Bridgeton High School. He also coached in the Bridgeton Midget Football League and coached traveling teams at the Cohansey Soccer Club. After his sons Marc and Brian entered high school he became member of the Colt Booster Club at Cumberland Regional High School and served as club president from 1988 until 1991. He was a regular sight at soccer and basketball games and tennis matches at both Cumberland Regional and Bridgeton high schools.

Jim will be missed by all of us who knew him. For me, the Bulldog press box will never be the same without his smile and running commentary. But his memory at BHS will be kept alive in several ways.

Those of us who hang out in the press box will make sure the corner where he always stood will be in some way memorialized as "Camarote's corner."

And Jim's love of sports will continue with the start of a James A. Camarote Memorial Scholarship. Contributions can be sent c/o Joseph Blandino, Bridgeton High School, 111 N. West Avenue, Bridgeton, N.J. 08302

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We analyzed the lyrics of two Beatles' songs "Nowhere Man" and "Eleanor Rigby,"
paying particular attention to the themes of alienation and loneliness.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We continued reading Act I of Shakespeare's The Tempest and were introduced to the main character, Prospero, and his teenage daughter Miranda.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this day in 1922, James Joyce's fortieth birthday, Ulysses was first published -- although only two copies of the book
actually arrived by train to anxious publisher Sylvia Beach.

Although Finnegans Wake was not ready for publication on
Joyce's fifty-seventh birthday, as he had hoped, a bound copy was
delivered to him. Both birthday books relieved Joyce's
superstitious fears, and occasioned a party.

WRAP IT UP
Actress, original Charlie's Angel, and 1970s poster pinup Farrah Fawcett turned 57
today. Recognized as one the major sex symbols of her time, Fawcett had this to say on the subject of men and women: "God made man stronger but not necessarily more intelligent. He gave women intuition and femininity. And, used properly, that combination easily jumbles the brain of any man I've ever met."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking