Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star - and Die

Here's something weird.

We recently acquired a swing for MG exactly like the one we used for baby Liam.  (That was my sister's.)
It's a great swing, 3-directional with lights and a mobile and a WALL PLUG, and four sound settings including one of nature sounds.  I love those chirping birds.

Anyway, one of the sound settings is a series of songs, which has been playing intermittently for a week now. And every time I hear one of the songs, I start thinking of The Hunger Games. Characters, impressions, specific scenes and conversations - they play and replay in my mind.  It took me a while to figure out why.

Last time I had a newborn, I read the Hunger Games series for the first time - mostly while my baby was sleeping or rocking in the swing.  The swing songs played over and over while I read of oppression, terror, violence ... and the scenes stuck in my mind are inextricably connected with the baby tunes.  Weird.

I remember hearing once, maybe in college, that you should study with Mozart (or similar music) playing in the background.  Supposedly the music helps you commit information to memory.
I didn't utilize the tip much, but now I'm thinking I should have.  There is clearly some potential to be tapped there.

You better believe I am encouraging this.

I'm not the biggest Harry Potter fan around, I know.  But perhaps I did re-read the entire series right before the 7th book came out (while I was taking summer classes and had thousands of pages to read for them ... ahem.), and perhaps I attended a midnight movie showing or two, and perhaps I bought the 7th book at midnight the day it came out, read it all along a cross-country road trip, and perhaps I BAWLED at the end of the book when Harry walked into the woods.

Perhaps I even read the last book twice without emerging from my room.  (Sorry, roommates!)

Anyway.  I have been telling Slice to finish the dang series for three years now.  He read the first few, moved to Japan, and never picked them up again.  Until yesterday.

We finally watched Part One of the Deathly Hallows a couple weeks ago, and part of the Goblet of Fire Saturday.  I guess that was the catalyst - he picked up the 7th book yesterday afternoon, and he's been basically useless to me since.

I'm okay with that.

looking up

Let's get some of these blog drafts published, shall we? Maybe I'll just combine them all into one?

I've mentioned here before that I've been trying to find ways to get Slice to read - for fun. But all I've had to go on is that he likes Dan Brown and golf. (Go figure.)
(ALSO: HE THINKS LDS HISTORICAL FICTION IS "PRIESTCRAFT." THIS HAS CAUSED NO SMALL ARGUMENT.)

So a couple weeks ago I cataloged a bunch of new books and took three of them home. The first I read in an afternoon, the second is gonna take me a while to get through, the third I thought Slice might actually like. I asked him if I could read it aloud while we drove to Provo.
And ... BINGO!
I have created a monster. Since I couldn't help much with the priming/painting in the bedroom last week, I read to the husband while he worked. And if I ever stopped for more than ten seconds he said "Keep going! Keep reading!!" Like a slave driver. Sheesh.
(Chuckle chuckle.)
He wants me to read all hours of the day and night, even when I am so exhausted I can't keep my eyes open. Finally I refuse and go to bed, and he stays up and reads ahead of me. The book is strange, I'll tell you that; I've never read anything like it. But I am on to something here.


So yeah, the painting is done and most of the furniture is moved back in. But we don't have baseboards yet and I'm still trying to decide just how I want it configured. I've spent hours online looking at drapes and bedskirts and sheets and lamp shades, without buying any of course, because I have to see everything before I will buy anything. That's just how I shop. Doesn't that make you love me.
(I'll post some pictures later.)


Last Saturday Slice and I went to a wedding reception -BH style!- and then to Prom to take students' tickets. Weird for four reasons:

1. WAY WAY WAYYY too much skin. Not even pretty skin. Look, you shouldn't really be that immodest in the first place, but especially if you can't pull it off. Please be considerate of my gag reflexes.
   
2. Chocolate fountains and all the stuff to go IN chocolate fountains - but no toothpicks. Just finger foods in runny, drippy milk chocolate. Who thought that was a good idea? For Prom?
3. I am very pregnant and have developed elephantine feet. This is a shame because a) I have beautiful feet normally and b) now I don't fit into any of my shoes, even sandals and c) I wanted to dance! It was a dance! But Slice said no.
4. I am very pregnant (also married) and five years ago I was AT THIS SAME PROM in this same building, and boy did I think I would be back now?
   

The answer is no.


Today is Library Snapshot Day, and once upon a time I was surprised by how many kids came into this place, considering how I never ever came here except to make copies for band. And maybe you still think I'm exaggerating about how CRAZY the LMC is before school and during lunch, but look! I have stats! I've been keeping them all day.
Between the time I opened the doors and the time the bell rang to start school (7:55-8:20), about 140 kids came in. During lunch we had 120.
You probably don't care but I do, because I like statistics and I want to be a demographer someday. Demography. Yummy.


Oh hey, did you know that two incomes means more money than one? AWESOME. Spring/summer means we are out of the great money-sucking pit of winter (that traveling to Japan caused) in the Slice of Jean household ....
... for two more months, that is.

Hey!

It's National Drop Everything And Read Day!

(I spent hours making these posters for teachers and staff. They still crack me up every time I see them.)

Well, this is neat

Next week we will be hosting a "Wordle Week" here in the LMC. I have spent many days preparing.

(Don't you wish your job was that fun!)

If you've been reading here long enough, you may recall that I check our top titles semi-obsessively. I even figured out how to manipulate them so I know what books have been checked out the most over the last one, three, five years, etc. So ... of course I had to Wordle them. Combining library stats with Wordles is, like, eating raspberries and Crème brûlée.
Delicious.

Top 50 checkouts since 2005- Fiction

Top 50 checkouts since 2005 - Non-fiction

(I played with those a little because Manga books took up the whole list)

And....since we've been talking about names here....

First names of UHS Freshmen

Not as bad as the Elementary School kids, for sure!

This program was brought to you by http://www.wordle.net.
Stay tuned for more Wordles.
Maybe.

Patron Checkout History

One of the things I love most about the Harry Potter series is it got people reading. And keeps them reading.

Even Special Ed students.
(Whom I love.)

Book stuffs

*a sort of follow-up to this post from May

About a year ago I tried to read the Uglies series by Scott Westerfield. You've probably heard of it. I say "tried" because I stopped after a few chapters, I felt like I was getting dumber by the minute. The series is incredibly popular here, but the premise bothers me even more than the writing does. Aren't teenage girls already obsessed enough with beauty and fame and money? (Don't I have to pick up Seventeen magazine from the couches every day?)
(And didn't I just watch another commercial for plastic surgery last night? "You owe it to yourself." Gag me.)
Anyway.
Is my opinion unfair? Is the series worth reading? Does anyone know, or even care?

At the beginning of this school year I read Jane Eyre for Tay, and Little Women for Linnea. They were my late-summer sunshine-soaking books and I loved them both. I read the last few chapters of Jane Eyre in bed, wiping my tears on Slice's sleeve while he slept. That was before the pregnancy hormones took over. The end was beautiful, just beautiful.

Little Women made me wish I had married an old German professor. Sort of.

Read The Great Gatsby for the first time, isn't that hard to believe? Slice said he had to read it in school. The writing was truly incredible but I had a hard time following the dialogue; I don't speak the vernacular of the easy '20s. Or the upper class, for that matter.

I also didn't get some of the "symbolism" that was mentioned in the Preface (which I read afterward, I hate spoilers). Apparently such complexity is over my head.

I stopped reading for a while because nothing sounded good. I kept checking out books and taking them back a few days later, unopened. But when we got to the airport I panicked. So Slice and I stopped at the ridiculously-priced bookstore and bought The Lost Symbol for him and Wuthering Heights for me.

I've never seen Slice so engaged in a book. Heck, I've never seen him sit and read a book, period. (Thank you Dan Brown! Where can I get more??) I had to force him out of bed some mornings just so we could leave the hostel. And one time I woke up at 2:00 a.m. to find him reading in the dim light of the Kyoto Guesthouse.

Good times.

I didn't like Wuthering Heights as much as Jane Eyre - we must compare them, right? - because it was darker and much more heartbreaking. To me. Also, I didn't identify with the characters as well; they were all so disturbing. Stills I liked the book.

And ... The Hunger Games sat in my purse/suitcase throughout the entire Japan trip. I turned it back in without reading so much as the first page.

Now I need something else. Any suggestions? What have you been reading lately?

semi-religious festivities

Tonight was the traditional Book of Mormon party.

The family finished it again this morning, so we celebrated!

Today's the first time we've invited another family (the Masons) to join.

We sat at a low table adorned with King Benjamin's tower and lit by "glowing stones,"

costumed in robes and togas and furs - and of course Nephite head bands.

For appetizers we had cheese, grain crackers, mangoes, pomegranates, black and green olives, and baby carrots.

Dinner was Curelom and Cumom Stew with homemade whole wheat bread,

cumom milk / secret combinations juice to drink,

and REAL honeycomb on the side.

(Sorry these pictures are so terrible ... Slice had the good camera.)

After the meal we played Who am I? and Book of Mormon charades,

(such excellent actors!)

and ended the night with Tree of Life fruit pie.

Delicious.

Some things I've been wanting to tell you

1. I live in a house with 5-6 adult men. Did you know that? I said 5-6 because I don't know exactly how many; it seems to fluctuate. I do think it makes Slice a little nervous though.

2. I quit a job for the first time last week. (The library one.) Sent a letter of resignation even. But they really wanted me to stay ... So now I will (hopefully) be doing, in half the time, what I used to be doing in full-the-time at both jobs. Basically, I'm a sucker.

Tangent here: It's like college all over again. My coworkers used to laugh at me while I registered for the next semester's classes. "Oooh! The Legend of King Arthur! And History on Film! And History of American Christianity! American Women's History! Joseph Smith lectures! How can I choose between them??? Can't I just take them all?!" And then I would register for 17 credits, despite my job, and try to audit 3 more - until the point in the semester when I realized that I might actually die from brain overload and lack of sleep. The both. End tangent.

3. Slice and I are going to Japan. Japan. And for three and a half weeks, no less. I found killer flights (Travelzoo of course), called Slice and said WE ARE GOING. So we are.
At first we thought about staying for a few months, but we didn't want to deal with work visas and, um, I don't speak a lick of Japanese, so living there would be a bit more terrifying than going to school in Vienna when I HAD three years of German under my belt and everything planned out for me by BYU.
Anyway - WE ARE SUPER EXCITED! Right now, all we have are flights, which say that we are leaving October 29 and coming back November 23. Beyond that ... planning still needing to be done.

4. Slice didn't want me to tell you we are going to Japan. He thought it would be more fun to just say "we're leaving!" and then start blogging from Japan, but hello, I cannot keep a secret like that. Especially when everyone in my physical personal life already knows. Physical personal life meaning, people I see on a regular basis. Or who check my Facebook page often.

5. Slice is awesome and I love him.

6. I watched him play at the Utah Open last weekend, which was very swanky and sweltry and emulous. (I looked that last word up.) Some pretty famous people were there, including Jazz players that are decent golfers, marketing directors of Siegfried & Jensen (whom Slice played with), etc. etc. I had a good time soaking it all in. Except for the heat, which was just about record-breaking. And humid. Ugh.
Anyway, Slice did all right. Day 1 and 2 were great, Day 3 was the downfall. I think it was because I wasn't there the first half of that last round. I am practically his good-luck charm.

7. I am reading Jane Eyre, for you Tay, as of last Saturday. Started it at the tournament. Love it already.

8. How awesome is my mom? She wrote a blog post today on the family blog, her very first, and already it's the best one there. I love that lady.

9. I am 22 today. It feels old.

a new favorite Apron Stage post

You're all reading it by now, right?

Right?

Loved this one: http://theapronstage.com/2009/07/30/confessions-of-a-nerd/#comments

Never have I ever ... or, Should I really be admitting this?

The following may give you license to hate me,
or at least think that I am un-American and uncultured or any number of other terrible things.
I know this because people have before.
-Inspired by Tay

I have never read a book by Mark Twain. Or John Grisham, Orson Scott Card, Laura Ingalls Wilder, the Bronte sisters, Louisa May Alcott. (I do love Charles Dickens, however, and Jane Austen and Madeleine L'Engle. I have also read an impressive number of Baby-Sitter's Club books.)

I have never seen a John Wayne movie. Not one! I also don’t really know who Clint Eastwood is. Couldn’t pick him out of a crowd if you paid me to.

I have never watched The Wizard of Oz all the way through. Have no desire to.

Speaking of, I don’t know what the Wicked hype is all about. Really, I don’t. Some of the music irritates me and I was FURIOUS when two girls sang a song from Wicked at their Seminary graduation. The gall! Just thinking about it gets me riled up again.

I hate a lot of Disney movies. This took me a long time to realize – and even longer to admit. Some of the titles on my hate list:

• Pete’s Dragon
• Pinocchio
• Mary Poppins (shame! I know! It scared me when I was little)
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• Fantasia
• Bambi
• Alice in Wonderland
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• All sequels to earlier movies (i.e. Cinderella II, The Little Mermaid II, Pocahontas II)

I have never watched an episode of American Idol. I’ve only seen two snippets, really; last year’s finale with Cook/Archuleta and an audition episode in 2005. I have also never seen an entire episode (or snippets in most cases) of ER, Scrubs, The Simpsons, Lost, CSI, Grey’s Anatomy, Saturday Night Live, Law & Order, Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girl, Desperate Housewives, Heroes…
You name it, I probably haven’t seen it. It would be easier to tell you what television I have watched in the last five (or so) years. Am I really missing anything?

I read the newspaper every day, cover to cover, until I get to the Sports section. Then I skip right over it unless something happens to catch my eye. Like, anything with “BYU” or “Y” in the headline. He he he.

So what do you think?
Where should I start?

But I AM recommending this

I watched Steel Magnolias for the first time last night, as I waited for Slice to come home from work.
I think it's cliche by now, but I still loved it.
A delightful blend of family and life experiences...
just enough of them to make you think about your own.
Love and loss are all part of the game here, you can play them well, or they will play you.
I think sometimes we forget that.


I've been reading this book for what seems like three years now. It's actually only been three weeks, but it's taking forever because this is not one of those books you can breeze right through. Every paragraph, every sentence, is simply packed with substance. I've never seen writing like it.
Bragg writes about life and death and suffering and love, beautifully, as someone who has seen all of it. His total lack of pretension - abhorrence of it - is so refreshing, I can't even begin to explain.
I've always had a hard time with people who think they are better than everyone else.
(That's probably my favorite thing about living here in Roosevelt.)

Anyway, there are too many good quotes to post here, so I'll just recommend the book.
But you don't have take my word for it! (Did you hate it as much as I did when LeVar said that on Reading Rainbow every time? Oooh, I hated that.)

There you are, a movie and a book. "The both."

It's a glitch

"Sometimes I wondered if I was seeing the same things through my eyes that the rest of the world was seeing through theirs. Maybe there was a glitch in my brain."

Eleven pages into Twilight, I can already tell how melodramatic Bella is. (Or how profound Stephenie Meyer was trying to be, I'm not sure.) I was thinking get a grip, girl throughout the entire series. She never did.

The idea, though, has been rattling around my own brain ever since, probably because it reminded me of one of my own epiphanies. I once discovered that my eyes see different colors.

Left eye - more subdued, bluish messages
Right eye - vibrant, pink/yellow

We can talk about my amblyopia later.

Realizing this made me wonder - do I see the same colors everyone else does? How would I know if I didn't? How would anyone know, for that matter? What about those poems we wrote in 4th grade describing colors in "feeling" words?
My perception of reality shifted.

I’ve returned to this concept recently, because sometimes, I feel like I just don’t get things that everyone else does. Things like .... well, things.

I read a LOT of personal writings: blogs, books, magazines, letters. I am always intrigued – and befuddled – by people who write about objects. Clothes, Shoes, Accessories, Furniture, Antiques! I don't understand the obsession. Some of them make me smile (CJane’s odes to her pink skirt, for example), a few make me covet. Most make me think, "I missed Consumerism 101."
I don’t like stuff.

I don’t really follow fashion trends (they’re trends, why would I want to follow them?); I dash in and out of the grocery store, grabbing only what’s on my list. I rarely shop for clothes, shoes, or makeup, and even then I stick to the basics. I never buy dishes or plants or decorations. I find it hard to justify eating out; I hate superstores and catalogs and sidewalk sales.
I guess it comes down to this: I hate spending money, especially when it's not necessary.

The material, to me, is immaterial.
Sorry Etsy.

Darn it all

I've predicted everything that's happened so far in the book - and I'm 2/3 done with it.

Somehow I've got to stop over-thinking everything I read. This isn't the first time I've ruined my own surprises.

I know it's cliche to be reading the Twilight series

but I am, and they're nowhere near the best books I've read. In fact, the writing often makes me cringe. But it's an interesting tale so I keep reading.

I think it's cruel (also very good business) to put a chapter of the next book into the previous one. One, I get to the end of the book, thinking there will be more to the story and BAM! it's The End of this one. I'm seriously putting off finishing this one just because I know there's a chapter there that doesn't belong to this book. I remembered today that the book's not as long as I've been thinking it is.
Two, I don't want to get hooked on a book before I get it. There are 10 copies of Breaking Dawn checked out right now, 2 overdue, and it would be simply absurd for me to have to get a book from the county library. Cruel, I tell you, cruel.

Also - I've been rooting for Jacob this whole time, I really have. Bella is stupid.

I married my Jacob.

Act One

Scene one
Slice walks into the front room and rolls his eyes. I am curled up on the couch with New Moon, a blanket wrapped around my shoulders to keep warm.

S: “Reading again?”
J: “Yeah.”
He starts to make dinner, chatting (interrupting) me intermittently.
S: “So I just want you to know, I do have self-discipline.”
J: A suspicious thing to say. “Um…okay. Why did you just say that?”
S: “I just wanted you to know.”
J: “Right.”
S: “Well...I only played Zelda on the Wii for an hour, and that was AFTER I finished three quizzes and did some other homework.”
J: “Wow. Good for you.”

Later I join Slice in the kitchen, but bring my book along. He rolls his eyes again.
J: “Aghh!”
S: “What?”
J: “This book is so intense.”
S: “Why?”
J: “She is so stupid! She’s going to drown herself! Also there’s werewolves.”
S: “Huh?”
J: “You heard me.”
S: “Vampires and now werewolves…all that satanic stuff huh?”
J: “Oh, stop. I know that you want to know what’s going on. You can’t even fake it.”


Scene 2
After dinner, Slice washes dishes (bless that man) while I read on the bed.
S: “You’re going to be late for mutual.”
J: “I have to finish this chapter.”
S: “What’s the difference between taking breaks between chapters and taking a break in the middle of a chapter?”
J: “I’m almost done! I only have two pages left!”
S: “You are going to be late for mutual because you’re reading….at least I have self-discipline.”
J: “Excuse me? Fine. Let’s go right now.”
S:“Let’s.”

Scene 3
After Mutual. Slice finally takes a good look at my book.
S: "Wow! Have you been reading all day?? You're almost done with that."
Me: "No I did not read all day. I had to WORK, you know."
He calls two brothers while I read some more; we talk and get ready for bed. I’m in a sarcastic mood, though (I think) not more than usual.
S: “So, am I more like a vampire or a werewolf?”
J: “Werewolf, definitely.”
S: “Why?”
J: “Um…you wouldn’t understand. You’d have to read it to understand. I can’t explain.”
(At the moment he’s holding my cold hand with his very warm one. He he he.)

S: “This book is changing you.”
J: “What? It is not. I’m always like this.”
S: “Whatever. So I watched Scrubs today—“
J: “Oh ho! You watched Scrubs AND played the Wii? Self-discipline indeed.”
S: “Hey, I watched it while I was doing math homework. And anyway, there’s a doctor on there named Dr. Dorian. Did you know that?”
J: “Yes I know that. You’ve told me that like 5 billion times.”
S: “Whatever.”

LMC notes

• We’ve been weeding our collection. This is even worse than cataloging, because it’s emotionally taxing. Who am I to say what should stay or go? I love books too much to discard them. (Which is why I keep coming home with bags-full of old books to add to my bookshelf or those of family members.) At least the district found a guy who recycles books, so the conscience-pricks are easier to deal with.

• I park my car in the same spot every day - in the middle of a row, by the door that I come in. A couple days this week the parking lot has been completely covered with snow so I guessed on the yellow lines. Lo and behold, both times I found later that I was parked between the lines. Boo-Yah! Three cheers for spatial orientation!

• Some students STILL have not figured out where the book drop is. After being here for three years! “Um, put them in the book drop please. Right there. That slot RIGHT THERE.” Wow.

• There’s a feature in our catalog system that shows the top ten titles being checked out. (What does ‘top ten’ mean? I assume the titles that are checked out the greatest number of times.) I’ve been checking this list semi-obsessively since I started here 3 ½ months ago; just can’t get enough of statistics. The first month or two that I was here, Stephenie Meyer’s books were naturally the top four, switching order occasionally. A Child called "It" is consistently in this list. But Brisingr (the third Eragon book) came in and toppled the dynasty, and now the Manga is emerging. (I'm not alone!) I keep telling myself that I ought to read the books in the top 10, just so I can be “in the know” about high school pop culture....you know, since that’s so important. But I’ve been too busy with my last class and Shannon Hale’s books to even read Twilight yet…maybe this Christmas break I’ll bite the bullet.
• Maybe.

• We sell earbuds here in the LMC, marked up to $1.50. And they sell like crazy! The ironic thing is that kids always lose them, forget them at home, or break them. HEAVEN FORBID they go for a whole 7 hours without listening their iPod! So the same twenty students are providing the media center with funds to keep it running. Thanks, guys.

Fiction M-E-Y

Is what you'll probably hear me say if you happen to walk into this library.

How long do you think this will last?

A Librarian's Joys

BG finally put in orders to Amazon about a week ago, so we've been getting boxes of new books practically every day this week. This means I get to catalog, laminate, label, and shelf all of them. Yay.

He asked for suggestions from me, and I gave him a list of 15 or so of my favorites. I already own most of them, but somehow every time I open a new package and see one I requested, I get really excited. As if the book was my own! Again! Maybe I'm just excited to share them with others.

An unforeseen problem: now I have to make sure these "others" actually read them. Most of the books are from my college classes, so they may be over these kids' heads or outside their circle of interest--most likely both. But hey, I'm trying to broaden their horizons here.... And I'm happy to report that Washington's Crossing has already been checked out. Now if I can just get a few to read The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip (possibly my all-time favorite), my life's work will be over.
Pathetic, you say?

Have you heard of, seen or read any Manga? This is the new PC (um, politically correct) term for Anime, formerly known as Japanimation. Apparently that word is now offensive.
[Like Lindsay Lohan calling the President-elect "colored."]
Whatever.

Manga and its English counterpart, the graphic novel, is sweeping the nation's school-age literature. Kids eat the stuff up. Or, I should say, some kids eat the stuff up....because this "sweeping" of the nation is only happening among a select group of people. People that might be called, by other people, "weird."
I'm just saying.

Manga reads right-to-left so, if you're like me, just looking at the book blows your mind into a million pieces. Literally. I'm finally getting to the point where I can look at one and almost comprehend what I'm looking at. It's taken some time and brain-training to get to this point. At least it gets kids reading, right?

Well, about a half hour ago I put the boxed set of Deathnote, newly-cataloged and labeled, on the shelf. [We've been receiving requests for the series for months.] I heard a gasp and looked up from my desk to see a young man staring, hand-covering-mouth, in disbelief. He stood in front of the shelf for several seconds. I thought he was going to pass out or something; instead he ran - RAN - out of the library.

He came back a few minutes later with 4 books to turn in. Then he grabbed the first 4 books of the new series, I checked them out, and he took them to his seat. I watched him for a few minutes as he gazed lovingly at the books until his class left.

I felt like Santa Claus!

I can't help but wonder, What's the big deal? This phenomenon and all the hoopla makes me curious enough that I just might read a series or a book...or at least couple of pages. Do you think that will be enough? But then I might get hooked and become weird. Who knows.

Oh Maya

You might think that a high school library is a quiet, unassuming place, and that working there is a tedious job. And if you did, you might be wrong. Like I was.

Exhibit A: UHS library at lunchtime.

When I was a student here many many years ago, I avoided this place like I avoid painkillers: Only if absolutely necessary, please. If I had no class (college classes, Fridays) I was either at Seminary, The College or someone else's house. Not these kids. Who knew the school library was the new hip hangout place?

Exhibit B:
A student's mother quietly protests the curriculum covering The Crucible for said student's English class. She has prepared a list of objectionable content in both the book and the movie (huge differences between the two). The librarian happens to be head of the English Department, so I get to eavesdrop on this ongoing conversation.

Questionable content in books and movies is a sensitive topic 'round these parts these days. Thank you Tabiona teachers. How do we decide who, when, and how much to expose our students to? Is 'sheltering' students beneficial to them or harmful?  Sarah Palin is accused of being a book-burner while I read a biography about a young girl who was raped.


As a historian (yes, fresh out of college), my outlook on this issue is probably different than most, although I'm conflicted as well. Why have other human beings been subjected to so much suffering if not for the rest of us to learn from their experiences? How can we grow into compassionate, charitable people if we turn a blind eye to all the evil in this world? At the same time, how do we maintain our own security, preserve our own souls from the harrowing that could occur by immersing ourselves in that evil?
After all, Jesus Christ did not turn away from even the vilest of sinners; He descended below them all. Somehow He loved them while condemning the horrible things they did.

I understand and sympathize with parents who want to protect their children. Honestly, I think parents should be the one to make this call. But maybe they should make it consciously, with a decision to discuss historical issues - consequences of choices and how we got to where we are - with their children. (Note: historical. I think the only junk considered for schools should be junk that actually happened; otherwise it becomes a glorification of evil. One thing I've learned is that real, honest history never glorifies evil .... if anything, it deters us from the glaring ugliness. Visit a concentration camp if you don't believe me.)

I guess in the end we each make our own decisions.
Isn't that the way it is with everything in life? Yay for agency!

Now I'm going to go read Elie Wiesel's Night. Can't wait.