The daily meanderings of a teacher

Tag: Ralph Waldo Emerson

  • So hard to type 2012

    Bird Droppings January 2, 2012 It is so hard to type 2012               Sitting here coming to school in the dark alone thinking back after skipping a day of writing. I received a small book for Christmas about five years ago from my wife, “It isn’t easy being green” by Jim Henson Jr., the…

  • Risk ahead

    Bird Droppings December 31, 2011 Risk ahead               How more appropriate to end the year than to look at the idea of risk and what lies ahead. Risk is a driving force of who we are and why we are and what we do. How we take chances and avoid risk are defining pieces…

  • Determining what to learn

    Bird Droppings December 30, 2011 Determining what to learn   “Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know — and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance. It is better to know…

  • Naughty or Nice !!!!

    Bird Droppings December 29, 2011 Naughty or Nice   “The best portion of a good man’s life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.” William Wordsworth   One day when you look back and try and remember what was that act or when, you may not remember but the person to whom that…

  • Where is the passion?

    Bird Droppings December 28, 2011 Where is the passion?   “How do preschool children, full of natural inquisitiveness and a passion for learning, turn into apathetic or angry teens with a profound dislike of school?” Robert L. Fried, The passionate Learner   Every day I hear the simple phrase from at least one student of,…

  • Why do we WORK?

    Bird Droppings December 27, 2011 Why do we WORK? “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” Aristotle How many times do we all hear how difficult the job is or how “I hate my job” I am always confused when I hear this. I want to ask why are you doing this if…

  • A new day fille with questions and perhaps answers

    Bird Droppings December 26, 2011 A new day one filled with questions and perhaps answers   “No such thing as a man willing to be honest –that would be like a blind man willing to see.” F. Scott Fitzgerald   “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to…

  • Why do we even have public education?

    Bird Droppings December 12, 2011 Why do we even have public education?   “Instead of seeing these children for the blessings that they are, we are measuring them only by the standard of whether they will be future deficits or assets for our nation’s competitive needs.”  Jonathan Kozol               On the front page of…

  • Do more than belonging

    Bird Droppings December 4, 2011 Do more than belonging   It has been quite a while since I was unable to walk out first thing in the morning whether weather or being lazy it was not a good morning to venture out and I think the dog knew it as well and slept in. A…

  • Intuition such a powerful force

    Bird Droppings December 3, 2011 Intuition such a powerful force Later today we are having a birthday party the day after for our granddaughter since she lives out of town and is coming down to see us. As I thought this morning one of my favorite pondering ideas is that of intuition. Intuition is an…