With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
October 21, 2003 - 1:50 p.m.
I have used more self-control than usual today. Sex Mob is playing at Joe's Pub on Wednesday night and in the interest of thrift I'm not going. I love them and never get to see them. I made it so I can't change my mind by planning to play bridge with Roy that night. I hope they play someplace cheaper soon.
I graded my classes corrections and was very disappointed in them, especially the early class. An entire group of students obviously just copied their corrections from one person who didn't do a very good job at it. I graded it leniently but I'm not sure that is really doing them a favor. I was all set to let them have it today but realized that won't really help. Instead I tried to give a positive message about what they gain by doing the work themselves instead of trying to beat the system. What got me to do this was an exchange I had with two students in my other class. One could tell from the first didn't know many of the things they need to learn calculus. His precalc teacher did not properly prepare him. He also doesn't have natural math talent. I knew that he would do fine in the class though because he works really hard and always asks questions. I told him early in the semester when he was worried that I thought he could get a B and would certainly do no worse than a C. He got a D on the test before the corrections but felt that he got all of them right which would bring him into the B range. I brought up that I told him from the beginning that he could do it. Another student then asked earnestly if he could get a B. He had failed the test before the corrections. He is a student I get along with well but doesn't put out the effort. I told him that he could if he worked harder. That he was certainly bright enough. I could see that effect that had on him. Sometimes I think that I can make a difference in a student's attitude. That is the hardest part of teaching. I can convey my knowledge and keep the good students interested. It is so much harder to make the bad students good.
The most difficult thing is changing my own attitude though. In this case I was able to make myself to see the students who didn't work as projects for change not as the enemy. It isn't easy to do. It is even harder when I don't have the crutch of professional responsibility to help me.
The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy - October 07, 2008
On the Road to Westchester County - October 06, 2008
Inside the Madison Square Studio - October 05, 2008
I'm a Bosniac and I'm debating like I've never debated before - October 03, 2008
Islands in the Stream of Consciousness - October 02, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile October 21, 2003
