Course Preparation

In a previous post, I asked how we can crunch two-thousand years of Christian history into four months? What is going to be left out?

Turns out, plenty. But I do believe I got the formula down at least for the first unit – which will cover from Pentecost to the collapse of the Roman Empire (this is for 10th graders, by the way). The theory is that the theology curriculum (as put forth by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops) is house-building: start with the foundations and work up. Therefore, I shouldn’t have to spend a lot of time going into detail about who Jesus is and what he came to do – that is the main theme of the 2nd semester course in the 9th grade.

HOWEVER…

And this is how the devil is in the details (ironic use, huh?). The question is: how much did we ever recall over the summer between grades?

Right.

So there is no doubt I am going to have to swing back through what Jesus said and did to make sure the students understand why Pentecost was so important as a launching point. And so the first unit will have 3-4 days specifically devoted to Jesus’ ministry, mission of redemption, and establishment of the Church. That’s ok, though, because it is always interesting to give it a refresher so there can be a running start.

The 9th grade course is about Christ and Divine Revelation. It largely consists of walking through the foreshadowing of Jesus in the Old Testament. Some of the students coming in will never have taken a theology course before, nor do they know how to read Scripture. So before we even get to the nuts and bolts of the Old Testament, we’re going to have to lay the groundwork It’s something I used to angst over, but the older I’ve gotten, the more at peace I am with it.

That said, teaching the unchurched/non-religious is still always going to be a struggle. That piece I linked was something I wrote a few years ago, intending to try and get it published in a Catholic publication, but life happened and it never came to fruition.

There’s a bunch of things coming in the near future that have to do with the start of the school year. I am putting my nose to the grindstone to get them done, but I still enjoy sharing them with you, because this is a new journey and one I haven’t made in eons.

I do ask that you pray for me as I begin all of this. I am an experienced teacher, but a lot of this is returning to “rookie” mode, and I need all the help I can get!

St. Joseph, Pray for Us. St. Peter and St. Paul, Pray for Us.

At the Movies: North and South

Every so often, the wife and I like to pop in the 1980’s ABC miniseries North and South. It is not something done lightly – as it is essentially twelve 90-100 minute long installments, and since it is baseball season, the Phillies get first priority at home for our evening viewing.

The miniseries is based on the novel of the same name, written by John Jakes in 1982. North and South (the novel) was the first of a historical-fiction trilogy that covered ante-bellum America, the Civil War itself, and then the early Reconstruction era through the eyes of a plantation family in South Carolina (the Mains) and an ironworks family in Pennsylvania (the Hazards). The connection between the two comes in the form of the sons (Orry Main and George Hazard) meeting on their way to becoming cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Their unlikely friendship and the bonds forged by the families becomes the glue that holds things together even as America slowly, then suddenly walks into the abyss, along with having to deal with an enemy who has an incredibly long memory.

I read the three novels (Love and War and Heaven and Hell are the other two) before I ever watched a minute of the miniseries, so that might have colored my perception of the production, but I will begin by saying that production values were out of this world. The sets, the wardrobe, the environment were all superb. The acting – and it truly was a superstar cast – was also great, even if it was incredibly hammy at times. The genius in the casting was that any “name” actor was cast as either a historical or a peripheral character. The leads were all lesser knowns (at least back then) and that allowed viewers not to be distracted by a constant appearance of someone much more famous.

My only complaint about it is the soap-opera nature of some of the storylines. There is romance in the novels, but it isn’t the driving force behind the narrative, whereas in the miniseries, Orry’s (Patrick Swayze) love for Madeline Fabray (Leslie-Anne Down) takes much more of a center stage. Likewise with George (James Read) and his wife Constance (Wendy Kilbourne) and their siblings’ marriage to one another.

There are also elements that don’t make it into the miniseries, which is why it’s probably never a good idea to read the source material first – all you end up doing is nitpicking it to death. I did that probably the first two times I watched, and then I chilled and just enjoyed it for what it was. The most egregious example was dealing with Orry’s injury, sustained during the Mexican War at the Battle of Churubusco. Orry ends up having his arm amputated in the novel, but on TV, they make him with a limp forevermore. It’s an understandable change, though, as John Jakes himself was told that people would focus more on how Swayze would be hiding his arm than on the story.

Others include the usual cutting and compositing of characters. Orry had an older brother named Cooper was more the stoic and thought for a long time that the South was doomed without industrialization while clinging to slavery. They put some of those thoughts into miniseries Orry while never mentioning Cooper. The main villain is a man named Elkanah Bent, who in the novel, was an overweight Napoleon-wannabe from Ohio whom the main characters first encounter as a fellow cadet at West Point. In the miniseries, he is played by Phillip Casnoff and is turned into a svelte and smooth Georgian while retaining the sadistic attributes from the novel.

The question that younger people might have is – how did it handle slavery? I thought it did so thoroughly and fairly – showing and demonstrating its ugly side while giving a fair hearing to the Southern point of view. Don’t misunderstand – what I mean by that is they didn’t make all slaveholders mustache-twirling villains. You see the internal turmoil and conflict that grapples some of them through their cruel and inhumane practices and you see others who will cling to their “peculiar institution” and only give it up over their dead bodies – and every position in between. I always thought the novels did a wonderful job in reminding us how horrible slavery was but also reminding us that the masters were human beings with their own flaws, vices, and yes, even virtues.

The miniseries came in two full six-episode groupings (hence the twelve installments mentioned above). Episodes 1-6 cover from the summer of 1842 to just after when Ft. Sumter was fired upon in April of 1861. Episodes 7-12 cover the duration of the war itself plus the weeks right after (April-May, 1865). It is engrossing and I recommend anyone who is a history buff watch it, even if you think you are going to nitpick it. If you are really interested after watching, definitely read the books.

There was a third installment made to mirror Heaven and Hell, but good God it is terrible. It was made in 1994, many years after the first two were made (1985 and 1986), and it could not capture the magic or the attention the previous ones made. It also upset the continuity of the miniseries, which can throw off the viewer if watched in succession. Stay away from it and stick to the book for the third.

One final note – the score is top-notch. It was written by Bill Conti, who is also known for scoring Rocky and The Right Stuff, plus all sorts of other music that you may be familiar with even if you didn’t know it was his. The theme and all its variations is perfectly appropriate for the sweeping scenes and hammy characters. It will also get stuck in your head, as it is stuck in mine currently.

All in all – wonderful work, acting, scenery, music. If you can get past the soap-opera hamminess, you will thoroughly enjoy the show. I think it is something you probably should watch a couple of times – the rewatchability grows especially as you can start pointing things out you missed the first time – cameo appearances, real sets (like Charleston, SC), and events. You won’t be disappointed.

My Cynicism and Education

I’ve been spelling out how I view the larger world, especially in terms of corrupted and corruptible institutions, but I figured I would address the objection of “how can you see the world this way and be responsible for the education of impressionable young people?”

It’s actually not that difficult.

For one, I never discuss specific politics in the classroom. My students never know who or what I vote for in any given election, nor do I discuss it with them. Why? Because it’s not their business or concern. We all had teachers who wore their political opinions on their sleeves. I have had colleagues through my 18 years in education who did the same.

I find it takes away from the classroom experience because all it ends up doing is providing confirmation bias for one group of students and giving license to another group not to pay any attention to what the instructor has to say on the actual subject, because “he believes X, Y, and Z on political issues A, B, and C,” thereby rendering (in their minds) invalid his actual expertise.

I prefer to keep them guessing. One of the most fun moments early in my teaching life was right before the 2004 election; one section of freshman boys spent an entire class period in early November debating whether I was voting for George W. Bush’s re-election or for John Kerry. They could never figure it out, and I liked it that way.

Which brings me to another point, and one that doesn’t get enough of a spotlight in our youth-worshipping culture: teenagers don’t know anything. Ok, that’s unfair – a few know some things, but I remember how I was when I was ages 13-17: I merely spouted off what I was hearing from my (liberal) parents and what they read and watched. Once I was old enough to realize I needed to form my own views of the world, it dawned on me that if I went into education (as I always wanted to do), arguing politics with teenagers was really just arguing with their parents, not them, regardless of which way they leaned on the spectrum. This has been borne out way too many times to be enumerated in my experience, and I believe leaving the politics at the door is the best way to be effective.

So how do I square my cynicism with teaching? Teaching theology, it’s actually simple. There are certain principles involved – one is faith in God, not in princes (Psalm 146). Another is the reminder that man does not live on bread alone (Matthew 4:4). A third is the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12). A fourth one is the Greatest Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40), and the fifth is the New Commandment to “love ye one another, as I have loved you” (John 13:34). What all of these things remind us of is that life starts with ourselves and how we interact with God and neighbor. Other principles such as charity beginning at home and the lesson of the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25) are included as guiding forces in the classroom.

A major problem in modern society is we are encouraged to be how Luke Skywalker was prior to becoming a Jedi – always looking ahead, never paying attention to where he was in the present. We tend to miss the fact that there are things we can do right in front of our own faces. Instead, we are encouraged to try and solve problems that no singular individual can possibly solve at a distance, and all that leads to is “virtue signaling” and an elevation of good intentions above all else, with the problem remaining.

Instead, I try to encourage thinking things through logically, knowing that students aren’t going to learn anything if I just spoonfeed them what I want them to think and say. I also try my best to get them to think and act locally – one’s neighbors will benefit so much more from acts of charity and goodwill. “Changing the world” is a foolhardy exercise, but it gets more attention and recognition. However, real change starts small and locally – one step at a time.

If you go back to my original post on my cynical thoughts (as well as the follow-up), I stressed that top-down solutions almost never work. It always begins with the little things. Do the little things, and the big things will follow.

However, it takes patience and a willingness to make mistakes. Difficult for a teenager, but a lesson well learned, and one that will help them make their place in the world and society better.

More on Cynicism

The post I wrote a couple of days ago as to why I am a cynic had this particular paragraph in it:

Back to the present, all the outrage and shock at the aforementioned events annoy me to some extent, because it comes from a set of faulty assumptions about human behavior and organizational operations – and the biggest faulty assumption is that the solution to the problem will come from the top rather than from the bottom. What’s interesting is many people have suspicions about large companies and corporations, but don’t have them about government. I know why that is, but that’s another topic…

So here we are on that other topic – why is it that people have suspicions about large companies and/or corporations and not about government?

The faulty assumptions mentioned above is two-fold: first, that the corporations are there solely to screw people out of their money and secondly, that government is there to help people and is beyond reproach. People who tend to be of the liberal/left persuasion are nearly guaranteed to buy into that paradigm, but let’s not pretend that many conservatives don’t also to some extent believe that as well. This is how you get so many talking heads and candidates speaking about making government “more efficient” or “more effective”; in other words, they are telling us they can manage the enormous bureaucracy “better” than their liberal colleagues.

Here’s why that is wrong.

It is true that companies and corporations are out to make a profit. In fact, I would be suspicious of a company that isn’t trying to make a profit (indeed, this is one of the most questionable elements about Twitter as a business model). Have corporations wronged people? Of course! But there are two things working in their favor.

1) They make products that people need and want.

2) Generally speaking, there are market forces that keep them in line regarding prices and behavior.

The government, on the other hand, is a monopoly. It’s a monopoly on force and taxation. It does not create any products. It only takes what others have made and survives on the threat of force. Don’t get me wrong, I am not an anarchist in any sense; society needs governance, as we are fallen beings who need some kind of order and structure. However, a top-down, command and control system that is as large as it is now can only exist as its own end, a point I made in the previous post. It is as far away from the ordinary citizen as can be, and worse, it is completely incapable of being responsive to the ordinary citizen.

Behemoths have no nimbleness whatsoever; and because it exists for the sole purpose of protecting itself, it has zero compunction to lie to the citizenry to that end. It actually makes life easier when you just assume the government is lying to you. There’ll never be disappointment, and it focuses one’s mind on accomplishing things in a much more intentional, local, and (most importantly) self-reliant manner. Don’t be looking to Washington for the solution – they are only interested in helping you if it furthers their own ends – and even if they do “help”, you will be disposed of once you no longer serve their purpose.

Now getting back to the corporations and their alleged screwing of people. There is one major exception to the two elements I listed above – it is when the second element gets skewed by businesses getting some kind of favorable treatment or status from the government, the way AT&T did for a long time, and the way Amazon, certain media companies (such as Comcast, Verizon, and Facebook), and certain pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer) do now. There are certain understandings and tradeoffs involved. The company will toe the governmental line and put forth (in the case of the media) the governmental propaganda. In exchange, the company will be protected from competition and litigation…unless they stop toeing the line. In which case they will be disposed of.

Just like the ordinary citizen.

And who gets screwed in such a “corporatist” arrangement? The ordinary citizen.

The only way all of this changes is through a radical shift – reducing the size of government so that it cannot make such arrangements with companies, but also so it only does basic governmental functions – roads, borders, diplomacy, courts, and securing the rights of the citizenry. How that will happen, I do not know – and I am not sure if it will happen in my lifetime. Some people are saying this feels like the 1850’s; I disagree, I think this is more like the late 300’s in the Roman Empire. All that’s left is for the elites to finish looting the treasury and for the barbarian hordes to crash the gates.

We could be close to that. Hard to say. Wait and see. And pray.

Back to Work

August 12, 2022 – Vacation is over; I took my family on a short getaway to the beach and now that we’re back it’s time to get down to business. And quite frankly it was about time to be preparing for the next school year. Fortunately, I don’t have to learn how to teach – I only have to learn the culture and the student body. And yet, I have a certain feeling of being overwhelmed – and it’s not a feeling I’m used to – the only times I can remember otherwise were when I started teaching nearly two decades ago and when I became a father. Otherwise, I am usually just a roll-with-it kind of personality.

As it is, I have one of my course policies completed and ready to go, but I need to get clarification on the other course and its direction. I’m also curious as to the periods of the day being taught. Sounds like I have a half-and-half dynamic of underclassmen.

Should be fun. Now I need to relieve some stress – yard work will do the trick.

That Guy As Cynic

I generally prefer to keep politics and the like out of this space, because as a general rule, people are not going to be convinced of changing their minds from the outside. It’s the same as with discussing religion – if you are looking to convert someone, there are only two ways to go about it: a) threaten their life or b) plant a seed and let it germinate.

Obviously I have neither the inclination nor the muscle to do option A, so planting seeds is the way to go. This is how I approach things in the classroom – posing questions and topics for consideration. And because religion/theology is my chosen field it isn’t going to be kept out of this space, but I prefer to engage if someone approaches after reading what I have to say. Why? Because I believe the quote (don’t know to whom it is originally attributed) that says:

“You cannot reason a man out of a position that he did not reason himself into”

Unknown Origin

I have kept this quote in the classroom for a long time, and I will find a spot for it in my new classroom in the upcoming weeks.

So what was my point again?

Oh yeah, all of that was my long-winded and roundabout way of getting to the point of my cynicism with regard to politics, and especially any institution that has some kind of bureaucratic makeup to it. I used to argue politics with people, but as I started to consider my own thoughts on the issues, it began to make less and less sense to argue and more to just point out what I thought to be the pertinent issues at hand. Do keep in mind that this post isn’t really about politics, per se, but rather about human nature, a topic I like to keenly observe.

One of the ever-increasing true elements to our society is while individuals can act in altruism, organizations cannot – whether it is the government or a school administration, or even the earthly structure of the Catholic Church.* Anything that has any kind of bureaucracy within its structure ultimately acts to protect and grow that bureaucracy and its influence, power, and money. Threats against the bureaucracy must be snuffed out.

This is the lens through which I see many events unfold, whether it is the doubling of IRS agents in the proposed legislation in Congress, the warrant and search of President Trump’s property, and the smothering of the old Rite of the Mass. Every single one of these things are motivated entirely by self-preservation, no matter what the media mouthpieces and talking heads say.

Such appalling cynicism! I can hear it now.

Yes, thank you.

I want to caution again that this is ultimately a view of collective vs. individual. It’s sort of a bureaucratic version of the “mob mentality”; when you have a mob, generally the thinking is the collective IQ drops the larger it becomes. For a bureaucracy or an organization, the level of altruism drops the larger it becomes. The group’s survival thus supersedes all things.

I used the phrase “mob mentality” – and that could also apply to the Mob as well. Think about what happened if anyone violated the code of Omertá – they sleep with the fishes, because power, prestige and money were threatened. I’m sure there have been lots of gangsters who were sweetheart men with their children and grandchildren, but when they became X, the Mafia Don/Capo/Underboss, all bets were off.

Back to the present, all the outrage and shock at the aforementioned events annoy me to some extent, because it comes from a set of faulty assumptions about human behavior and organizational operations – and the biggest faulty assumption is that the solution to the problem will come from the top rather than from the bottom. What’s interesting is many people have suspicions about large companies and corporations, but don’t have them about government. I know why that is, but that’s another topic…

Anyway, there is a reason why Christianity historically has taught “subsidiarity” – that those closest to the problem are the ones to solve it. In other words, the Department of Education knows nothing about the issues in the school district of, say, El Paso in Texas and therefore ought not to be sticking its nose in. Those in El Paso should be solving their problems and only if that fails would they move up to the next level.

We used to have a saying in our society – “don’t make a federal case out of it”. Unfortunately, because of the acts of self-preservation from the bureaucracies, many things are now “federal cases” and there doesn’t seem to be an end to it.

Do I like it? Not a chance. Am I surprised by it? No way. I expect it.

My word of caution to those who say they don’t have an issue with all these developments – remember that no one is untouchable. Once the tentacles of the bureaucracy (whichever one it is) reach to you, it will not let go unless it is made to.

Just please please don’t be like the meteorologists on TV who act all surprised that it was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Change the lens, change the framing of the events. If you are in disagreement with any and all things I wrote, that’s fine – I wasn’t trying to change your mind.

I just wanted to plant a seed.

* I have no qualms whatsoever about the promise of Christ that “the gates of Hell shall not prevail” (Matthew 16:18), but I more refer to more local (diocesan) levels of the Church – which are often as red-tape laden as any local county or state government. All I have to do is remember the hoops I needed to jump through just to get married in one particular place – you’d swear we were going for top-secret security clearances with the amount of forms and paperwork and signatures needed.

Judith Durham, 1943-2022

Most people have no clue who this is:

She is Judith Durham, the lead singer of the Australian musical group, the Seekers, who are a favorite of mine despite being around way ahead of my time. She died over the weekend, and it kind of threw me off. I caught it on social media in passing late last night and her death was largely overshadowed because, ironically, another Australian singing star also died recently.

Anyway, I have a very wide range of musical tastes – I can do classical, metal, rock, country, and folk. The Seekers fit mostly into that last category, but were as much a part of the British Invasion as the better known counterparts, such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and so on. Their best known song was the hit “Georgy Girl“, which was originally the theme for the 1966 film of the same name, and it went straight to the top of the charts in its time.

However, it was always Judith Durham’s voice that grabbed me and made me pay attention – even when singing in harmony with three men, her voice was angelic in its own way. Listen to some of the things that launched the group into stardom, mostly based on spirituals and jazz numbers, such as “When the Stars Begin to Fall” and “We Shall Not Be Moved“.

Even when they did things that would be considered more “pop”, her voice stood out. Interestingly, the band broke up in 1968, but would eventually get back together in the early 90’s, and despite the passage of time, Judith’s voice didn’t really change, which was remarkable.

Olivia Newton-John’s death will (and has) overshadow Durham’s death, due to the former’s popularity here in the United States, but this is absolutely a monster deal in Australia. There are reports that Durham will receive a state funeral. She was so important and popular in her country that when she was sick recently, the Wiggles did a “get well” video.

I think I’ll be on a Seekers binge today – and I can’t think of too many voices I’d rather hear singing me into the next life than Judith Durham. Her voice will be missed, and for her many fans, the carnival is finally over.

Rest in peace, Judith Durham.

The Genealogy of Christ

I just put up another long-form piece that can be found on the banner above, this time about the Genealogy of Jesus. Like the Sermon on the Mount, it is something I hope to put together into a coherent work for younger people and the curious.

The Ludicrousness of MLB…

Here I am on August 8, with a couple of weeks to go before the school year begins again and I want to complain about…

Major League Baseball?

I am going to be THAT GUY, which of course, is my whole schtick on this site and my bad attempts to podcast (which isn’t going well, but that’s another story for another time).

So if you didn’t know, I am a huge baseball fan, and one of the joys I get in life is getting to watch my team (the Philadelphia Phillies) play nearly every day between April and October, with the hope of getting to watch them in October as well for postseason play.

However…

MLB has a couple of things that prevent me from watching them every day. One is an arcane rule that more resembles a rule the NFL has in place. The other is a straight cash-grab aimed at people who just don’t care about baseball. Worst, both of these things came together in the past couple of weeks.

The first is the arcane blackout rule. MLB decided, in its infinite wisdom, to make sure that if you are in a particular territory surrounding a particular team you can only watch the games of that team on their preferred carrier. Case in point – for the past four days, the Phillies were playing the Washington Nationals. As I live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, I am technically in both the Baltimore and Washington “territory” – so I can only watch the Nationals and Orioles play on their regional cable network, MASN (Mid-Atlantic Sports Network). My local cable system does not carry MASN, and as such, I am out of luck.

It didn’t matter that the games were played in Philadelphia – my very existence in the Washington “territory” prevents me from streaming Phillies games when they play the Nationals. So 19 times a year, I am stuck either not watching or having to listen to badly-buffered radio calls on my phone.

The second element is even more infuriating. This season, MLB decided they didn’t have enough cash coming in, so they sold “exclusive” games to Apple TV+ and Peacock. I paid for a whole season of streaming, but if I want to watch those games, I have to become a subscriber to two more streaming services.

No thanks.

Now, before anyone says “well, what about ESPN Sunday Night games?” Those games long predate MLB.TV streaming, and it’s baked into the cake. That schedule is also released in February/March, and as such I have time to prepare. The Apple TV+ and Peacock games, on the other hand, were sprung upon us, and if there’s anything I hate, it’s a surprise.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred was recently asked if he “hates baseball”. Manfred laughed off the question and denied it, but the evidence, sir, says otherwise.

You certainly aren’t a fan of the fans, to be sure. You just want our wallets.

You should run for Congress then. Certainly would fit in.

So Much Going On…

July turned to August and all of a sudden I don’t have nearly the amount of free time I had before. You ever get the feeling that everything is starting to pile on together?

Yeah, that is what’s happening now.

All of the things are starting to roll in about what I need to do for the new school – orientation, meetings, and so forth. The travel that is required (too much) and a lot of the bureaucratic elements pop up (things I am not used to). The car is in need of maintenance and repair.

I did manage to record my introductory podcast mini-episode, but even that is behind where and when I wanted to be.

You know the saying – we plan and God laughs? Yeah, story of my life.