A poem by Sharon Olds

The Clasp
by Sharon Olds

She was four, he was one, it was raining, we had colds,
we had been in the apartment two weeks straight,
I grabbed her to keep her from shoving him over on his
face, again, and when I had her wrist
in my grasp I compressed it, fiercely, for a couple
of seconds, to make an impression on her,
to hurt her, our beloved firstborn, I even almost
savored the stinging sensation of the squeezing,
the expression, into her, of my anger,
"Never, never, again," the righteous
chant accompanying the clasp. It happened very
fast-grab, crush, crush,
crush, release-and at the first extra
force, she swung her head, as if checking
who this was, and looked at me,
and saw me-yes, this was her mom,
her mom was doing this. Her dark,
deeply open eyes took me
in, she knew me, in the shock of the moment
she learned me. This was her mother, one of the
two whom she most loved, the two
who loved her most, near the source of love
was this.

Meet bell hooks

Here is a good link to information about bell hooks, the author of Justice: Childhood Love Lessons.

In light of our increasingly violent society, I think we should look at reducing the amount of violence in our lives and in the lives of children. Why is it OK to hit children, but not OK to hit adults? There are consequences when we hit adults -- in school, at work, in a public place. But it's OK to hit children? I personally don't get that.

When Kids Get Life

Here is a link to the PBS site we were looking at in class today.

Cartoons about juveniles and the death penalty

I found this site while doing some forensics homework and it seemed like something interesting to check out...

Oxnard School Shooting

Kids, in the recent Oxnard school shooting, prosecuters are trying to charge the 14-year old shooter as an adult; defenders are trying to move the case into juvenile court. This article in the LA Times had, at the time I looked at it, 174 comments. Opinions run the gamut. Check it out. Comment. How to serve justice in this case? The shooter is a good student with no record, 14 years old...who shot a kid because he was gay. Remember how homophobic kids are in middle school?

Proposition 21

Here's the League of Women Voters information on 2000's Proposition 21, which is always a very reliable place to gather information on issues and candidates. They work hard to present both sides of an issue completely and fairly...

But what I discovered is a simple Google search of Proposition 21 yields many good hits. Get some background information before Chief Rogers comes into class tomorrow! I liked this link to the Leherer News Hour segment.

Make sure you do some thinking about this, and prepare a good question for Chief Rogers. Be an excellent audience.

Frontline of Discovery

This is another great publication from National Geographic. As the title says, this book is about major breakthroughs in recent technology. I should start off by telling you NOT to read this book unless you're into stuff like how composite materials are constructed, different kinds of cancer, REM sleep....I read this more for the medical part, which it deviates from after the first few chapters. I love the medical field, and I hate fiction, so I wanted to read something that was easy enough to understand but still had pleanty of good information. This was also at a used booksale for 50 cents, and anything under a buck can't be beat. This book loses some credibility too, because it's about 10 years old. Some of the medical devices it talks about are a little out dated, but not by much.

Notice how I said that "I" hate fiction. Now by no means am I trying to down fictional literature, it's just that I don't believe in spending so much time getting to know fake people in a made up story. Which is kind of ironic, because I love film. I was talking to Patricia awhile ago about this, and she said something along the lines of "There are somethings that can only be taught through reading about the experiences of others, rather than facts." I agree with that to an extent. If you wanted to know more about mountain climbing for instance, you'd probably do best reading a Jon Krakauer book. Remember that name? You should. We read one one his books in 10th grade. I should also mention that he is a NONFICTION writer, which is exactly the point I am trying to make. Anything you can learn from a fiction book, you can probably learn the same thing from a nonfiction book.

The only fiction books that really stick out to me at all are the ones that are either (a) notorious for having some kind of extreme content, or (b) have made a huge social impact. That's why I always like hearing Ms. Fletcher talk about her stash of "banned books". Those are the ones I find appealing.

But hey, that's just me.