Saryndippity

Milwaukee Weekend

I spent last weekend, Halloween weekend, in Milwaukee.

I was lucky enough to get Friday off from work, and since I don’t have classes on Friday’s either, Andy and I were able to leave for Milwaukee on Thursday night. . . in the rain. But, at least it was just rain. It could have been freezing rain, or sleet or snow. The drive down was pretty uneventful. We chatted about this and that, and the farther south we got the better the weather got.

We got to Mark and Shanah’s and it took about 20 minutes before the four of us were all sitting in the same room hunched in front of our respective computers. . . An anti-social and rather geeky gathering.

Friday moring was spent playing with Hannah. :) She is such a wonderful little girl. I am so glad that I am able to see her as often as I do. Shanah is preparing to go back to school at UWM, so we (Shanah, Hannah, Andy and I) went to the campus for their open house. We met up with JoAnn for lunch. After luch we walked around the Student Union looking at all the different stuff UWM has to offer. Shanah found what she was looking for, and Andy was able to pick up some general information for a friend.

And then we went to the library. :) It was wonderful. We went up to the curriculum library and I read a couple books to Hannah. One of the books was Six Creepy Sheep. It’s a cute tounge twisting story about six sheep and thier Halloween adventures. Hannah loved it.

Friday night Andy and I went to see a film at the Milwaukee film fest. Originally we were going to see The Renaissance. However due to some local controvercy surrounding the film we were shown Yes Men instead. I found it to be a very good film. I recommend seeing it if you get a chance. After the movie we wnet back to Mark and Shanah’s. JoAnn and Rob were at Mark and Shanah’s when we got back. The six of us stayed up talking and hanging out for a while before JoAnn and Rob left. It was a wonderful night.

Most of Saturday was spent taking it easy and just hanging aound the house. Hannah, Andy and I weren’t feeling that well, so it was nice to not have to do anything. That night Andy and I went out trick-or-treating with the Batlzell’s. Sam and Travis were so cute. Sam was a princess and Travis was Tigger. After trck-or-treating we went back to the Batlzell’s. Once the kids were in bed we had adult time and played a few hands of Chez Geek. Another wonderful day.

Sunday was a beautiful autumn day, for being outside. After Shanah and Hannah left for church, Andy and I went to JoAnn’s for a pancake breakfast. It was very yummy. :) Then it was off to campus to take graduation pictures for JoAnn. And then it was time for more trick-or-treating with the Batlzell’s. Like the night before it was very fun. The kids got lots and lots and lots of candy. But the neatest thing was watching Sam, who is quite shy, become very comfortable with trick-or-treating. When we started out she had to have someone walk her up to the door. After a while she was ok with someone waiting at the bottom of the porch steps, then at the end of the sidewalk, and finally she was running up to the houses all by herself. :)

After trick-or-treating, we watched the end of a great Packer game, and then it was back to Mark and Shanah’s. We hung out and talked with Mark and Shanah, played with Hannah, and had soem supper. Then we dropped JoAnn off at her place and headed north to home and bed.

All and all a lovely weekend. :)

It’s over

Let Your Voice Be Heard

Dr. Seuss

“The best slogan I can leave for the U.S. is, ‘We can and we’ve got to do better than this.'”
– Theodor Seuss Geisel

I can’t help but think, he wouldn’t think we are doing better. . .

Cancelled

First, I’m a bad speller. I always have been. so, today when I wasn’t sure if I was spelling “cancelled” correctly I looked it up. I found out that it can be spelled with one or two l’s. And now you know too.

I was flipping through the channels this morning and on one of the morning talk shows they were talking about Halloween. They said that Seattle Schools were cancelling Halloween festivities in the schools. Why? According to the talk show and the article I found, it is for 3 reasons, 1) Witch cotumes are offencive to the Wiccan community, 2) The time spent for Halloween parties and parades is a waste of valuable classroom time, and 3) Some families can’t afford costumes.

The hosts of the show thought that it was just absurd that schools would cancel Halloween. (I think they should really be saying the schools are cancelling Halloween festivisties at school. The community is still celebrating Halloween.) Then one of the co-hosts, the ditzy blonde, said that students that can’t afford costumes should just take a sheet and cut holes in it and go as a ghost. To which the equally ditzy brunette replyed, “Stop taking about that, ghosts scare me. I’m getting scared right now.” I can’t help wondering if any of the three hosts thought for a minute that maybe the families that can’t afford costumes also can’t afford to cut holes in thier sheets. Or that maybe it’s not so much that they can’t afford a costume, because you can make a costume for almost nothinh if you’re creative, it more that these families are so overwhelmed with life, there are simply more imortant needs that have to be met.

As a future teacher, I graduate in May, I’m not sure how I feel about a school cancelling Halloween. Personally, I love Halloween, I always have. It’s fun to dress-up and pretend to be someone or something else; it’s fun to go out and get candy; it’s fun to go to haunted houses and get scared; and it’s fun to get a break from school work. I think that Halloween allows kids to use their imaginations in a way that they might not always get a chance to do. So many kids today lead hightly structured lives, they don’t have time to be kids. Halloween allows them to just be a kid and enjoy childhood. And I frimly believe that every child and every teacher needs a break from school work every now and again. This is an opportunity to take one. I also understand the need to teach. With the No Child Left Behind Act there is an ever increasing need (or maybe pressure) on teachers to make sure their students can pass the standardized tests, and for administrators to make sure their teachers can teach to the state standards. (And that’s all I’m goign to say on that right now.) But the thing is, a creative teacher can turn any occasion into a learing experiance. The creative teacher will see a Halloween party as a chance to teach valuable life skills.

Which brings me to the Wiccan community. Yes, the witches many children decide to dress up as for Halloween are not accurate portrayals of real witches. I won’t claim to know anything about Wicca or the Wiccan community. But I do know that the witches from Fairy Tales that children dress up as are much different from the real thing. Knowning this, when I’m a teacher I would find away to teach my students about the differences. In doing so I would also be teaching acceptance and understanding and tolerance and openmindedness and the list could go on and on. These are all important qualities for children to possess in todays world.

There’s so much more I have to say, but I’m getting so sleepy, seeing as it’s 5 in the moring now. There’s the history of Halloween, there’s the fact that public schools still have Christmas celebrations or that public schools get off for all Christian holidays but not for holidays of other major religions (even though there is a division of church and state), and so much more.

And now it’s time for me to be sleeping. . .