Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Mixed Messages

--While out on deliveries last week, I noticed a large sign hanging over the main entrance of a local school. In letters about two and a half feet tall, it proclaimed: "All kinds of minds walk these halls." Now, I applaud what I assume is supposed to be a message of tolerance and inclusion (though I should mention that I do wonder how much difference this sign actually makes in, say, the cafeteria when a geek wants to sit at the cool kids table or vice versa. I mean, if it were making a big difference, there might not even be a "cool kids" table, but at least they're trying right?), but, especially in light of the recent school shootings, doesn't this message take on (an entirely unintended, but nevertheless powerful) ominous cast? Is it just me? Doesn't it seem like it could be just as much a warning as a welcome? "All kinds of minds walk these halls," so look out.

--On the same delivery trip, I was behind a car with the bumper sticker: "The Earth does not belong to us. We belong to the Earth. --Chief Seattle." Great sentiment--would've meant a lot more were it not tacked to the back of a gas-guzzling SUV. At least it wasn't a Hummer, right?

--Meanwhile, over on Daughter-Only's planet...She says to me, in her best freaked out little kid voice: "Mommy...sometimes Nomi really scares me. I mean she really freaks me out. Every time I look directly at her face, she winks at me! With her right eye! Every time!" The sad part was I wasn't sure who I should call first: the vet or the psychiatrist.

3 comments:

  1. All interesting points, for sure! Yet I still feel like a geek when I go places that include teenagers, high school nightmares live on--

    so I applaud the sign too!

    (and a psychiatrist, definitely a psychiatrist!)

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  2. At a local intersection there is a white line accompanied by a sign that says stop here.
    So I stopped....
    As I pulled forward past the white line to look both ways there was a smaller wired sign with this hand written message..."STOP HERE TOO SEE"
    punctuation was not included.

    P.S. "All Kinds of Minds" is a professional development curriculum for teachers. This movement was started by Mel Levine some time ago...he has some interesting philosophies on how to teach in a public school full of all kinds of minds... http://www.centerforschoolsuccess.org/history.html this is the website that can tell you more if you are interested....

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  3. LS--I looked up the school in question on-line and they are an "attuned school," which I totally think is great 'cuz anything other than just plodding along is all right by me.

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