I got this from Terry and thought it was interesting. It’s from the Atlantic

The Case Against Happiness

Good Morning!

Another week of Summer. This week we will be going swimming to the pool on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, we will go to Scales Lake. There is no field trip on Friday.

Today we will try a new dish with the kids. It’s a cream cheese and sour cream dip with bacon and cheddar cheese and salsa. We think the kids will be crazy about this. For the reticent, we will have peanut butter on crackers. Lots of fresh fruit and a salad to go with this.

Regular school days on Monday and on Thursday.

Glad we will get a break in the weather for a few days.

On Wednesday, Miss Judy will talk about the Garden School at the Optimist’s Club down town in Evansville.

Have a great week!

My Internet service is up a minute and then down a minute. It’s enough to make you scream. So my Sundays sans service has made this column a bit unreliable.

In my talks with several friends lately, I’ve come to the conclusion that most people don’t even think about the nutrition, the quality, or the long term effects of what they eat. High fat, high calorie, glutenous, over cooked food is the preferred food.

In this column, the idea is to learn to make simple, palatable, quality foods that will impact the body for the good. Food should not make us unhealthy, for goodness sake. It should make us healthy.

Today we will make a Quiche. Whoa! Quiche? It’s simple, so don’t freak out.

First step is to make the crust. You will need a rolling pin or can and a place to roll. Best crusts are made with lard, but lard is about the worst thing you can eat, so we will use either Crisco or butter. I usually use butter because it’s a dairy food and used in moderation, it’s saturated fat, but unlike margarine, it’s free of chemicals. Margarine is one molecule away from plastic. It should not only never be eaten, it should never be purchased. Crisco makes better crust than butter, but crisco is man made and is suspect.

The best crust is half white flour and half whole wheat pastry flour, but you can make it with 100% whole wheat flour for a healthier meal. You will need 2 cups of flour and a stick of butter.

In a food processor, combine flour and butter and half a teaspoon of salt. Boil a little water and slowly pour about 1/4 cup boiling water into the flour-butter-salt mix while processor is on and when it balls up into one lump, it’s ready to be rolled. If the dough fails to ball up it is either too dry or you added too much water. Either add more water – carefully – or add more flour.

A crust which is flaky will have a lot of butter in it. Too much water, and the crust will be tough.

Once the dough is balled, let it sit on the counter for about ten minutes to rest. Now using a well floured surface, roll out the dough with a rolling pin into a plate sized piece. Use plenty of flour to make sure your dough does not stick to the counter or board.

Fold the circle in half and half again and lift into your pie plate. Trim the edges and make sure the dough fits the whole pie pan.

Now for the fun part.

A quiche is really an egg pie made with left overs. Go to the refrigerator and find all the left over fresh vegetables you have and cut them into pieces about the size of a teaspoon and tumble those into the bottom of your unbaked crust. Almost any vegetable can be put into a quiche: yellow squash, zucchini, broccoli, onion, mushrooms, spinach, potatoes, green and red peppers, tomatoes – whatever.

If you have left over bacon, roast, chicken, meat balls, or anything without a bone, you can cube it into pieces and tumble into the bottom of your crust. If you don’t have any left overs, you can go meatless. You can also zap a chicken breast or a little bacon in the microwave and cube that.

Next part is eggs. Just like you are making scrambled eggs, mix five eggs and a cup of milk together until they are light and frothy. Pour the eggs over the meat and vegetables.

Over the top of your quiche, put a couple of cups of grated cheddar cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. Your quiche will have a nice brown top, and the crust edge will be brown as well.

There is plenty of protein with this meal. It does not need any other food to go with it. It is complete. If the quiche is made with fresh vegetables, it has no preservatives, no chemicals, and aside from some cholesterol, it’s not only filling and delicious, it’s good for you.

An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my yard; I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home and was well taken care of.

He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats on his head; he then followed me into my house, slowly walked down the hall, curled up in the corner and fell asleep. About an hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out.

The next day he was back, greeted me in my yard, walked inside and resumed his spot in the hall and again slept for about an hour. This continued for several weeks. Curious, I pinned a note to his collar: ‘I would like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is, and ask if you are aware that every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap. The next day he arrived with a different note pinned to his collar : “He lives in a home with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3 – he’s trying to catch up on his sleep. Can I come with him tomorrow?’

We had a great time at Scales Lake. We packed up and headed up there early. The beach was beautiful around the lake. The kids found the water warm and inviting especially since the it’s been so hot. The top of the water was bathtub warm. This is a VERY shallow lake and teachers always stand at the limit so children are very very safe.

Several of the kids found they could swim better in the lake than at the pool. I spent a lot of time with Isaac, who found he had a lot more water power at the lake. He could go longer and do more in the natural water. I told him it was time he went off the board at the pool, and I think the wheels are turning.

Savannah was thrilled and solitary as she discovered and re-discovered the water and found she could propel herself pretty much at will.

Jayce was thrilled to go as deep as he could – no fear on his part!

It was interesting to watch the kids this first time at the lake. Some were bound to play with each other, and some kids just wanted to go off by themselves to see what they could see.

We had a nice lunch, and the kids ate everything. We went back to the lake after lunch and by about 2:00 the kids were done. We left the park with a brief stop at the little zoo, and the children enjoyed visiting with the goats and the ducks.

Once on the way home, we had five sleepers within seconds of our departure.

At home the children feasted on cantaloupe, juice pops, whole grain chocolate chip cookies and water. All in all it was a great day.

Op-Ed Contributor

Blow Up the Well to Save the Gulf

By CHRISTOPHER BROWNFIELD

Published: June 21, 2010

From the New York Times

TONY HAYWARD, the chief executive of BP, made an astounding admission before Congress last week: after nearly two months of failure, the company and the Coast Guard have no further plans to plug the Macondo oil well leaking into the Gulf. Instead, the goal is merely to contain the leak until a relief well comes online, a process that could take months.

With tens of thousands of barrels of oil leaking from the well each day, this absence of a backup plan highlights a lack of leadership, resources and expertise on the part of the Coast
Guard, which from the beginning was compelled to give BP complete control over the leaking wellhead.

Instead, President Obama needs to create a new command structure that places responsibility for plugging the leak with the Navy, the only organization in the world that can muster the necessary team. Then the Navy needs to demolish the well.

The Coast Guard, of course, should continue to play a role. But it should focus on what it can do well, like containing the oil already in the Gulf and protecting the coast with oil booms and skimmers. It should also use this crisis to establish permanent collaborations with other maritime forces around the globe, particularly those that can get to a disaster area quickly.

But control of the well itself should fall to the Navy — it alone has the resources to stop the flow. For starters, the Office of Naval Research controls numerous vehicles like Alvin, the famed submersible used to locate the Titanic. Had such submersibles been deployed earlier, we could have gotten real-time information about the wellhead, instead of waiting for BP to release critical details.

The Navy also commands explosives experts who have vast knowledge of underwater demolitions. And it has some of the world’s finest underwater engineers at Naval Reactors, the secretive program that is responsible for designing nuclear reactors for nuclear submarines. With the help of scientists in our national weapons laboratories and experts from private companies, these engineers can be let loose on the well.

To allay any concerns over militarizing the crisis, the Navy and Coast Guard should be placed in a task-force structure alongside a corps of experts, including independent oil engineers, drilling experts with dedicated equipment, geologists, energy analysts and environmentalists, who could provide pragmatic options for emergency action.

With this new structure in place, the Navy could focus on stopping the leak with a conventional demolition. This means more than simply “blowing it up”: it means drilling a hole parallel to the leaking well and lowering charges to form an explosive column.

Upon detonating several tons of explosives, a pressure wave of hundreds of thousands of pounds per square inch would spread outward in the same way that light spreads from a tubular fluorescent bulb, evenly and far. Such a sidelong explosion would implode the oil well upstream of the leak by crushing it under a layer of impermeable rock, much as stepping on a garden hose stops the stream of water.

It’s true that the primary blast of a conventional explosion is less effective underwater than on land because of the intense back-pressure that muffles the shock wave. But as a submariner who studied the detonation of torpedoes, I learned that an underwater explosion also creates rapid follow-on shockwaves. In this case, the expansion and collapse of explosive gases inside the hole would act like a hydraulic jackhammer, further pulverizing the rock.

The idea of detonating the well already has serious advocates. A few people have even called for using a nuclear device to plug the well, as the Soviet Union has done several times. But that would be overkill. Smartly placed conventional explosives could achieve the same results, and avoid setting an unacceptable international precedent for the “peaceful” use of nuclear weapons.

At best, a conventional demolition would seal the leaking well completely and permanently without damaging the oil reservoir. At worst, oil might seep through a tortuous flow-path that would complicate long-term cleanup efforts. But given the size and makeup of the geological structures between the seabed and the reservoir, it’s virtually inconceivable that an explosive could blast a bigger hole than already exists and release even more oil.

The task force could prepare for demolition without forgoing the current efforts to drill relief wells. And even if the ongoing efforts succeed and a demolition proves unnecessary, the non-nuclear option would give President Obama an ace in the hole and a clear signal that he’s in charge — not BP.

Good Morning. My Internet connection was down on and off all weekend. Joys.

This week is going to be especially hot. We will not be going to the ball game on Tuesday. I think some of the kids would really like this, but at 100 degrees for four hours in an unshaded area is too much to ask from anyone. It would be unsafe.

Ditto the pool. After talking to a safety expert, I was told that water does not necessarily keep one hydrated. We will be going on Wednesday, however. I think we can handle one day in the sun, but not two at 100 degrees.

Monday and Thursday are school days, and on Friday, we will be going to Scales Lake in Boonville. It’s a nice sandy beach, and for those who swim, there is a water slide.

Please bring your child’s favorite water gun. We will be having brief water battles on the playground.

Have a great week!

From Teacher Magazine

Teaching Secrets: Hang on to the Magic

It was a Monday last spring in the middle of testing season. At the lunch time “venting” session, people were whining and complaining about the testing schedule, which was indeed an indescribable disaster. I totally understood why people were so angry and frustrated, and I didn’t blame them for getting their frustrations out among friends. However, as we were leaving, one of the young teachers in the room said something that really resonated with me: “Twenty-six years and four days.”

It took us a moment to get what she was saying. What did that random time period have to do with anything? Then it hit me: She was pointing out how long it would be until she could retire. The other teachers and I kind of giggled nervously. But it got me thinking. What kind of a profession are we in where people count down the days and years to retirement? How could such an amazing young teacher become so disheartened in her fourth year of teaching?

When I thought more about these questions, I understood the reason for her despair. She would absolutely tell you that her unhappiness has nothing to do with the kids, and everything to do with the forces outside of her control. They’re the same things that drive every teacher crazy. Politicians. Testing. Merit pay. Budget cuts and teacher furloughs. Parents who don’t care. Parents who care too much and hover. People in charge of our work who are clueless and don’t know what they’re doing. All the extraneous forces that combine to suck the life out of even the most positive teachers in the profession.

As I thought about this wonderful young woman who is like the daughter I never had. As I thought about future novice teachers who will face the same issues, I asked myself, “How can I be part of the solution? How can I help young teachers see that, despite the current insanity around our work, this job is still the most magical one there is? I offer the following to the novice teachers out there who are about to embark on their careers.

Lesson one: Acceptance. One of the best prayers ever is the Serenity Prayer, which teaches us to accept the things we cannot change. The way education is set up in this country, teachers do not control their own work. Until legislators get out of the middle of it all, we will continue to struggle with top-down decisions that aren’t good for kids. We can rant and whine and cry about it all we want, but we still have to get on with the business of teaching the kids who come to us every day. (Although I firmly believe that if enough legislators had to be in a building for even one day, standardized tests would end tomorrow.) Thus, we must take a deep breath, remind ourselves to control the things we can control, and go from there.

Lesson two: Holiness. No, I don’t really mean this in the religious sense. What I mean is, what we do with kids is holy and sacred because it changes lives. We provide lifelines to kids who have no one. We turn kids on to knowledge. We listen to their dramas, let them cry themselves out, help them work through their problems….I could go on and on about what millions of teachers do for millions of kids every day. The excellent teachers in the world are not in the classroom to deliver knowledge and skills alone; they are also there to provide life lessons to children whose futures will be brighter because a teacher cared for them.

I was watching M*A*S*H the other day (my favorite show, ever, forever) and thinking of all the lives that were saved by units like these in the last few wars. I was also thinking, “What must it feel like to know you saved a life?” And then I realized I’ve done the same thing many times in my classroom. Not literally, of course, but just as importantly. When I help a kid learn a new skill, when I help him or her try one more time instead of giving up and quitting school or making life-altering negative decisions, I am saving lives, too.

Lesson three: Don’t take it personally. This lesson is especially important for high school teachers. When we pour our time, energy, and hearts into planning lessons for students, and then they grouse and complain and aren’t engaged, we get our feelings hurt. Let go of that. The students’ lack of interest and snarky attitudes are not about you as a person. The flip side of this, of course, is to spend the time and energy to create the most engaging lessons possible, but we have to understand that we can’t reach every kid every day.

Lesson four: Understand that there are people out there who are content to be mediocre. When I first came to a public school after 12 years of teaching in a private school, I jumped in with both feet and got involved in as many leadership positions as I could. While many of my new colleagues were supportive, others were a little judgmental and critical. I went to a trusted administrator about it, and she told me, “If you step out in front, there will always be people who try to shoot you down.” Step out anyway.

Lesson five: Stay away from the Dark Side. You will learn quickly who the positive people are. Gravitate to them in your department and in your building. Stay away from the people who hate their job and are counting down the days until school ends. They will pull you down with them if you let them.

Lesson six (a corollary to lesson five): Don’t let the turkeys get you down. College in the 80’s was all about how many buttons you could display on your clothing or your bag. One button I still have in my classroom is a picture of an elephant who is lying on his stomach with his legs spread everywhere. He is covered in turkeys. Enough said.

Lesson seven: Be in balance. Remember that your job is not your life. Your life is your life. When you leave the building, leave everything in it: the kids you can’t reach, the kids who are hurting, the Eeyorish colleagues, the insane demands, all the negative stuff. Do not burden your spirit with it. After all, it will all still be there when you come back. Work out, be quiet, worship, sleep, read, laugh. You’ll be suicidal by Thanksgiving if you don’t.

Lesson eight: Own your power. I have written in other places about how to take charge of your classroom. This version of owning your power is about realizing that every day of your life, you have the power to make a child’s life better or worse. You will interact with hundreds, if not thousands, of children through your career, and you will not remember them all. But they will remember you and how you made them feel—whether it was good or bad. Choose your words carefully, take deep breaths, and understand the impact you can have on a child.

Teaching is an art and a science. It is hard every day and challenging every day. But every day something akin to miracles happen in teachers’ rooms. Use these lessons to make your room miraculous.

One of the summer messages we give to the kids is “You can do this all by yourself.” Some children come to us not knowing how to get dressed, sit at a table, use the toilet effectively including washing their hands. Some kids can’t listen to a direction, a story, a prayer, or do they know how to take a direction and fly with it. Some kids can’t eat a meal without an argument, eat more than cold cereal and candy bars, ask a question like, “Can you pass me the lasagna?”

Summer time is the time when the “I can’ts” become the “I cans.”

Beginning with the pool, kids begin to figure out how to get the clothes off and the swimsuit on. They learn to stand patiently in line for sun screen. They learn to line up for head counts. They learn to sit on a bus feet forward. They learn how to carry lunch and help those smaller than they are. They learn to deal with the heat, use public bathrooms, and make room for others. But best of all, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, they learn how to swim.

The Garden School does not take a bunch of kids to the pool to flounder around. We take kids to the pool in order to learn to swim. It’s a three hour swim lesson with a picnic lunch break.

First order of the day is to go over the kids in circle time and remind each child what he or she needs to work on. Today, three little boys needed to work on getting their heads wet. The ability to go under at will is the first real sign that swimming is emerging. Three other children were told that it’s time to work with a teacher in the deeper end. These kids jump from the side of the pool into the teacher’s arms. Then they paddle back to the side of the pool. This strengthens bodies and gets a child ready to keep himself up in the water for as long as the child desires. It’s called swimming, and swimming is something that children can do “all by themselves!”

Do teachers look over and see out children prattling around in the ultra shallow end? Nope. Do we see our kids running around on the deck looking for trouble? Nope. We see them in the water doing what they do best – all by themselves- swimming and learning to swim.

Today we took 20 noodles to the pool to help children learn to float. Kids played for a time with these noodles, and then left them for a time to experiment with one underwater game or trick after another. It was a great day at the pool.

Field trips are another great “I can do this all by myself.” Field trips are little treks out into the public arena where manners, thoughtfulness, patience, and the sense that “I can go without my mom or dad” and be safe and happy and learn something, and then go home and talk about it is the independence builder.

When kids have traveled all summer, when they’ve stood in line; learned to be quiet; have eaten on the go what’s available to bring on a picnic; when they’ve helped, hoddied and hand held someone smaller; learned to swim well enough to swim in their clothes at the lake; used an out house that reeks of ick; when they’ve walked through a cave and listened intently to the guide; when they’ve sweat in the sun, been thirsty in the heat; when they’ve climbed, run, seen, experienced, watched, listened, and after weeks of seeing new things, they become independent.

Summer is a great and exhausting time, but the rewards are irreplaceable. This is teaching; this is learning; this is what living is all about.