What I Should Have Said

Recently, I was asked what I regret most about my 35 years of teaching. I thought of going all self-confident and saying I regret nothing. But that’s just not true. So after thinking about it for a very short time, I mumbled something about not teaching enough electricity in physics, and that I wish I had changed the way I did my experiments. And while I do regret those things, in the scheme of life, those are small things, just details. Not things to make a huge difference. But the next day I was reading some incredibly poorly thought-out post on Facebook written by one of my former students. So I thought about that question again. And I changed my mind.

Here is what I should have said:

I regret that I didn't try harder to teach my students to think. To use their brains to weigh all the data, evidence, ideas, theories and viewpoints. To use their heads and their hearts to take all this information and come up with an answer that is their own. To not settle for an answer that sounds right or feels good. To realize that no matter how rich, how smart, or how famous someone is, that someone else’s viewpoint should not be their own. To understand that if something seems too easy or too obvious, it probably is. And to accept nothing from anyone without thinking it completely through, unless it comes from someone that you know loves you.

I regret that I didn't try harder to teach them to differentiate right from wrong, and to act accordingly. To not assume “it’s only wrong if you get caught.” To base right and wrong not on what is popular at the time, but instead to base it on what mom and dad taught them, what their religion teaches them, and what good ethics requires. To not take the obvious choice, but instead to come up with what they know in their hearts to be right, and then act on it, no matter how hard it seems, and no matter how it looks to others. And to not worry if their choice of right doesn't always match everyone else’s, because only they know all that is in their heart.

And perhaps most of all, I regret that I didn't encourage them to have the courage to take the road less traveled, the choice that may not be obvious or popular or easy, but the choice that is right for them. To take a chance, not just on the little things, but on the important things. To not play it safe. To accept the conflict that comes with risks and going against the grain. And that if they take a chance and lose, to gather themselves up and look for the next opportunity.

I know actually did teach all this, to a point. But not like I should have. Why not? Because it’s hard. Who am I to impose my idea of right or wrong on students? Especially when it may not match that of their parents or the majority of society. And to teach them to take chances in life when most around them are telling them not to? Trust me, teaching redox reactions and Newton’s Second Law problems is simple compared to navigating the mine field of all this. But that’s really no excuse. Looking back on it, I don’t think I followed my own advice. I think I tried, but probably not hard enough.

You know, I’ll bet quite a few of my own teachers had the same regrets I do…after they had already retired. Which is the wrong time to be thinking this way. I should have thought harder about this 35 years ago. I believe that I was a good teacher, and positively affected a lot of kids, but I have to wonder what more I could have done.

I wish I had read then what I wrote just now.

I Was A Stranger And You Welcomed Me

By now you've probably seen or heard of some of the protests in Murrieta, California. If not, Google it. Three busloads of undocumented immigrant children were being transported there for processing. There were about 140 total. And while I don't know the exact ages of these individuals, everyone agrees they are children.

You can think what you want about immigration. You can blame whoever you like, and you can say whatever makes you feel good. You can say the President is wrong for not enforcing the laws, or you can blame the Republicans for blocking immigration reform.

But this scene made me sick. Buses full of children, miles from home, I'm sure feeling scared, lost, and lonely; not knowing when or if they will ever see their parents again; not knowing if they will ever see their homes again; definitely strangers in a strange land. And when they arrived in the buses, they were greeted by a mob of angry people screaming "Go home, we don't want you here."

Maybe the protesters were right. Maybe the children should be sent home. Maybe. But as I watched the video, I couldn't help thinking of Matthew 25. I'm pretty sure most of the protesters would call themselves Christians. And I'm sure many of them read the Bible. I know it's hard to live as Jesus wants us to, and I'll be the first to admit that I certainly don't. Yet the verse kept going through my mind, and the contrast of what Jesus said, and what these people were doing, was overwhelming.

Matthew 25:31-46 is below. These are Jesus' words. Read it, and make your own choice.

The Final Judgment

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me." Then the righteous will answer him, saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?" And the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me."

Then he will say to those on his left, "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me." Then they also will answer, saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?" Then he will answer them, saying, "Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me." And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

I know America just can't take in every single refugee in the entire world. Yet...

If You Get the Blame, You Should Get the Credit.

So today the stock market hit an all time high. The unemployment rate fell to a 6 year low. I would assume that's all good news. Because I remember in 2009 when the stock market was tanking and unemployment was skyrocketing, it seemed America as we knew it was coming to an end. Or at least that's how it sounded. Because a lot of people, pundits, and news organizations made a point of saying how bad everything was, and how it was Obama's fault. 

Somehow, now that everything's moving the other way, I don't hear too many people giving Obama any credit. And honestly, I have no idea if this recovery is because of him or not. But my gut feeling is that his policies have at least something to do with it. 

To be fair, I have read some things that praised the recovery.

"This has now become a textbook jobs expansion," said Patrick O'Keefe, director of economic research at the consultancy CohnReznick. "It is both broad and accelerating."

The uptick in payrolls is a rare bit of good news for the White House, which has been pummeled by bad news overseas and has faced an uphill fight to portray the economy as robust when it shrank by nearly 3 percent in the first quarter.

While unemployment remains elevated above pre-crisis levels, it's encouraging to see that long-term unemployment is falling fast from the historic highs it reached in 2009 and 2010.

Note that even with the good news, at least some feel necessary to add a little negativity into it. And those who blamed him before seem to be very quiet now. I studied the FoxNews web page pretty hard, and I just didn't see any sort of credit for him or his policies, even though in 2009 it was all his fault. But regardless of politics, I would think logic would dictate that if he got the blame before, it seems to me those same people should give him at least some of the credit now. 

I suppose I'm being naive, but that just makes sense to me.