A Southern Missive

I am in a Scots-Irish band. We call ourselves Angus Dubhghall. We took the names of two ancient Scottish chieftans, men who were heroes, yet were feared. We’ve been playing locally (that would be Northeast Louisiana) for a while, but this year we will be performing at the Northeast Louisiana Celtic Festival. You can see a photo of our band on this link http://nelacelticfest.org/ (go to performers). I would be the one with the Confederate cap on and playing guitar. Tom McCandlish plays the bodhran and is the lead singer, and his beautiful wife Mary plays the fiddle. We’ve really built quite a song list, and I’ve written a couple of originals. I hope to expand that list of originals. In addition to Scots-Irish music, we can also do a Confederate Civil War music show. Write me if you’d like more information about the band.

Sometimes I think my gifted students need a boost. Like other kids their age, they struggle with image at times. I wrote this nonsense poem as a performance piece to try to cheer them up. It worked! They laughed and had a grand time over it. Yet, as you know, there’s always some truth in humor. Next entry will be on my reading and signing I had at the Ouachita Library last night.

The few, the ignored, the under-funded,
The neglected, the ones administrators know
Will pass the standardized tests,
We are the gifted.
Someday, we nerds will rule the world
We’ll have the last laugh,
We’ll receive the accolades, the money,
We’ll be the employers who will chuckle
When the underachievers of today
struggle to read their employment form.
Yes, we are the gifted, the brightest,
The best of the best!
Don’t you dare lump with the rest.
We’re the creators, the problem solvers,
The scientists who find the cure,
The geniuses who win jeopardy,
The tricksters who you should fear
Because we’re smart enough to not get caught.
We are the gifted.

The first week of school—you think you’re ready for it, but you never are. At least in my district, Morehouse Parish in Northeast Louisiana. This year the disorganization seems worse than usual—not enough desks, student schedule problems, room needs (like Internet hookup and enough electric plugs and air conditioner not working). My students have, to their credit, been well behaved, but 4 of my 6 classes are large, and the other two are my gifted students. Administrators, looking only at numbers, have once again cheated the brightest kids in our school by combining ENG I and II in one class, and ENFG III and IV in another. This amounts in teacher lingo to 6 different preps for lesson plans. Administrators must assume that any class below 20 is an easy class.

As you probably know, Gifted kids have IEP’s, thus each student is to be worked with individually, but with such an arrangement, it is very difficult to do so. I am gifted and AP certified, but even with my massive brain and problem solving tendencies, I’m going to have serious difficulties serving the gifted kids like I should and want to. I don’t know what they were thinking by such an arrangement. It’s like teaching summer school—for a whole year. If I sound frustrated, you are quite right. I must do some research on this topic. Why can’t academics receive the attention that football gets in our district? Don’t they want/see how important the gifted kids are and will be?

Probably not. But I do.