What a day.

Today I feel like I have been labeled. One of my assignments in my off-period is to make copies of lessons/activities for the homeroom teachers about civic duty, responsibility, self-worth, etc, etc. I did as such. One of my activities explained how words hurt even if we don't necess. mean them...that we need to account for and accept all differences, everyone has something to bring to the table, yada yada. It just so happened that one of the examples the book of activities gave was, it is slang for kids to say " this is so gay!"...in a derrogatory sort of way. I'll admit that at one time I was one of those kids. It was slang. The point was, there will be someone in your class that *is* gay, statistically, and so that kind of statement would be offensive. It's just rude anyway even if you aren't of that persuasion. It was just example...pointing something out.

Well, the principal and I received many a confused and alarmed email stating that the subject of homosexuality had no place in school. The consensus was that we were trying to put on a gay-pride parade or something...but if they would have read the lesson objectively ( or at least in full and not have the word "gay" stick out ), they woulda gotten the point. So that lesson got thrown out. And the being respectful to gay people wasn't even the whole of the main idea.

So I feel like others think that I'm trying to force beliefs on them and that's not it at all....I just thought it was a good lesson. But I guess our 14 year olds " can't handle it". I guess some of their points are valid; the maturity level of the average 2005 14-yr old......well we won't go there. But seriously, there were some panties in wads over this silly little thing. I have no political agenda as a first year teacher. I don't want to stand out right now. I just want a valid teaching certificate, my paycheck, and maybe teach some kids in the process.

But man, I have definitely stepped out of my liberal-arts college bubble. This would not be an issue north of the Mason-Dixon.

" As we hang our heads and pray for Jesusland..." - Ben Folds

Moving on! I dabbled in some self-surgery today. For as long as I can remember, I've had this...thing on my eye. When it started getting bigger I asked my physician about it...worried it was some kind of cancer. He said it wasn't, but he said he couldn't remove it because it was too close to my eye. All summer I tried to get a dermatologist appt to find out what the hell it was. Dermatologists are wily creatures and don't take new patients. Well, today, I noticed it was obstructing my line of sight, and that was the last straw. I researched what it was, and aparently I had a dermoid cyst, right in the corner of my eye. This is a benign tumor. After finding out that by trying to remove it I wouldn't be like, blinding myself, I took to carefully digging it out with a sterile yarn darner ( that's a needle ), numbing the skin only with an ice cube. Surgery was successful but gross. Hopefully there will be no scar. ( But a scar would be less noticeable).

I don't know why I thought I should write about that, but I guess I feel triumphant that my dermoid cyst that I have had since as long as I could remember is now gone.

And so now Trevor can't make fun of me. At least not for that. Ha ha.