Swag Bags, Teachers and Entertainers

Today my daughter shared with me something I thought very interesting, yet incredibly sad...at least from my point of view. Some of you may remember comedian Rodney Dangerfield - the man who got no respect. That was his tag line. Most of his jokes had to do with how he never got respect in any given situation. He was quite humorous.

Well, in my estimation, teachers truly get no respect when it comes to the value of their place in our society given the scope of the work they are called to do. And it's not funny at all. It has always frustrated me to no end that we place more value on sports and athletics and the people, companies, and entities that support and promote them than the men and women who scrounge to get by, work endless hours, give up countless luxuries and make all kinds of sacrifices in their personal lives to make sure that all those people and everyone else can read, write and figure out how to add up their pay checks, i.e. teachers. Don't get me started on the disparity between teachers and the sports industry!

One of my daughter's colleagues won an award for teaching. The teacher was given a small sum of money and the school received a check and all the teachers in the school received "swag bags." Each bag held a mug, a pencil, a note pad and so on. Of course everyone was delighted with the unexpected gift. I'm sure it was a much needed lift to these folks who have really been through the mill this year with curriculum changes, pay cuts due to alleged misappropriation of funds and the economy, lay offs, larger class sizes, lack of supplies and books (one book to teach an entire 5th grade class? Seriously.)....the list goes on. So getting a cup and a pen is probably a bright spot in an otherwise stressful and frustrating day.

Meanwhile, one of my daughter's friends attended an affair in the entertainment industry and that person also received a "swag bag." Let's just start with the $300 earphone set. We can end with that too. Of course the bags were filled with a plethora of other not quite as expensive items. This affair was to honor those in the music industry, many who write about .... well, I don't use that language and certainly won't include it here. Let's just say, folks like myself consider it all ridiculously inappropriate. And would they please stop giving God the glory for being successful at writing such sexually explicit filth and otherwise insidiously demoralizing crap!

Certainly there are some great songs out there and I know what goes into writing a song....I've composed my share of them. It's wonderful that these folks get honored and showered with gifts for their work, but hey people, when are we going to start doing as much for our teachers? Could we at least go a little over and above the usual? Don't they deserve some red carpet treatment? Shouldn't they be getting "swag bags" at the beginning and/or end of every school year?

People like to say that the children are our future. Now, picture a future without teachers. What kind of a future does anybody have? Good teachers are those who understand that their work is a calling. They show up. Physically, mentally and spiritually. They care about the kids. They love watching the lights come on in those little eyes when the kid finally "gets it" or when some obstacle has been overcome. They try to work with parents to understand what's happening in the child's life. They give of themselves to make a difference and they work hard to build a firm foundation on which a future of endless possibilities can be built. I submit that good teachers are national treasures. They are to be honored and respected and given the place in our society that they deserve.

There are bad teachers out there, certainly. But there are bad athletes, bad singers, bad actors but they still get the bling and the hefty paychecks and the adoration of faithful fans excusing their indiscretions; good and bad ones entertain us, but do they prepare us to fill out job applications? pay the rent? read the label on the medicine bottles? Even a bad teacher will do that much. Anyway, we find ways to deal with bad teachers. The question is, how do we honor the good ones? Certainly we need to do better than a mug, a pencil and a note pad.


When I think about the importance of our teachers to the future of our county and to the world in general, I can't help but believe they really need to be among the highest paid of the nation's working stiffs. Their job is vital to our national security - a heck of a lot more important than tossing a ball around or acting or halfway singing a song about diddling or getting diddled. Our teachers are worth a heck of a lot more than a mug, a pencil and a note pad. It's high time we do something to let them know how truly important they are. If we can spend hundreds of dollars on a season ticket, certainly we can do a little something for those who teach our kids to read the souvenir programs for the games.

All Saints meet NaNoWriMo

November first is All Saints Day. I never quite knew what that was because I'm not Catholic, although I have many Catholic friends and growing up I always thought how fortunate they were to have no school the day after Halloween. The public school kids would trudge off to school working through the sugar hangovers from the night before and the Catholic kids got to stay home and finish off their bags of candy or sleep in and sleep off the sugar high.

Those were the days! We didn't worry about our candy being contaminated or tampered with. Word got around quick as to which neighbor was giving out the best treats. Our biggest concern were the bag snatchers, older kids who would come up behind unsuspecting young ones and steal their stash. And the bags we had back then! Not the fancy schmancy things kids tote around these days. We had brown paper bags and pillow cases. Some kids were lucky and had the little plastic pumpkins with handles but most kids made due with what ever they could come up with.

We'd come home with tons of candy, sort it out, trade with siblings or friends, eat our selves silly and maybe save some for later. And of course the public school kids had to go to bed early if November 1 fell on a school day so our sugar intake was limited.

That was then, and now today, November 1st holds a new meaning for me. This is the first day of NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. This is the day I started my first real novel. I'm not going to write much about it today, only to say that I must write 50,000 words by the end of the month. I believe I'm off to a decent start since I've written almost 4,000  words so far.

I'm amazed at how this project is going and how my mind is sifting through things gathering material for the novel. It's an interesting process. I get to be participant and observer at the same time. Everything I encounter goes into my mind and gets examined for whatever pieces may be used in the story. Images get expanded upon and stored for later use. Phrases get scrutinized for their applicability to certain dialog. Ideas get morphed into usable scenes. It's all coming together bit by bit. I'm almost 10% done. It's a very good feeling!