When is Jealousy OK?

Another Dad-conversation that started with a good question, and requires me to put into words something that I haven't thought of explicitly in a long time.

My son was wrestling a bit with the idea that God is a jealous God, and that he does things for his own glory. Why is this, he asked...it seems that is selfish and bad. When we act like that, it's not OK. Why is it OK for God?




My answer went something like this:

God is the only one that is actually worthy of praise. It's right for Him to be jealous.

When any human is jealous, or out for his/her own glory, it is inappropriate and selfish and wrong... because sin is involved. We are generally out for our own glory, fame, and selfish desires.

God, however, is out for our good. He is not selfish, even though that seems contradictory when using the word jealous. His love is perfect. His thoughts are perfect. He knows us, (he made us) and knows that we will be more happy, fulfilled, and content when our allegiance is not divided between Him and someone or something else.

I know that's a simple answer for something that will take many more years for even me to fully understand and experience, but it's a good start to the conversation about how we are different than God, and how a relationship with Him works.

A 41-year career comes to a close

My dad's retiring this year. This Friday is his last day as a teacher in Dinuba Unified School District.

I didn't think I would feel much when my dad retired, but it's hitting me in a weird way - positive, but strange. He has said that he is similarly surprised about the experience. He is not usually comfortable with long, lingering goodbyes, but with his retirement, he's told me, he's enjoyed some significant moment with many of his colleagues.

A friend and fellow teacher and volleyball official, Craig Tomlinson, put together this collage for him. It is really remarkable to see pictures from so many yearbooks, and images that capture his personality and style all put together like this.

I'm proud of ya, Dad! You inspire me!



Update:

Maybe this better-resolution photo of the collage is easier to enjoy...

Percy Jackson's got NOTHING on MY God!

Raising kids is amazing. It's a confusing, exhausting, joyous, incredible adventure.
We make it up as we go along, which is hard to understand and appreciate when you're the kid.

The other day, my faith, my love for my sons, and my love of books all came together in a great way.

(I understand that this could be another example of showing you the good parts of my life, and none of the bad. Kind of like Facebook can be, showing only the "highlight reel", and not the "behind the scenes" footage. There are plenty of "behind the scenes" incidents in my house, just like yours...)

I have read several of the Rick Riordan books, because my 4th grade students, and my 5th grade son, are all very interested in them. You might know the movies "Lightning Thief" and "Sea of Monsters". He has read them, too. The basic concept of those books is that the Greek gods are real, and the main characters are caught up in the quests and the conflict between the mythological characters. They're very good. Very entertaining. I recommend them, even to adults.

My 11 year old and I were reading a Bible devotional together, and so the following is what I wrote to him:

I just read Day 35, about super powers.
Again, I'm struck by the contrast between what our God is like, and what the Greek gods were like.
They had specific powers, different from each other.
They had rivalries between each other.
They were immature, selfish, un-dependable, and scary.
Etc
(Not sure why I'm saying "had"... as if they actually existed at some point. Maybe because the sincere belief in them was real many years ago.)

Our God is all-powerful.He is the source of all power, all prophesy, all "magic", all creation, all healing, all protection, and everything good.
AAAAAAAAAND.....
He is GOOD!!!!!!!!!
Ultimate, eternal power, AND ultimate, eternal GOOD.Makes me want to go to church and worship today!
I love you, son.
I hope and pray that you grow in awe and love of our great God.
Dad

This was on a Sunday morning, and I was looking forward to worshipping at church...worshipping this God that is all-powerful, and yet loves me and has nothing but the best in store for me.

This let to a really cool conversation. Although he wasn't terribly wordy or eloquent this particular time, this is part of some incredible conversations we've been having.

CCSS-Uninformed haters should get on the train

I just saw the trailer for http://www.commoncoremovie.com/ and was disappointed. First of all, the trailer was not clear on what their actual point was. Just a vague "common core is bad" message that was kind of all over the place. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are a good thing, and will force us to teach the way students actually learn, and prepare them for tasks that they will actually face in the real world.
Here are my more extended thoughts:

Who is the intended audience for this movie/trailer? Just people who are already ticked off about what they THINK the CCSS means, and are, and will remain, uneducated about the truth about how the CCSS were developed.

Should public school have as much power as it does?

No

Is this a "federal" thing?

No, no, no, no, no. All you people that think that states should have their own standards, of that education should be decentralized don't know what you're talking about. States had their own standards since (in CA's case) 1997. They weren't good. There were lots of problems with them.

Are standards at all something that should be looked at seriously?

Yes. There's a valid conversation, here. However, the conclusion, by people truly thinking about practicalities, not just political talking points, will be that standards are good. Students that move between schools, districts, or states, will still get a quality education that won't have holes. Teachers will have guidance as to what to teach at what grade level. This is a practical, helpful thing. And if the standards are written in an intelligent way, which the CCSS are, then this is a good thing, a practical thing, a helpful thing.

Is the assessment system totally disfunctional?

Yes. Way too much punishment and fear, and not enough understanding about how it affects daily teaching and learning in a negative way. Many people not involved in education seem to think that since they were in school once, they can talk with authority about education. These people seem to champion "reforms" that put more and more pressure on teachers and students. This kind of pressure has led to "No Child Left Behind" and lots of disfunctional things in the public school system. 

CCSS is wonderful. It will challenge me and other teachers to think more deeply about what our students truly need to function in the real world, and not just teaching to a test that is way too divided into discrete skills...skills that are necessarily tied together in every reading experience. The progression between grade levels is incredibly well thought-out and logical.

As far as I can tell right now, the assessment is much wiser and reasonable. It is not just one big test at the end of the year that we all stress out over and try to make practice tests that mimic it; we will give CCSS tests several times during the year, and students will get test results that asses what grade level they are functioning at...this is another testament to how well the standards progress from one another between grade levels.

The roll-out of it all has been, to say the least, awkward. 1. Standards 2. Textbooks 3. Assessments. These should have all come out at the same time. At least make it so that teachers aren't having to scramble to create CCSS-compatible materials with no new textbooks available. Having the assessments available so that we could see what these standards actually look like when students take the test would have been helpful. However, now that the transition is much closer to being complete, I am very, very hopeful that this is gong to be a good change, once we all adjust.

It is unfortunate that so many people on Facebook, other social media, and the web seem to be blasting Common Core, when they don't know what they're talking about. If they have issues with public school, that's a valid conversation. If they have issues with how the CCSS were agreed to, then in most cases, they just need to read up and educate themselves about how this change began. In almost all cases, those that are now blasting CCSS are very, very late to the party. To actually make a difference, criticism and objections to this should have been raised at least 3 years ago. This train has left the station.

And it's a good train. It's going somewhere worth going.