A few short notes:

– What I’m Listening To:

Zion, “Zun Da Da”
Babyface, “Wonderful Tonight” (originally by Eric Clapton)
Juan Luis Guerra, “El Niagra en Bicicleta”

– I was getting my students in line when some conversation came up about candy between me and the kids in the front. Each of the students said a piece of candy they liked. Then one of them says, “I know what I like to eat, Mr. Vilson. I like to eat women!” I literally stopped, gave him one of these:

  and

I had to turn around so they didn’t have to see my tears going up the stairs. I’m not sure if he knows what he was saying, so I really didn’t reprimand him for that. In other arenas, I’ve been known to say things like that too.

– A third of my student population either has relatives I’ve taught or know, or they look like people I’ve taught or know. I feel like Jose Arcadio Buendia in 100 Years of Solitude. If you don’t know anything about that book, get familiar.

– PostSecret: This postsecret still freaks me out.

– Sexy sexy. I love suggestive pictures.

– Much of my reading consists of blogs that highlight the negative aspects of life in the hopes that someone will hear us out and change what’s going on. Yet, if we don’t concentrate on the positive, we lack balance. I love getting enthralled in political discussion as much as the next person, but those discussions often become murky. Education can’t be all bad right? Right …

– “The Screamer and me” by Jose Vilson

Shorty wop with a fro dome
Rising 2 inches above his 4.5 foot frame
Basketball dreams
Chipped tooth gap
Smooth and cute smile
Pistol full of bullets that he is
Before my fingers rub together
Airing out that snap
He does just that
Screeching expletives and semi-curses
To the ceiling, to the next student, to the heavens
G_d’s cursed his family
His mother’s in and out of the hospital
He yells for attention, and he’ll get it by any means
He’s the least conspicuous, the most dangerous
His rage a decade his senior
The legacy of negativity from the educational system
Falls once again on him,
And he revels in the inevitability
He meets me with the same devious tricks
I meet him with water
I call out his soul when the body ramparts his sensitivities
He’s rejected everywhere he goes
His home is torn
But he’s too blind to see the home I’ve made
He’s never been approved of
But I bother him until he gets to the next class
He screams “Oh my G_d!”
And G_d answers with my patience …

jose, who’s always willing to discuss topics people feed to him, too ;-) …