HOT HOT HOT

When was the last time it was hotter in Laguna Beach than in Palm Springs?

I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that we are having a severe heat wave--the temperature is breaking records in every southern California community.

The weather folks claim it will begin to cool some tomorrow. It is three days from October and summer is commanding some blatant attention.

It's LATE! Ugh -- but I've had a good and productive Monday. I have all papers graded to return to students tomorrow, (still need to grade Thursday students' papers). I attended a fairly exciting meeting on the campus this afternoon, and I've just concluded a lively chat room discussion in my office hour with a student who can't seem to locate a main point in an article that has been assigned in a summary project.

I am amazed appalled that students cannot locate a main point when they read. This particular article is a short six paragraphs. The author uses the word "book" "books" "novel" or "novelist" a dozen times. It is fairly obvious that the article is about "books." Many of the students who enroll in my basic composition class can't seem to recognize that this author's main point is that reading books is important.

My students get very frustrated that they can't find the main point. Then they get mad at me because they need someone to blame because they cannot do this task.

I am hoping soon to see the new movie Waiting for Superman. I don't want to get into a debate about unions or charter schools. What I want is to see the kids in our country receive an education.

I'm not so sure about rewarding or blaming teachers. I know we have good teachers and we have bad teachers. I think the spotlight ought to be put on the "home" -- the place where kids spend the majority of their time. The number one teacher in a child's life is his or her parent.

Teachers can't do their job if parents aren't doing theirs. I've been preaching teaching to my college students for 20 years "the need to read." If every student in every home were reading aloud every night -- okay even 4 out of 7 nights, we'd have a better educated youth population in our nation (for that matter in the world).

If you have a student living in your home, please have him or her read aloud to you. Start today. A children's librarian at the local library can recommend some fabulous books that kids will thoroughly enjoy reading to you.

I'm sorry. I needed to vent.

Good night from a very HOT Southern California.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol