One woman, One man

Today I sent the following e-mail to Utah Senator Orrin Hatch:

"Dear Mr. Hatch,

I am aware that soon you will be called upon to help decide if marriage can be defined as solely between one man and one woman. I strongly urge you to support such a concept.

Please do all that you can do to support those traditional marital values that have maintained stability in our society for centuries.

Please also do all that you can do to make sure that homosexual marriages are NOT given legal or economic approval.

Although I do not consider myself homophobic, I am outspokenly against homosexuality. Aside from Biblical accounts that condemn the practice as offensive to God, homosexuality is clearly a cancer that is eating away at the basic family traditions of America. If allowed to further inch its foot in the door of social acceptance, homosexuality will corrode our society even further. It goes against nature. It confuses sexual identity. It does not allow the human race to thrive and propogate. It spreads disease.

As a side note, I am a Republican delegate here in West Jordan, and voted for you at the last Republican Convention in Sandy. (Congratulations, by the way.) I voted for you because I trust you, your character, and your wisdom.

Thank you for all the work you have done in behalf of the state of Utah over the years. I respect you tremendously.

Sincerely,
Tim Brooks"

Politics; and Mark Cuban

This Saturday I'll be attending the delegates Republican convention at the South Towne Expo Center.

My choices are John Jacob (http://www.electjohnjacob.com/2.0/), Chris Cannon (http://www.chriscannon.com/), or Merrill Cook (http://www.merrillcookforcongress.com/).

I have perused all three men's web sites, and I'm planning on voting for John Jacob. He is conservative, God-fearing, pro-second amendment, pro-Ronald Reagan, pro-local government (as opposed to federal government) and gives sound, Founding-Father-based values. I like what I read.

As a thirty-something father in the thick of child rearing and career, it is very difficult to find, or make, the time to healthily and adequately involve myself in politics as I would like. I feel under-read and under-studied on the issues, but that is not from a lack of desire.

I care about the issues. I do care about what happens in my community and country. I want to make my voice heard, as opposed to being silently complacent while the passionately liberal minority makes the decisions. I do not want what I consider unhealthily aberrant or liberal views to dominate society.

Changing gears now....

As a fun note, Mark Cuban (owner of the Dallas Mavericks) has an insightful, entertaining, even hilarious blog: http://www.blogmaverick.com/. You'll get a kick out of it. Articles of interest:

"I'm a whiner" (http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000210073685) and

"How to Improve NBA Playoff Officiating" (http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000970073680).

Happy reading!

Meeting Elder Oaks

Today a very special experience happened to Karin and me. It seemed that today’s events pointed us to be in a special place at a special time.

This afternoon we went to the Jordan River temple. Our plan was to have dinner downstairs in their cafeteria then go do sealings. Unfortunately, when we arrived we came to find out that the cafeteria did not take credit cards, and we had only brought a credit card. (Strike one.) Knowing that my pregnant wife was hungry, I asked her what she would like to do. She replied that she was OK enough just to go up and do the sealings. So we went up to do sealings. It was then about 4:30 PM.

When we got to the sealing office, the workers there told us that there wouldn’t be more sealings done until 6:00 PM. (Strike two.) Karin and I looked at each other. We were unsure what to do, especially since my pregnant wife was stiff, sore and hungry. We decided to go through an endowment session. So we went back downstairs, changed back into our temple whites, and went up to the chapel.

When we arrived at the chapel, there were about a dozen people in the pews. One of them was Elder Dallin H. Oaks. He was seated by himself. I whispered to Karin that it was him, and at first she wasn’t so sure. I assured her that it was him. After a few minutes, a worker motioned to our group that it was time to go to the endowment session. Everybody stood except Elder Oaks, who was obviously waiting for his wife, so we left without them. Karin and I were the last two to leave the chapel.

When we arrived at the endowment room, Elder Oaks and his wife, who had just arrived, sneaked in and sat down beside us. As Karin and I were the last two to enter the room, the vacant seats for Elder Oaks and his wife were by Karin and me. Elder Oaks sat down, said “Hi” (not hello) to me, and shook my hand. Afterwards I patted his back. I was so excited to be seated next to him!

Long story short: we rubbed elbows with them for an hour and a half! It was awesome! I could hardly concentrate, and I definitely didn’t doze off when the lights dimmed.

My thoughts raced throughout the session. I thought of my own personal worthiness. I thought of the talks of his that I remembered. I wanted to thank him for being such a good example. I wanted to thank him for his talks on preparation for the Second Coming, and how to be a good teacher, and hymn singing, and the Joseph Smith Symposium at the Library of Congress speech. I thought better of our situation and kept silent but grateful.

At the end of the session, I leaned over to him and whispered, “This has been very special for me. Thank you.”

He replied something along the lines of, “It’s been great to be here with you.”

This was a one-in-a-million experience, to be so near to an Apostle. I haven’t had something like this happen to me since Nyman Brooks’ wedding when we sat at the same table with Elder Maxwell and his wife.

Things I noticed about Elder Oaks:
* He wears his watch with the face on the inside of his wrist.
* He is well groomed and nice.
* His temple clothing is just like our temple clothing.
* He is a regular man --- a good, divinely called, inspired, good man.
* He is an Apostle of Jesus Christ. He has had incredible spiritual experiences with Deity.

This was an exciting, memorable, spiritually rejuvenating experience!

Spewing on education

It's been a LONG time since I last blogged, and my fingers are gettin' itchy to type a bit more. I haven't been into blogging for the last month, because for one reason or another I have been swamped with life. The more important things have occupied my time and attention.

In addition, there hasn't been much to say about my life in the way of crises. Life has been good for us lately, and if I were to complain I'd be an ingrate and a wart.

I have now been teaching at West Jordan Middle School since 1995. I am about to conclude my 11th year. This year has been a unique one, and I daresay that over the summer there will be huge changes occurring in our school and perhaps throughout Jordan School District.

* Reason #1: The district has limited retirement benefits to employees, effective at the end of this school year. As a result, many, many teachers are opting to retire, and numerous others are transferring out.

* Reason #2: The school climate among WJMS' teachers this year has been particularly grumpy, with an enmity between teachers and administrators. We're not on the same page. There has been a lot of gossip and grumbling, and several teachers are seeking reassignment because of this.

Long story short: At a mere 11 years of teaching experience, next year I will be one of the veterans at our school. The turnover rate over this summer will be about as high as I can remember ever. It also means we will have numerous young teachers at our school. Experienced teachers are leaving.

This might not seem like much to you, but to us in the profession it's huge. Imagine if the medical profession had a mass exodus over the summer and next year the hospitals were stocked with only limited-experience physicians and interns. Yeah, it's still medicine, but you know that there'd be a lot of problems.

There is a lot of bad occurring in our schools and in education in general, and not just money wise. While Utah is still tops in the nation in graduation percentage and test scores, it's not because of the teachers. It's because of parent support! You, the parents, are the #1 reason why your child succeeds or fails in school. As an example, I like to draw two different scenarios.

Scenario #1: An eighth grade girl has a supportive family. Her parents have firm but fair guidelines and expectations, read with her, and expect her to succeed academically. Whenever she shows signs of slacking, they step in: privileges revoked, teacher contact, or whatever it takes. They make it perfectly clear that education is important.

Now, let's say girl #1 has an extremely lazy history teacher. On the first day of school, Mr. Lazy hands her a textbook and, in essence, instructs her to study the entire textbook and do X amount of exercises from it per day. He will only tell her this once, and expect ALL work to be completed on the last day of school, when she will also be tested. For the next nine months he won't teach her anything. I can guarantee you that by the end of the year, with her supportive parents, she will have completed all exercises and passed the test with flying colors.

Secenario #2: An eighth grade girl with an indifferent family. Her parents both work, complain about being tired all the time, couldn't care less about school, hated it themselves, and view it as government-supplied day care. They never ask her about her homework, don't show up to parent teacher conference, and never check the school's web site where her grades are posted. If a parent ever calls, they might not even return the call.

Now, let's say girl #2 has an extremely proactive, organized, high-level history teacher. On the first day of school, Mr. Proactive Teacher greets her warmly, gives her individualized instruction as necessary, maps things out, keeps grades updated, has scheduled conference time available, invites her to work, uses incentive programs, sends home progress letters, gives her supplies for free, etc. etc. etc. In other words, he breaks his back for her. I can guarantee you that, regardless of how awesome a teacher he is, she will still fail 999 times out of 1000 ---- all because of lacking parental support.

As you can see, in either case it wasn't the teacher who was the deciding factor. It was the parent! You are the key!

While I'm on this soapbox, I'd like to give two suggestions to those of you who are parents, and whose children are or will soon be teenagers:

1) Read with them every day! Especially you fathers. It makes a gigantic difference in their ability to succeed academically. They think better. They understand better. They solve problems better. School is easier for them.

2) Check their grades, with them by your side, on a regular basis. Don't believe them when they say they don't have any homework! It's a lie!

There is so much evil in the public schools: sex, swearing, sarcasm, drugs, disrespect, gangs, ... you name it. However, there is reason to hope when parents are heavily involved in their kids' lives, because those kids make it. They do. I've seen it every year as a middle school teacher. Kids with a secure home life, structure (which is love), accountability, dinner at home, etc. make it. Like a duck in water, they seem to impervious to the evil that often surrounds them.

As a final note, I encourage you to check out www.aft.org. Click on salary surveys.