Bad news:

I am getting stomach ulcers thinking about Kerry being our next president. Whatever you think about Bush, you have to recognize the fact that Kerry will push hard for “pro-choice” (i.e baby sacrifice) legislation, appoint activist judges (this is what scares me the most), penalize you for doing anything that promotes the privatization of your finances, pave the way for gay marriages in the future, pave the way for hate speech legislation that will forbid Christiand from talking like Christians, and try to show the “intolerance” of “right wing ideology.” Kerry thinks BUSH is a right wing idealogue. What does that mean for the rest of the conservative Christians?

I’m not going to say that Bush is some great president. I hardly think that’s true. But he has allowed the faithful to be faithful without government hassling.

And that’s what it really comes down to for me. Which candidate will let the Church build itself up with as little governmental interfering as possible.

Good news:

The enrollment in my classes is going down, but not because I have poor retention rates. My students are simply learning enough about writing to clep the course. I didn’t realize this was happening until I talked to a student today.

Almost all the students that have taken the CLEP in my classes have stayed in the class because they have learned so much. I didn’t realize my enrollment was officially going down because the students weren’t telling me they clepped the course.

If you make a 28 or higher on the English portion of the ACT and a 25 composite, you automatically clep the course. These students are obviously in my course because they didn’t clep automatically.

When I talked to a student today, I asked him why he clepped. He said that his dad found out that my class was more than all the work of his other classes combined, so he gave him $70 and told him to try to clep it. Well, he clepped this course and the next course. And I know of at least five other students that have done this.

Here’s the odd thing: they’re staying in my course. I would have never done that, but they actually think they’re learning.

Here’s the other odd thing: I have taught less than 15 minutes of grammar ALL SEMESTER. I have very unorthodox methods of teaching that focus of group projects, peer review, discussion, and one on one counseling. I don’t lecture.

I’ve always read from the top scholars that this is the way to teach, but most teachers are really skeptical of it. This is my fourth year teaching at the college level, and it works better every year.

One of the greatest things about it is that this is how I was taught at grad school here at ULM. This is a really cutting edge place to be when it comes to English, and I simply love being able to be unorthodox. Actually, I’m “teaching” right now. Well, okay, I dismissed my class for the week, and we’re meeting in small groups in the computer lab to do research.

Why am I telling you all this? Like you care! I’m just peppy.