Is It Lying?

Question of the day: Is it wrong to mislead students in an effort to inspire them to achieve?

Scenario in question: I recently had my U.S. History students watch a video about the Civil War and then write an essay analyzing it as a tool to teach one about the Civil War. In other words, they could watch something like Glory (that was one of the movie choices), research its accuracy, then explain whether the film would be effective in teaching about the period. Right before passing back the essays, I showed students a sample essay on the overhead projector and critiqued it as I read it. I assured students that the author had given me permission to read it, but did not say who wrote it. I am careful not to say "The student who wrote this" but rather say "The person who wrote this" or "The author of this essay has given me permission to use it."

The essay was very well written, with only a few minor mistakes. It was a great model to show students what constitutes good writing. This is the kind of thing many of them need to see, as they tend to be lacking in the area of writing. The hope is that they will see good writing, note the kinds of things their current writing lacks, and work on making changes to improve. So what's the catch? I wrote the essay. Yup, I concocted it two years ago as a model of the types of things that should be done in a good piece of writing. I neglect to let my students know it was not written by one of them. Is this wrong? Is this a deception that is going over the edge? I hope not. I will not lie to students if they ask me who wrote it, or insist that it was really a student who wrote it. If they press for details, or are suspicious about its authenticity, I just tell them I will not give away any more information on the author, except to say that I have their permission to use it (I can give myself permission after all, can't I?).

So what say you? Is this kind of leaving out all the details about authorship acceptable, or sinful? :-)

Anniversaries and Taxes

In my most recent news, I'm very busy these days. Could you have figured that out? I just finished acting in one show, I'm directing another this week, and I'll probably have a week off next week before starting in on another one.

In other news, I recently celebrated the one year anniversary on moving into my condo. Hooray! God is good. I still love living here and all that.

Though still "basking" in the anniversary glow, I received my new property tax bill today. Gulp. I got news that my taxes went up about 30 percent. Yup, you read it right. 30 percent! How crazy is that?

So I will crunch numbers in my budget, and drink less DD coffee, in hopes that I'll be able to pay the bill. On second thought, forget that, I can't stop the coffee habit when working on short nights of sleep and long days... But maybe next week...

We Shall Overcome

It occurs to me that the strength of Christians ought to be and is their resiliency. This goes back to the early centuries, when there were sporadic efforts by the Romans to eradicate a religion they thought was impious because it refused to condone civic duty which involved offering sacrifices to the emperor. Romans killed Christians, but they didn't go away. In fact, they grew stronger through adversity, at least if the church "father" Tertullian is correct: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church."

I think the ability to persevere no matter how dark things look or will get is a trademark of Christians today. You pray one way, and things go the other. You ask for deliverance from accident, and you get into one. You ask for healing, and you stay sick. You pray for the Red Sox to win the world series, and they don't. You pray for ___ to be elected senator, and she isn't. Ought these things get us depressed? Naturally speaking, they could. But I'm thankful that God happens to be supernatural, bigger than circumstances and events that could tend to depress. We press on. Is God dead? I think not. Since He isn't, one must conclude that prayers are not unanswered, and circumstances are not out of His control. When our enemies would like to shout in triumph over us is the best time to show who we are and what we believe. Chins up, comrades, we know who wins.