Chapel Lesson: Exploring God’s Creation

27 October 202326 October 2023 The Portly Politico1 Comment

My school’s chaplain—a truly amazing man of God—is struggling in the hospital as I write these words. Please lift Father Jason Hamshaw up in your prayers, dear readers. I do not know the nature of his affliction, but the last I heard, he was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), which never bodes well. He is a relatively young man, and a loving husband and father. One of his sons is a student here at my school. Pray, and pray hard.

Because he is in the hospital, I was asked to deliver the chapel lesson/devotional/homily the morning of Thursday, 26 October 2023. Here is the devotional I wrote, with a huge debt of gratitude to The Daily Encouraging Word, which I substantially adapted and modified for this lesson:

More Quiz Bowlin’

20 October 202319 October 2023 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

October brings with it so many things that I love—cooler weather, cozy nights, quiet mornings, Halloween—but there’s something else: quiz bowl.

I participated in quiz bowl (we called it “Academic Team” in the public schools) back in middle and high schools, and I coached my school’s High School Quiz Bowl team for many years. I’ve handed that responsibility off to another teacher, but I still moderate tournaments from time to time, which is fun.

I wrote about quiz bowl back in October 2021; for a full rundown on how the game is played and what it is like, read “Quiz Bowlin’” before proceeding with this post. It will provide much more context.

Earlier this week, I moderated the South Carolina Independent School (SCISA) Middle School Quiz Bowl Tournament. It consisted of several “regional” pools of competing schools, with winners proceeding to two semi-final pools. Two semi-finalists and a wildcard team (based on total points scored) then competed in the finals.

TBT: Chapel Lesson: Listening

31 August 20235 August 2023 The Portly Politico1 Comment

School’s back, and that means Chapel on Thursdays! Today is one of the first chapels of the school year. I always enjoy hearing the short little devotionals from our chaplain, and they’re quite beneficial for those students who choose to take them to heart.

There was a small chance that I might be asked to serve as chaplain this year—quite a responsibility!—but the school obtained someone more qualified for the job (in other words, someone with an actual degree in theology and practical experience in ministry). I imagine I will still be called upon, at times, to provide a short homily or lesson when the new guy is absent.

Regardless, it seemed like an excellent time to look back at this little message I delivered to our students last year. Listening is hard, and it’s even harder when we’re constantly engulfed in noise. That makes it particularly hard to listen to God’s Still, Small Voice, much less the much louder voices of people around us.

With that, here is 30 August 2022’s “Chapel Lesson: Listening“:

Monday Morning Movie Review: Back to School (1986)

28 August 20235 August 2023 The Portly Politico3 Comments

As readers are doubtlessly tired of reading, classes at my school resumed last Wednesday, 16 August 2023. Today marks the first full week of classes, which means that we’ll all be settling into a typical school year routine quite soon.

Modern education, like any institution, creates its own culture, complete with its own rituals, milestones, rites of passage, “canon events,” and the like. These are all quite familiar to anyone who has attended a public or private school in the United States (and I imagine my British readers have similar milestones): surviving exam week; reciting the Pledge of Allegiance; finding your table in the cafeteria; attending the dance; celebrating homecoming; attending football games; buying back-to-school clothes and supplies; graduating; etc., etc. In the midst of these and other events, students (and teachers) live in, create, and adapt to an ever-changing school culture, the petite dramas—the successes and failures, the triumphs and tribulations—of their lives playing out amid hormones and deadlines.

Naturally, compulsory education provides many ripe fields for reaping and sowing narrative stories. Just a school year has its own rhythm and tempo, so do good stories follow certain “beats,” so it’s only natural that screenwriters find ample storytelling fodder in school. It’s also relatable, as virtually every American has, at one point or another, darkened the door of a classroom, and has enjoyed and/or endured the complicated thickets of modern education.

There are many excellent examples of films that deal with schooling. There are also many terrible ones, as anyone who ever watched melodramatic WB teen shows in the early 2000s can attest. Some of the real gems range from the dramatic—To Sir, with Love (1967)—to the ludicrously funny—Billy Madison (1995).

This week, I’m looking at one on the “ludicrously funny” end of the drama-to-comedy axis, but closer to “good, but not great” on the terrible-to-excellent axis: the 1986 Rodney Dangerfield vehicle Back to School.

TBT^16: Back to School with Richard Weaver

17 August 202326 July 2023 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

The 2023-2024 school year commenced yesterday, which brings to mind this annual tradition of mine: re-reading the introduction to Richard Weaver’s Ideas Have Consequences.

Unfortunately, I don’t always manage to dip back into this classic work every year, but I find that when I do, it helps to crystallize why it is I do what I do, and what is at stake. I’m under no illusion—as some teachers are!—that I can “save the world” or any such messianic nonsense. The crusading impulse that I possessed as a naïve young teacher is no longer there, beyond some vestigial bits of self-righteous fury that peak from behind the clouds of well-worn cynicism.

Still, we have much to be thankful for, even as the empire burns around us and the elites fiddle. Life is sweet; the opportunity for an education is a privilege and joy. I’m thankful to be a small part of that process.

With that, here is 25 August 2022’s “TBT^4: Back to School with Richard Weaver“:

School Resumes!

16 August 202327 July 2023 The Portly Politico6 Comments

Here we are—the first day of school! The 2023-2024 school year marks yours portly’s thirteenth consecutive year in the classroom (after returning to my current school in 2011), and my fourteenth year total (I taught at my current school in the 2008-2009 school year, before being unceremoniously dumped due to the privations of the Great Recession). It’s been a crazy ride.

I’m at that point in my teaching career where I can pretty much coast in terms of course prep and assessments. I’ve pretty much memorized American history (well, at least, the very limited survey of American history that I teach), and as anyone who reads this blog knows, I can wax poetic on pretty much any topic for hours (much to my students’ chagrin, I imagine). It’s a good place to be professionally.

Lazy Sunday CCXIV: D.C., Part II

6 August 202324 July 2023 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

I finally slapped together the concluding installments of my Washington, D.C. Trip series, which may or may not make it into a future collection of travel essays. Based on sales of Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Adventures, I’m not exactly hot to rush out another collection of such essays, but we’ll see after I have my book signing (rescheduled so I could deliver the baccalaureate sermon, but the date is still TBD), which should increase the book’s profile a smidge. I do, however, have an idea for my third book, and it’s going to be something completely different from either of the first two.

“SubscribeStar Saturday: Washington, D.C. Trip Part IV: Driving Miss Lindsey” (SubscribeStar) – We met our congressional representative, Congressman Russell Fry, and our senior Senator Lindsey Graham came sashaying over to say hi, too.
“SubscribeStar Saturday: Washington, D.C. Trip Part V: Elevator Shuffle” (SubscribeStar) – A bunch of kids got stuck on an elevator, and I scolded the wine moms on the trip.
“SubscribeStar Saturday: Washington, D.C. Trip Part VI: Arlington, Holocaust Museum, Home” (SubscribeStar) – A solemn last day in D.C., followed by another scolding of a wine mom. They’re as difficult as the kids!

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

SubscribeStar Saturday: Back-to-School Update 2023

5 August 202324 July 2023 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive. To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more. For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

Yours portly is not quite back to teaching just yet, but I am back to work. That means I’m entering into this odd period of quasi-work before the storm of the school year begins. It’s a kind of ramping up to the main event, but I’ve been teaching for so long, it feels a bit more like spinning my wheels.

Whatever the case, I’m no longer allowed to enjoy leisurely mornings, and have to be somewhere other than home during an arbitrary stretch of hours that another person dictates. In other words, I’m doing what everyone else does year-round.

With school looming, some of my projects and their output will slow down a bit, but I do have a few updates to share with subscribers, some of which will interest them greatly (or, at the very least, slightly), including my next book project idea.

To read the rest of this post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.

TBT^4: Back to the Grind 202[3]

3 August 202318 July 2023 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

All things must come to an end. That includes sleeping in, taking naps, and being well-rested.

Yes, it’s sad, but true: the endless freedom and fun of summer is over, at least for yours portly. Today, I am back at work.

I’ve noted before how the return date for teachers seems to inch earlier and earlier into August. Last year, we went back on 5 August 2022—a Friday. That seemed almost intentionally spiteful on the part of my administration: “nope, you’re not going to have one full week left with fun weekend plans; you need to sit through the employee handbook again.”

Now it’s 3 August 2023, a Thursday. That seems even more spiteful. Why not give us one last, full week?

Readers might say, “Hey, you’ve been off for eight weeks; why are you complaining?” Or, alternatively, “Well, if the start of school is imminent, maybe you need to go back today.”

Wrong—wrong! Classes do not resume until Wednesday, 16 August 2023, almost two weeks from today. Four days next week are tied up with student registration. So we’ll have three days of mind-numbingly bureaucratic meetings—during which I’m sure we’ll learn of some new, onerous burden that we teachers are to bear—followed by a bunch of kids buying textbooks.

But I must adopt a positive attitude. While I am not thrilled to be going back to work, the routine will certainly do me some good. I am beginning to understand why people die six months after retirement. Sometimes, the free time can be overwhelming.

I mean, not for me, but I can see how it could be for some people. We get so used to working nonstop, it’s hard to slow down. Fortunately, yours portly enjoys his afternoon naptime as much as the next octogenarian.

I digress. The school year does bring with a pleasant rhythm—and more music lessons. July is the leanest month of the year for those, and while teaching twenty-ish lessons a week in addition to my normal course load is grueling, it brings in the bacon.

Of course, my skin flint readers (that’s you!) could also pitch in a few bucks each month (thanks to those of you who do!), but I know budgets are tight. Why send $5 a month to a cool dude you know and love when you can spend it at some soulless corporation that wants to use your corpse for dog food?

Goodness! That escalated quickly. Can you tell I’m a tad irate?

With that, here is “TBT^2: Back to the Grind 2020“:

Lazy Sunday CCXIII: D.C., Part I

30 July 202323 July 2023 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Back in March 2023 I chaperoned a particularly difficult group of students on a trip to Washington, D.C. Some of the behavior and shenanigans I witnessed from other kids—and, sadly, even from my own students—was quite discouraging. That aside, it was a good, albeit whirlwind, trip, and I’m in the process of finishing off the essays in this mini-saga.

With that said, here are the first three installments of the Washington, D.C. Trip series:

“SubscribeStar Saturday: Washington, D.C. Trip, Part I: The Smithsonians” (SubscribeStar) – Our first afternoon in D.C. was spent poking through a couple of the Smithsonians.
“SubscribeStar Saturday: Washington, D.C. Trip Part II: Showdown at the Lincoln Memorial” (SubscribeStar) – Kids apparently think it’s okay to slide down the side of the Lincoln Memorial.
“SubscribeStar Saturday: Washington, D.C. Trip Part III: Mount Vernon” (SubscribeStar) – The highlight of the trip for me was a morning at George Washington‘s home, Mount Vernon.