—Mr. Mohr, where you from?
—New York.
—Oh, I thought you was from Asia or something.
—No. Do I look Asian?
—Well, your computer is in that other language.
—French.
—Yeah, French.
—France is in Europe.
—Yeah, okay. Do you speak French?
—Oui.
—No, you.
—Yes. I speak French.
I have yet to put the “finishing touches” on my classroom. These would include
This is my super-secret, off-limits, who-knows-what-he-does-back-there area:
The television above my desk is useless. And while we’re on the topic of unnecessary expenditures, I should mention that I have been given a “SMART Board,” which you will be able to pick out in some of the following photographs. It’s leaning against the chalkboard. Yes, it will be mounted directly on to the chalkboard….
Looking over my class are Thurgood, Jesse, Ella, Marty, and Rosa, whom I found hanging out in my teacher-cabinet a few days ago:
And the following poster I find hilarious, likely because the word nothingness (as opposed to nothing) reminds me of what an eighteenth century Frenchman might say. I will try to work this one into a lesson someday.
And I thought an SJC advertisement would be a nice touch. Maybe one of my kids will go there. Here’s to keeping “high expectations.” I wonder if we have ever had a Mississippian at the College. I mean someone other than Faulkner, and Twain doesn’t count because he was from Missouri.
I am beginning this blog without a clear view of its designs and purposes. I will be in Mississippi this summer (God willing), learning to teach, teaching to learn, learning to learn, and teaching to teach. I will have plenty to write about, and my boss knows it. So along with that job I will be required to keep a frequently updated blog about my work, my frustrations and successes, my students, etc. I expect that I’ll enjoy discovering the habit of public writing again; I used to be quite an avid blogger, and (believe it or not) I never did lose the desire to have others pay attention to what I’ve written. My work-blog, however, will only ask that I write on some matters and not others. These others, which include some of the most important themes, will be deemed superfluous. And this is, I guess, the clearest view I can get of this blogs purpose:—the place of my supposedly superfluous speculations and stories. These articles will be the overflow, likely the products of a peculiar mood that demands something shown for one’s thoughts.
Apropos of this blog’s overall motif—its title, being an allusion to 1 Chronicles 29.15, the Pascal quotes, the French text here and there—I shall not claim much now. I enjoy French, and so there is French. I have spent some time reading, translating, and plainly admiring Pascal, and so there is Pascal. King David, whose words are cited in the Bible reference, is among those whom I most admire in all literary history and historical literature, and so goes the title. I have plenty to say about all three of these, but none of these opinions will give a better understanding of this blog’s design or purpose, because they are at this point not very well woven into it. These elements are only here in this combination because I am thus. The elements of my blog would all fit together more neatly if my soul were a bit more tidy. I am, however, such a monster of thoughts, memories, interests, habits, sins, graces. At best a monster can only make monsters. Should anything come from my contrarieties that has on it the mark of orderliness, peace, purity, perfection, etc., then this can only be due to the intervention of my God. So I leave the sundry elements of this blog to themselves, hoping that they will all make sense in the end, just as I trust my Lord to take the shattered things in me and make them into something thoroughly whole.
