Welcome to U.S. History!

This week started as my last journey through the world of college. As it stands right now, I only am in need of taking four classes before my student teaching and eventual graduation.

During most of these class sessions, our teachers are constantly encouraging us to think about how we would act and react to situations within the classroom.

Among these hypothetical questions and situations is, "What will the first day of school be like for you?"

Hopefully, for me, I will be teaching United States History or American Government. Also, I had thought about possibly playing a video or a power point as an introduction to the course.

However, I think I might play this latest selection from JibJab.com political humor section. Maybe it will, as my professors say, "Catch the students attention and stimulate their creative thinking."

Responsibile Decisions and Basketball

In life, we don't always get to do everything that we want to do. Tonight was especially difficult for me as I missed seeing my basketball team win their sixteenth game of the year to complete an undefeated season.

Instead, I chose to go to my Indiana History class this evening. Not only would I have missed the first days information, as it is an accelerated course, but my absence would have caused me to lose 7% of my final grade because of the class attendance policy.

I really did not think that it would bother me as much as it did but that all changed when I was asked to put away my laptop.

As many professors are starting to do these days, my professor did not allow me to use my laptop to take notes. While I was unplugging my power cord and putting my laptop back in my bag, my mood began to change as I have always felt more confident in my typing abilities than my writing abilities.

I then began searching my bag for something to write on for I had no paper and did not expect to write my notes. The only kind of papers I could find was the packet that I should have been using this evening. The packet of papers that I had found was my basketball plays.

It was the first set of plays I had drawn up for my "B" team at the start of the season. In the margins were dozens of notes that I had scribbled down throughout the year in hopes of improving my players and myself as a coach. Notes that would soon be replaced with new notes about the state of Indiana.

So as I proceeded to fill my paper with notes on the Forts, Fur Traders, and the French, I received a text from dad confirming that the perfect season did in fact occur and it filled my stomach with a sick feeling.

I greatly fear that I will come to regret this decision even though many will say that it was the responsible decision. But, even though it may have been the responsible decision, I am still lost in thought on whether or not it was the right decision.

I am sure it was but at this juncture I still feel as if I missed out on something great because of my "responsible" decision.

Let's Hope and Pray

I hate not being able to sleep on the night before a game. I can’t sleep for two reasons. The first being that we are going against my alma mater. The second is that I will be late to the game because I have class that I cannot miss.

Several people have told me not to worry and that I will get there when I can but I just do not think it is fair to the kids. Let’s hope that I am able to make it there on time.

Special thanks to Mike for the link that he posted on his blog for me today. I enjoyed it and thought it was very funny.

Good news from the basketball department: The "A" team won their sixth game in a row last night to remain undefeated on the season. Things are going very well plus we got to play in a gym that was a throwback to Indiana basketball history.

It was Sheridan's old high school gym that looked like it could have very easily been taken from the movie Hoosiers. It was really neat to play a game and coach in a gym such as that one.

I think the girls were a little surprised at just how much we knew and how excited we were to see that gymnasium. We were able to let our guard down that night since we played the first game.

During most of the second game, we sat up in the stands and had some really funny conversations with our players. I think they got to know us a little bit better and we got to know them better as well.

Well, that is it for me for now. I am going to finish working on my presentation for the class that I cannot miss this evening. Pray that it goes well and so that I can get out of there quick enough so I do not miss any of my game.

Noble Statesman or Tragically Misguided?

I read an interesting article today on MSNBC. It discussed how President Bush is slowly losing more support on Iraq especially with his plans of escalating troop numbers.

What most interested me about this article was how it concluded. It commented how the President believed that, in the end, history will look good upon him and his policies.

It's interesting how he brought up history at a time like ours. It's also interesting how so many people continue to compare the current Iraq War with the Vietnam War.

There are some parallels, I will admit. However, the article concluded with a peculiar difference between President Bush and President Lyndon B. Johnson in how they dealt with their wartime situations.

The article concluded, "Bush has always said he sleeps soundly, admitting to no fretting about his decisions and no concern about polls.

Johnson, by contrast, famously obsessed over the war night and day, asking to be awakened every time someone died.

'I’m wondering if this is not some kind of tragically misguided notion of statesmanship on the part of Bush, that there is something noble about ignoring public opinion,' said Margaret Susan Thompson, who teaches a Modern Presidency course at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School."

But this is Indiana

In the summer of 2005, I got to know three guys from the Midwest pretty well. Often times, we would ask each other questions about our home state. Most of the time it was to quell the rumors that we had heard and to see if the stereotypes were true.

I learned that Iowa did infact have a lot of corn. I also learned that the Cincinnati area did in fact worship their Chili. The last thing I learned was that a lot of scandals and corruption did exist in the government of the City of Chicago.

Apart from wanting to know what exactly a "Hoosier" was, my friends were interested in our love of sports. Even though their questions were no brainers to answer, they were simple, honest questions from people who were interested in the Hoosier state.

My favorites included, "Is Reggie Miller really that big in Indiana?" and, "How close to a god is Bob Knight?" We also talked about basketball.

Simply put, basketball in Indiana is like Bob Dro once said - "In my town of Berne, Indiana, there are two things mighty important. 1. Religion and 2. Basketball."

Basketball is important in my state. It has had such an impact on my state's history that students and schools take field trips to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.

With all of this Hoosier Hysteria about basketball, it was just very suprising to learn that Texas Tech was actually giving away tickets to entice people to show up to see Bob Knight break the all-time win record the other day. No way would that happen in the Hoosier state.

I think my dad described what would happen here the best way when he said, "I could put you through college with those tickets."

I guess the old cliche is right: "In 49 states, it is just basketball. But this is Indiana"