Posts Tagged ‘school’

I’m reading a book

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

Reading is something I treasure. I love to read stories of great adventures or humorous characters. Unfortunately, thanks to years of studying school text books, three of which centred around accounting, I have come to loath the very same thing I love. What I would do as a relaxing past time becomes a chore when you’re reading about the accounting of revenue for thirty pages.

It brings up an important question. Why is reading text books so boring? Don’t point fingers at those poor accounting fools because they aren’t the only ones to blame. It appears to be a trend amongst text book writers to attempt everything in their power to put you to sleep within the first few lines. Do they think that by dragging everything out and saying it in the most pompous way they’ll make us all more intelligent?

Think about this. When you watch law or medical programs on TV, you begin to pick up on the lingo, and even learn some of the subject matter. The same happens when reading Sci-Fi books. All of this learning is happening under the guise of entertainment. What if, just what if, we could learn like this for everything? It doesn’t mean we would never have to put any effort in, but simply unmask the interesting things that we’re learning and make us want to learn them. Who knows what we could accomplish.

Here’s a brilliant YouTube video from a fellow book lover:

What God Can Do With “57 Cents”

Friday, February 27th, 2009

CentsA sobbing little girl stood near a small church from which she had been turned away because it was “too crowded.”

“I can’t go to Sunday School,” she sobbed to the pastor as he walked by.
Seeing her shabby, unkempt appearance, the pastor guessed the reason and, taking her by the hand, took her inside and found a place for her in the Sunday school class. The child was so happy that they found room for her, and she went to bed that night thinking of the children who have no place to worship Jesus.

Some two years later, this child lay dead in one of the poor tenement buildings. Her parents called for the kind hearted pastor who had befriended their daughter to handle the final arrangements.

As her poor little body was being moved, a worn and crumpled red purse was found which seemed to have been rummaged from some trash dump.
Inside was found 57 cents and a note, scribbled in childish handwriting, which read: “This is to help build the little church bigger so more children can go to Sunday School.”

For two years she had saved for this offering of love.  When the pastor tearfully read that note, he knew instantly what he would do. Carrying this note and the cracked, red pocketbook to the pulpit, he told the story of her unselfish love and devotion.

He challenged his deacons to get busy and raise enough money for the larger building.

A newspaper learned of the story and published it. It was read by a wealthy realtor who offered them a parcel of land worth many thousands.
When told that the church could not pay so much, he offered to sell it to the little church for 57 cents.

Church members made large donations. Checks came from far and wide.
Within five years the little girl’s gift had increased to $250,000.00–a huge sum for that time (near the turn of the century). Her unselfish love had paid large dividends.

When you are in the city of Philadelphia, look up Temple Baptist Church, with a seating capacity of 3,300. And be sure to visit Temple University, where thousands of students are educated.

Have a look, too, at the Good Samaritan Hospital and at a Sunday School building which houses hundreds of beautiful children, built so that no child in the area will ever need to be left outside during Sunday School time.

In one of the rooms of this building may be seen the picture of the sweet face of the little girl whose 57 cents, so sacrificially saved, made such remarkable history. Alongside of it is a portrait of her kind pastor, Dr. Russel H. Conwell, author of the book, “Acres of Diamonds”

This is a true story, which goes to show WHAT GOD CAN DO WITH 57 CENTS.

The spoiled under 30 crowd

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Space InvadersThose old people are always complaining, here they go again:

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes (look it up) about how hard things were when they were growing up. What with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning, uphill, both ways.

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay nonsense like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they’ve got it!

But now that I’m over the ripe old age of thirty, I can’t help but look around and notice the youth of today. You’ve got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a Utopia! And I hate to say it but you kids today, you don’t know how good you’ve got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn’t have the internet. If we wanted to know
something, we had to go to the stupid library and look it up ourselves, in the
card catalogue! There was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter, with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3′s or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up!

We didn’t have fancy assistance like call waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that’s it! And we didn’t have fancy caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you
just didn’t know. You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn’t have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600, with games like ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘asteroids’. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination. And there were no multiple levels or screens it was just one screen forever! You could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only M-Net and there was no on screen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV guide to find out what was on! You had no chance when it came to channel surfing, you had to get off your behind and walk over to the TV to change the Channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning. Do you hear what I’m saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little
brats!
And we didn’t have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove, imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid jiffy pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.

That’s exactly what I’m talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You’re spoiled. You guys wouldn’t have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

A Boy & Math

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

MathA ten-year-old boy was failing math. His parents tried everything from tutors to hypnosis, but to no avail. Finally, at the insistence of a family friend, they decided to enrol their son in a private Catholic school.

After the first day, the boy’s parents were surprised when he walked in after school with a stern, focused and very determined expression on his face, and went right past them straight to his room, where he quietly closed the door. For nearly two hours he toiled away in his room – with math books strewn about his desk and the surrounding floor. He emerged long enough to eat, and after quickly cleaning his plate, went straight back to his room, closed the door, and worked feverishly at his studies until bedtime.

This pattern continued ceaselessly until it was time for the first quarter report card. The boy walked in with his report card — unopened — laid it on the dinner table and went straight to his room. Cautiously, his mother opened it, and to her amazement, she saw a bright red “A” under the subject of MATH.

Overjoyed, she and her husband rushed into their son’s room, thrilled at his remarkable progress. “Was it the nuns that did it?,” the father asked. The boy only shook his head and said, “No.” “Was it the one-on-one tutoring? The peer-mentoring?” “No.” “The textbooks? The teachers? The curriculum?”

“Nope,” said the son. “On that first day, when I walked in the front door and saw that guy they nailed to the ‘plus sign,’ I just knew they meant business!”

Mom’s cooking

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

Kid PrayingThe Sunday School Teacher asks, “Now, Johnny, tell me frankly do you say prayers before eating?”

“No sir,” little Johnny replies, “I don’t have to, my mom is a good cook.”