Of plays and 7th grade bible

week one. School is over for the week, but the studnets have homework and so do I. I am planning to try to get the whole week planned today, we will see how that goes. I am then making plans to go shopping. This week has been an intresting one. First I finally had all of my studnets. The class that I had heard the worst things about was my best class! i couldn't believe it! They were super! I also realized taht i love elementry, but middle school is really starting to grow on me. It got really cold in the later part of this week and it froze the already snowy (impossible to drive on) roads. This was a problem, but school pressed on. We have monday off, a holiday for banks and schools. It is good.

A Play:
I went to a play on Thursday night (my roomate bought a season pass, with some other teachers, she couldn;t go--basketball (she coaches), so i went instead) with these other teachers. I first went to a lovely dinning place in the small shopping center near my neighborhood. It was one of those bread and olive oil resturants where fine tastes and delightful menu options are plentiful, and pricy. (especially for a small town girl).
Well, then we went to the play.

So we walk into this large theater (the denver preforming arts center) but the acutal theater itself is small. i felt underdressed in my teacher clothes and black pea coat. But the set was simple, the theater cozy and the plot was simple on the surface, but beneathe that lay a large array of thoughts and post-modern ideals.

THe plot:

Stories. People have stories, people tell stories, stories make them who they are. At surface the plot was a man who wrote stories all ending in gruesume deaths of children becuase that was what had began his story writting. he is being accused of murder. But underneath that plot lay the idea that the stories had an effect on his younger brother who proceeded to go out and kill children as desciribed in the stories.

THe ending:

The play ended on the idea of grace. well, maybe grace is the wrong word, but on the truth being displayed. The images of the play hauted my mind, Children should not be subjected to such things, and why would you choose to protray them in a play

The title/catagory:

The tile: Pillow Man (a comedy)

the comedy was nessary to break up the heart-wretching details of reality

The language had fuck every other word. The other teachers left at intermission. i stayed. i wanted to know what happened, the play write had enteritained me, i had followed his charecters and i wanted to know where the play would go, what kind of message it had. As with most theater, i had a desire to watch it again, just to geta little more out of it. Does that make me a sinner? Would it make me worse of a christian to go and see a play with lots of bad langague? I like stories, that is what drew me to the play.

7th grade Bible:

In 7th grade bible this week we talked about what tempts us. The studnets had to write journal entries abotu what takes them away from God (i assigned this as the first homework i have ever given):) We talked about idols, what do we see as idols and how does that effect our relationship with God. Judah had been living agmonst these large nations and all the nations worshiped other gods, so judah did to, What in our culture does that to us? Many of my 7th graders said that movies, music with bad lyrics, swearing, video games with lots of violence, friends that swear, un-christian friends, families that have hardships, all of these things pull us from God and the first three/four things i mentioned are what they told me our culture tries to sell us. I thought, oh my students a product of christian education. but they are right, i suppose, so that made me think... am i the most hypocritial teacher by going to see a play the next night that had tons of swearing and alluded to lots of violence? I struggle with that.