Not Posting about Education

At the end of my last post...about a month ago...I said I would post about what we in America can learn from Korea.

I'm not ready to post that yet. Mostly because there's a lot of information; it'll take awhile for me to synthesize my ideas.

Secondly it's because Avoyelles parish got a D- to F+ for two of it's biggest schools. I think America -especially Louisiana- needs more than a blog post.

How far down the road to hell does Edwin Edwards think we are? That guy's a Brouliette from Avoyelles. He tried to sleep with my mother that one time. His current wife dated one of my uncles, I think (though I think everyone in Avoyelles parish dated the uncle I'm thinking of). Edward, the guv.

I'd say the 1980s under Edwards was the closest that South Louisiana really came to a coherent voting bloc. The only other Cajun politician who could do that was Dudley LeBlanc, until Huey Long put an end to that (and it wasn't a right-wing vs. left-wing thing; they were both left, Huey just had that great quality of being an anglo protestant).

But, seriously, South Louisiana could unite under some kind of shared cultural identity and collectively improve itself. I mean, there'd have to be a better appreciation of history down there to become conscious of a cultural identity and for that to happen there'd have to be better educa- d'oh!


But enough about that. One of my favorite colleagues is the art teacher and musician Mr.M--

Mr. M-- is an excellent guitarist and a good singer. He also has Parkinson's. Now, this is tragic, but it makes for good times.

_Cut to scene and Mr. M and me in his car_

Mr. M: You (body twirls violently; we barely miss a taxi) cannot ask the priest for money because if you  do (straightens self after ramping sidewalk) you will not get blessing.

_fade back to me typing_

Mr. M managed to get me to give English lessons to a Buddhist monk for two months for free. I never got paid for it. It is, first off illegal (so, if anyone from the education office is reading this, I never asked for money either) and b would detract from my blessings.

I'm not a Buddhists at all. I mean, the temple is nice and peaceful and because of that old woman who would slap my elbows when I wouldn't be in the right posture I now look like a good Buddhist; but the free bibimbop is delicious. I would become a Masonic Scientologist if it meant there was free bibimbop involved.

But mostly I ended up at the temple because I like Mr. M. He invited me to the temple one day. On another day He asked me to call him Samchun (uncle). That's a big deal.

After tea with the men in the temple Mr. M asked me if I would like to tutor the Master in English. I said sure.

The Buddhist priest seems like a nice, serene guy (would you expect anything else from a Buhhdist priest?). He's also an army chaplain so there's often guys in uniform walking around his temple complex. Makes it feel like Tibet.

However amiable this priest is he hardly speaks english. What's worse, it came to figure that he wanted me to teach him english because he had his master's exam in theology coming up and the questions were in english. So he gives me a copy of some lectures by Paul Tillich entitled 'Christianity and the Encounter of The World Religions' and expects me to explain this to him. It is difficult to pantomime ontology.

Needless to say we had some laughs but I had to get a third party to put an end to that malarky. I got the cafe owner across the street -she calls me little brother (should I have used quotations marks for 'little brother'; I am literally traumatized by a time I violated the mention-use distinction in college and now I just don't use quotation marks unless I absolutely have to)- to explain to Mr. M that I wasn't doing the priest any good; and I wasn't. I did get a couple of good books on Buddhism out of the deal and that's nice. I've also found an appreciation for Paul Tillich.

Mr. M will make several more appearances.