It's been a long time indeed. Well, where to start?
Those (if any) that have been following along, may know that my daughter was diagnosed with a heart condition last Spring. She was prescribed meds, and eventually the meds weren't working. Plus the meds would have long term side effects, something we weren't interested in because this would be lifelong medicine. Thus, we opted for surgery, better known as an ablation. Surgery took place at the end of July, and went very smoothly. Besides having a fear of almost anything for the week following surgery, Jess has been doing great. She's back to normal, participating in Girls on the Run at her school, and doing everything a kid should be able to do at the ripe old age of 9. So thanks for your thoughts and positive vibes that helped to get us through a tough time. Also, the summer was a very busy one professionally. I attended another NEH session, this time in Cleveland, MS. Before I arrived, I had never even heard of the place before. The session was entitled "The Most Southern Place: Music, History, and Culture of the Mississippi Delta." I learned a ton and was able to work with some pretty great teachers from across the country. We had teachers from as far and wide as Alaska, California, Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Vermont, and so on. All told, it was over 30 states represented. I was in the heart of "blues" country, as in the music of the blues. I was able to visit Robert Johnson's gravesite, as well as Dockery Farms where the artform was invented/created. We met folks who marched with MLK in the South, as well as Fannie Lou Hamer. In Memphis, we visited Stax Records, ate lunch at the same place MLK did on the day he was assassinated, and visited the Lorraine Motel and Civil Rights Museum. It was an unbelievable experience that I won't soon forget. After the session in MS, I returned to pick up my family in KY (who were visiting my wife's family) and headed back to MD. After a few days I packed up again and headed to Richmond, VA for a class on the Holocaust. The class was headquartered at the Virginia Holocaust Museum but we stayed at the University of Richmond. I was attracted to the class after the spending the summer of 2014 in CA studying WWII. We were able to meet and talk with actual Rosie the Riveters there and I wanted to pursue other ways I could talk to actual folks immersed in the experience. We lose so many of the "Greatest Generation" everyday, that they'll all be gone in a few years. In Richmond I was able to meet and talk with survivors of the Holocaust. Some survived the concentration camps while others survived out in the open, assuming other names/roles so that people wouldn't think they were Jewish. It was hard to learn other aspects of the Holocaust that I wasn't formerly aware of, but I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Since then, I've been busy with teaching, etc. However, what's taken most of my time is getting used to the new major pieces of software at school. We've only received limited training and both of them are full of holes/problems. Everyday is an adventure, and so exhausting. It's a frustrating experience that makes most teachers very easily disillusioned. And fairly soon they will be taking the place of any teacher websites/blogs, etc. We'll see how that works out...
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B.D.SchmittHusband, Father, Archives
November 2015
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