Thought for the Day - April 28

Subject: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: GUEST,Peter T.
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 11:49 AM

A student of mine in February wrote: achieving enlightenment is like working through the layers on a frozen river. When you get down, there is the river flowing.

Last week, in an exam essay, one student wrote (in a note to me in the margin: "Spring is like an exam where everyone already passed."

This morning a student said, in a tutorial: "Environmental awareness is like lying out in a meadow with your eyes closed in summer, just letting it all happen."

Who knows what they will say come fall?????

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: Crowhugger
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 11:56 AM

Okay, who's been in Peter T.'s cookie jar?

As for spring, it's my new year.

CH

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: Peg
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 12:03 PM

Peter: how old are your students? I have taught college writing for years and althought I am usually more disheartened by the fact that kids don't read anymore and this makes them virtually unable to write, let alone able to think creatively when problem solving, much less able to orally express themselves in any way approaching articulate...

BUT

I did find myself occasionally shocked with how insightful some of their thoughts were...you must be a very good teacher, because only when kids feel comfortable with expressing themselves in front of a certain teacher will they go out on limbs like this...

thanks for sharing, I look forward to hearing their gems on a monthly basis!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: Allan C.
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 12:09 PM

Peg, that will happen if this GUEST impersonator remembers who he/she is in another month. The real Peter T. is a much better writer.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: GUEST,Kelida at school
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 12:11 PM

The smell of a spring storm--the electricity and the rain--is far more intoxicating than a breath of flowers and sunshine.

Peace--Keli

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: Peg
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 12:12 PM

oh my gosh! I did not know this was an impersonation...I did think the entry was a bit spare for Peter's usually mellifluous stylings... why do people do this?

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: Mbo
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 12:29 PM

Yes K! Sturm und Drang!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: JenEllen
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 03:03 PM

Spring gave me a treat, something I've never seen before.

Yesterday was warm and muggy, delightfully overcast. The the two storm fronts must have chosen my home as their 'line in the sand'. First came the wind, bending the grasses and stirring the dirt. Then there followed the lightning, and wonder of all wonders, SNOW!

It was the equivalent of Mother Nature's "Look Ma! No Hands!" I stood in the meadow watching the night sky come to life. The wind jostled me, and undid my hair, I could have sworn I heard a voice saying "Tag! You're It!" Lightning bolts were chasing each other across the sky, rolling like puppies. Each flash illuminated the tiny snowflakes that were falling. Spiraling lightning bugs coming to rest on my upturned face.

I swore to a friend recently that I'd jump a tiny fire in honor of the season, but I have the feeling that spring has already welcomed me. ~Elle

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: SINSULL
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 03:20 PM

gREAT, NOW pETER t. IS DRESSING UP AS eLLE.

That's a cmpliment, Elle.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: Amos
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 03:41 PM

Perhaps we should wait and see what Peter T. says about this. Maybe he lost his cookie?

A.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: JenEllen
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 03:42 PM

LOL! As far as I'm concerned, Peter can dress up as anything his lil'heart desires! But I get first dibs on the cheerleaders outfit this time, eh? ;)
GimmeanEgimmeanLgimmeanLgimmeanE whaddasitspell ~Elle

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: GUEST,Peter T.
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 03:44 PM

Actually it is me (whoever that is). In another month the real Peter T. will show up, I hope. It is a long time since I have been myself. In the meantime I am at another university marking papers and occasionally playing hookey on the mudcat. Hence the Guest from time to time.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: Amos
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 05:22 PM

Yayy! Commander Trey Ovakine, on the bridge of the Mudcat Enterprise is beaming messages down through the borrowed organic carbon-oxygen shell of Peter T. What a feat of tight-beam long-range time-dilated transmission!

Seriously, Peter... you're the one who runs that marvelous vocabulary and syntax machine just above your left ear. Great invention and no-one else knows how to operate it!

A

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 06:40 PM

People...Don't be fooled. The GUEST Peter is not the real Peter, but is in reality the Waylon Heron masquerading as Peter.

He slips into Peter's office at times and he's very crafty and has learned much from the great one, but you can always tell by the ridiculous pseudo-intellectual posts.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: Peter T.
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 06:51 PM

As opposed to the really good pseudo-intellectual posts.
yours, Peter T. (shook the guest off.....ha!!back to the marsh!)

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 07:00 PM

Well, possibly the pseudo-ridiculous, intellectual posts.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - April 28
From: GUEST,flattop
Date: 29 Apr 00 - 07:21 AM

Leonard Cohen had some thoughts on spring in Death of a Lady's Man. He probably took creative writing courses. Maybe we should too. The piece is more than a page long, so you'll have to get the book if you're interested, but it starts:

It's Probably Spring So-an-so is sick of all the shit but doesn't feel that bad today because it's probably spring. The laundry in the sunshine tells the obscene family story of power and love but it doesn't matter because it's probably spring. Jack is fat and Jane is twisted from the Plague but you don't have to choose today because it's probably spring...