White Christmas

The “Hilbrich” side of our family has a tradition at Christmas of having a contest of movie trivia.  Uncle Tim has been the designated quiz maker for many years.  The team that wins gets the honor of picking the Christmas movie from which the questions will be generated for the following Christmas gathering as well as earning some highly expensive prizes that I pick up from Dollar General or another fine retailer that incorporates $1.00 in its name.  Over the years, I have asked questions from It’s A Wonderful Life, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Elf, Home Alone, The Santa Clause, Jingle All The Way, and last year , A Christmas Story.  Last year’s winners (Aunt Barb, Annie, and Hayley) chose White Christmas as their movie selection.  Mind you, I have to watch each of these movies to generate questions from the relatively easy to beyond belief difficult.  If you have never seen White Christmas and are low on estrogen, this movie should boost production of that hormone.  The stars of the movie are Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera- Ellen, and Rosemary Clooney.  Crosby and Kaye play a successful song and dance team after their discharge from WWII and fall for the sister team of Ellen and Clooney. Wow, didn’t see that coming. Whatever.  As they perform around the country and gain notoriety, they end up at an inn in New England where their former military leader is struggling financially to keep the establishment in the black.  You guessed it – the boys round up the troops, host a show, and all is good once again.  They even throw in a little snowfall to romanticize the ending.  The idea to save the General from financial ruin was from Bing Crosby.  To this idea, Danny Kaye said, “I think it’s impossible, ridiculous, and insane!”  He then added, “And I wish I would have thought of it first!”    

When was the last time someone told you that an idea you had was straight off the stable floor?  If the answer is never, then you may be a “stay in the box” teacher.  Think about your own education for a moment.  What were your favorite lessons along the way?  I bet they weren’t a 50 minute lecture about the mating habits of horse flies or doing a stack of worksheets that were as tall as Sears Tower…or Willis Tower…or whatever they are currently calling that building on Wacker Drive with 110 stories.  No, your favorite lessons most likely involved actually connecting something to the curriculum.  Perhaps you actually got out of your seat and did something that was “hands-on”.  Maybe you actually had fun (God forbid) during the lesson.  Your teacher may have gone so far as to tell you to put your textbooks away because what you were about to learn wasn’t in the book.  If none of those ring a bell, well, then…never mind.  Here’s the bottom line – it’s okay to think outside the box and to color outside of the lines.  Yes, we all have standards that we have to reach and common summative tests to measure the achievement and growth of our students, but how you get them there is what makes a teacher a teacher.  Throw your boxes away and long for the moment that someone tells you your idea is impossible, ridiculous, or insane. Then let your buttons pop when they tell you that they wished they thought of it first. It worked for Bing Crosby.