Thursday, February 09, 2017
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Sunday, December 04, 2016
Friday, December 02, 2016
Watching the MacMurchy team grow
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| May I have a 5 X 7 in the entryway? Cracks me up. |
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| Here comes the flower girl pulling the ring bearer down the aisle. Amelia with cousin Weston Ray at Laura and Jason's wedding. |
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| Amelia got a doll for Christmas. |
What a day!
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| Danielle's book released Dec 1, 2016 in the year of our LORD Topped the charts at Number 1 Hot New Release! |
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| She kept her promise, Sierra Phantom. Your story is coming to a lot of homes. |
Enjoying Uncle Robert's Gorilla state champ victory
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| The Stukel generations: Papa Ray with his great grandbaby |
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| Miss Mabel cheering Uncle Robert to victory (Those children are angels: Linda Tulson at the game) |
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| Amelia Margaret |
Saturday, July 02, 2016
Wednesday, March 09, 2016
Friday, February 12, 2016
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
2 pics that tip me over
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| Love this! |
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| Darling 4-year-old Morgan Jo kissing her Uncle Robert who just celebrated his 18th birthday. Happy bday, Robert! You've grown up to be something, that's for sure. |
Thursday, January 07, 2016
Ode to the unseen
Music, verse, prose and poet
bid the Unseen show Thy face.
Let the gossamer shadows
Let the gossamer shadows
display the Father's halloweds.
Who's the weaver in the workshop womb
from whence thou was knit?
Where wisdom from on high was writ?
Pedestrian prose, break into song.
To weigh and quantify is not enough,
All sehnsucht hungry hearts
know the sum exceeds the sundry parts.
Creation, as wondrous as can be,
gloriously reflects GOD's revelry.
To weigh, observe and quantify
shows one angle of the why.
Yea, the meter gives account
but wakens not the fount
of Living. Paramount!
Nature - fine as it can be -
points toward God's revelry.
Within the dead stump,
dormant lies the seed.
Take heed.
Let all that breath
and some that don't,
Sing nature's glad song,
O happy throng.
Nature's noiseless triumph-
the seed within the stump-
Gives nature's Maker - voice!
Rejoice!
Imagination wake
from your torpid sleep.
Our eyes redeem!
There's more to see
than is often seen. Thursday, December 17, 2015
Letter to the editor
http://www.loudounnow.com/2015/12/07/school-leaders-disabled-minority-students-suspension-rates-still-a-concern/
After reading Danielle's Loudoun Now article, "School Leaders: Disabled and Minority Students Suspension Rates Still a Concern," I was struck with the foundational assumption that underlies the notion that "data does not lie." The assumption is that the disproportionate numbers of minority and disabled students disciplined with suspension or expulsion, indicates nefarious racism or angst against minorities and special needs students. I respectfully challenge that underlying assumption.
Data serves a purpose, but it does not tell the entire story any more than science quantifies virtue. Some parts of human life are not quantified, weighed, measured or neatly placed in an algorithm. Data serves a purpose but it does not accurately reflect the breadth of the school behavior anomaly. Can the virtue of courage be empirically discerned? No. Science has its limits.
I can decide to board an airplane, trusting that scientific data has determined the best possible wing span, navigation instrumentation, and the size and scope of the aircraft cabin. But do I know if the pilot slept well or had bourbon for breakfast? No? His integrity and wisdom are unknowns to me and cannot be scientifically discerned. What about his courage in the face of crisis? Has that data on that particular pilot been gathered and analyzed? In actuality, I board the plane understanding that both science and goodwill faith inform my decision. I trust the good work done in the construction of the aircraft and I trust the good Lord to take care of me through a well-disciplined pilot. We live and breath by faith.
My laborious point is that the data showing that Loudoun County schools have an imbalanced disproportionate number of minority and learning disabled students being suspended or expelled DOES NOT necessarily mean that teachers and principals are unfair to said students. The statistical data is not intended, nor can it, empirically verify racism among teachers and principals in Loudoun County. If the specter of racial discrimination is the ghost in the room, why aren't Asian students or Middle Eastern students on the disparate list?
This problem will never be fixed if we refuse to ask the right questions? Are there other factors that affect student discipline besides racial bias? Unstable home life? Parental involvement and parental priority of education? Enough rest? Upon entering the classroom, is it the first time the student has heard, "No?" Is the student diligent or lazy? The list of factors is nearly infinite.
For every child, there are any number of reasons for their behavior. It is not possible to get to the bottom of those myriad reasons for needed discipline. However, assuming that the gavel of justice drops with the data is naive and a gross misjudgment. Do parents bear some responsibility for their child's misbehavior? Do the children bear a yoke of responsibility for their words and actions?
These questions are where shoe leather meets the linoleum floor. As an educator, I probably swung toward favoring students of color or students with disabilities. Overcoming the hurdles of dyslexia are daunting. When the letters are moving, learning to read requires finely honed mental and physical adjustments. Not for the faint of heart. And mine always went out to the mentally challenged students I taught. But if Hezekiah - my beloved Native American student - needed discipline, I did not want to second guess decisions because the disproportionate minority data does not lie. I needed to do what needed to be done with appropriate charity and goodwill toward both Hezekiah and the students bothered by his disruption - or eruption. The truth is that Hezekiah never needed disciplinary action. Maybe that, come to think of it, is why he was one of my favorites. Is there truth-telling data for the fine teachers and administrators who go the extra mile with struggling students? If there was, it would tell a crucial part of the story.
After reading Danielle's Loudoun Now article, "School Leaders: Disabled and Minority Students Suspension Rates Still a Concern," I was struck with the foundational assumption that underlies the notion that "data does not lie." The assumption is that the disproportionate numbers of minority and disabled students disciplined with suspension or expulsion, indicates nefarious racism or angst against minorities and special needs students. I respectfully challenge that underlying assumption.
Data serves a purpose, but it does not tell the entire story any more than science quantifies virtue. Some parts of human life are not quantified, weighed, measured or neatly placed in an algorithm. Data serves a purpose but it does not accurately reflect the breadth of the school behavior anomaly. Can the virtue of courage be empirically discerned? No. Science has its limits.
I can decide to board an airplane, trusting that scientific data has determined the best possible wing span, navigation instrumentation, and the size and scope of the aircraft cabin. But do I know if the pilot slept well or had bourbon for breakfast? No? His integrity and wisdom are unknowns to me and cannot be scientifically discerned. What about his courage in the face of crisis? Has that data on that particular pilot been gathered and analyzed? In actuality, I board the plane understanding that both science and goodwill faith inform my decision. I trust the good work done in the construction of the aircraft and I trust the good Lord to take care of me through a well-disciplined pilot. We live and breath by faith.
My laborious point is that the data showing that Loudoun County schools have an imbalanced disproportionate number of minority and learning disabled students being suspended or expelled DOES NOT necessarily mean that teachers and principals are unfair to said students. The statistical data is not intended, nor can it, empirically verify racism among teachers and principals in Loudoun County. If the specter of racial discrimination is the ghost in the room, why aren't Asian students or Middle Eastern students on the disparate list?
This problem will never be fixed if we refuse to ask the right questions? Are there other factors that affect student discipline besides racial bias? Unstable home life? Parental involvement and parental priority of education? Enough rest? Upon entering the classroom, is it the first time the student has heard, "No?" Is the student diligent or lazy? The list of factors is nearly infinite.
For every child, there are any number of reasons for their behavior. It is not possible to get to the bottom of those myriad reasons for needed discipline. However, assuming that the gavel of justice drops with the data is naive and a gross misjudgment. Do parents bear some responsibility for their child's misbehavior? Do the children bear a yoke of responsibility for their words and actions?
These questions are where shoe leather meets the linoleum floor. As an educator, I probably swung toward favoring students of color or students with disabilities. Overcoming the hurdles of dyslexia are daunting. When the letters are moving, learning to read requires finely honed mental and physical adjustments. Not for the faint of heart. And mine always went out to the mentally challenged students I taught. But if Hezekiah - my beloved Native American student - needed discipline, I did not want to second guess decisions because the disproportionate minority data does not lie. I needed to do what needed to be done with appropriate charity and goodwill toward both Hezekiah and the students bothered by his disruption - or eruption. The truth is that Hezekiah never needed disciplinary action. Maybe that, come to think of it, is why he was one of my favorites. Is there truth-telling data for the fine teachers and administrators who go the extra mile with struggling students? If there was, it would tell a crucial part of the story.
The gold of human character
These excerpts on the divine balance of pain and pleasure are taken from Dallas Willard's "The Allure of Gentleness: Defending the faith in the manner of Jesus."
The parenthetical notes are added by me for clarity.
The parenthetical notes are added by me for clarity.
God's purpose within human history, is to create for Himself a living abode - a community of free, conscious, living beings. (To accomplish His high purpose both pleasure and pain are necessary.) Pleasure and pain are, in a word, the positive and negative poles between which flow the currents of human life. Detach one pole, and this life will cease. People who ask for a painless world do not truly know what they are asking for.
It is only in the heat of pain and suffering, both mental and physical, that real human character is forged. One does not develop courage without facing danger. One does not develop patience without trials. One does not develop wisdom without heart and brain-racking puzzles. One does not develop endurance without suffering or temperance and honesty without temptations.
These are the very things we treasure most about people. Ask yourself if you would be willing to be devoid of all these virtues: Courage, patience, wisdom, endurance and honesty. If your answer is no, then don't scorn the means of obtaining them. The gold of human character is dug from torturous mines.
I'm not saying that we should go looking for pain, so that we can develop character. This is not at all necessary. All we need to do is make an honest and thorough effort to discover what is right and wrong, good and bad, and, when we are convinced on these points, then simply go out and face life for what it is worth. There will be plenty of opportunity to develop character. But you will never develop character by running from unpleasant situations, any more than you will develop your intellectual capacities by running away from study or tone up your six-pack abs by avoiding exercise.
God allows people to suffer precisely because He is benevolent. It's for our best. I assume that God wishes to be able to write some epithet over the episode of human history other than, "And a good time was had by all." (Is God only good) if He is a Jolly Good Fellow, running to satisfy our every whim and fancy and ease our every pain? Dallas Willard
On a personal note, when I think of the parents I most respect, they are the ones who do not give in to every whimper and whim of their children. They know and understand that both the rod of correction coupled with the staff of comfort and protection, provide the guardrail parameters needed to develop the character of Christ. Indeed, "The gold of human character is dug from torturous mines." And that gold is the coin of the Kingdom in the purchase of GOD's Good Life.
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Sehnsucht
“The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back.”
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Monday, November 16, 2015
Community journalism at its best
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| Loudoun Times-Mirror purchased Leesburg Today one day and stuck a fork in it the next. But, as Aaron so aptly described, "Like a phoenix from the flames," Loudoun Now took flight without missing a single news cycle. *** Community journalism at its best! |
Killer pics
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| Danielle & Aaron visiting Aunt Stu and Cuz Dylan in Philly |
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| Be still, my soul (this is coming to a wall at 1001 43rd St) |
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| Sense of Thai St, favorite new Leesburg restaurant |
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| Crazy sock day for our kindergartener |
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