Grandma's Onions

So, today in English II class, we read an autobiographical essay that used a lot of really great imagery to tell a very simple but meaningful story. For homework I asked the kids to write a descriptive paragraph about their own childhood memory. I promised to complete the assignment as well, but I wanted to post it. So here it is:

Every Sunday after church, my family and I would climb into the Jeep and drive the thirty incredibly hilly and winding miles to Grandma and Grandpa Lester's house. It was summertime that I remember most. Grandma's garden was green with tomato vines, cabbage, peppers, and carrot tops. Between the rows of green, the soil was moist and cool between my toes as I stepped carefully so that I did not crush an earthworm or fall on the melons. I was making my way towards the onions. The green tops were crisp in my hand as I tugged them out of the earth, dirt clinging to the white bulbs. Grandma would have a bag ready to hold my reapings. And Dad would complain all the way home about the earthy, pungant smell of the onions as I munched hungrily at my summertime harvest.

So today, I went for a little ride in a UH-60 Blackhawk from the AVCRAD National Guard unit in Springfield. The view was incredible and the experience--once in a lifetime.

I just tried to imagine this machine touching down in Iraq or Afganistan to load or unload troops into incredibily dangerous situations. I certainly felt a sense of awe and respect for the men who are just doing thier jobs.

Really great words for your vocabulary...

Please feel free to add your own.

defenestration--the act of throwing someone or something out the window. The teacher was fired for the defenestration of her students from her classroom. The fact that she was on the third floor made the act even more horrendous.

malediction--a curse. The criminal mummbled a foul malediction as he stormed from courtroom.

juggernaut--any large, overpowering, destructive force or object, as war, a giant battleship, or a powerful football team. The alien attack was the juggernaut that wiped humankind off the face of the earth.

verbicide--the willful distortion or depreciation of the original meaning of a word. The student committed verbicide as he read Macbeth's soliloquy just to make his teacher angry.

It's about being a better person for the future!

Education should not be just about learning stuff. We have an obligation to future generations to be intelligent and informed people. We should learn to improve our own selves. But how?

When you read something, you must ask yourself, "How can this benefit me or others?" Even in the most seemingly boring task or article or story or assignment, there is a lesson. It may be we learn responsibility; it may be that sometimes we just have to do things that aren't fun; it may be that we need to understand another's perspective; it may be important to your survival; sometimes it's just about not sounding like a fool.


Have you ever watched Jay Leno's City Walk? He asks random people questions (that any halfway educated person should know the answer to) like "Who is the Vice President of the United States?" or "What year was the Declaration of Independence signed?". As silly as it might seem to NOT know the answers to these questions, it is amazing that so many people truly do not know. Education can help you not sound like an idiot.


Use the education that is available to you. It is your right as an American. It is not a privledge or a gift--it is a guaranteed right. Do not take it for granted. You would not take freedom of speech or religion for granted.