June 14th, 2016 - Toby

To those of you who want the short version, today we had to put our English Springer Spaniel, Toby down. The AKC name my brother and I chose for him when we first got him was Sir Skylar Tobias of the Lea (we were reading books set in the medieval times and couldn't decide on the names Skylar or Tobias at first).

We ask for prayers for our family as Toby was an irreplaceable part of our family and there's a huge hole in our lives with him gone. Please just don't ask us if we are okay or how we are doing as that will only bring on the emotions we are struggling with. Share stories or offer condolences, just please not the above questions. We could really use prayer right now.

Here's the bad from today first before I share the good memories of him. These last few weeks, Toby hasn't been himself. He has tried to be though, for our sake I believe. Mom came home from work and Toby was breathing really heavy and couldn't stand. She called me and I got home as fast as I could after work. At 5:15, we decided that we would bring him to my dad's workplace and we would decide what to do from there. He was able to walk to the back but I carried him from there to the car. We picked dad up and went to Heartland on Main Street. I can only thank the staff for doing all that they could and for caring for him in the best way that they could. Today we were told the following diagnosis: Toby had a pretty significant heart murmur, a 5 on a scale of 1 to 6. The heart murmur was causing blood to flow backwards into his lungs. He was older, 12 years (we got him in the spring of 2009). He also had testicular tumors that may have possibly (a high possibility at that) spread to the rest of his body.

If I had known today would be his last day, I would've stayed home from work to spend the whole day with him.

Here are the memories that I will cling to now that he is gone. Toby wanted to like water, but he hated getting wet. We used to spray him with the hose and he would run around the yard and tease us with how far the hose would go. When we would fill up a plastic pool, we would cup the water and toss it to him and he would try to bite it out of the air. Whenever it was too much water and would splash in his face, he would look at us a bit disgusted, as if he couldn't believe we would let him get splashed. When we brought him to Oak Lake, he loved walking straight off the dock and dropping into the water only to resurface and discover he didn't like not being able to touch the bottom. And when I say walk off the dock, he would literally stick his foot out as if to walk on the water and just PLOP! He would swim to the shore only to do it all over again. Whenever we asked him to "sing" he would actually sing to us in sharp pitches. He loved to sing and get Boone to join him. He used to sleep at the very end of my bed when he was able to jump up. He liked being toward the end, but every now and then he would take up half the bed, close enough that I could actually snuggle him. But that was only allowed for a while.

One time when dad wanted to cut his hair, dad pointed downstairs and told him to go. Toby looked at him for a second and slowly growled his way the whole length of the stairs. We couldn't help but laugh because he sounded like such a grouchy child complaining the whole time about how life wasn't fair. We used to call him "Thunderpaws" because he really liked to make sure you know he was on his way. We always called him Toby-Doo and he had gorgeous curly ears. His fur used to be so black that it had a blue sheen to it. He liked ice cubes, coffee, peanut butter, and deer meat. When he was a puppy, we were told his eyes were defective because they were square-shaped but we always loved how his eyes looked. My 50-60lb lap puppy who liked to sleep in someone's lap no matter how heavy or warm he was.

Toby was my floor buddy, always laying up against whoever would sit on the floor to pet him. He was my family and I miss him very much.

And here are the last pictures I took of him, today just an hour before we had to say goodbye.

Love you forever Toby-Doo

One of My Biggest Fears

A dear friend of mine went through what is one of my biggest fears, taking precedence even over fear of being eaten by a shark. Losing a child before they have a chance to live.

My heart breaks for her and her family. It has been two years since she wrote this. As I read her story, I broke down several times in tears, still after two years. If you want to read her story, "Empty", here it is: http://lostinterrobang.blogspot.com/2014/01/empty.html . I would encourage you to check out her whole blog as well.

Even though I'm currently behind in "the game" (meaning it's just me and myself currently ha), all girls dream of their futures. Be it future wedding, life, children, house, etc. And every time I think about my future children, I cannot help but worry about losing one of them.

But for me, I know that my God is bigger than my worries and when that time comes, I'll need to turn my worries over to Him.

Thoughts on Teacher Pay

Don't get out your pitchforks and torches folks! It's been such a long time since I last posted, I know and I apologize. But that's what happens when life hits you smack in the face and since hitting the ground running, you haven't stopped. But I figured I would weigh in on this teacher pay issue we're experiencing in South Dakota.

I recently got into a discussion with someone and a comment that was made really made me bristle. It really got my goat, you know? Here's the exact comment for you: "Find a first grade teacher who can throw like Cam or Payton and we'll pay them millions...to throw a football." 

Let me get this straight. The implication being stated here is the work that I do is not as valuable as the work that an NFL player does? The hours I spend trying to teach kids in creative and innovative ways so that school isn't "boring" and "a waste of time" to them isn't worth jack compared to the ability to throw a pigskin down a field? How is the value (return on investment) that we as teachers pour into students proportionate to the long duration of our employment? Heck, I would learn how to be an NFL player, even if it was to be paid millions to be the back-up kicker and ride the bench all year for a short period of employment. But where's the value in that? These guys can be role models for kids, absolutely! Plus being in the national spotlight gives them great opportunities to be role models for kids. But that's not the same as shaping the minds of the future generations into thinking for themselves and discovering their purpose. That's the value of teaching. Can football do that?

Don't get me wrong, I love football. But in my opinion, this pay difference IS sad. It's vexing to be honest. I'm not saying that Cam and Peyton don't work hard. But they get paid millions to play sports. To throw a pigskin down a field. To catch a ball and run with it. After they retire, they would never need to work another day in their lives.  You have teachers and veterans being forced to pick up 2nd and 3rd jobs in order to afford to live. 

Show me an NFL player that can teach groups of kids effectively on the salary that I make, which is 0.00161905 of what they make a year (looking at Cam's annual salary), while also being heavily scrutinized and bombarded with content standards and standardized tests that have nothing to do with learning and everything to do with being a good test taker. So for every dollar I make, Cam makes $617.65. Soldiers get crap pay and they protect our country, sacrifice a lot of the comforts we have, go through things just so we here at home never have to experience them. A teacher (and I'm speaking from personal experience here) gets paid crap pay for the amount of work that they do. It's not just knowing my content area and finding multiple ways to teach it to students so that they understand the concepts and apply them. It's not just an 8-5 job, Monday through Friday. It's all hours of the day, 7 days a week. I don't have the luxury of an offseason. My summer is used to prepare for the upcoming year by reflecting on the last year's lessons and how I'm going to improve those lessons. During the school year from 8-4, I have students in my room and we're off to the intellectual races. After those instructional hours, it's lesson planning and grading on top of trying to find resources while proving to the department of education that I'm an effective teacher. It's communicating with parents and being a professional in dealing with many different aspects. Which is a whole other topic I'd like to get to at a later time.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. And it isn't all doom and gloom. I love what I do and I love those kids. I love watching them come to a realization or take what I am teaching to the next level. Finding a book that holds them captive within the confines of its pages. The good far outweighs any bad and the bad instances are few and far in between. But, not everyone can be a teacher. It's hard work and it takes a lot of practice and failing in order to be a better teacher. Here's an acronym I use with my students: F.A.I.L. = First Attempt In Learning. I'm not trying to say that I'm valuable and I deserve better pay. I'm saying that I aspire to be a better teacher because if I do the bare minimum, I'm failing those kids. I have just affected them in a negative way and the consequences won't be immediately seen. How could I live with the weight of that? This question literally drives me to strive to be better - so that I can better serve those kids. What I am saying is that when you compare the different salaries, obviously something is seriously wrong.

Okay, seriously though let's get back on task. Let us break this whole issue of teacher pay down so thta we can better understand what I'm getting at here. Let's say on average I work 12 hours a day for 6 days (just throwing some numbers out; they vary from day to day. Sometimes 10 hours, 16 hours, 5 or 7 days) That's 3, 744 hours in a year (52 weeks) worked versus 2, 080 hours from those who work 40 hour work weeks. At $34,000 a year divided by 3, 744 hours, I make $9 an hour. Now take a look at the cost of living (i.e. school loan repayments, rent, utilities, groceries, etc.). I don't even want to figure that one out - it's that depressing. IF Cam Newton worked the same hours I did, he's still making $5,608.97 an hour compared to my $9 an hour.  Math teachers, how did I do with that? I'm an English major so you have to let me know, math is not my forte. 

The reason we're having a problem in South Dakota is because it is too easy to jump into another state and get better pay. Or even to get a waitressing job which I could make more money and work 40 hours a week instead of what I do now. I could go back to working at Wal-Mart as a CSM and make more money an hour while only having to work 40 hours a week. Obviously I'm not in it for the money, I'm teaching in order to try to create a positive learning environment. But the pay does suck. 

Here's a little video that really sums up nicely what I'm trying to get at here:

If you've stuck with me this far, I really appreciate your interest! Thank you for taking the time to read this post and hopefully it gets you thinking!

Teaching Isn't So Scary!

So I apologize ahead of time if I rabbit trail at all during this but I just need to share how awesome my student teaching semester is going so far!

This week was the first week I started teaching in one of my cooperating teacher's classes. And despite the fact that I should have been nervous, I wasn't on Monday. Like everyone who knows me, knows I should have been a nervous wreck but with a bunch of people praying for me, I firmly believe that that is the reason I was calm. I did send a quick text to my mom to pray for me but that was the extent of my freaking out. I just buckled down and completed the first lesson I wanted to accomplish and was prepared for class to begin. After that first lesson, I was totally pumped about teaching! To hear that all the students were actually interested in the book, Touching the Void, was just awesome. I read it beforehand in a day - it was just that good! But that's just my reading speed, I know that isn't the speed it will take us to read the book :)

Today I had to be gone from the school to attend a diversity-technology conference. To be honest, I was bummed because I didn't want to miss class. I decided that I would create a presentation using Google Drive and break students into the groups I had seen them in. I then assigned each group a different mountain (I googled top 10 deadly mountains to make the list interesting!). The mountains were K2, Mt. Everest, Annapurna, The Eiger, Matterhorn, and Mount McKinley. I asked them to find specific information: geography/description of the mountain/height, first known ascent, deaths, any interesting facts, and at least one picture of the mountain. I was nervous to find out how this had gone, especially since I wasn't there to answer any questions.

Skip forward to the conference: I'm just going to touch on the last 3 speakers we had because I feel like I learned the most all day from them. Speaker 1: Jennifer Adams (seriously, check her website out! http://www.jenniferlynnadams.com/). From her, I learned a lot about identity and how important it is for students to know who they are. Everyone has a story that has helped to shape who they are and it's important to take time to find out people's stories. Identity is not how people see you. Identity IS the things, talents, skills, whatever that when you use them, make you happy and you enjoy doing it. And each person has a message to their story, hers was "The Power of Words". I don't know that I have figured out a phrase that perfectly describes mine, but when I do I'll let you know! I'm thinking something to do with books, like George R.R. Martin's phrase "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one." If you knew my story, I think that would make sense :) If you ever do want to know my story, let me know and we can meet up and talk!

Speaker 2: The 2014 SD Teacher of the Year, LuAnn Lindskov. She had 10 tips to teaching that I would love to share with you.
   1. Build relationships with your students. Obviously this means appropriate ones, but it's more than just knowing who they are. It's getting to know them and what motivates them to learn and how they are doing.
   2. Have high expectations for yourself & your students.
   3. Learn from your mistakes (they are made on a daily basis) - strive to be a better teacher tomorrow than you were today.
   4. Surround yourself with positive, like-minded colleagues.
   5. Model lifelong learning & share your joy of learning.
   6. Make your connections to real life.
   7. Have a sense of humor.
   8. Show your students that learning is fun & celebrate it.
   9. Keep a "memory box" of notes, photos, cards, emails, etc to remind you why you teach! (And do not call this the "when I want to quit box"...negative implications)
  10. Teach service to your students. This can be to look out for one another on the local level but also on a national level. Her example was talking about hungry people in other countries and her students pointed out that there is a hunger problem right here at home in America, and often in your own city. They asked to fundraise and do a backpack program for these individuals.

Speaker 3: This was actually a Google Hangout with a few of the 2013 Teacher of the Year Recipients: Brian Curtin (Illinois), Andrea Fox (North Dakota), Lauren Eckman (Georgia), and the host was with us in the room, Katie Anderson (South Dakota). Just getting to talk with teachers about different concerns we had (by the way, the were all English teachers....score!), a lot of what they were saying really resonated with me. Plus Google Hangout would be a cool way to have students get to speak with an author, definitely going to look into that!

Jump to after the meeting: I get an email from my cooperating teacher and she mentions that a student told her that they liked the assignment and would love to do more assignments this way. I not ashamed to admit that I totally started cheesing out! I'm so excited to go back tomorrow to keep teaching and learning! I'm just so pumped!!




Here are some quotes that we got throughout the day that also really hit home.

"Teaching is not what we do; it is who we are." Dr. Jill Biden
"Teach students, not subjects."
"Kids before content. Love before all." Sean McComb
" I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Maya Angelou

And to add my own two cents:

Stress & College Students

People continue to ask me during my college career if I'm stressed. Well yeah! And there are several causes that make me feel so stressed. But no one ever asks what is causing the stress or how I can help manage the stress.

Does this mean that being stressed is the new "norm"? People are always talking about how they are stressed or asking how others are. Try googling stress and see what you get. You'll probably get a lot of results containing essays, opinions, and studies of what stress can do to the body like I did. Maybe even some sites that try to be helpful and tell you how to stop procrastinating and stressing out. But do we actually realize how much it can affect us? Did you know it can affect you immune system?! Not to mention your cardiovascular, neuroendocrine (which deals with hormones and metabolism) and the central nervous system! All because of a little stress?

The thing that ends up causing me the most stress is often times feeling overwhelmed with the amount of homework that is given. Some of the times, it is because I choose to wait a bit before starting the assignments but sometimes it is because there is a lot being assigned all at once. Take this semester for example: I had an art class where I was unable to get all the book assignments as well as the in-class assignments done during the given class period. What only furthered my frustration with the project was I could not get Photoshop (which was required for the projects) on my computer for I had already used my free trial up. The other problem I ran into was the times the Mac labs were open before and after classes. The main problem I had with the class was that at the beginning we had too much time to do the homework, but towards the end of the class we had too much homework. I ended up having to skip a class or two the Friday before finals week to get all the art projects done and turned in.

Another thing that tends to go hand in hand with procrastination is allowing distractions to...well distract us. I know I've done this and so have many others: TV shows, movies, or even Netflix. How easy is it to just pick up watching tv shows when they are so available on the internet! Here's a link to what a senior from Auburn, Tory Waltrip, has to say on the matter:


Find more videos like this on Auburn Family
She's gone through all the years of college, I think she knows what's up!

According to the report Stress in America, reported by the American Psychological Association, stress can be harmful to students' health. Especially when they are constantly stressed out - or chronically stressed. The report says that "an extreme amount of stress can take a severe emotional toll" on people. Well it's no wonder college students end up moody and severely emotional, especially the closer they get to finals week. The research they have done says that if chronic stress is left untreated it can result in serious health conditions, such as: anxiety, insomnia, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and much more. Over-eating is even mentioned as a way that people "deal" with stress. Come on guys, I know I'm not the only one who feels like munching when stressed. The report also says that despite all the connections to major illnesses, 33% of Americans have never discussed ways to manage stress with their doctor or other healthcare provider.

Holy smokes! We, as college students, need to find ways to manage our stress before we end up with a major illness or disease. It's time to start learning how to properly deal with stress. The Open University has some great tips for minimizing distractions and procrastination. Some of the suggestions they give are setting short term deadlines such as reading for 40 minutes and taking a coffee break and turning your phone on silent or asking your friends not to disturb you. I struggle with texting constantly especially when I'm doing homework. It seems to take me twice as long to finish my homework if I'm texting my brother, friends, or boyfriend. I just need to let them know I need to work on my homework for a bit and I will text them once I'm done. But that's easier said than done because of how technologically dependent I am!

The report offers some great ways to help manage stress. They say that even taking a small step to reduce stress and to improve emotional stress can have a positive effect on your life. For me, this would be not procrastinating and wait until the last minute/day to do homework or study. Physical activity is mentioned as a great way to manage stress. By doing something active, such as taking a walk or biking, will produce endorphins. Endorphins are a neurotransmitter to the brain that tell it to feel good and can help with treating mild forms of anxiety or depression. I've taken to hanging a punching bag in the garage and focusing my stress and anger on the bag. I end up feeling much better afterwards!

Eating healthy and balancing your day with a healthy balance of sleep and good food can help in enhancing your life. As a warning, the report does state that if high levels of stress continue over a long period of time, or problems from stress interfere with your day to day living, it is very important to see a licensed mental health professional/psychologist. They can help you overcome the barriers that keep you from living a healthy life and they can help you learn stress-management techniques.

As an Education major, I will certainly keep my experiences in mind especially when it comes to assigning homework with enough time to get everything done. As an English major, I understand that not everyone loves English as much as I do and that it can be stressful for others. I will work to make ways to teach English in a fun way and to keep it interesting so that perhaps it will help students to not procrastinate on account of the homework being boring or dry. I know that not everyone will enjoy it but I will do my best and that's all I can do. Perhaps I will even have a small talk about managing stress to my classes, especially my senior classes because of the dreaded "senioritis".

Of course, as a teacher I will have several points of stress that I will have to learn to manage and adapt to. But by reading the APA's article, Stress in America, I feel that I am better equipped to deal with stress. I have a feeling I will be making some lifestyle choices soon and hopefully you all do the same and fight back with stress!

Open Mic Night

Even though I was very nervous to have to be the host of Open Mic, I thought it went okay. My favorite part was getting to read my poem which I didn't expect people to react to but they thought it was funny. I'm glad they did because I was scared that no one would react to it. Overall it was a very successul night with the singing, stories, and poetry readings.

But after seeing something that was posted on a DSU confessions page, I ended up calling my mother to tell her about it. And yes, I talk to my mom because she always knows the right thing to say and she cheered me up. Here's a screenshot of the "anonymous" post:

First off, an open mic is not a competition. A competition would imply that people were competing for prizes and for first place. It was an open mic where people could share.

Secondly, we did treat him with respect but he was onstage for 30 minutes talking and we needed to give others who were still in line a chance to read. It was not fair to those who had yet to perform. If any of the other performers had gone too long, we would have done the same thing. We watched the time on all the performers. Never once did we treat him with disrespect, I had to go up and ask him to wrap it up at the 20 minute mark to which he said he was almost done. But 6 minutes later, he wasn't done yet and by that time we needed to move on no matter how close he was to being done with the story. He was very brave in letting people know that he had a stutter and people had made fun of him in high school. It was very brave to stand up in front of people he didn't know and share a personal story. I felt horrible for having to do so but other people still needed to perform. By the way, the drawing we had for all those who performed to get a chance to win a Pizza Ranch gift card? He was one of the winners.

And I felt bad for people who got their poems judged and some people left before hearing the whole thing. We did not censor any of the content, and I don't understand how people can be upset about a poem about violence and assume that all poetry is that way. Plus, this campus has had other events not hosted by the English Club where that event used worse language than that poem did. There was a poem about domestic violence where it started out with a beating and it was harsh, but in the end of the poem it talked about how the behavior was wrong. People who left before the end of it have no right to comment on it. If you would have seen the audiences faces, we were just as shocked by the violence but we stayed till the end to hear him say how wrong it was. Poetry is meant to be provocative, and the domestic violence one was. It brought attention to what actually happens and the performer did a great job.

The post made me feel horrible but you know what? The person who wrote this "anonymous" post is a small person because you don't understand how long it took my advisor to get me to go up in front of people to tell him he needed to wrap it up. That I was almost in tears of embarrassment in doing so. But I have nothing to feel ashamed of or sorry for. I had to make sure that other people got a chance to perform.

I will not allow a small-minded person to make me feel horrible. The Open Mic night was a success and from now on we will have a time limit. I was glad I presented my poem and I'm glad that people were brave and shared their songs, stories, and poetry.

A Sea of Tears

Here's another poem I wrote. It's called "A Sea of Tears". 

Drowning in a sea of tears

The worst of my fears

Coming true

Losing the one you love

The waves crashing down on the cove

That was once your life

Heart ripped in two

Because there’s nothing I could do

To stop you leaving

All the memories we’ve made and shared

The ways you showed me you cared

Where are you now?

You said you’d always be there

Imaging being without you makes me aware

How empty I feel

Wanting to lose myself in this feeling

To be washed away instead of dealing

With the pain

Never-ending rivers flow from my eyes

Wishing it all to be lies

And for you to be back

Pulling Petals

This is just a short poem I wrote. While I do love writing lovey dovey poems (especially since I'm a huge romantic), I figured some people would appreciate this :) I thought it was kind of funny personally to think of the flower's point of view!

I’m so sick of this love crap!

I’m past the point of no return, I’m gunna snap!

Day in and day out, you tear the petals apart,

Flowers brutally murdered due to matters of the heart!

You think it’s easy to be a flower?

Flower power yeah right! Flowers have no physical power.

Do you know how many times I have sat and watched

My friends and family petals ripped off and they get debauched?

How can you do such a thing? Our petals make us desirable

Much more than any jewelry or bauble.

Our petals attract insects with much needed pollen

So forgive me if I seem rude and sullen.

Without our petals we die, I’m not being melodramatic!

Nothing can bring us back. Not water, not sun. Don’t you dare try the Heimlich!

Everyone knows we have to photosynthesize to survive

But without our beautiful petals, we just shrivel and our life takes a nosedive.

Death is the only answer, for we were uprooted from the ground

All so that love could abound.

Bullying & To This Day

This video should be seen be all. I first saw this video when a friend on Facebook shared it from a page named Andy Biersack. Don't know who they are but I liked this video.

The saying "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me" has always bugged me. Because I would rather break a bone than have to deal with the names people can call others. Or to see people be told they aren't good enough, whether it be in a classroom or during a sport. A broken bone can heal physically faster than any emotional pain that comes from being told that you are ugly or you aren't worth it and even worse, you begin to believe those people.

True beauty isn't skin deep. Even beautiful gems like diamonds must be put through tons of pressure.

To experience this and to watch other people go through this, it's so hard not to get angry. The pain of those feelings smoldering into anger, needs to be replaced by something only the great I AM can give us. Forgiveness.

Like the video says, there's a reason we are still here. And we deserve to be happy because there are people who truly care about us. And I want you to know that no matter what you are going through, no matter what people say about you or the names they call you, you are beautiful.

Luck or White Lie...Fingers Crossed

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, at some point in their life has had a superstition. For me, the one I still find myself doing even as an adult is crossing my fingers for luck. Especially when I'm sitting waiting to see a score, I'm crossing my fingers for good luck. I don't actually believe that crossing my fingers will give me luck but it's a habit I had as a child and still have not broken today. It's even mentioned in everyday life and in movies and songs. Here is an example of song that uses this phrase for good luck:

Today I'm going to give you some background theories about probable origins of the finger crossing superstition. I will then try to give you an example of how crossing our fingers for luck or to annul the white lie that we told. After that I will analyze the story and an extra scenario so that you can see what I'm talking about with superstitions playing a part in the fallacies in our logic and reasoning.

Have you ever wondered where the concept of crossing your fingers came from? According to www.wisegeek.com, one meaning of crossed fingers could be bringing good luck and warding off evil spirits or witches. The origins have been hard to find and it is believed to have begun during a time period between Pre-Christianity and Early Christianity. While researching, I came across information that I had never heard before. There were those people who believed in "sacred geometry" and they thought that gentle spirits lived in intersection of crosses and this required two people. Seiyaku.com also mentions this theory as a possibility and they refer to the intersection as the "Solar Cross". One person would hold out his or her index finger while the other would put his or her own index finger to form a cross. These people then used this method to make wishes.

The next theory that WiseGeek talks about is one of my favorites. It deals with secret societies and just seems to resemble one of my favorite games Assassin's Creed about a secret society. Christianity became an outlawed religion during it's early history. It's followers had to form a secret society and to protect their identities they had to develop secret hand signs to be able to recognize each other. Talk about insanely cool!! I mean it would be horrible to have to resort to secret meeting in order to avoid getting caught and quite possibly tortured. But the idea of secret societies and conspiracies makes interesting fodder for a fantasy novel (keeping that idea for later).

Another theory that interested me was when a possible origin of the modern day version of crossing fingers was mentioned starting up around the time of the Hundred Years War from 1337 to 1457. Individuals on both sides of the army needed all the luck they could get and archers would have crossed his fingers and quickly prayed before pulling the bowstring back. Why do you think the archer would cross their fingers? Was it for good luck so that they would hit their target? Perhaps once while they crossed their fingers and shot they hit the intended target so they figured it would continuously do so, turning it into a superstition.

To break away from the theories of luck and warding off evil, most of us as children would cross our fingers when telling a "white lie". According to Wikipedia, this could have sprung up from the belief that the "Christian cross"could possibly save a person who told a lie from going to hell. Which brings me to the next thing I would like to address about fallacies and superstitions affecting logic. I would like to help illustrate how superstitions such as finger crossing play into our logic and reasoning by sharing a short story I wrote. Try to see if you can see some fallacies and superstitions. 

As I'm walking home from school, I know I'm toast. I know mom is going to ask me how the test went. I thought I did so well, how could I have failed? If mom finds out, I'm grounded and have to miss the school dance. Maybe she won't ask and I won't have to tell her. Even if she does ask, I don't really have to tell her do I? I pause on our stairs with my hand on the door. I mean what she doesn't know can't hurt her right? Plus I will make sure to do better on the next test to help boost my grade back up. All of this bad luck I'm having all because I walked under that ladder last week. How will I survive seven years bad luck? It won't really last that long will it?

I hear mom vacuuming the living room so maybe I can sneak past her. I quietly step into the entryway and close the door as silently as I can. I slide my shoes off and peak into the living room. Mom has her back turned so here's my chance. Sliding across the hall, I hasten upstairs to my room. I get into my room and I hear the vacuum shut off. Dog gone it! She heard me on the stairs. She calls up to my room but I put my headphones in so I can't hear her. I pull out my chemistry book just in time. Mom opens my door and motions for me to pull out my headphones. 

"How'd your test go honey?"

I brace myself and put my headphones down. What should I say? Before I know it, my mouth started talking before my "filter" could kick in. "Oh, it went good. It was a hard test but studying helped." I replied with my fingers crossed hidden from mom's view. 

She smiled at me. "That's great! You can still go to the dance tomorrow. Just wait, I got you something." She disappears from my sight. How could I lie to her? But... it's not like I'm hurting anyone. I mean, it's not like I killed someone. All I did was tell a little white lie. What could go wrong?

Mom came back hiding something out of my view. "You know that dress you wanted to get this weekend? Well, I went back and picked it up just in case you passed." She was beaming.

I felt horrible. "That's great mom."

Did you notice all of superstitions and fallacies in logic in this story? Did you notice how the main character justified lying to her mom by saying it wouldn't hurt her? Well physically, no it wouldn't but it would hurt emotionally that her daughter had lied to her. Did you also notice that the daughter crossed her fingers when she lied, and still as a teen she thought that it would cancel out her lie? The daughter also blamed walking under a ladder as the main cause for her  failing a test rather than take the blame herself for not studying or being prepared. And to the daughter, this seemed to be logically sound. We know better and can see this for the fallacy in logic it actually is.

So why do we still cross our fingers for luck or to "cancel" a promise? Why do we still practice other superstitions like black cats? We know that superstitions such as this can affect our logic yet we still do them. BF Skinner, a behavioral psychologist, studying supposed superstitious behavior in pigeons. His theory has been adapted to explain superstition in humans. Basically this would mean that we continue to practice or "believe" in superstitions because of two main reasons: 1) the person thinks that by continuously practicing the superstition it will eventually work; or 2) the practice of the superstition has coincided with an event or result and could continue to do so either at random or continuously. Which makes sense if it happened as a child. If I'm remembering correctly, I observed someone else crossing their fingers in several instances and as a kid I thought that it was magic because they seemed to always get what they wanted. And as a child, we are extremely influenced easily by what we see or hear.

You can't make fun of people who are very superstitious because most people still hold onto some superstition - consciously or unconsciously regardless of good or bad reasoning. This could range anywhere from finger crossing to avoiding stepping on cracks to ways of breaking the hex like knocking on wood, etc. Here is a video of two comedians and their take on superstitions. 

While this video is funny, it shows how superstitions can contribute to fallacies in logic and reasoning. For example, they believe all the things that go wrong (towel on the floor, interrupting the breaking of a hex, breaking a mirror, black cat) can affect the basketball game they are about to play. The are a bit extreme in the lengths they go to "break the hexes" but this is a comedic sketch. But some people who are this superstitious could go to the same lengths. Can you now name some superstitions you still hold on to? Do you notice it affecting your judgement in any way?

Luck or White Lie....Fingers Crossed Draft

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, at some point in their life have had a superstition. For me, the one I still find myself doing even as an adult is crossing my fingers for luck. Especially when I'm sitting waiting to see a score, I'm crossing my fingers for good luck. I don't actually believe that crossing my fingers will give me luck but it's a habit I had as a child and still have not broken today.

Have you ever wondered though where the concept of crossing your fingers came from? According to www.wisegeek.com, one meaning of crossed fingers could be bringing good luck and warding off evil spirits or witches. The origins have been hard to find and it is believed to have begun during a time period between Pre-Christianity and Early Christianity. While researching, I came across information that I had never heard before. There were those people who believed in "sacred geometry" and they thought that gentle spirits lived in intersection of crosses and this required two people. Seiyaku.com also mentions this theory as a possibility and they refer to the intersection as the "Solar Cross". One person would hold out his or her index finger while the other would put his or her own index finger to form a cross. These people then used this method to make wishes.

The next theory that WiseGeek talks about is one of my favorites. It deals with secret societies and just seems to resemble one of my favorite games Assassin's Creed about a secret society. Christianity became an outlawed religion during it's early history. It's followers had to form a secret society and to protect their identities they had to develop secret hand signs to be able to recognize each other. Talk about insanely cool!! I mean it would be horrible to have to resort to secret meeting in order to avoid getting caught and quite possibly tortured. But the idea of secret societies and conspiracies makes interesting fodder for a fantasy novel (keeping that idea for later).

Another theory that interested me was when WiseGeek talked about the possible origin of the modern day version of crossing fingers. They talked about the Hundred Years War from 1337 to 1457. Individuals on both sides of the army needed all the luck they could get and archers would have crossed his fingers and quickly prayed before pulling the bowstring back.

To break away from the theories of luck and warding off evil, most of us as children would cross our fingers when telling a "white lie". According to Wikipedia, this could have sprung up from the belief that the "Christian cross"could possibly save a person who told a lie from going to hell. Which brings me to the next thing I would like to address about fallacies and superstitions affecting logic. In the meantime, enjoy this video I happened upon that has lyrics pertaining to crossing fingers for good luck:

So why do we still cross our fingers for luck or to "cancel" a promise? We know that superstitions such as this can affect our logic yet we still do them. BF Skinner, a behavioral psychologist, studying supposed superstitious behavior in pigeons. His theory has been adapted to explain superstition in humans. Basically this would mean that we continue to practice or "believe" in superstitions because of two main reasons: 1) the person thinks that by continuously practicing the superstition it will eventually work; or 2) the practice of the superstition has coincided with an event or result and could continue to do so either at random or continuously. Which makes sense if it happened as a child. If I'm remembering correctly, I observed someone else crossing their fingers in several instances and as a kid I thought that it was magic because they seemed to always get what they wanted. And as a child, we are extremely influenced easily by what we see or hear.

Here's another video for you to enjoy about superstitions: