It's better to be a fool for Christ.

First Things: An April Fools-Free Zone

I don't know if the (attendance) secretary was coaxing the principal into telling an April Fool's joke, or if she was in on it and the principal was the mastermind, but it was rather painful to sit through and listen to the principal try to fool the students into thinking that Friday was a day off in observance of César Chávez Day. How many students were actually paying attention while she was telling the joke (jocose lie)? I couldn't help but wince; did the student teacher catch my reaction? It just seemed rather silly, even though the principal is generally one of the more serious people at the school. How can Catholic Christians not feel a bit wistful when we think of Christendom and what has been lost?

Some of the students at the school were playing minor pranks/telling jokes, and I didn't care enough most of the time to be vigilant when they told me to look behind me or at my shoes.

It didn't seem like many adults were celebrating the holiday by trying to live up to the spirit of the holiday. I would have to agree that it is one of the worst faux holidays in our country. That it has spread elsewhere is rather pathetic. But with the loss of leisure, festivity, and Christianity we can't help but ape our ancestors when we indulge in the ludicrous.

It has been claimed that Orthodoxy is one of the more patriarchal religions around. We live in such an unserious age that we might not even benefit from the examples of those who play the Fool for Christ. (We have St. Francis of Assisi and others.) So little shocks us out of our comfort zone--we live for the next diversion.

STAR testing starts in a couple of weeks. Just last week I just learned of the testing scandal in Washington, D.C. (See links below.) One school district has recently begun emphasizing a college education for its students, though they come from a rather low socioeconomic background, etc. The push for college degrees and the lack of education reform appropriate to a post-carbon era strikes me as being frustratingly stupid, but who's going to question their assumptions about the world? Not educators and liberals.

Michelle Rhee's Cheating Scandal
Michelle Rhee Responds to D.C. Testing Scandal
The rise, and looming fall, of 'education reformer' Michelle Rhee

This strikes me as an example of women tearing other women down, especially since the author is Diane Ravitch: Shame on Michelle Rhee by Diane Ravitch Info