June Monthlies
I just came back from a weekend trip going canoeing at Pine Canyon Lake with the Boy Scouts in 105-degree weather. The water felt great, so much so that I almost wanted to stay in the water and not in the canoe. It’s been awhile since I have been in so much heat all day long. I felt like I drank gallons of water. My boy loved the trip and my wife and daughter came too and they survived it. They enjoyed the canoeing part, but not the being outdoors in the heat part.
For the second month in a row, I had something else going on which prevented me from being able to do a timely address of the For Better or For Worse monthly letters for FOOBiverse’s Journal. I usually do an address here of the monthlies as they relate to my characters of Howard, Constable Paul Wright and Jeremy Jones. Howard and Jeremy were not mentioned at all, so on with the very indirect mention of Constable Paul Wright.
Liz's Letter, June 2007
Hello, everyone. I hope you're all doing well! It's going to be a great summer; I'm looking forward to it. School's almost out, and I'm eager to have a vacation that doesn't involve moving or planning to be in a different place in the fall.
My time in Mtigwaki was wonderful, but the summer always brought with it some major life changes! Not anymore. This summer, I'm staying put. I've got my apartment, I'll still have my job in the fall, and I'm set to enjoy the time off.
Elizabeth was in Mtigwaki 2 years. The summer after her first year she was attacked by Howard while she worked at Lakeshore Landscaping. The summer after her second year she worked in summer school in Mississauga. Neither one of those things had anything to do with Mtigwaki, so why is Liz able to take the summer off now? Is she making so much more money at Glenallen School, she no longer has to work in the summer?
I've enjoyed teaching in the city. It was a real departure from the "country schoolteacher" role I had in Mtig, where things didn't have to be by the book. The curriculum was much less rigid up North, where the kids often had to take time off to participate in traditional living activities such as trapping, preparing hides or preserving food. Down here, I have less flexibility in some ways, but there are benefits - for example, if I'm sick, there's someone on hand to take over for me if I want to stay in bed all day.
It’s sad to see Elizabeth is still telling these stories about the Ojibway education system. I researched Ojibway culture for months because of this strip, and there were many terrible problems with education for the Ojibway, but I never once read that the Ojibway educational problems were because the children were locked into trapping, preparing hides or preserving food.
That said, the vast majority of my students are kind and well-mannered. I had one student this past year with Asperger's Syndrome. She was a very bright child, but she had trouble reading the verbal cues of other people, and was confused by the social scene in the class. She tended to use her brain instead of her emotions when she analyzed a situation, and so she really failed to understand what the other kids were motivated by and why they acted the way they did. She seemed more like a small adult, and she confided once that she feels like a space alien - our ways are foreign to her, and she feels like there must be another planet out there where people would "get" her. We talked quite a lot; she preferred adult company to that of the other students. I hope I managed to instill in her a feeling that she was ok, and that someday she'd find a place where she belonged
My son has Asperger’s Syndrome. How many of these things could be said about my son?:
She was a very bright child = Yes. My son is very bright.
She had trouble reading the verbal cues of other people = Not so much. Physical cues are the thing with my son, like being able to read an angry look, or a sad look that goes along with something being said. Many times words don't match the look and it is confusing.
Confused by the social scene in the class = No. I would phrase it “could care less about the social scene in the class, but is aware he doesn’t have any friends”
She tended to use her brain instead of her emotions when she analyzed a situation = Yes.
She really failed to understand what the other kids were motivated by and why they acted the way they did = Not really. With my child, it is more a case of not realizing why the kids react to him the way they do, when he has an unexpected behaviour -- a behaviour which is normal for him.
She seemed more like a small adult = Yes.
She confided once that she feels like a space alien - our ways are foreign to her, and she feels like there must be another planet out there where people would "get" her = No. My son would never express this feeling this way, even if it is the way he feels. This is a very common way of explaining Asperger’s Syndrome to others or to parents or relatives of the child.
We talked quite a lot; she preferred adult company to that of the other students. = Yes. My son does prefer adult company. However, if Liz gave him an impromptu grammar less where she jumped incoherently from grammar rule to grammar rule, my son would be completely lost.
I hope I managed to instill in her a feeling that she was ok, and that someday she'd find a place where she belonged = No. She belongs in Liz’s classroom and with certain accommodations, she might be able to function within that classroom, particularly considering it doesn’t sound like the girl is particularly disruptive (unlike my son). Unfortunately, this is an opinion too many of my boy's teachers had in the public school system.
Two summers ago, he asked me to wait for him. I guess I have been waiting. However, I gave him a noncommittal answer and went back to Mtig. At the time, I believe I'd discovered what love was, but I was wrong.
Since she had not been dating Paul at that point and I doubt she is talking about Howard, I guess she must be talking about Warren for the love discovery. At the time in her letters she kept going on and on about how she kept waiting for Warren's helicopter to drop in for a visit.
The way it is written though, it seems like the reference is to Paul, as if the letter writer has forgotten the chronological order of the strips. If so, Liz is talking about that “If this is what love is like, I’m loving it” thing, where she won't kiss the man, but dances around after he has left. This is pretty typical for Liz. She didn't tell Paul Wright she loved him, until after she had moved to Milborough. She didn't think of Warren as a boyfriend until she moved to Mtigwaki. She didn't think much of Anthony Caine until she went away from him. If Liz is finally realizing that "love" is not "moving away from a guy who loves me", then this could be a majour improvement. Otherwise, she would never be able to court Anthony Caine and marry him, without moving away first.
With respect to the made-up character Honoria Delaney-Forsythe (Gerald Forsythe's younger sister) the following letter applies;
April's Letter, June 2007
I don't think I'll be seeing Gerald much this summer. I'm still mad at him, and now I hear he's signed up to be onstage with Becky. I can't believe he'd do that after she abandoned us. I can't believe he didn't tell us, either. I mean yeah, he knew we'd be mad, but of course he should have said something. It got back to Eva through one of her friends, so Gerald is telling other people. I understand that he can use the money, but I can't believe he'd hide stuff from the rest of the band. I dunno. I'm not pleased with him lately.
This letter is clearly written to occur before the breakup strip. Notice that Eva has friends who share information with her but not with April. Here April sounds confused, not like the April in the strip, who seemed quite certain she and Gerald were no longer a couple. If Gerald wanted to play with Becky, how could he have possibly pulled that off? There is no way April, with her level of Becky hate, would ever accept it, and she admits she would have been mad. Would she have been mad enough to break up with Gerald, if he had asked permission before? It's hard to tell from this paragraph. We would need to see a letter written after the breakup.
Sometimes I don't feel like I have anyone to talk to. I should be able to tell Gerald things, but I can't trust him with secrets.
This has been a perpetual problem with April. She used to tell all her secrets to Becky McGuire and never to Gerald or Duncan.
My parents would go postal if they knew what goes on between my friends and I, or between any other people my age. They flip out over song lyrics and music videos, but there's all kinds of stuff happening at my school or online or at the clubs that they have no clue about.
The only thing we have seen with April is drinking and almost having sex with Gerald. This can be the only thing to which April is referring for herself. We have never seen anything online or at clubs for her.
Eva and I get along great, but she's in the band so she's not exactly objective about this stuff. And she isn't totally on my side either. But then, she didn't play music with Becky and she doesn't really know how all this junk happened.
In other words, Eva will take your side against Gerald for not telling the band, but she thinks that you’re going overboard by dissassociating yourself with Gerald completely for having anything to do with Becky. “It’s just a telethon” says Eva and the fact that the band sits to eat with Gerald shows they agree. April believes this lack of objectivity has to do with Eva’s participation in the band. But in the strip, Duncan doesn't get up to leave with April. Duncan, who is the only person who might appreciate all the Becky junk. However, both Duncan and Gerald have already been shown in the strip not to have the same degree of Becky hatred April has.
The way it played with the band being willing to sit with Gerald, when April was, tells me that either the band may try to continue without April (and not Gerald), or April’s breakup with Gerald is temporary. Ways it could go would be:
1. Becky treats Gerald like crap, and he decides April was right all along and begs for April’s forgiveness.
2. April’s friends tell her to lighten up and she finally listens
3. April’s friends tell her to lighten up and she never listens, so they have to decide on Gerald or April, which seems an obvious choice since April is the unaccepting one and her creator is pushing her hard to get out of the music business.
4. April realizes on her own that Becky is not that bad.
5. Becky hits on Gerald, and Gerald realizes the only reason he was hired was so Becky could try to take him from April, and he quits and begs April’s forgiveness.
For the second month in a row, I had something else going on which prevented me from being able to do a timely address of the For Better or For Worse monthly letters for FOOBiverse’s Journal. I usually do an address here of the monthlies as they relate to my characters of Howard, Constable Paul Wright and Jeremy Jones. Howard and Jeremy were not mentioned at all, so on with the very indirect mention of Constable Paul Wright.
Liz's Letter, June 2007
Hello, everyone. I hope you're all doing well! It's going to be a great summer; I'm looking forward to it. School's almost out, and I'm eager to have a vacation that doesn't involve moving or planning to be in a different place in the fall.
My time in Mtigwaki was wonderful, but the summer always brought with it some major life changes! Not anymore. This summer, I'm staying put. I've got my apartment, I'll still have my job in the fall, and I'm set to enjoy the time off.
Elizabeth was in Mtigwaki 2 years. The summer after her first year she was attacked by Howard while she worked at Lakeshore Landscaping. The summer after her second year she worked in summer school in Mississauga. Neither one of those things had anything to do with Mtigwaki, so why is Liz able to take the summer off now? Is she making so much more money at Glenallen School, she no longer has to work in the summer?
I've enjoyed teaching in the city. It was a real departure from the "country schoolteacher" role I had in Mtig, where things didn't have to be by the book. The curriculum was much less rigid up North, where the kids often had to take time off to participate in traditional living activities such as trapping, preparing hides or preserving food. Down here, I have less flexibility in some ways, but there are benefits - for example, if I'm sick, there's someone on hand to take over for me if I want to stay in bed all day.
It’s sad to see Elizabeth is still telling these stories about the Ojibway education system. I researched Ojibway culture for months because of this strip, and there were many terrible problems with education for the Ojibway, but I never once read that the Ojibway educational problems were because the children were locked into trapping, preparing hides or preserving food.
That said, the vast majority of my students are kind and well-mannered. I had one student this past year with Asperger's Syndrome. She was a very bright child, but she had trouble reading the verbal cues of other people, and was confused by the social scene in the class. She tended to use her brain instead of her emotions when she analyzed a situation, and so she really failed to understand what the other kids were motivated by and why they acted the way they did. She seemed more like a small adult, and she confided once that she feels like a space alien - our ways are foreign to her, and she feels like there must be another planet out there where people would "get" her. We talked quite a lot; she preferred adult company to that of the other students. I hope I managed to instill in her a feeling that she was ok, and that someday she'd find a place where she belonged
My son has Asperger’s Syndrome. How many of these things could be said about my son?:
She was a very bright child = Yes. My son is very bright.
She had trouble reading the verbal cues of other people = Not so much. Physical cues are the thing with my son, like being able to read an angry look, or a sad look that goes along with something being said. Many times words don't match the look and it is confusing.
Confused by the social scene in the class = No. I would phrase it “could care less about the social scene in the class, but is aware he doesn’t have any friends”
She tended to use her brain instead of her emotions when she analyzed a situation = Yes.
She really failed to understand what the other kids were motivated by and why they acted the way they did = Not really. With my child, it is more a case of not realizing why the kids react to him the way they do, when he has an unexpected behaviour -- a behaviour which is normal for him.
She seemed more like a small adult = Yes.
She confided once that she feels like a space alien - our ways are foreign to her, and she feels like there must be another planet out there where people would "get" her = No. My son would never express this feeling this way, even if it is the way he feels. This is a very common way of explaining Asperger’s Syndrome to others or to parents or relatives of the child.
We talked quite a lot; she preferred adult company to that of the other students. = Yes. My son does prefer adult company. However, if Liz gave him an impromptu grammar less where she jumped incoherently from grammar rule to grammar rule, my son would be completely lost.
I hope I managed to instill in her a feeling that she was ok, and that someday she'd find a place where she belonged = No. She belongs in Liz’s classroom and with certain accommodations, she might be able to function within that classroom, particularly considering it doesn’t sound like the girl is particularly disruptive (unlike my son). Unfortunately, this is an opinion too many of my boy's teachers had in the public school system.
Two summers ago, he asked me to wait for him. I guess I have been waiting. However, I gave him a noncommittal answer and went back to Mtig. At the time, I believe I'd discovered what love was, but I was wrong.
Since she had not been dating Paul at that point and I doubt she is talking about Howard, I guess she must be talking about Warren for the love discovery. At the time in her letters she kept going on and on about how she kept waiting for Warren's helicopter to drop in for a visit.
The way it is written though, it seems like the reference is to Paul, as if the letter writer has forgotten the chronological order of the strips. If so, Liz is talking about that “If this is what love is like, I’m loving it” thing, where she won't kiss the man, but dances around after he has left. This is pretty typical for Liz. She didn't tell Paul Wright she loved him, until after she had moved to Milborough. She didn't think of Warren as a boyfriend until she moved to Mtigwaki. She didn't think much of Anthony Caine until she went away from him. If Liz is finally realizing that "love" is not "moving away from a guy who loves me", then this could be a majour improvement. Otherwise, she would never be able to court Anthony Caine and marry him, without moving away first.
With respect to the made-up character Honoria Delaney-Forsythe (Gerald Forsythe's younger sister) the following letter applies;
April's Letter, June 2007
I don't think I'll be seeing Gerald much this summer. I'm still mad at him, and now I hear he's signed up to be onstage with Becky. I can't believe he'd do that after she abandoned us. I can't believe he didn't tell us, either. I mean yeah, he knew we'd be mad, but of course he should have said something. It got back to Eva through one of her friends, so Gerald is telling other people. I understand that he can use the money, but I can't believe he'd hide stuff from the rest of the band. I dunno. I'm not pleased with him lately.
This letter is clearly written to occur before the breakup strip. Notice that Eva has friends who share information with her but not with April. Here April sounds confused, not like the April in the strip, who seemed quite certain she and Gerald were no longer a couple. If Gerald wanted to play with Becky, how could he have possibly pulled that off? There is no way April, with her level of Becky hate, would ever accept it, and she admits she would have been mad. Would she have been mad enough to break up with Gerald, if he had asked permission before? It's hard to tell from this paragraph. We would need to see a letter written after the breakup.
Sometimes I don't feel like I have anyone to talk to. I should be able to tell Gerald things, but I can't trust him with secrets.
This has been a perpetual problem with April. She used to tell all her secrets to Becky McGuire and never to Gerald or Duncan.
My parents would go postal if they knew what goes on between my friends and I, or between any other people my age. They flip out over song lyrics and music videos, but there's all kinds of stuff happening at my school or online or at the clubs that they have no clue about.
The only thing we have seen with April is drinking and almost having sex with Gerald. This can be the only thing to which April is referring for herself. We have never seen anything online or at clubs for her.
Eva and I get along great, but she's in the band so she's not exactly objective about this stuff. And she isn't totally on my side either. But then, she didn't play music with Becky and she doesn't really know how all this junk happened.
In other words, Eva will take your side against Gerald for not telling the band, but she thinks that you’re going overboard by dissassociating yourself with Gerald completely for having anything to do with Becky. “It’s just a telethon” says Eva and the fact that the band sits to eat with Gerald shows they agree. April believes this lack of objectivity has to do with Eva’s participation in the band. But in the strip, Duncan doesn't get up to leave with April. Duncan, who is the only person who might appreciate all the Becky junk. However, both Duncan and Gerald have already been shown in the strip not to have the same degree of Becky hatred April has.
The way it played with the band being willing to sit with Gerald, when April was, tells me that either the band may try to continue without April (and not Gerald), or April’s breakup with Gerald is temporary. Ways it could go would be:
1. Becky treats Gerald like crap, and he decides April was right all along and begs for April’s forgiveness.
2. April’s friends tell her to lighten up and she finally listens
3. April’s friends tell her to lighten up and she never listens, so they have to decide on Gerald or April, which seems an obvious choice since April is the unaccepting one and her creator is pushing her hard to get out of the music business.
4. April realizes on her own that Becky is not that bad.
5. Becky hits on Gerald, and Gerald realizes the only reason he was hired was so Becky could try to take him from April, and he quits and begs April’s forgiveness.
posted by howard at 11:22 PM
4 Comments:
Howtheduck, thanks for your comments on Liz's declarations regarding Asperger's. I was curious about your take. At the Foobiverse, someone suggested that the Lynnions' research probably consisted of reading one of those sidebars in a Newsweek article.
Newsweek did do a cover article on Autism in general back last November, and did cover Asperger's as a sidebar. Some of the lines she used are definitely taken from material I have read, but out of the context in which it would have been presented. Also, bear in mind that I took her comments as they would apply to my son, there are quite a variety of behaviours which would cause a child to be categorized as having Asperger's Syndrome. The child simply has to have enough of them to get the diagnosis. Some of her comments would apply to other children.
It has become trendy to use characters with Asperger's Syndrome in entertainment these days, much as it was popular to do people with Tourette's a few years ago. It is possible that Lynn is getting ready to introduce Liz teaching this child in a strip, but since her time is limited, it would have to be on a Sunday only.
Eek, I think I'd be afraid to see what Lynn does with this student from Liz's letter. I'd be afraid to see what Liz does with her, as well.
I'm not afraid. I am sure it will be gloriously awful and snarkworthy.
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