As an education major, I am dedicated to quality education in our elementary schools. The area I would like to focus on for the semester is social studies education, which will help create good citizens who are activist-intellectuals. By getting Junior Achievement, a social studies curriculum focusing on education, economics, and good citizenship, into my son’s elementary school, Metairie Grammar, I can encourage these talented young people to appreciate the impact education can have on their futures and their communities.
So far, I have attended the room mothers’ meeting to recruit some of our wonderful parents. Many smart, professional parents are at our school, and I wanted to inform them about this wonderful program that is free for our schools! The only catch to the program is that you need a volunteer teacher for your class. I gave a speech to the moms about Junior Achievement and how it teaches early economics to children as young as Kindergarten. Five moms signed up after talking with me, which I thought was a very encouraging start. Our principal is so excited about the prospects of having Kindergarten through fifth grade classes in the entire school receive this curriculum.
I set up another speech for the night of the first parents’ group meeting. After speaking with the local head of Junior Achievement, he offered to come with me to the meeting and bring the materials used for the lessons so the parents can see them. This worked very well, as a lot of interest was generated for the program. Parents were eager to look at the materials and seemed impressed with what students will learn. Some of the third grade materials taught concepts like zoning, city planning, check-writing, blueprint reading, and newspaper article writing. From this meeting, I found five more volunteers, but I also spread the idea of the program to the teachers and parents in attendance. One class had three people sign up, so I had to ask two of them if they would accept another class! What a great dilemma to have! Many of our parents have children in other schools as well, and were interested in getting programs at those schools. I can really see the potential for parent volunteers to spread the Junior Achievement program around not just to Metairie Grammar, but to many other area schools.
I then decided to e-mail some room parents from classes that did not have someone sign up, and ask them to call other parents to help find a Junior Achievement volunteer. One mom decided to meet with me in order to learn about the program and how it works. After we met, she decided to teach all three third grade classes, not just her daughter’s class.
I asked the Junior Achievement local coordinator for a copy of each grade levels curriculum to give to the teachers. After he e-mailed me the guides, I printed them out and delivered one to each teacher. This is helping them to decide when they would like the lessons to start, based on when it will best fit into their lessons. They were excited to see what topics each class would cover this year. The staff was mostly familiar with Junior Achievement and all were looking forward to the lessons.
Next, I e-mailed Loyola University’s education department because we had two volunteer students from there two years ago. I also e-mailed Tulane University’s head of the Education Department to see if they have any students interested in volunteer work. Hopefully, someone will need service hours and agree to help us teach some of our classes.
I picked up the kits for the whole school last Friday at the Junior Achievement headquarters and took them to each teacher. I contacted each volunteer about getting the materials and how to contact me with any questions or problems. Everyone seemed very excited about starting the lessons. I told volunteers that I can meet with them to go through materials, answer questions, and facilitate a schedule for the five lessons which are conducted once a week. All of the teachers suggested a time based on when they have social studies or when they have elective time available, but all are willing to be flexible to accommodate our volunteers’ schedules. Once the classes have started, I will check with the teacher and the parent to see how things are going.
Meanwhile, I had more parents contact me about Junior Achievement in order to volunteer, so every class has a person. Originally, I was going to teach a second grade class that had no volunteer, but someone from the class called me to see if she could still sign up. I will be teaching my son’s fourth grade starting next Friday afternoon. We will talk about starting your own business, reading maps, identifying local resources, creating financial reports, and paying taxes. The lessons look very fun, including playing a game that tracks income and expenses in an eraser company. My son is very enthusiastic about my coming to the class, as are many of his friends. Some of the parents have even asked what we are covering this year.
My next step is to contact my sons’ old elementary school to see if they would like Junior Achievement classes. I used to teach lessons there, and the administration really liked the program. Since I will likely have colleges contacting me with volunteers, I would like to have a place to utilize these students. I have not contacted business associations yet, but am optimistic that these groups will also have some interested parties. Also, some of our civic groups may be interested in sending some of their members, especially groups like the Elks Club, that like to encourage good citizenship in their programs.
Some similarities between Genesis and the Enuma Elish include the start of each, which describes nothingness, followed by the start of creation. Both have violence against others, as in Cain and Abel in Genesis and Apsu and Ea in the Enuma Elish. The idea of an evil serpent that creates havoc is present in both stories. Both also show a god that creates human beings. Another similarity is the idea of seven days in the week in both stories. Differences include Apsu’s attempted destruction due to a lack of peace and quiet. While God did send a flood in Noah’s time to destroy everything, it was not due to annoyance with noise levels, but rather because of serious sins and wrongdoing. Also, many gods were created according to the Enuma Elish, as opposed to Genesis which has one and only one Supreme God, who is all powerful. In the Enuma Elish, the reader is told about Tiamat and her many monsters, which has no parallel in Genesis. We do see a woman who makes a mistake in Genesis, Eve, but she does not try to kill her own children, nor is she killed by another person for her transgression.
Archaeology helps Bible scholars in many ways. These digs can give them a glimpse of past civilizations about which they read. It allows them to look at the reality of the times in which these stories were written and occurred. They can then compare and contrast these setting to the ones described in the Bible stories. In some cases, it confirms the stories, and in other cases the archaeological evidence disproves the historical accuracy of these tales. Knowing what books are based on history can help scholars to interpret other books of the Bible. They can look more critically at books written by the same author, viewing them as literature or as first person accounts of history. These digs also help scholars to see artifacts from a civilization to help shed light on what was important to a society and what their values were.

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