Karma has its secrets, too

In my last year of room 301, we were given professional development on Oprah's well-supported book by James Ray, called THE SECRET. Instead of problem solving how to best teach kids, instead of learning how to better embrace student achievement and our school's philosophy, and instead of celebrating the accomplishments built over many years, our administration chose to show the movie, The Secret, during professional development.

In short, the movie promotes positive thinking to get better cars (and for weight-struggling women stuck in a world of cats and Hershey bars, to get Chippendale strippers into their bed).

We didn't know why we were being shown this film and my greatest memory of the day was hearing Rita, a middle school math teacher, laughing out loud at how ridiculous the message was. We believed in positive attitudes. We believed in hard work. We didn't believe in the purpose for this during a school day.

Fast forward, the above is in the news. The man who capitalized on the secret of positive energy has a bit of negative karma following at his heals. Such a shame. The world does work mysteriously.