"The Kingdom" with Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner

Last night, Texas Truth and his lovely bride of 24 years had a date night. I know that concept is a current PC idea and it has a meaning of a "special evening" together with one's significant other. Actually, the night out came to past because we both got out of our teaching duties early and decided to go to an early movie.

After scanning the paper, we decided to see "The Kingdom" with Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner. I have never been a big fan of either performer, but I had seen some of the previews for the movie and felt we would enjoy it.

The movie was excellent. I recommend it to everyone. It had action, intrigue, and just the right amount of suspense. Go see it if you enjoy those types of movies. All the performers did an excellent job.

What made me post about the movie was a line from a scene in the movie. Without giving away the plot, the scene had a high ranking Untied States government official in a meeting with the head of the FBI. The official was accusing the FBI director of some sort of impropriety. As their conversation progressed, the FBI director commented about his time as a government employee and his service in Vietnam. He states that when he was serving in Vietnam, his commander (General William Westmorland) had all his officers write their own obituaries.

The FBI director stated that after that happened, they realized that their job (and life) was finite and it was going to end sometime. Once that fact was realized, they (the officers) were at peace in their minds they didn't worry about dying as much.

He further stated that he viewed his job with the FBI as finite and it was indeed going to end sometime in the future. He knew that fact and accepted it. The only question in his mind was whether he was going to leave the job on his knees or on his feet. He felt confident that everything he did was correct and had no regrets about what his decisions had been.

My description of this scene may not be exactly correct, word for word, but it did make my loving spouse and I discuss it on the ride home as it related to our jobs as educators.

A great deal of "CRAP" has been piled upon us and many other teachers in recent days, months and years. Moral around both of our schools is very low, and we are only half way through the fall semester. Pressure about TAKS testing, student discipline and "No Child Left Behind" is giving many educators sleepless nights and stress they do not need.

Many high ranking education officials seem only interested in pushing their objectives and desires with little regard for what is truly needed to educate students.

We both talked on the ride home and decided that his statement indeed applied to our jobs. We, along with many other teachers, are concerned that we are dinosaurs and will be forced out because of our conservative views and high standards that we demand from our students. If this does happen, then it happens. We are going to go out on our feet.

Indeed, we will not be in our current positions forever . Yes, we are comfortable in our current positions and very much love our jobs. But when that day does come and the "powers that be" decide that we are no longer a part of THEIR objectives for education, our time will come to an end.

That will then be the time for us to move on and try something else. After all, we are are both educated individuals and can find other jobs and positions. Looking at all the people out in the world whom can hardly function with their education level, but indeed do, I know we will be fine.

We are both going to go out on our feet, knowing that we did the very best job we could for the students we taught.