What a blog!

Tip o' the hat to the Mudville Gazette -- thanks so much for pointing this wonderful blog out.

Just when you think that our schools are completely hopeless, churning out brainwashed liberal zombies, along comes something wonderful like this. Mind you, this didn't come from an ordinary public school -- this came from KDES, a primary school associated with the famous Gallaudet University for the deaf. Nonetheless, it raises ones hopes...some students are being directly (and gently) exposed to the real world, very directly, by making very creative use of blogs and email. A wonderful thing. And I'll bet it was a wonderful thing from the perspective of this Marine and his family, as well...

Here's the blurb on the blog's home page:

The war in Iraq can seem like a world away unless you know someone there. For the deaf and hard of hearing students at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School (KDES) in Washington, D.C., the war is made more immediate through their on-line dialogue with U.S. Marine Sgt. Earl (Jay) Beatty. Through a new kind of correspondence commonly known as a blog, the students, as part of a Visual Literacy project, exchange letters and photographs, and share their extraordinary drawings of the war as they see it with Beatty in Iraq, and with his wife, Donna, in the U.S.

How did all of this happen? Beatty, a Maryland state trooper and Marine, was deployed to the Iraqi town of Fallujah in late August. Prior to leaving for his new post, he was asked if he would be willing to communicate with KDES students while stationed in Iraq as part of a visual literacy project. He eagerly accepted the offer. He and his wife have corresponded with the students ever since.

The students set up their message center in the TecEds lab where staff members help them to send and receive e-mail from Beatty. The spontaneity of the Internet and the flexibility of digital pictures have enabled the students to have a front-line experience of the war through the eyes of a soldier serving his country.Please...go read this wonderful blog, and see the photos and paintings from the students. But grab a box of Kleenex before you start reading...