Do you "LIKE" school ?

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Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

Do You “Like” School?

Have you ever noticed how many adults will ask a child how he/she likes school?  We have created a scenario in which we seem to tell children they should “like” going to school.

Perhaps we adults are guilty of confirming a youngster’s belief that if he isn’t happy then something must be wrong.

I first started to think about this when I found a private school that used labor as a penalty for offenses against school rules. Specifically in this one case if you were caught smoking you were forced to dig a very large pit in the ground in which you would then bury a cigarette and refill the hole. I suppose there was some intent of reminding the young smoker that cigarettes can lead to death, and to a grave, but it all seemed pretty awful to me.

Since I have always believed labor should be ennobling, I found suggesting that work is a punishment went a little to far. We need to instill in kids that all work is good. It is not something to be avoided or shirked. And we should certainly not suggest that if they do something wrong the result is they get to work!

What a message that sends.

This unpleasant part of life at one school led me to further consideration of whether a child “liking” school is a proper goal.

And while I believe it is nice if going to school is also a pleasant experience and that a student is happy about learning, his happiness should not, in my opinion, be the focal point.

Schools should focus on learning.

And for learning to occur there has to be good teaching.

Good teaching, in turn, involves role modeling.

And all of it responds well to discipline and focus.

When all this happens in a way that everyone is happy it must be a wonderful thing. But if it happens in the absence of happiness it is still a good thing.

I think when schools get too involved in creating happiness, learning often does not occur at the high level one would hope. When sports, cheerleading, drama presentations, proms take precedence over “readin and writin and rithmetic” somehow everyone loses.

All of the extracurriculars have a place.

But it should never be “first place.”

When they are part of a total package that ensures some kind of learning is happening in every activity, from the classroom to the playing field, then the “whole” is structured in support of learning, of true education.

In my ideal school, there could only be one student leader.

One Captain of a team.

One President of a club.

Disappointment is a real part of life. Not getting promoted is a real occurrence. Everyone cannot receive the top prize or the prize loses value. In life, competition is always present and there are winners, also-rans, and losers. Isn’t that what should be taught in school?

When our students actually get out into the world they are not going to find two CEO’s of any company for which they work. They are not going to find two Police Chiefs or Fire Chiefs, or two Mayors.

To be sure people are happy we might have three team captains or co-presidents of the student council or two valedictorians.  It seems to me that you could have five team captains, a troika of presidents for the student council and five valedictorians and someone, or some many, would still have their feelings hurt.

I worked in a school where a headmaster often commented that it was not his job to make you happy. It was your job to find happiness. It was his job to run the school.

I can tell you that my experiences working for international financial organizations certainly never brought forward any CEO’s desire to be responsible for my happiness.

Education should be preparatory for real life.

Education should not be an attempt at creating fairy tale life.

When contemplating this column I was reminded of my first job out of college. I went to work at an all boys’ boarding school. A man known for a no-nonsense approach to education headed it. Decades later when he was the longest sitting school head in the country it was obvious that his model had worked well.

Let me share one story that illustrates what I am writing about.

One night, well into the evening, there was a knock at this Headmaster’s front door. He found a young lad there asking to see him. He led the student to his study and asked what was troubling him.

The student said he wanted to go home.

The Headmaster asked why.

The student responded that he was a smoker and found the rules against smoking too restricting. And he had a girlfriend back home with whom he would rather spend his time. Finally, he played in a rock band and he missed his band mates.

The Headmaster thought for a moment and then reached in his pocket and gave the lad a quarter. He then said something like this to the boy:

Son, take this quarter and go over to the payphone in the main building and call your parents. Ask them to be here no later than noon tomorrow to pick you up and take you home. You can spend the rest of tonight packing.

The shocked student, who probably expected to be talked out of his desire to leave, asked if he was being expelled. The Headmaster responded that he was not being expelled he was being permitted to leave, as requested. Then the Headmaster concluded with this statement:

If I were to list three things that have nothing to do with an education and which would be at the top of my list of things that should not be important to a person at this stage in life, my list could well include the three things you mentioned.

If those are so important to you that you would sacrifice the opportunity your family has provided for you to buckle down, focus and succeed then we have no place for you in this school.

The Headmaster escorted the lad to the door.

The quarter was never spent.

The parents never came.

The student never spoke of it again. Nor did the Headmaster.

Some forty years later, when the school was celebrating the Headmaster’s tenure, the young student about whom I have written was the speaker at the dinner. In addition, that student’s sons had later been placed under the tutelage of his old Headmaster.

Fairness is not more important than firmness when dealing with teenagers.

Straight talk and follow through make huge impressions on young people.

Happiness has very little to do with learning but can certainly be a by-product.

Forgiveness and understanding can season a decision but a decision must be based in the reality of the present and informed by the possible future result of the decision.

An education is an education. It is not a social experiment. It is not a happy day on the playground. It is hard work toward an important goal: being an educated person ready to face the challenges of life head on.

One definition of an education is:

…the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.

I hope the next time you want to have a conversation with a youngster about school you might ask questions like these:

Did you learn some new things at school today?

What did you learn today that you didn’t know when you left for school this morning?

Have you thought of ways you might be able to use what you learned in school today to be successful in life later on?

Maybe if you read more about what you are learning tonight when you return to school tomorrow you will surprise everyone with how much you have learned.

TEACHING IS NOT LIMITED TO THE SCHOOL.

TEACHABLE MOMENTS ARISE EVERY DAY.

STOP "BUTTING" IN

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

STOP “BUTTING” IN

I have an occasional email correspondent, the happily long-lived columnist Liz Smith. Ms. Smith has been writing outstanding columns, titled simply “Gossip,” for many, many years. She is a Texan who found fame and success in the “Big Apple” and she is the toast of every major screening, party or important gathering even at age 90.

In reading a recent column in which she uses the phrase “butting in” I began to think how seriously that phrase summed up many of our current international problems.

Specifically, she said: “There is some suggestion that the U.S. has brought this horror upon itself, with its international “butting in.”

This brought back an old saying we had when I was a child. We would call someone a “Butinski” who ventured where he was unwanted.

One might argue as a world super power we have an obligation to make certain all is well in that world.

Who says so?

I can argue that we should leave other nations to their own devices in working out their regional disputes.

One might argue that if the U.S. becomes more isolationist good people might die and friendly countries might be overrun.

I can argue that people are dying every day in these lands and in spite of all our efforts we do not seem to be able to bring stability anywhere. How does it fall to us to spend American dollars and risk American lives trying to sort out problems for other human beings who instead ought to rely on their own cunning, resources and diplomacy.

What we do accomplish when we play “Butinski” is making enemies of the enemies of our friends. 

Let us move on to a consideration of the state of our own union.

In case my readers have missed it, we have plenty of things to worry about right here at home. We have a staggering loss in the housing market. And if you remember economics 101 you know that most people have their largest investment in their home. For years it has been a safe investment and one that is the keystone to retirement planning and our “golden years.”

Today that investment for most is in serious trouble.

The government, those folks we send to Washington to look out for our best interests, is laughable.

“We the People” are not laughing.

Our representatives, however, are laughing.

They have tied us to retirement programs, health programs and other government run benefits from which they exempt themselves. One can only surmise even a poorly educated citizen can figure out if our representatives don’t want to participate in the programs they devise for the rest of us there must be an odor arising somewhere in close proximity to the Capitol building. And I am not referring here to the capital of Denmark!

If you had the medical program available to senators and representatives you would have few worries.

If you had the generous retirement plan available to senators and representatives you would have few worries.

If you had the office hours of senators and representatives you would certainly rarely be worried.

The only thing that worries these folks is that we will wise up and not return them to Eden (my choice for a new moniker for Washington, DC.)

But, alas, over many many years we have not wised up. We regularly return them to Eden. So again, in most cases, no worries for our senators and representatives on that front.

Recently, while the president shut down White House tours because of a serious threat to our economy, his Secretary of State went to the Middle East and passed out a gazillion dollars.

Did you notice?

Recently the salaries of people in the employ of The White House to do calligraphy on invitations to dinners and ceremonies were published. Shortly thereafter some company showed online that they could do just as good a job mocking up invitations that were every bit as fancy for “peanuts.”

The President recently said he had about six months to get something done.

Gee whiz!

We just gave him four more years. What will he do for the last three?

In fairness, he was acknowledging in our highly charged electioneering culture that in another six months all of “D.C.” will be engaged in the midterm elections. The GOP will be trying to hang on to the only arm of government they currently control: the House. The President’s party will be trying to take over the House and control the whole government.

Shortly after that is decided, lots of the president’s pals, as well as plenty of his enemies, will be off and running for the next presidential nomination. When our representatives are out and about in the land trying to hold onto their seats in Eden, gain more seats in Eden, to actually monopolize Eden, they do not have much time for productive work.

Perhaps it is time for we citizens to take the role of “Butinski” seriously. I think our country would be well served if the voters became “Butinskis” and started butting in on many fronts domestically.

Why not take some drastic steps.

The U.S. could require each country to be responsible for their own economy and their own safety. Hands off. None of our business.

The United States could have term limits. Two terms to U.S. Senators and three terms for Congressmen.

Foreign aid would become, well, foreign to us.

Because there would not be any.

There would be Social Aid. This would be money we would use to help in any area of the world hit by natural disaster. Our involvement abroad would be limited entirely to humanitarian aid.

We would ask the United Nations to relocate.

That organization, for all the high hopes and expectations, has been an unmitigated disaster. Not only do we house it in our country, we put up with all the shenanigans that accompany “diplomatic immunity.” We may be required to participate but we are not required to play host to guests who clearly have little respect for our country or our people.

Every elected representative would be required to participate in exactly the same governmental programs available to the people. No special deals or perks.

Citizen service would be what we would honor.

Our rallying cry will be to BUTT OUT of the affairs of other nations and BUTT IN to the affairs of our own country.

Simplistic?

You bet.

Red Hats White Hat

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Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

The Red & The White

When you are the Pope you get to stand at a window many stories up the façade of St. Peters and look down at crowds of people on many occasions. It must be a thrilling moment looking at all those adoring faces tilted upwards making every effort to see you and to receive your blessing.

This is a rainbow moment for a Pope.

But often his view is limited to a sea of red birettas. When he is on the throne of St. Peter quite often all the best seats are filled by the Princes of the Church, the many cardinals sporting all those little red caps called birettas.

One wonders as he looks at them is he trying to decipher which might be papabili, or front-runners for the role of Pope? Which of them might be his successor. We have no idea if in his power to make new Cardinals he gives any consideration to adding to, or subtracting from, various potentially influential groups of eventual “Cardinal electors” who will meet in the Sistine Chapel to identify the next successor to Peter the Apostle.

So when a conclave to anoint a Pope is called the world witnesses a sea of red marching into the chapel and a ceremony filled with tradition, symbolically locked in as the door closes and Swiss Guards take up their positions.

I note this symbolism because it came to be in an age when there were not televisions, radios, smart phones, and ways to smuggle notes into the conclave. I cannot help but wonder how these meetings are affected, if at all, by current technology.

As you know, when ballots are taken they are then burned. If black smoke arises for the waiting faithful outside the Vatican to see, then the ballot has failed to produce a new Pope. However, if the smoke is white, Habemus Papam, we have a new Pope.

The other day I was reading about a group of women who are dissatisfied with the role of women in the Catholic Church. They plan to ensure pink smoke rises at just the proper time to bring attention to their plight.

Oh boy! (or perhaps Oh girls! would be better.)

Out of over one hundred red birettas will arise one white zucchetto, the name given to the hat worn by Popes.

And for the first time the fellow wearing the white hat has not only the entire world to worry over but also one little fellow residing inside the walls of the Vatican who knows what it is like to wear the white hat.

Changing paradigms.

Teachable moments.

History in the making.

It will be quite interesting to see this play out.

WORD PICTURING

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

WORD PICTURING

When I set aside time to read the newspapers I often get a chuckle out of terminology. Recently, reading a number of accounts regarding military practice drills planned jointly for South Korea and U.S. forces on the Korean peninsula I was rewarded with a treasure trove of word pictures.

The government of North Korea does not like the idea that we “practice” for war. You may recall that North Korea is currently run by a real “nut case” dictator who recently succeeded his father who was an even greater “nut case.”

I use the words “nut case” to paint my own word picture for my readers!

The “nut case” is represented on this matter by one Pak Rim-su.  That name alone conjures up word pictures of especially humorous possibilities. Pak Rim-su has advised the leaders of the planned “war practice” that both the United States and South Korea will suffer “miserable destruction” if the plans move forward.

Close your eyes.

Imagine “destruction.”

Then imagine “miserable destruction.”

You should have a picture in your mind’s eye about now. Are you suffering from a cold sweat? Are you wringing your hands? Have you reached for the Valium?

Let me summarize.

A “nut” who runs a country so small and insignificant that they seem to regularly launch costly missiles into the sea of Japan (which is like shooting a missile from New York intended to land in California but finding it in pieces in New York City’s East River) sends a honcho named Pak Rim to instill fear and trembling in the United States of America.

You couldn’t make this stuff up.

In any event, we are a bit guilty ourselves of playing with word pictures. Consider “war games.”  Is there a heart beating irregularly in any chest that thinks war of any kind is a “game?”

It is hard to expect our enemies to take us very seriously when what we are practicing is considered to be a game. Not only do we call what we are doing “war games” but we then give each “war game” a name. In the case under discussion, the joint operations in Korea, we have named these games “Key Resolve” and “Foal Eagle.”

How much to you suppose we pay the General in the Pentagon tasked with coming up with these names? He is probably the same guy that purchased the expensive toilets everyone writes about when the defense budget is ready to pass.

I can make a stab as to the message being sent with “Key Resolve.” I won’t even try with “Foal Eagle.”

I have watched our relationship with the Koreas over many years. My own belief is that if the militaristic north really wanted to invade and capture the south they could be in Seoul in time for lunch the day they started marching.

Their problem is that in order to get to their reserved table at the Intercontinental Hotel restaurant in Seoul they have to march across thousands of American troops currently standing around on the 38^th parallel separating the two Koreas.

One might ask who the rocket scientist was that decided it was somehow in our best interests to place a serious number of American lives right on the line separating two countries that despise one another. Probably the same guy who thought the Arabs would be delighted to have the Jews build a homeland right in the middle of their neighborhood.

And we know how well that worked.

So if the “nut case” and the “Pak Rim” guy are serious we could find ourselves at war with North Korea after they annihilate our troops on their way to lunch.

All this leads me to the suggestion that perhaps we should revisit all our mutual defense agreements (“mutual” is another interesting word picture-as if Taiwan or South Vietnam or South Korea had anything real to offer in defending the United States of America against any enemy) and determine if they have any reality for today’s world.

In the meantime, have some fun with the word pictures the military creates throughout the world.