Smart Boards vs. Blackboards

My colleague was out in the community today evaluating use of technology in the local schools. She told me the grade schools have better equipment than we do at the university. They have magic whiteboards that the students point to and draw on in color. The high school students produce a school news TV show every morning. All the talk these days is about democratic teaching, engaging the students etc. It's intriguing, but I have to sound like an old codger. I like the way we did it back in the day. (1) Show up on time, (2) shut up, (3) behave, (4) listen to the teacher, (5) do your work, (6) repeat. It didn't really matter what your "learning modality" was, or your attention span, or your home circumstances. Just do what you're told, and sink or swim according to your competence. That's not very popular in schools these days, but oddly enough it still seems to be relevant to the workplace. Hmmm - can anybody find the disconnect here?

I accidentally appointed myself to be on the space allocation committee for our church. (I'm one of the lucky ones who gets to tell the "senior saints" that they have to meet at a different time and in different rooms with different people. That's gonna go over REALLY well. I don't think I'll be getting any homemade baked goodies for a long while.) As part of this awesome responsibility, I was let in on a cool secret. The pastor has a secret hideaway. I can't tell you where it is (unless you let me come to see you on visitation night), but I saw it as empty space on the building plan, and later I watched him duck into the unmarked door after prayer meeting. Hah! One wag on the committee suggested we ought to assign a sunday school class to meet in there and see what he says.

First Day of Kindergarten

Hard to believe it's finally here - Sara's first day of kindergarten. I was trying to remember everything I could about my own kindergarten. It was 1962 and we lived in Columbus Ohio. Amazingly, I recalled my teacher's name (Mrs. White), and the pumpkins we grew. I also have a pretty good recollection of the room we met in. I remember sneezing and being sternly reminded to cover my face with my hands. I remember a paper turkey with its brightly colored feathers.

Kindergarten and preschool teachers are the most important influences on our society outside the family. They should be recognized and celebrated. I would say we should pay them enormously, but then the wrong kinds of people would be attracted to the profession. Why don't we have a pre-school teacher's day, Hallmark? You've got a day for everything else.

Free Country?

It’s great to live in a free country. Well, let’s think about that. This is NOT a "down on the USA" rant, just a reflection of the reality that civilization brings with it an awful lot of mostly self-imposed restrictions.

We are so used to these that we largely overlook their existence, but we delight, sometimes too much, in enforcing them on each other.

I was driving to church last week, and passed by a house with a handmade sign in the yard “Toby and Mary’s Community Group.” Of course I had to wonder what insidious counter-cultural activity was taking place under the guide of “Community Group.” Lots of fun possibilities raced through my mind ( vegetarian jugglers, wife swapping, poetry reading, communists, or maybe vegetarian, wife-swapping, poetry-reading communist jugglers), but in fact it could have been, and probably was, just plain, ordinary Christians meeting for a Bible study. I surmised that they were embroiled in some sort of controversy with neighbors and the city zoning commission due to the number of “visitors” and the associated parking problems.

Think this is a free country? The student group I advise at my university has been trying for several years to perform some fundraising. They got the football team to autograph a football to be raffled off. Not allowed – that’s considered “selling” the names of the team. (Not that it can’t be done, it just has to be done by the U. so they get all the money.) They tried to sell doughnuts and coffee. Nope- health code, taxes, exclusive licenses, etc.. They tried to set up a little store in the electrical engineering building to sell electronics parts. Nope – need authority from the governor, several senators, the IRS, and probably the football coach, who knows.

If you really want to explore how free our “free” country is, try starting a business. I mean, starting from scratch. Find a nice piece of land. First hurdle – zoning. If the zoning matches the exact type of business you intend to pursue, purchase the lot. You will discover lots more restrictions and requirements at this step, especially if there is any credit involved. Build a store. Try building it yourself. How many different inspections will you have to pay for and pass, but probably won’t the first three times because the powers that be are in bed (sometimes quite literally) with the local builders and really don’t like to see folks doing their own work? Got the store built – great. Now, get all your annual operating licenses. Get your state and federal government tax ID numbers. If you intend to hire anyone, get ready for a veritable flood of paperwork, requirements, licenses, and more restrictions. The fun never stops. Oh, and make sure you keep up your landscaping and have the right amount of green space, buffer zone, and porous cover.

In our “free” country, it’s fun to send a child to “free” public school. How many hundreds of dollars do you have to spend on mandatory supplies throughout each year?

I know most of the ordinances and public policy are designed to minimize conflicts and maximize quality of life for everyone, but some are just onerous. I’m especially offended by neighborhood “covenants” that dictate such petty things as forbidding residents to own vehicles with lettering on them. We have friends who were afraid to be cited by their neighborhood association because their garage was too cluttered – there were a couple of kids toys visible from the street. A fantasy of mine is to make a lot of money and buy one of these houses. One night I would erect a huge plastic Mickey Mouse on the roof, then spray paint the outside pink and orange. I would set up plastic pink flamingos all around, and park a pickup on the lawn with some clever business signage, like “John’s Septic Cleaning and Pressure Washing.” Some chickens feeding in the yard would top it off. Then in the morning I would take small home-made cakes to all the neighbors. Ah, what fun to contemplate.

Football season is here again. The casual greeting throughout the week is “goin’ to the game?” This is like asking “how are you” and expecting the reply “fine – you?” Any answer other than “sure – you?” stops people in their tracks. I delight in answering no, and waiting for it to sink in. “But – why?” “Because I can’t stand football.” I usually don’t actually say that because it takes too long to explain, but it is the way I feel. Not because I care about the game itself one way or another, but because mainstream college football with its present trappings is absolutely ridiculous. It’s not the only drawer of large crowds – certainly professional soccer and rock concerts are right up there, but it is the unrivaled hypocrisy that galls me. This is an activity that pretends to be associated with university life, which should be primarily the life of the mind including activities such as studying, thinking, considering, pondering, and discoursing. Instead it breeds and feeds on a very unsavory set of character traits.

I suggest the following changes to college football:
(1) No more football “scholarships.” College scholarships should be awarded to students with good grades in high school who could not otherwise afford to attend college. Period.
(2) No recruiting of high school players. If a student is in college and he is earning A’s and B’s, and he wants to play football in his spare time, great - let him do that.
(3) No time away from classes for football players. They should practice and play in their spare time. No pampering, special dorms, tutoring, etc.
(4) If the team wants to play a team from another school, all travel should be at the students’ own expense, not the schools’. Students should pay for their own uniforms and protective gear also. If there is any additional medical insurance cost, the student should also pay for that.
(5) Football game scheduling should in no way conflict with regular academics, including access to student, staff, and faculty parking.
(6) The football coach(es) salaries should be paid directly from the teaching budget of the university, and should be subject to all the rules and restrictions that pertain thereto.

With these changes in place, we would have something closer to true amateur athletics. Perhaps then a parallel career track would arise for gifted athletes, distinct from any association with a college or university, that would feed directly into the professional leagues. These athletes could focus on their sport, and not be hampered by having to pretend to go to college. If they wanted to earn a college degree also, they would have several choices, including night school, vocational / technical school, and online degrees.