Will TheKiddo™ Have Heroes?

Do you ever look at your children and wonder, "Who inspires them"?

I spend most of my time worrying about her school, her health, her day-to-day wellbeing that I don't always think about her bigger dreams. What are they? Where do they come from? How can I help her?

I caught myself wondering about her inspiration tonight as I shut off the lights and put the bedtime stories away.

Our daughter is interested in such a wide variety of things. It is hard at times to keep track. She swims. She plays drums. She dances. She plays with dolls. She loves board games. She explores with her Girl Scout friends (technically Daisies at her age).

She does all the things that are probably normal for a majority six-year olds. And yet I find myself wondering who her female heroes and role models will be.

Will it be her mami? TheBetterHalf® is an incredible woman (and I'm sure I don't tell her that enough—lo siento muñequita).

Will it be Missy Franklin? TheKiddo™ has made it clear she loves swimming, and that she wants to win gold medals in the Olympics just like Missy.

Will it be Lisa Randall? TheKiddo™ does love math and science (a love I hope to foster for as long as I live).

I have no idea from where TheKiddo™ will draw inspiration. Mine came from books, movies, and my imagination. I didn't have heroes, or anyone that I truly aspired to be. I wasn't even sure who I ought to admire.

I'll do my best to place incredible opportunities, people and role models in her path. And at the end of the day, that may be all I can do.

Urban Gardening: A Day for Planting

We had a long day at the garden, or rather gardens.

It began with a lot of work at our two plots that are part of Gardeners In Community Development. We had a little bit of harvesting to do. The bush beans are producing, and several other items are growing well. The pole beans are blooming, and the broccoli and brussels sprouts are getting rather large.

Harvesting and tending to the first plot was followed by a whole lot of planting of carrots (multiple varieties), turnips, peas, lettuce, and spinach.

After several hours (and a bit of a sunburn), we ran out of steam and headed for home. Of course that meant a stop at our small plot at the Deep Ellum Urban Garden. (DUG also has a facebook page if you prefer that sort of thing.)

We started the DUG plot to have an herb garden much closer to home. It's going to come in very handy for cooking.

Is Public Education Focused On The Wrong Product?

Public education, particularly Dallas ISD, has been a constant topic in our house since the start of the school year. This week, the conversation has been focused on "leveling."

For those who aren't going through this tedious process, I'll explain it briefly.

Leveling refers to a reduction in the number of teachers and personnel to correspond to the number of students. The process seems to be a bit more complex this year in DISD due to the consolidation of elementary schools (e.g. the closing of some campuses and the redistribution of the anticipated students to other campuses).

Where TheKiddo™ goes to school, they had anticipated 420 students, and only 360 enrolled. So for the first six weeks, we've known that some teacher would be leaving us. We just didn't know which ones, or when.

News is finally trickling out, and we should have confirmation tomorrow.

The upside of what we're hearing is that TheKiddo's teacher isn't one of the ones leaving. The downside is, we don't know if she'll be moved to another grade or not. So TheKiddo will have a bigger classroom because one of the teachers is being reassigned. We just don't yet know if she'll have a new teacher too. Regardless of the outcome, lots of students who should be well on their way to establishing routines, will have to start at the beginning.

It's terrible that we're days away from the end of the first marking period and we don't know. It proves to me that DISD isn't focused on the well being of the children. They're focused on the items that generate revenue: attendance, and test scores (particularly TAKS or STAAR, or whatever it has become).

The focus on these items is understandable. If that's where the money is, and that's what's being measured, then they're an obvious place to look. Yet it's the wrong outcome. Because these items don't necessarily have any causality for future success, preparation for college, or a students knowledge and ability to be a contributor to society.

By focusing on attendance and test scores, students are transformed from recipients into producers. They are no longer the end result, they are part of the machinery that is responsible for creating the end result: higher test scores.

If the students are constantly pushed to create better and higher test scores, they are not learning how to communicate clearly, think critically, and synthesize all the information being presented to them. They are merely focused on narrow analysis of specific pieces so that they can perform well when tested.

And if those producers don't create an end product that is of sufficient quality, they aren't fired and replaced as in a traditional workforce scenario. The result is far worse for them, for you, for us, for society as a whole. They are relegated to the dustbin of the unteachable. And that is an unconscionable outcome.  

We must move from our industrial-age, analysis-over-synthesis view of the classroom and its result.

The synthesis is crucial. It's what helps students understand that geometry is important, beyond the boundaries of geometry class, for example. We need to rethink the priority, and begin treating the teachers and students as humans rather than resources.

I don't have the solutions. I do know we need to start looking in different places for them.

Connect Four Degrees of Separation

TheKiddo™ took her Tio to school playing Connect Four. At the same time, she took my mind on a trip to the one place on the surface of the Earth that is farthest from the center of the planet.

Her facility with the game and the ease with which she won a couple of them, started some thoughts about cognitive hierarchy. The budding thoughts then led me to this PDF about economics that is copied from "The Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 2004"

This (of course) led me to Poisson Distribution, and the infallible realization that I need a refresher course in mathematics. 

This reminded me of a TED speech from Rives, and now I can only think of one word:

Chimborazo!

Vacation

This has been a week to relax. Sure we've had adventures, but this trip has mostly been about the beach. There has also been beer and briquets ... and even S'mores at night on the beach.

Urban Gardening: Perfecting Some Patience

Now that we've harvested all the tomatoes from the plants that we put down in spring, and the first cucumber vines have withered, we're in a waiting period. The waiting isn't easy. We know the garden's bounty will be delicious. Gardening, however, is a slow process. Nature takes its own course.

So we wait. We water. And we watch.

The cantaloupe and butternut squash are growing. They're just not yet ready to harvest. In fact, they're a bit shy and hiding under the leaves.

We also have several pole bean plants, bush bean plants and cucumbers that we've put down recently (the bush beans and cucumbers are only a week old).

Last, but not least, the sweet potatoes are flowering again. If there's as much activity below ground as above ground, we may have more potatoes than we can manage.

Vacation time

We've made our 2nd annual pilgrimage to the beaches of South Texas. This year, we opted to stay in a condo with a full kitchen. That's due to the scarcity of good restaurant choices in the area. We figured rather than pay for poor food, we'd just make sure we scheduled time for cooking. Heck, it's vacation. It's not like we have anywhere particular to be.

Urban Gardening: Butternut squash

We got our first squash of the season today. I'm excited by the amount of flowers and young squash we're seeing on the vines. Fingers crossed that the dog days don't kill it all. This week is supposed to be absolutely brutal.

It's Gary Gygax Day

I wrote what follows on the occasion of the passing of Mr. Gygax in 2008. Felt it was worth sharing again here in honor of his birthday.

Happy birthday Gary. Wherever you are.


It could just be my perception, but the Grim Reaper is once again working on the belief that three is definitely a charm. Over the past few weeks that venerable specter of doom has taken from this world three men who have had a nearly indescribable impact on my life—E. Gary Gygax; Myron Cope; and William F. Buckley, Jr.

Yes, I know, on the surface these three men seem to have little in common—and even less to do with strategic communications. To me, however, their impact has been plenteous. They fueled my imagination, prodded me to embrace erudition, and gave distinctive voice to my passions.

As a youth, I would immerse myself in fantasy worlds spawned by the tomes of Mr. Gygax. Rolling oddly shaped dice (including some that didn't really "roll"), my friends and I would explore worlds that were rich in substance, culture, diversity, and (perhaps most importantly to pubescent boys) carnage. It gave us the opportunity to be heroic as well as wildly imaginative. We would explore the unknown. Save those who couldn't save themselves. Battle the forces of evil. Stand together as comrades—despite having disparate races, classes, and even alignments. Despite the worries of some adults, who would decry the games as gateways to the occult, we never wavered from our outlook that a small band could pull together and change the world.

As a young man at Yale, I discovered that words could be used precisely. Reading through Mr. Buckley's writings, I could feel the purpose and power. Words were wielded as precisely as a surgeons scalpel, rather than randomly bludgeoning anything nearby. While I never agreed with his politics, his panache has always roused a sense of admiration. He seemed unwilling to compromise his vocabulary for the sake of his audience. Rather, he expected his audience to increase their own capacity for understanding. Was this arrogance? Most likely. But it also brought intellectualism to bear when passions alone wouldn't be enough to sway someone's thoughts.

As a child of 4 or 5, I became enamored of the Steelers. It wasn't until many years later that I discovered their radio voice—Mr. Cope. (Having never lived in Pittsburgh, I was not exposed to him until the Internet allowed me the opportunity.) I knew of the Terrible Towel, and it's inventor. Until I heard him broadcast a game, however, I didn't realize someone with an atrociously distinctive voice could speak for my fanaticism so clearly. I even began to mute the television and listen to Myron call games whenever I could (blackouts permitting). It is still his voice I hear when the Black and Gold are in the midst of battle.

I owe each of these men. Gary for helping unleash my imagination in positive ways. William for emboldening my use of language. Myron for reminding me that amazing results can be uncovered in the most unexpected of places.

May they all rest in peace.

Teaching TheKiddo™: Lesson 8

"If the winds will not serve, take to the oars."

You'll hear a thousand variations on this in your lifetime. The most common will be, "There's more than one way to skin a cat." Regardless of how the proverb is presented it always means the same thing—persevere. There is always another route to your goal.

I don't know what your goals will be. I simply know that there will be times that the wind stops blowing and you feel becalmed, as though you're drifting slowly through the horse latitudes.

Whenever you seem to have reached an impasse, stay calm. And think. There's a solution. There's another way.

Even several thousand years ago in Rome they understood that when the sails of their ships weren't full of air, they could grab the oars and paddle like mad. It may take a little more work than you'd like. It may require a lot more effort than you had planned. It may leave you exhausted. 

It will, however, also get you to your destination.

Repotting Day At Calloway's

We received some advice and help at Calloway's Nursery regarding the potting of some house plant. We also learned some lessons about creating a fairy garden for TheKiddo™.