Today is the much awaited day of the Iowa Caucuses – happening earlier than ever! And yet even for enthusiastic political junkies, Iowa can’t be over soon enough. The remarkable lead-up to tonight’s allegiance declaration-fest has led one widely overlooked local politician to send a special message of re-assurance to the voters in his district.
Greetings Constituents!
I know that many of you are concerned about reports you’ve seen from Iowa, where an unmeasurably deep pool of Super-PAC money has been used to pump up the negative side of campaign advertising to such a remarkable extent that normally placid Iowans are gasping and retching from the the stench that enters their living rooms the moment they turn on the TV. Not only do Iowans hate the hate, they despise how well this extreme negativity has been working on them! For example, an avalanche of anti-Newt Gingrich messages blunted his growing support over the past few weeks, and this low road to happiness was taken without penalty for the widely acknowledged frontrunner, Mitt Romney.
This happened because the bulk of the negative ads were created and paid for by a super-PAC that has no formal relationship or coordination with the Romney campaign. That’s the law – they can’t cooperate. But the cynical calculus of winning elections is clear to everyone involved – someone has to go negative. So this appears to be the new campaign template – unlimited, untraceable super-PAC money will be used to demolish an opponent with nasty, scurrilous, misleading insults that are ugly and maybe partially true, while the candidate him or herself runs clean and endorses only the ads that sell puppies and sunshine.
They do this on the television crime operas all the time under the heading “Good Cop / Bad Cop”. Cops say they don’t play it that way in real life, but if they were actually doing it they would still have to say that they didn’t.
They also do this in the National Hockey League, where one player serves as the designated “goon”. That player’s only job is to beat people up and show no mercy. There isn’t a lot of coordination required. The “goon” knows who he is and sees what he has to do. The less said, the better.
Congressman Beechly's State of the Ice Shack (and Pick Up Truck) Address
And frankly, this happens on the elementary school playground, where bullies pick on people just because they’re big and they can get away with it. When I was in 5th grade, I was on the receiving end of a lot of this. All thanks to my school-record setting Nerd Quotient – a mark of geekiness that has not been eclipsed in 40 years.
That’s why several of you have voiced your concern that a Super PAC is going to get involved in the 9th District Congressional race this year and spread around a lot of ugly stories about me, basically fouling the waters of our all-water-surace-area district and guaranteeing my defeat.
That could happen.
But it’s also quite possible that a wealthy Super PAC that wants to endorse me and get on my good side (ie: Citizens Aghast Unambiguously Getting Hateful Together (CAUGHT) or People Livid About Some Terrible Imagined Crime (PLASTIC))) will jump into the contest at the last moment and severely tarnish my opponent’s reputation with such unsavory and unfounded televised dreck that people will feel they are faced with a simple, stark choice – vote for Loomis Beechly or make a Deal With Satan. I would hate to benefit from such unprincipled behavior. Particularly if everyone saw me doing it.
That is why I’m taking the Pity Pledge.
I promise that if my opponent is attacked by some outside group that is flooding the airwaves with blatantly negative ads that make juvenile claims about him that are unfortunately beyond my control, I will sit at my opponent’s lunch table in the cafeteria all the way through the meal even though he drools, especially on days when there’s chocolate pudding. And I’ll walk with him to his locker before hour 5 even though he often gets embarrassingly lost in the hallways. And if those nasty outside attacks still continue, I’ll choose my opponent to be on my side in dodge ball even though he’s incredibly slow and has weak arms. And if the disparaging remarks don’t stop, I’ll even consider sitting with my opponent on the bus in spite of the fact that he smells like dirty gym socks, even first thing in the morning.
That’s how committed I am to eliminating negativity in the 2012 campaign! There’s simply no call for that sort of thing, especially when it involves someone as hapless as my unidentified opponent, who really can’t control any of those kinda funny things the other kids find so mockable.
Won’t you join me in the fight for friendliness? Make sure all your favorite candidates take The Pity Pledge! It’s the only way we can maintain our political decorum!
Your 9th Congressman,
Loomis Beechly
I have to wonder if the Congressman will follow through on his promise, though I kind of admire the idea.
Even before we discuss fair play we need to decide who will telll Rep Beechly that he’s on thin ice (both literally and figuratively) and in danger of breaking through.
Good morning to all. Lommis made a reference to fair play in elementary school yards. I know a little about this because I did sub teaching at elementary schools. All most every time I went out on the play ground with the kids I had to speak to several of them about being too rough, not sharing, or some other bad move.
There would be several classes on the play ground at the same time. The other teachers were usually trying to ignore most of the bad behavior. Probably if I was a full time teacher who had to deal with the those kids every day I also would also try to ignore most of the bad play ground behavior. I actually kind of had fun trying to make sure the kids played fair on the play ground. Of course, I would have prefered spending the time playing with kids over spending it correcting their bad behavior.
Happy 2012, that bastion of Fair Play! As I saw during my recent trip to Iowa, the candidates are talking only about issues and policies and all attack ads are frowned upon. Ha!
As a professional Social Worker, fair play and advocacy for the Underdog is the name of the game. However, this must be done without Rep Beechley’s Pity Pledge. Pity is a certain turn off.
I’m also a clinical social worker. My contribution to “fair play” is continuing to see unemployed clients who, through no fault of their own, would’ve been forced to end their
therapy with me after losing their jobs. I see them at a ridiculously low amount, but I couldn’t live with myself otherwise. Guess I’m “banking” on karma more than greenbacks.
Thanks, Krista. I’ve been following Baboon pretty regularly for months……as most know by now, I’m Steve’s little sister? Frankly, I dimmed out mostly because the brilliance of contributors rather intimidated me and admiring from a distance was helpful. One of my idols has been Christopher Hitchens and I view most of this site’s posts right up there near Hitch.
welcome back crystal bay, nice to know you are around. you are welcome to lurk if you like but jump in when it strikes you. steve has shown us how to be good at this to come on in and you can suck and the grooms family will average out ok with us. besides you are a democrat, we have to cut you some slack, you have no where else to go
My attempts to enforce fair play involve refereeing cats, not children (or politicians, which can seem like the same thing). Relationships are still being renegotiated amongst our remaining three cats after losing our two dominant females last year. My girl wants to be dominant almost as much as she wants to play, but my roommate’s smart boy isn’t having any of that, and her big doofus is just confused by Twyla’s alternating tackles and tags. Mostly we try to let them work it out on their own, but sometimes we just have to intervene, especially when claws need clipping. Happily, progress is being made toward friendly relations–we can at least have all three cats in one room without a fight breaking out, again unlike politicians.
i used to referee for my dogs until someone told me to stop it and just watch. they know exactly what they are doing in the pecking order. it is funny sometimes how it plays out but when you sit back and reflect it is absolutely correct. they know who is alpha and who is beta. we dont sometimes and thats the tricky part.
Had we followed that advice, tim, our pet population today would be different. Back in May, we had to euthanize Mitzi, our much beloved Welsh Corgi. She (3 years old) attacked, for the umpteenth time, our 12 year old Wirehaired Dachshund, Pablo; she had him by the jugular and would NOT let go. No provocation whatsoever, husband and I were both present in the kitchen when it happened. Very, very traumatic and we still mourn that we had to put her down. Mitzi was the sweetest, most charismatic little dog, and we loved her. BUT, she had an unpredictable aggressive streak that we could not control. We tried for two years and finally realized that she would kill Pablo eventually, given the chance. I can’t tell you how much I miss that little dog, and how bad I still feel, but we had to put her down. Given enough time, she would have caused even more grief. This situation has been one of the most heartbreaking experiences in my life.
PJ, we had to do that too, to a sweet fox terrier who was an anxiety biter and who, after two years of increasing aggression, almost killed our other Welsh terrier. I regret it to this day, but there didn’t seem to be any alternative at the time.
Thanks Barb and Renee, for your compassion. I’ve had pets all my life, and never had to deal with this situation before. We had an Airdale once that didn’t like kids. She was a rescue dog, so we didn’t know her history. Just made a point of never allowing her to be near kids. She lived to a ripe old age without ever harming anyone. Very sweet dog, just didn’t like kids.
With Mitzi, we got her when she was 8 weeks old, and from the get-go it was obvious that she was a pretty rambunctious little critter. That was part of her charm. BUT, I never felt that it was safe taking her to a dog park, she was aggressive toward other dogs. I’ve since learned that Corgies tend to be aggressive toward other dogs, so apparently, part of it is in the breed. She had so many attributes that we both loved, and we miss her terribly, and I’ll probably never stop asking myself what we could have done differently. We’re down to one dog, one cat, two birds…and two broken hearts.
“Two broken hearts”……….this is the biggest reason I could never own a dog. Their eyes are just too human and most often look strangely sad to me. I’ve been owned by at least 15 cats over the last 20 years (never more than four at a time) and, after the first couple of deaths, discovered that losing these little fur balls was something I could endure. Losing a cat triggers what I’ve come to name “fresh, clean grief”; it’s immediate, gripping, but doable. My belief is that they’re here to give us rehearsals for losing humans. But dogs – they’re just too human because they give way too much unconditional love and tend to make me feel guilty a lot.
Greetings! As a geek and social outcast in grade school, I made it my mission to befriend other outcasts like myself. I was unnaturally tall and skinny, and being quiet but intense; sometimes just giving someone a stinkeye sideways glance was enough for them to back off. I never had the guts to speak up and would never have hurt a soul — but I used my size and intense aura to intimidate when necessary.
One of my best friends was a girl who was tall and fat; so the kids referred to us as Mutt and Jeff — some cartoon characters, I guess. I don’t remember being brave enough to stand up to anyone, but I remember watching my parents do something along those lines a few times. At first it was embarassing to watch, but then I felt proud of them for doing the right thing.
Once I was riding in a car with a friend when she pulled over and rolled down the window to admonish a couple of kids who were mauling a smaller kid on the sidewalk. She called out, “Hey, quit picking on him, he’s littler than you. Go find a kid that’s bigger than you and try that with him, then I’ll be impressed.” It seemed to work – the bigger kids just stopped and stared at her for a moment. At least it worked long enough for the littler kid to get away.
I’m a Libra all the way — and I feel your pain. As a youngster, I always felt I would make a good judge. But even that isn’t necessarily about fairness — more about politics and following the law — and so many laws are rather senseless.
I’ve done my share trying to get kindergarteners and family members (again, not that much difference) to treat each other fairly. But you know what? The world isn’t fair. There are tons of good people who struggle just to stay alive, and others with so much they literally don’t know what to do with it. The physical world is a very strange place, which is how we got religion. There must be something, somewhere, that’s different from this place.
That said, while we’re here, we might as well do what we can to even it up a bit, so I’ll continue to try to get people to play fair.
That pity pledge doesn’t sound like it really is about fair play. I kind of think that if he did the things he said he is willing to do he would probably proclaim how pitiful his opponent is as he takes pity on him. Does anyone else think that might be what could happen?
Taking pity on someone implies that you are in a superior position, which defeats any purpose. The key is to be able to see everyone as an equal, and to my mind if you pity someone, you are assuming they are not your equal. Seeing they are in a bad spot and assisting without pity, but as simply a means to assist where it is needed is quite different. Bullying is much the same – it is a power play and assumes or plays on social inequality. We spend too much time, frankly, fretting about how “we” are different than “them” (or “I” am different that “you”) and not enough about how we are the same. It is disheartening that in 2nd grade, Daughter is already beginning to notice that there are “in” kids and “not in” kids…thankfully thus far she is okay with not being one of the “in” kids, nor does she care a whit about what she wears in relation to what her friends wear. But it is starting – that social stratification that leads to unfair imbalance, pity, bullying, etc. I do my best to talk through why life may not always be fair, but what we can do to separate that which is unfair from imbalances that can be corrected or remedied (or not allowed to happen in the first place). And as Daughter and I were recently were reminded in “A Wrinkle in Time,” “equal” and “the same” are quite different notions.
i mentioned last week i went to a funeral. it was a funeral for mike. mike was there on the first day of swimming lessons in 1961. he and i both liked to sit right behind the bus driver and so we became seatmates that summer and talked daily. mike was a nice guy. kind of big for his age. he was a year older than me but he was still big for his age. big guys tended to be bulies in 1961 but mike was more the gentle giant type. mike had learning disabilities not to the point where he was stupid but you always knew he was dealing with the world at about 95% of his capacity. mike and i had nice talks and then i went to catholic school and mike went to public and i didn’t see him for about 6 or 7 years at junior high. his sister was a really fun hell raising kind of girl and i had a crush on her. i would ask mike how she was doing and he would give me a report on the true status of her life. my mom was his art teacher and he would always ask about her. as time went on we moved on to high school and saw each other in the halls and said hi on an as we passed in the hall basis. at thigh school there was a teacher named mr ehlers. he was the enforcer. we were the hippies and mr ehlers didn’ like the hippies. he tended to get in their faces and make their lives difficult, sending them to the office for minor infractions and jsut all around being a miserable guy to all the hipies…except me. i didn’t get it. not at all. the other guys i hung out with didn’t get it either . it is not the kind of thing you ask about. ” hey me ehlers how come your not picking on me like all the other guys?” so i went through high school with one less hassle than i would have guessed. well my mom commented years later that mr ehlers had made the comment on e time that he thought i was ok. she asked why that was and he commented that one day he had seen mike in the lunchroom and some mean boys and come up and bumped him and knocked his books out of his arms and that he saw mew come up and say ” hi mile, hows it going” while i got down and picked up his books and gave him a pat on the back as i happened to be walking by. well mr ehlers just thought that was the nicest thing he ever saw. no search for recognition, no anger striking out at the mean guys just a little help for a guy and a pat on the back. my other hippy friends never knew why i was the invisible man for mr ehlers and never incurred his wrath. i never knew why either and now that i do it makes me understand that even the hardest and most crusty people have a soft spot that can be touched. its nice to find that every now and then. i saw mike over the years at the movie theater as the guy who took you tickets and then the last fistfull of years at sams club as the guy who checks to see if you have your sams card and he would always ask about my mom and i would ask about his sister and so it went. then i heard he had died and went to his funeral and remembered. this blog came up today to allow me to recall it once more. from now on when i see the guy at the movie theater or at sams club i will remember mike. kinda nice.
Sometimes even the most fair-minded adults are unable, for various reasons, to play fair. This topic is close to my heart because it involves the break-up and restructuring of our band several years ago. I don’t want to name any names or indicate any specific roles because the people involved have been and still are quite close to me. I’m trying to relate the story in the most general way that I can.
There was someone involved who has highly unusual mannerisms and a unique lifestyle. For a list of reasons, this person was shunned. After a lengthy and emotional inner battle, including meditations on tolerance and compassion, I changed my mind on something that meant our band would change forever and I would lose one of my best friends in the entire world. This crisis was one of the life-altering events of the last decade and I think about it a lot because of what it cost me. I am determined to play fair, even when the price is that high. I must insist on fairness because I have been the geeky one who was shunned and I know how it feels. I can’t tolerate situations that are based on who is “cool” and who is not. That’s why I enjoy being here so much. Social hierarchies have no place here and everyone belongs, no matter what.
Tolerant, fair-minded Baboons! Thank you so much for listening. You have no idea how much it means to me.
Whoa! Yes I do know. My band is full of unusual people. We give it our best shot to get along with each other, but it ain’t easy. I think it helps that we ALL are geeky crazy, albeit in different ways, so we cut each other as much slack as we can. And when we get something musically right, we all look at each other and grin with amazement!
I, too, do playground duty. I do it every day along with the other specialists at my elementary school (phy ed, art, and media). Trying to ensure fair and fun play is a challenge. We don’t get to play with the kids because we have to have our eyes peeled for trouble. However, I get to sing and play with them in my music class for the rest of the day. I don’t mind getting outside for an hour at noontime. I get some fresh air and sunshine and (today) wind chill.
Getting them to take turns on the play equipment and keeping the boys from being too rough were often problems I had to deal with,on the play ground, Holly..
Afternoon,
Very interesting it’s so quiet here today… I can’t believe there’s that little fair play for us to talk about?
tim, love your story. It can be the little things that make such a difference. Watching my daughter, with her special needs, and I always worry about her at school and on the bus. But we haven’t had much trouble. I know her older brothers friends thought she was pretty cool and maybe the word gets around then that this kid is OK, but he graduated last year. There’s a few kids this year that know her yet… but what then the next two years?
I cross my fingers there’s a kid out there that becomes her ‘school big sister or brother’, you know?
Right, the world isn’t fair; it’s a tough place. Now, how are you going to deal with that?
Mind you, my daughter’s tough; if you pick on her she’ll take it for a bit, but then she’s going to get mad. And that’s when the teacher calls us. 🙂 What’s frustrating is we seldom learn what REALLY happen first; She’s the one that got caught, but what happen first? Well, nobody really saw that…sometimes it’s just frustration. We spend a lot of time talking about and working on those social skills.
In the theater we talk about how it attracts all kinds of people. And we do our best to find a place for them. I’m not sure this is standing up for fair play, but we’re all trying to play nice.
Ben, for me it’s not so much that there isn’t enough to talk about. It’s the opposite. The world is not a fair place, and as someone else has pointed out, “equal” and “the same” are quite different.
I know I’ve stood up for “fair play” numerous times, even on this very blog. I think it’s very easy to be quite comfortable in your convictions when you know that everyone else shares those convictions; preaching to the choir, if you will. It’s risking becoming the outcast, speaking up when you know your view will not be appreciated or well received that’s tough.
I have lost friends over this very issue. I will not tolerate racist, sexist, or ethnic slurs, and in some company they are par for the game. I think I detect the difference between the mean spirited ethnic jokes, and the ones that are merely good-natured ribbing. I think the US has become so fearful of not being politically correct, that much humor is no longer acceptable. I’m in a contemplative mode about this because this very issue came up yesterday at a New Year’s celebration at our house. How do you deal with people you love who you know harbor feelings and beliefs that you abhor? I’m sure there are others in this forum who struggle with this very issue. What are your coping strategies?
I grieved, still grieve, over the loss of my friend. I continue to hope that we will be able to come to terms with the situation, agree to disagree, and move on. There has been very gradual improvement but no resolution.
Meditation has been very helpful to me. It helps me know myself and to define exactly where I stand, even when my emotions are putting me on a roller coaster ride.
divorce is a devastating aclaimation. friends are harder than spouses perhaps. spouse always involve other stuff. friendships arent supposed to. your situation is that he was your musical partner. every relationship entered into is like marrying into a new dysfunctional family. i have one i was born into, one i married into and divorced out of, one i am in the constant midst of and a fistfull of business ones. it is amazing at the schitzo whacko psychopaths who are out there who seemed fine and if it wasnt for the chance to see them in this light maybe you wouldnt have to cringe everytime you think of them but so it goes. make sure you are good with you, he can deal with him. god bless and good luck karma will win out or if it doesn’t at least you can know you are ok.
ben your daughter may benifit from the bbc book selection this month. to kill a mockingbird is wonderful but the book does such an excellent job of nailing some of the implied values and ethics that slide on by in the movie. there is an extensive examination of scout learning to hold her temper when she wants to beat up all the boys at school for pick pick picking at her. it may help you daughter ge tit a little more concretely and it is such a wonderful read if she can handle a chapter a day for a three week stint. kind of longish for a chapter book.
Thanks for the suggestion tim. My wife and I take turns taking daughter to bed and reading. Long chapter books are not a problem; we’re in, whatever, book 5, ‘Little Town on the Prairie’ so she can handle that.
Thanks.
My son had some pretty significant LD issues and had extremely poor motor skills and math deficits. It always made me angry when a few of his teachers would resist following his an IEP because they didn’t think it was “fair” to the other children that his handwriting or artwork didn’t have to be graded for neatness, or he got a little more time to write his math facts. It sure wasn’t “fair” to him that he was born 10 weeks early. I was so happy that we always had the IEP and some really dedicated LD teachers to redirect the teachers and provide our son with support.
there are many damaging teachers. i have asked that a few of them be removed. i went to see a music teacher screaming at children and belittleing them to the point i told the principle that i understood he had some disipline issues but if he could go about his business without taking the love out of the classroom i would be ok but he doesnt try or even understand the concept. i was glad he was gone the next year. many other examples sorry the stupidity hit your son between the eyes throughout his educational career but the lesson is to find out how to get by in life and find a happy place where the doorknobs dont bombard you everywhere you go. there is a place.
Yes, Renee. Indeed.
One of my mantras as a teacher, for which I more than once got in trouble, once in deep trouble: “Nothing is more unequal than the equal treatment if unequals.” But figuring that out is a very difficult. When do teachers push and demand, when do they ease up, when do they require more of this one and less of that one? Do they grade against a curve, against a standard, against other students, each student against that student?
“Smooth sea never made fine sailor.” But we want our kids to always have (yes, I know split infinitive–good for me!) a smooth sea. As a parent, I fell into that trap a lot. My parents never fell into it, even when they should have (in my opinion). How long do you want me to go on?
Robert Frost said right before he died that his fear for America was that we did not have fortitude to give our young the challenges that had made us great. But Renee’s son, is one of the exceptions, for truth he is. But in what way is not every student an exception, at least every now and then? How are the gifted an exception? To be let off the hook, as some do for them? To be pushed harder as some do for them? to feel the special pains, as few do for them? And believe, the gifted can have deep pains, so deep that they sometimes do not survive. Literally,
How long shall I go on?
Regarding playground supervision: very tough to see it all, as Holly says. Students, the bullies especially are sneaking, sneaky. And clearly the adults need to rescue kids from bullies. But should adults settle every fight (not a physical, now) kids have? How do kids learn to work it out if adults do so for them? One of the lessons of my childhood was that if you pissed off the kid who owned the bat, the ballgame was over.
See. This is why I always avoid subjects like this. People want to make it simple and it is not. It is very complex, which is the only thing I learned in 40 years in education. The Standards are hard to figure out. The “test masters” are loved because they make it simple. No Child Left Behind is a cheap bastardly answer to the deepest questions of education and child-rearing. Shame on us. How long shall I go on?
You talk of the playground and rightly so. But what about the mostly-unsupervised bus because the drivers are trying to drive and watch the mirror? Tough job of low pay and terrible hours. My son-in-law, who now and then drives as a favor these days, got called a bigot at a school board meeting because he separated two Hispanic sisters who were fighting and made them set in separate seats. Did he do that to two white kids, huh? huh?
You talk of the playground and rightly so. But what about high school culture? Where, in my time, were so many male teachers and a few female, but a much lower number, who believed teasing is a right of passage kids must go through. Many believe still believe that I bet. When does teasing, which is a right of passage in a sense, should not we all be able to enjoy the banter of light teasing, when does that teasing become bullying? I am in many ways shaped by having been heavily teased and bullied. I admit it. Not very willingly. But indeed I was.
How long do you want me to go on? If the teacher develops an active and busy classroom, as I would wish they all do, and now they have to teach, watch for those ahead and those behind and those teasing and those being teased and decide when to push that one and when to excuse this one.
Teaching is an elegant demanding task, indeed exhausting task, which has been diminished (and I do not mean by you people, indeed I do not). And those who really piss me off for diminishing the task are the teachers who diminish it to rote.
How long shall i go one? I did this rant once before. Sorry. But it was my passion,. which I have tried to give up as a passion, and I see I have not.
I spent 40 years working in education in may levels and I have not a clue what I accomplished. I think the potential to harm as a teacher may be greater than to help.
Getting education right may be the most important task in America. Or it may not matter at all. I mean that truly. It may not matter at all. Kids learn so much more now in other ways, and the best kids always have because of their parents and grandparents, people like you on this blog.
How long have I gone on and shall I go on?.
I have been staring at this for an hour or two trying to decide if I should post it.
Thank goodness you posted it, Clyde – what a bummer to have written it for naught!
“Getting education right may be the most important task in America. Or it may not matter at all.” It can’t not matter, not when such a large chunk of childhood is spent in our institutions. You can’t as a teacher save every one, and you can’t be there for every one, and you can’t always get it right. But kids know when they find a quality teacher, someone to watch and follow and copy, someone to be a model for them. My son had given up on education, and then he found Highview Alternative School, and some teachers who he could see cared about the kids. Nine years later he and his buddy each wrote a letter to the staff there – I’ve seen the letters – wish you could read them.
Thank you, Clyde. We certainly expected a great deal from our son despite his LD problems, and he really expects a lot from himself. Having an IEP didn’t make the road easy, as some of his teachers thought, it made it just possible to travel and get somewhere. He abandoned the IEP when he started his undergraduate college education, and has a 4.0 in his graduate counseling program. His handwriting is still illegible, Oh well, at least they don’t grade him on that now.
Renee, my last tirade and then I put myself in Blog Siberia: handwriting is innate and cannot be changed, A proven biological fact. Proven, Zippo. Case closed. There are damn few things in education about which you can say that. Fact Fact Fact. Damn it! People can learn to take care, but that’s it. Much the same is true of spelling. Not quite as closed a case, but close. In every group of 100 kids are one or two whose hand writing is illegible and that’s that. Dealing with that is so damn easy, why are we making any case of it. Stupid stupid stupid. In that same group of kids are one or two who cannot spell, especially if you make then think about it. Dealing with that is easy too. Most kids who cannot spell have figured out a way to deal with it in their turned-in writings, such as asking mommy or a friend to help, which are damn fine coping strategies. why do some argue. But many will.
In my grades 3-6 I estimate we spent about 40% of the day on handwriting (curse Palmer, whoever he was) which was pointless, spelling tests and lists which is pointless, grammatical analysis skills which is mostly pointless when separate from purpose as it was, and drill drill drill of discrete reading skills, which is pointless for readers beyond about grade 3.
I am silent and good night.
Sorry all.
Clyde, to me, this has been one of your more revealing posts. You’ve allowed yourself to display the rage that you still feel at some of the injustices in the world.
I’ve never met you, but I have a picture in my mind’s eye (from your previous posts) of a man in chronic pain who can focus on little else. In this post I see an outrage at all the things you wish you could change but can’t; a passionate man who is indeed, despite his pain, very invested in the world. I’m so glad you made that post. Broadened my view of who you are.
glad you did clyde. i know you feel this wayand you speak it so eloquently when you ut forth hte effort. i am in eden paririe where the somalia culture is very pronounced but it is geographic, the housing that the poor live in is located in two pockets of the community and in those two schools the unequality of the success of the educational process. the notion of having one school with 52% non english speaking free lucnh and in other schools the numbers a 10%1%2% and those parents want their kids excluded from the challenges of teaching slackers who drag down classroom advancement. the gop nazi just ran a highly funded campaign where the newly redistributed population is the key to the school board election. the money behind the school board campaign and the campaign itself were what is wrong with the political system today. it should be documented and pointed to as the prime example of what happens when outside dollars come in to sweep a cause on or off the table. they are searching for a new superintendant after the one who directed the fairness in education move in eden prairie was drummed out out of town.
thanks clyde you will never say enough. keep it comin when the energy allows. it is you at your best.
Reading these posts has been a humiliating experience for me. These are tales of moments of heroism when people have taken stands and insisted on fairness. I wonder what is wrong with me that I can’t think of moments when I’ve done that. Mostly that is because I worked for decades as an independent contractor, outside of all systems, I wasn’t witness to unfairness except occasionally when someone was unfair to me, and that doesn’t fit the essential question we are being asked to answer here.
Another way of looking at this is that I’ve been a lousy reformer. I have rarely taken stands and fought for more fairness from some bureaucracy.I have not tilted at windmills, partly because I am so conflict-adverse and partly because I’m cynical enough to think that most reform efforts are doomed to fail. Unfairness is the way of the world. Some people have accomplished a great deal of good by fighting that and insisting on making governments or businesses behave more humanely. I’m just not one of those people. I have not drawn my sword and made stirring speeches. I have not led charges uphill into cannons.
Maybe I haven’t been so weak and reluctant to fight for fairness as it seems tonight. Or maybe I’ve been worse, even, than it seems right now.
if you are fair and a straight shooter everyday and lead by example there is a place of honor here for you. cut yourself a little slack. raising your sword and tilting at windmills aint all its cracked up to be either
As an artist, I think most of my reform battles have been fought for higher standards in art. Which is not the same as what was asked about in the original question. I have fought for artistic standards, but not for social fairness.
I may be a bit biased, Steve, but from my perspective you have lived a life of extraordinary integrity, honesty, and value. Few people I’ve known have been as consistently earnest, loving
and conscious. To me, it’s not about being “courageous”; it’s about being genuinely present for
others in whatever form this may take. One of my favorite pieces of wisdom from all time was written by Eduardo Galeano. He writes; “A man on the coast of Columbia could climb into the sky.
On his return, he described his trip. He told how he had contemplated human life from on high. He said that we are a ‘sea of tiny flames’.
Each person shines his or her own light. No two flames are alike. There are big flames, little flames, flames of every color. Some people’s flames are so still that they don’t even flicker in the wind, while others have wild flames that fill the air with sparks. Some foolish flames neither burn nor shed light, but others blaze with life so fiercely that you can’t look at them without blinking, and if you approach, you shine in their fire”.
Your flames have burned steadily with just enough light that others have experienced higher consciousness in their own lives, Steve.
Well, brother, we both know which one of us was the flame thrower filling the air with sparks, now don’t we? I appreciate your patience over the last 67+ years.
I’m feeling a little that way too. I’m thinking of the times I should have stood up for myself, even, but didn’t. Plenty of times I didn’t take the opportunity to get actively involved in things I truly believe in. But we each have a set of (constantly changing in my case) priorities that direct our lives. Luckily we’re all different – if everyone were heroes, no one would be.
It wouldn’t surprise me, Steve, to learn that you stood up for fairness for, say, your young daughter.
Trail Baboon 
Even before we discuss fair play we need to decide who will telll Rep Beechly that he’s on thin ice (both literally and figuratively) and in danger of breaking through.
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Or maybe on thin PLASTIC.
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Good morning to all. Lommis made a reference to fair play in elementary school yards. I know a little about this because I did sub teaching at elementary schools. All most every time I went out on the play ground with the kids I had to speak to several of them about being too rough, not sharing, or some other bad move.
There would be several classes on the play ground at the same time. The other teachers were usually trying to ignore most of the bad behavior. Probably if I was a full time teacher who had to deal with the those kids every day I also would also try to ignore most of the bad play ground behavior. I actually kind of had fun trying to make sure the kids played fair on the play ground. Of course, I would have prefered spending the time playing with kids over spending it correcting their bad behavior.
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The only thing necessary for the triumph of an evil playground bully is for good men to do nothing. Good job, Jim.
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Rise and Shine Baboons!
Happy 2012, that bastion of Fair Play! As I saw during my recent trip to Iowa, the candidates are talking only about issues and policies and all attack ads are frowned upon. Ha!
As a professional Social Worker, fair play and advocacy for the Underdog is the name of the game. However, this must be done without Rep Beechley’s Pity Pledge. Pity is a certain turn off.
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Oops. Forgot to remove Iowa tag line.
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I’m also a clinical social worker. My contribution to “fair play” is continuing to see unemployed clients who, through no fault of their own, would’ve been forced to end their
therapy with me after losing their jobs. I see them at a ridiculously low amount, but I couldn’t live with myself otherwise. Guess I’m “banking” on karma more than greenbacks.
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Bless you, Crystalbay, we need more people like you in this world.
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Hey, welcome back, Crystalbay! Nice to hear from you again!
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Thanks, Krista. I’ve been following Baboon pretty regularly for months……as most know by now, I’m Steve’s little sister? Frankly, I dimmed out mostly because the brilliance of contributors rather intimidated me and admiring from a distance was helpful. One of my idols has been Christopher Hitchens and I view most of this site’s posts right up there near Hitch.
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Hi Crystalbay.
I didn’t know you were Steve’s sister- not that it matters.
I think we’re all intimidated by some of the writings on here… but don’t let that keep you out! It hasn’t worked on me yet!
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welcome back crystal bay, nice to know you are around. you are welcome to lurk if you like but jump in when it strikes you. steve has shown us how to be good at this to come on in and you can suck and the grooms family will average out ok with us. besides you are a democrat, we have to cut you some slack, you have no where else to go
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Glad to know you’re around, Crystalbay.
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My attempts to enforce fair play involve refereeing cats, not children (or politicians, which can seem like the same thing). Relationships are still being renegotiated amongst our remaining three cats after losing our two dominant females last year. My girl wants to be dominant almost as much as she wants to play, but my roommate’s smart boy isn’t having any of that, and her big doofus is just confused by Twyla’s alternating tackles and tags. Mostly we try to let them work it out on their own, but sometimes we just have to intervene, especially when claws need clipping. Happily, progress is being made toward friendly relations–we can at least have all three cats in one room without a fight breaking out, again unlike politicians.
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i used to referee for my dogs until someone told me to stop it and just watch. they know exactly what they are doing in the pecking order. it is funny sometimes how it plays out but when you sit back and reflect it is absolutely correct. they know who is alpha and who is beta. we dont sometimes and thats the tricky part.
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Had we followed that advice, tim, our pet population today would be different. Back in May, we had to euthanize Mitzi, our much beloved Welsh Corgi. She (3 years old) attacked, for the umpteenth time, our 12 year old Wirehaired Dachshund, Pablo; she had him by the jugular and would NOT let go. No provocation whatsoever, husband and I were both present in the kitchen when it happened. Very, very traumatic and we still mourn that we had to put her down. Mitzi was the sweetest, most charismatic little dog, and we loved her. BUT, she had an unpredictable aggressive streak that we could not control. We tried for two years and finally realized that she would kill Pablo eventually, given the chance. I can’t tell you how much I miss that little dog, and how bad I still feel, but we had to put her down. Given enough time, she would have caused even more grief. This situation has been one of the most heartbreaking experiences in my life.
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That’s harsh, PJ. (Another unfairness.) Do you have just the one dog now?
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PJ, we had to do that too, to a sweet fox terrier who was an anxiety biter and who, after two years of increasing aggression, almost killed our other Welsh terrier. I regret it to this day, but there didn’t seem to be any alternative at the time.
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Thanks Barb and Renee, for your compassion. I’ve had pets all my life, and never had to deal with this situation before. We had an Airdale once that didn’t like kids. She was a rescue dog, so we didn’t know her history. Just made a point of never allowing her to be near kids. She lived to a ripe old age without ever harming anyone. Very sweet dog, just didn’t like kids.
With Mitzi, we got her when she was 8 weeks old, and from the get-go it was obvious that she was a pretty rambunctious little critter. That was part of her charm. BUT, I never felt that it was safe taking her to a dog park, she was aggressive toward other dogs. I’ve since learned that Corgies tend to be aggressive toward other dogs, so apparently, part of it is in the breed. She had so many attributes that we both loved, and we miss her terribly, and I’ll probably never stop asking myself what we could have done differently. We’re down to one dog, one cat, two birds…and two broken hearts.
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“Two broken hearts”……….this is the biggest reason I could never own a dog. Their eyes are just too human and most often look strangely sad to me. I’ve been owned by at least 15 cats over the last 20 years (never more than four at a time) and, after the first couple of deaths, discovered that losing these little fur balls was something I could endure. Losing a cat triggers what I’ve come to name “fresh, clean grief”; it’s immediate, gripping, but doable. My belief is that they’re here to give us rehearsals for losing humans. But dogs – they’re just too human because they give way too much unconditional love and tend to make me feel guilty a lot.
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Greetings! As a geek and social outcast in grade school, I made it my mission to befriend other outcasts like myself. I was unnaturally tall and skinny, and being quiet but intense; sometimes just giving someone a stinkeye sideways glance was enough for them to back off. I never had the guts to speak up and would never have hurt a soul — but I used my size and intense aura to intimidate when necessary.
One of my best friends was a girl who was tall and fat; so the kids referred to us as Mutt and Jeff — some cartoon characters, I guess. I don’t remember being brave enough to stand up to anyone, but I remember watching my parents do something along those lines a few times. At first it was embarassing to watch, but then I felt proud of them for doing the right thing.
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Once I was riding in a car with a friend when she pulled over and rolled down the window to admonish a couple of kids who were mauling a smaller kid on the sidewalk. She called out, “Hey, quit picking on him, he’s littler than you. Go find a kid that’s bigger than you and try that with him, then I’ll be impressed.” It seemed to work – the bigger kids just stopped and stared at her for a moment. At least it worked long enough for the littler kid to get away.
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I’m a Libra cusp on the Virgo side. I’m all about fair play. Which is one reason I tend to get frustrated with the world so much.
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I’m a Libra all the way — and I feel your pain. As a youngster, I always felt I would make a good judge. But even that isn’t necessarily about fairness — more about politics and following the law — and so many laws are rather senseless.
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I’ve done my share trying to get kindergarteners and family members (again, not that much difference) to treat each other fairly. But you know what? The world isn’t fair. There are tons of good people who struggle just to stay alive, and others with so much they literally don’t know what to do with it. The physical world is a very strange place, which is how we got religion. There must be something, somewhere, that’s different from this place.
That said, while we’re here, we might as well do what we can to even it up a bit, so I’ll continue to try to get people to play fair.
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That pity pledge doesn’t sound like it really is about fair play. I kind of think that if he did the things he said he is willing to do he would probably proclaim how pitiful his opponent is as he takes pity on him. Does anyone else think that might be what could happen?
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Taking pity on someone implies that you are in a superior position, which defeats any purpose. The key is to be able to see everyone as an equal, and to my mind if you pity someone, you are assuming they are not your equal. Seeing they are in a bad spot and assisting without pity, but as simply a means to assist where it is needed is quite different. Bullying is much the same – it is a power play and assumes or plays on social inequality. We spend too much time, frankly, fretting about how “we” are different than “them” (or “I” am different that “you”) and not enough about how we are the same. It is disheartening that in 2nd grade, Daughter is already beginning to notice that there are “in” kids and “not in” kids…thankfully thus far she is okay with not being one of the “in” kids, nor does she care a whit about what she wears in relation to what her friends wear. But it is starting – that social stratification that leads to unfair imbalance, pity, bullying, etc. I do my best to talk through why life may not always be fair, but what we can do to separate that which is unfair from imbalances that can be corrected or remedied (or not allowed to happen in the first place). And as Daughter and I were recently were reminded in “A Wrinkle in Time,” “equal” and “the same” are quite different notions.
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Ooh, I may have to read Wrinkle again.
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i mentioned last week i went to a funeral. it was a funeral for mike. mike was there on the first day of swimming lessons in 1961. he and i both liked to sit right behind the bus driver and so we became seatmates that summer and talked daily. mike was a nice guy. kind of big for his age. he was a year older than me but he was still big for his age. big guys tended to be bulies in 1961 but mike was more the gentle giant type. mike had learning disabilities not to the point where he was stupid but you always knew he was dealing with the world at about 95% of his capacity. mike and i had nice talks and then i went to catholic school and mike went to public and i didn’t see him for about 6 or 7 years at junior high. his sister was a really fun hell raising kind of girl and i had a crush on her. i would ask mike how she was doing and he would give me a report on the true status of her life. my mom was his art teacher and he would always ask about her. as time went on we moved on to high school and saw each other in the halls and said hi on an as we passed in the hall basis. at thigh school there was a teacher named mr ehlers. he was the enforcer. we were the hippies and mr ehlers didn’ like the hippies. he tended to get in their faces and make their lives difficult, sending them to the office for minor infractions and jsut all around being a miserable guy to all the hipies…except me. i didn’t get it. not at all. the other guys i hung out with didn’t get it either . it is not the kind of thing you ask about. ” hey me ehlers how come your not picking on me like all the other guys?” so i went through high school with one less hassle than i would have guessed. well my mom commented years later that mr ehlers had made the comment on e time that he thought i was ok. she asked why that was and he commented that one day he had seen mike in the lunchroom and some mean boys and come up and bumped him and knocked his books out of his arms and that he saw mew come up and say ” hi mile, hows it going” while i got down and picked up his books and gave him a pat on the back as i happened to be walking by. well mr ehlers just thought that was the nicest thing he ever saw. no search for recognition, no anger striking out at the mean guys just a little help for a guy and a pat on the back. my other hippy friends never knew why i was the invisible man for mr ehlers and never incurred his wrath. i never knew why either and now that i do it makes me understand that even the hardest and most crusty people have a soft spot that can be touched. its nice to find that every now and then. i saw mike over the years at the movie theater as the guy who took you tickets and then the last fistfull of years at sams club as the guy who checks to see if you have your sams card and he would always ask about my mom and i would ask about his sister and so it went. then i heard he had died and went to his funeral and remembered. this blog came up today to allow me to recall it once more. from now on when i see the guy at the movie theater or at sams club i will remember mike. kinda nice.
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That’s a great story, tim. I’m glad you were able to be so courageous when Mike needed a little help.
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nothin courageous to it . it was simply the thing to do. not a thought
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Sometimes even the most fair-minded adults are unable, for various reasons, to play fair. This topic is close to my heart because it involves the break-up and restructuring of our band several years ago. I don’t want to name any names or indicate any specific roles because the people involved have been and still are quite close to me. I’m trying to relate the story in the most general way that I can.
There was someone involved who has highly unusual mannerisms and a unique lifestyle. For a list of reasons, this person was shunned. After a lengthy and emotional inner battle, including meditations on tolerance and compassion, I changed my mind on something that meant our band would change forever and I would lose one of my best friends in the entire world. This crisis was one of the life-altering events of the last decade and I think about it a lot because of what it cost me. I am determined to play fair, even when the price is that high. I must insist on fairness because I have been the geeky one who was shunned and I know how it feels. I can’t tolerate situations that are based on who is “cool” and who is not. That’s why I enjoy being here so much. Social hierarchies have no place here and everyone belongs, no matter what.
Tolerant, fair-minded Baboons! Thank you so much for listening. You have no idea how much it means to me.
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Whoa! Yes I do know. My band is full of unusual people. We give it our best shot to get along with each other, but it ain’t easy. I think it helps that we ALL are geeky crazy, albeit in different ways, so we cut each other as much slack as we can. And when we get something musically right, we all look at each other and grin with amazement!
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Like!
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I, too, do playground duty. I do it every day along with the other specialists at my elementary school (phy ed, art, and media). Trying to ensure fair and fun play is a challenge. We don’t get to play with the kids because we have to have our eyes peeled for trouble. However, I get to sing and play with them in my music class for the rest of the day. I don’t mind getting outside for an hour at noontime. I get some fresh air and sunshine and (today) wind chill.
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Getting them to take turns on the play equipment and keeping the boys from being too rough were often problems I had to deal with,on the play ground, Holly..
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yup.
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Afternoon,
Very interesting it’s so quiet here today… I can’t believe there’s that little fair play for us to talk about?
tim, love your story. It can be the little things that make such a difference. Watching my daughter, with her special needs, and I always worry about her at school and on the bus. But we haven’t had much trouble. I know her older brothers friends thought she was pretty cool and maybe the word gets around then that this kid is OK, but he graduated last year. There’s a few kids this year that know her yet… but what then the next two years?
I cross my fingers there’s a kid out there that becomes her ‘school big sister or brother’, you know?
Right, the world isn’t fair; it’s a tough place. Now, how are you going to deal with that?
Mind you, my daughter’s tough; if you pick on her she’ll take it for a bit, but then she’s going to get mad. And that’s when the teacher calls us. 🙂 What’s frustrating is we seldom learn what REALLY happen first; She’s the one that got caught, but what happen first? Well, nobody really saw that…sometimes it’s just frustration. We spend a lot of time talking about and working on those social skills.
In the theater we talk about how it attracts all kinds of people. And we do our best to find a place for them. I’m not sure this is standing up for fair play, but we’re all trying to play nice.
Good, thought provoking comments!
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Ben, for me it’s not so much that there isn’t enough to talk about. It’s the opposite. The world is not a fair place, and as someone else has pointed out, “equal” and “the same” are quite different.
I know I’ve stood up for “fair play” numerous times, even on this very blog. I think it’s very easy to be quite comfortable in your convictions when you know that everyone else shares those convictions; preaching to the choir, if you will. It’s risking becoming the outcast, speaking up when you know your view will not be appreciated or well received that’s tough.
I have lost friends over this very issue. I will not tolerate racist, sexist, or ethnic slurs, and in some company they are par for the game. I think I detect the difference between the mean spirited ethnic jokes, and the ones that are merely good-natured ribbing. I think the US has become so fearful of not being politically correct, that much humor is no longer acceptable. I’m in a contemplative mode about this because this very issue came up yesterday at a New Year’s celebration at our house. How do you deal with people you love who you know harbor feelings and beliefs that you abhor? I’m sure there are others in this forum who struggle with this very issue. What are your coping strategies?
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I grieved, still grieve, over the loss of my friend. I continue to hope that we will be able to come to terms with the situation, agree to disagree, and move on. There has been very gradual improvement but no resolution.
Meditation has been very helpful to me. It helps me know myself and to define exactly where I stand, even when my emotions are putting me on a roller coaster ride.
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divorce is a devastating aclaimation. friends are harder than spouses perhaps. spouse always involve other stuff. friendships arent supposed to. your situation is that he was your musical partner. every relationship entered into is like marrying into a new dysfunctional family. i have one i was born into, one i married into and divorced out of, one i am in the constant midst of and a fistfull of business ones. it is amazing at the schitzo whacko psychopaths who are out there who seemed fine and if it wasnt for the chance to see them in this light maybe you wouldnt have to cringe everytime you think of them but so it goes. make sure you are good with you, he can deal with him. god bless and good luck karma will win out or if it doesn’t at least you can know you are ok.
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ben your daughter may benifit from the bbc book selection this month. to kill a mockingbird is wonderful but the book does such an excellent job of nailing some of the implied values and ethics that slide on by in the movie. there is an extensive examination of scout learning to hold her temper when she wants to beat up all the boys at school for pick pick picking at her. it may help you daughter ge tit a little more concretely and it is such a wonderful read if she can handle a chapter a day for a three week stint. kind of longish for a chapter book.
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Thanks for the suggestion tim. My wife and I take turns taking daughter to bed and reading. Long chapter books are not a problem; we’re in, whatever, book 5, ‘Little Town on the Prairie’ so she can handle that.
Thanks.
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sounds wonderful, enjoy
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Is this on-topic?
“The more deeply the path is etched, the more it is used, and the more it is used, the more deeply it etched.” Jo Coudert
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seems to me to be as on topic as it could be
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My son had some pretty significant LD issues and had extremely poor motor skills and math deficits. It always made me angry when a few of his teachers would resist following his an IEP because they didn’t think it was “fair” to the other children that his handwriting or artwork didn’t have to be graded for neatness, or he got a little more time to write his math facts. It sure wasn’t “fair” to him that he was born 10 weeks early. I was so happy that we always had the IEP and some really dedicated LD teachers to redirect the teachers and provide our son with support.
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there are many damaging teachers. i have asked that a few of them be removed. i went to see a music teacher screaming at children and belittleing them to the point i told the principle that i understood he had some disipline issues but if he could go about his business without taking the love out of the classroom i would be ok but he doesnt try or even understand the concept. i was glad he was gone the next year. many other examples sorry the stupidity hit your son between the eyes throughout his educational career but the lesson is to find out how to get by in life and find a happy place where the doorknobs dont bombard you everywhere you go. there is a place.
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Yes, Renee. Indeed.
One of my mantras as a teacher, for which I more than once got in trouble, once in deep trouble: “Nothing is more unequal than the equal treatment if unequals.” But figuring that out is a very difficult. When do teachers push and demand, when do they ease up, when do they require more of this one and less of that one? Do they grade against a curve, against a standard, against other students, each student against that student?
“Smooth sea never made fine sailor.” But we want our kids to always have (yes, I know split infinitive–good for me!) a smooth sea. As a parent, I fell into that trap a lot. My parents never fell into it, even when they should have (in my opinion). How long do you want me to go on?
Robert Frost said right before he died that his fear for America was that we did not have fortitude to give our young the challenges that had made us great. But Renee’s son, is one of the exceptions, for truth he is. But in what way is not every student an exception, at least every now and then? How are the gifted an exception? To be let off the hook, as some do for them? To be pushed harder as some do for them? to feel the special pains, as few do for them? And believe, the gifted can have deep pains, so deep that they sometimes do not survive. Literally,
How long shall I go on?
Regarding playground supervision: very tough to see it all, as Holly says. Students, the bullies especially are sneaking, sneaky. And clearly the adults need to rescue kids from bullies. But should adults settle every fight (not a physical, now) kids have? How do kids learn to work it out if adults do so for them? One of the lessons of my childhood was that if you pissed off the kid who owned the bat, the ballgame was over.
See. This is why I always avoid subjects like this. People want to make it simple and it is not. It is very complex, which is the only thing I learned in 40 years in education. The Standards are hard to figure out. The “test masters” are loved because they make it simple. No Child Left Behind is a cheap bastardly answer to the deepest questions of education and child-rearing. Shame on us. How long shall I go on?
You talk of the playground and rightly so. But what about the mostly-unsupervised bus because the drivers are trying to drive and watch the mirror? Tough job of low pay and terrible hours. My son-in-law, who now and then drives as a favor these days, got called a bigot at a school board meeting because he separated two Hispanic sisters who were fighting and made them set in separate seats. Did he do that to two white kids, huh? huh?
You talk of the playground and rightly so. But what about high school culture? Where, in my time, were so many male teachers and a few female, but a much lower number, who believed teasing is a right of passage kids must go through. Many believe still believe that I bet. When does teasing, which is a right of passage in a sense, should not we all be able to enjoy the banter of light teasing, when does that teasing become bullying? I am in many ways shaped by having been heavily teased and bullied. I admit it. Not very willingly. But indeed I was.
How long do you want me to go on? If the teacher develops an active and busy classroom, as I would wish they all do, and now they have to teach, watch for those ahead and those behind and those teasing and those being teased and decide when to push that one and when to excuse this one.
Teaching is an elegant demanding task, indeed exhausting task, which has been diminished (and I do not mean by you people, indeed I do not). And those who really piss me off for diminishing the task are the teachers who diminish it to rote.
How long shall i go one? I did this rant once before. Sorry. But it was my passion,. which I have tried to give up as a passion, and I see I have not.
I spent 40 years working in education in may levels and I have not a clue what I accomplished. I think the potential to harm as a teacher may be greater than to help.
Getting education right may be the most important task in America. Or it may not matter at all. I mean that truly. It may not matter at all. Kids learn so much more now in other ways, and the best kids always have because of their parents and grandparents, people like you on this blog.
How long have I gone on and shall I go on?.
I have been staring at this for an hour or two trying to decide if I should post it.
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Thank goodness you posted it, Clyde – what a bummer to have written it for naught!
“Getting education right may be the most important task in America. Or it may not matter at all.” It can’t not matter, not when such a large chunk of childhood is spent in our institutions. You can’t as a teacher save every one, and you can’t be there for every one, and you can’t always get it right. But kids know when they find a quality teacher, someone to watch and follow and copy, someone to be a model for them. My son had given up on education, and then he found Highview Alternative School, and some teachers who he could see cared about the kids. Nine years later he and his buddy each wrote a letter to the staff there – I’ve seen the letters – wish you could read them.
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Thank you, Clyde. We certainly expected a great deal from our son despite his LD problems, and he really expects a lot from himself. Having an IEP didn’t make the road easy, as some of his teachers thought, it made it just possible to travel and get somewhere. He abandoned the IEP when he started his undergraduate college education, and has a 4.0 in his graduate counseling program. His handwriting is still illegible, Oh well, at least they don’t grade him on that now.
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Renee, my last tirade and then I put myself in Blog Siberia: handwriting is innate and cannot be changed, A proven biological fact. Proven, Zippo. Case closed. There are damn few things in education about which you can say that. Fact Fact Fact. Damn it! People can learn to take care, but that’s it. Much the same is true of spelling. Not quite as closed a case, but close. In every group of 100 kids are one or two whose hand writing is illegible and that’s that. Dealing with that is so damn easy, why are we making any case of it. Stupid stupid stupid. In that same group of kids are one or two who cannot spell, especially if you make then think about it. Dealing with that is easy too. Most kids who cannot spell have figured out a way to deal with it in their turned-in writings, such as asking mommy or a friend to help, which are damn fine coping strategies. why do some argue. But many will.
In my grades 3-6 I estimate we spent about 40% of the day on handwriting (curse Palmer, whoever he was) which was pointless, spelling tests and lists which is pointless, grammatical analysis skills which is mostly pointless when separate from purpose as it was, and drill drill drill of discrete reading skills, which is pointless for readers beyond about grade 3.
I am silent and good night.
Sorry all.
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Clyde, to me, this has been one of your more revealing posts. You’ve allowed yourself to display the rage that you still feel at some of the injustices in the world.
I’ve never met you, but I have a picture in my mind’s eye (from your previous posts) of a man in chronic pain who can focus on little else. In this post I see an outrage at all the things you wish you could change but can’t; a passionate man who is indeed, despite his pain, very invested in the world. I’m so glad you made that post. Broadened my view of who you are.
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Clyde, don’t apologize. There is good stuff here tonight people; one of our top blogs in my opinion.
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glad you did clyde. i know you feel this wayand you speak it so eloquently when you ut forth hte effort. i am in eden paririe where the somalia culture is very pronounced but it is geographic, the housing that the poor live in is located in two pockets of the community and in those two schools the unequality of the success of the educational process. the notion of having one school with 52% non english speaking free lucnh and in other schools the numbers a 10%1%2% and those parents want their kids excluded from the challenges of teaching slackers who drag down classroom advancement. the gop nazi just ran a highly funded campaign where the newly redistributed population is the key to the school board election. the money behind the school board campaign and the campaign itself were what is wrong with the political system today. it should be documented and pointed to as the prime example of what happens when outside dollars come in to sweep a cause on or off the table. they are searching for a new superintendant after the one who directed the fairness in education move in eden prairie was drummed out out of town.
thanks clyde you will never say enough. keep it comin when the energy allows. it is you at your best.
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Reading these posts has been a humiliating experience for me. These are tales of moments of heroism when people have taken stands and insisted on fairness. I wonder what is wrong with me that I can’t think of moments when I’ve done that. Mostly that is because I worked for decades as an independent contractor, outside of all systems, I wasn’t witness to unfairness except occasionally when someone was unfair to me, and that doesn’t fit the essential question we are being asked to answer here.
Another way of looking at this is that I’ve been a lousy reformer. I have rarely taken stands and fought for more fairness from some bureaucracy.I have not tilted at windmills, partly because I am so conflict-adverse and partly because I’m cynical enough to think that most reform efforts are doomed to fail. Unfairness is the way of the world. Some people have accomplished a great deal of good by fighting that and insisting on making governments or businesses behave more humanely. I’m just not one of those people. I have not drawn my sword and made stirring speeches. I have not led charges uphill into cannons.
Maybe I haven’t been so weak and reluctant to fight for fairness as it seems tonight. Or maybe I’ve been worse, even, than it seems right now.
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if you are fair and a straight shooter everyday and lead by example there is a place of honor here for you. cut yourself a little slack. raising your sword and tilting at windmills aint all its cracked up to be either
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As an artist, I think most of my reform battles have been fought for higher standards in art. Which is not the same as what was asked about in the original question. I have fought for artistic standards, but not for social fairness.
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I may be a bit biased, Steve, but from my perspective you have lived a life of extraordinary integrity, honesty, and value. Few people I’ve known have been as consistently earnest, loving
and conscious. To me, it’s not about being “courageous”; it’s about being genuinely present for
others in whatever form this may take. One of my favorite pieces of wisdom from all time was written by Eduardo Galeano. He writes; “A man on the coast of Columbia could climb into the sky.
On his return, he described his trip. He told how he had contemplated human life from on high. He said that we are a ‘sea of tiny flames’.
Each person shines his or her own light. No two flames are alike. There are big flames, little flames, flames of every color. Some people’s flames are so still that they don’t even flicker in the wind, while others have wild flames that fill the air with sparks. Some foolish flames neither burn nor shed light, but others blaze with life so fiercely that you can’t look at them without blinking, and if you approach, you shine in their fire”.
Your flames have burned steadily with just enough light that others have experienced higher consciousness in their own lives, Steve.
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From my perspective, this is an extraordinary tribute from one sibling to another. Hats off to both of you.
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very nice crystal bay
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Very kind of you, CrystalBay, and all the proof we’d ever need that you ARE biased! But thanks!
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Well, brother, we both know which one of us was the flame thrower filling the air with sparks, now don’t we? I appreciate your patience over the last 67+ years.
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I’m feeling a little that way too. I’m thinking of the times I should have stood up for myself, even, but didn’t. Plenty of times I didn’t take the opportunity to get actively involved in things I truly believe in. But we each have a set of (constantly changing in my case) priorities that direct our lives. Luckily we’re all different – if everyone were heroes, no one would be.
It wouldn’t surprise me, Steve, to learn that you stood up for fairness for, say, your young daughter.
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