Nine Shift

I have to teach on Monday

In was on Good Friday, coincidentally on the same weekend of Terry Shiavo's passing and Pope John Paul II gravely ill, that my friend and neighbor Ed Peterson passed away.

He and his wife Ursula were the best of neighbors, a model for community and sense-of-community and what neighbors do for each other.

Well beyond retirement age at 78, Ed still taught at the university here. When they took him to the hospital and asked him if he wanted some life support, he replied he did, noting, "I have to teach on Monday."   

When it became obvious he would not be teaching on Monday, the family took him off the support. If he could not teach, it was not worth it, Ursula told me on the Monday following.  In his life, and in his final testament to our common vocation of teaching, Ed Peterson indeed was teaching on Monday morning.

Yeah! My son got a D+

I am so proud. Only two more classes to pass and he can graduate. Willie got a D+ in philosophy today.

If one looks at his grades online, he actually got an "A" or "B" in everything he did. Which is pretty much true for all his classes this year - - A or B for every test or project he completed.

In the absurd Alice-in-Wonderland unreality of schools, the teacher gives Willie a D and says he doesn't know philosophy.  Actually, Willie knows philosophy. He Aced every test and paper.

So the school winds up telling the boys they don't know the subject, when the boys know they DO know it. And schools tell parents and colleges the boy doesn't know the subject, when he does.

Once again, this is neurological.  If a smart boy knows something, he becomes disinterested and refocuses his attention around something more challenging. This behavior is rewarded over the next 50 years in the workplace. But not in the upside-down what-is-true-is-false and what-is-false-is-true world of schools.

Willie knows he knows philosophy. As parents we can see the data in his online grades.
Only the school is pretending.

A mother's instinct

A mother's instinct to protect her child is triggered by the same hormonal change that makes her more caring, new research shows. The findings emerged after six years of research led by Professor Stephen Gammie at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States. He found that levels of corticootropin-releasing hormone (CRH), a peptide that acts on the brain to control behaviour, were significantly reduced in new mothers. This produced 'maternal agression,' the response that helps to ensure the survival of young animals and human. London Telegraph

The people most understanding of the issue of boys and school are mothers of boys.  And the reason appears to be biological, just like the issue of boys is biological.

The mother's instinct may also account for the fact that 80% of tsunami victims were women. It appears that the women ran down to the beaches out of concern for their sons and husbands at sea.

For the past several weeks Julie has been hunkered (and bunkered) over her computer, emailing teachers, printing out daily updates of Willie's school progress, and encouraging Willie onward. My admiration and gratefulness to her, with or without the mother hormone; and by extension to the millions of mothers doing the same for their sons.

(100 years ago: Mother Jones, named "the most dangerous woman in America," led a march of 400 boys to Pres. Theo Roosevelt's summer White House to ask that he allow the boys- - working in the factory 60 hours a week - - to attend school 5 of those hours. He refused.)

Quantity rather than Quality

Well, Willie has about 8 essays, each 400 words, due this week, in order to complete a philosophy course, required to graduate.
With his Asperger's disease, it takes him a lot of energy and time to write something. With his artistic and writing ability, he also demands of himself his best shot.
I can pump out 400 words in an hour.  I would like to try to teach him how to write "garbage" but am afraid that would destroy his craft.  What the school wants is quantity, not quality.

Can you imagine Max Perkins writing F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Scottie, Tender is the Night was two years late!  We can't publish anything that isn't turned in on time.  And it certainly wouldn't be named one of the top 100 novels of the 20th century - - what kind of message would that send to the kids, that a novel can still be one of the best even if it is turned in late?
   Plus, you've only written about four novels.  Look at Danielle Steele, she produces one a year.  Get with the program Scottie. Take responsibility for yourself. All the other authors get it....."

(Today's update: he has 3 courses more to complete, graduation is this week, but he can still get it done next week.)

All the other teachers got it

An administrator instructed Julie to put everything in writing to Willie's teachers. So she did.

She wrote the teachers and asked them to tell her "everything" Willie needed to do to pass.
They did.

Then a couple of teachers later said Willie had to do more work.
What part of "everything" don't you understand, teacher? 
(and how can teachers get away with just changing the rules every time it pleases them. The student is alway wrong). 

One of the most common catch phrases teachers use to excuse their own improper pedagogy is to say, "All of the other kids got it."   Now, all of the other kids did not get it.  And it attempts to deny a central educational truth: that each kid learns differently. Instead, teachers and schools continue to maintain the school as a factory, where every student is interchangeable, every student must conform to the standard, every student is either normal, or in not normal.

So Julie writes a teacher who made up more work for Willie, and says, "All the other teachers got it." (understood the instructions to tell her everything Willie needed to do to pass).  I loved it.   Eventually the teacher did some face-saving and gave in.

From Peter Day of the BBC

Our favorite business reporter, Peter Day of the BBC, emailed us this week with this news:

"I have just started a fortnightly business column for the BBC and as it's about the differences between the 20th and the 21st century Nine Shift it demanded a return to Nine Shift, which I've posted" :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4508417.stm

Peter's weekly 20 minute radio program is called Global Business, and it is the Best show about economics and the 21st century out there. Tune in.

((Picture is of Peter Day and Julie at our house))

It's too powerful

Last week (we hope) of "Will Willie graduate?"

So Willie turned in his English paper.  The teacher read it, and immediately went to his plagiarism tool to see if he copied his paper. This made Willie mad, that someone would challenge his authenticity, especially after all that hard work.  Keep in mind Willie has Asperger's, which means it is hard for him to lie, so that someone would challenge him on this, is very upsetting. 

"It's too powerful," said the teacher about Willie's paper.  Of course nothing turned up on the plagiarism web site. So Willie passed English!   

The teacher is probably one of the finest we have ever encountered, and yet, and yet, there is still that attitude that the more suffering (they call it work) the better.  We would suggest:
1. That quality is better than quantity.
2. That the old "we're preparing kids for the tough world out there" is getting pretty ridiculous, undocumented, tiresome, and actually hindering boys' motivation, giving the higher drop out rates.

Another comment from Europe

We've been getting some nice feedback from folks in Germany, UK, and Netherlands. Here's an interesting follow up email from David R. Williams in London. What do you think?

The problem as I see it with America is that whilst your looking in the rear view mirror is adjusted to view the back seat.  America and its labour unions will be overtaken by manufactured goods made abroad. China, Japan, Taiwan they all make goods far cheaper. South Korea is a advanced nation - they have video on mobile phones for example.(so what I hear you think)

 

America needs to focus away from oil and the wars that are fought over this resource because very soon your not going to have the balance of payments to be able to afford the cost.  This is serious - what is the American $ really worth when daily imports exceed exports?  Just think of the major corporations that are bankrupt if you take pension liability into account.

 

When foreigners or aliens as immigration likes to call them visit they find America like a poor country - their money goes a long way.  But America has made itself unwelcome to visitors. They are unwelcome in many countries around the world - people know this - what other nation is frightened to travel abroad?

 

America needs to position its rear view mirror to see out - but it will still be surprised to find itself overtaken.

 

The problem with Zionism is that it is isolationist and heavily outnumbered.  What America needs is a major technological breakthrough perhaps in the field of nanotechnology - but whatever, it is needed fast.

In the air America is challenged by the A380, in software Linux is gaining ground, in cars the battle is already lost to Japan. What do we in Europe buy from America - software and computers yet these two items are threatened by convergence of communications and computing and open source software.

 

It is not just about nice shift in the homeland it is also about globalisation. The village 12 miles away is called China. Europe is one big nation - a nation that threatens American manufacturing on every count.

A nation that flies advanced aircraft, cruises in advanced ocean going ships of leisure and war and needs to purchase nothing from America.

 

America need to stop inventing Osama bin laden and focus on setting it people free to trade fearlessly in the global village.  America the free - yet The Statue of Liberty is the symbol of a prison without bars.

 

We hit 5,000 reads this year

Today we surpassed 5,000 'reads' for 2005 (number of times someone came here).
Thanks to you for your continued readership.
A number of you have mentioned the weblog when we meet in person.
Julie and I also encourage you to make comments, and appreciate each and every comment.

More on "Some boys don't lie"

The points to this story (posted May 25, 2005) are:

1. Limbic system shuts down.   When boys are under stress, the limbic system "shuts down" and  another part of the brain devoted to self-preservation and fight aggression kicks in.  The limbic system is where emotional stability is, where that affective comfort level resides.  Boys need that emotional comfort level to be able to learn. 

2. Safe environment.  Schools have to create a safe environment in order for students to learn. When students feel as though they will be criticized, chastised, accused, and so on  when they walk into the school, that safe environment dissipates.