Wow, the first month of 2016 year is already over and as an educator I’ve come up with an idea to straighten out our calendar system once and for all! It’s simple and effective and once you get use to it, you will like it. There are 365 days in the year (most of the time) that fit into approximately 52 weeks, which are divided into twelve months within that year. Each week has seven days within it, which gives us 52 weeks plus one day under normal circumstances (with the exception of a leap year or one additional day added to the calendar every four years along with a small exception every several hundred years) each year while the twelve months goes into 365 days thirty point 416 plus times. So instead of having the number of days varying for each month as we do now, why not make each month consist with 30 days instead of all the variations (which leads to confusion and frustrations for those who have memory problems remembering which month has which number of days) and merely adding an extra week after the last month to equal the 365 days. The extra week based upon a five day week would equal out to exactly 365 days and this ideal would not be unique or a precedent as the original Chinese, Greek, and Jewish calendars all had 354 days with added days built in to them to make the year come out right.
There have been other calendars in the recent past that have used the 365 days as a complete year built into them. The Egyptian, Julian and the Georgian calendar are just three examples of previous calendars used in the past to identify the way societies recorded the yearly cycle of time, and now we could have the Lundgruanian calendar!! Really, there are only four dates in the year that have significant importance: The Spring equinox (or fall equinox if you live south of the equator), which represents when the planet earth has equal day and night times; the Summer solstice (or winter solstice if you live south of the equator), which represents the longest day (or shortest night if you prefer) of the year; the Fall equinox (or spring equinox if you live south of the equator), which again represents equal day and night; and finally the winter solstice (or summer solstice if you live south of the equator), which represents the shortest day (or longest night if you prefer)of the year. These dates are relatively constant as things go due to the consistency of the earth’s rotation around the sun and the tilt of the earth‘s axis as it is doing its rotation.
Being associated with education for nearly all of my life (parents teaching while I was growing up, going to school, and being involved in the educational field during most of my adult life), it wasn’t until I retired and started to transport my grandchildren to their educational centers that I realized how fixed we all are to the “week” of seven days as we know it. Originally, one day of the week was given to our religious beliefs in our sphere of the world and the week was based upon the Old Testament where God created the world and rested on the seventh day. So therefore one day should be set aside for reflections and honor of/to that Creator. Different interpretations established different days of the week to do this reflection and honoring so now different days of that week became a “Sabbath” that is “Sunday “for most of the Christian religion, “Saturday” for the Jewish religion, and “Friday” for the Moslem religion. And in most cultures, the remaining six days were left to work (that which we don’t necessarily like to do but have to do in order to survive whether it is for our own benefit or someone else’s and this–in some instances–may be considered slavery or servitude).
While working the many years in education, I became aware of a gradual change associated with the established time that education took place during the year. Originally, as with soldiering, education was reserved for the time when food was not being produced due to climate conditions. Since formal education was developed, we lived in what was known as an agrarian society whereby most of the people associated with farming–or the production of food- started the education process after the crops were harvested and ended it when the planting began. With the advent of the industrial revolution, the percentage of people associated with food production has steadily decreased until it really has little significance in our society today as a determining factor in when education is to be delivered and that means education is no longer restricted to just those nonfood production months. The globalization of our world has also impacted food production in that growing seasons have become continuous based upon the differences between the northern and southern hemispheres.
Another factor associated with our changing cultural climate is the fact that the traditional definition of the family has changed. It has gone from the man producing the means for survival (which was a very chivalrous idea) while the woman bore and raised the family (the traditional a stay-at-home mom) to a process where both parents (of the “traditional” family) need to work full time to make ends meet. This societal change has caused the educational system to be expanded to take care of the “kids” while the adults both work throughout the year and has developed a daycare system in order to include children who are too young to be deemed educable.
In fact, over time if enough pressure hadn’t come to bear upon society to give adults an extra day (besides their religious day) to “play”, everyone would still be working six days a week. In some societies the work week has even been adjusted to just a four-day (in some cases ten hour days have made this possible while other cases employers are just requiring only 24 hours of work time in a seven day period to meet the requirements of a work week) cycle. Thus any day that one is not working should be considered a non-working day or “Saturday” as we now know it. Plus it only makes sense that it be put right next to our “Sabbath” day. Now with globalization and our western influence on the rest of the world, we have developed a traditional work week, which is divided into five days of work (called Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) with two non-work days (called Saturday and Sunday). This makes for a nice calendar to follow for a single rotation of the earth or calendar year. Or does it?
Although we are living in a more unified world today and most of the world is currently using the same calendar, the days and dates have come to represent more complexities than need to be present. For example the Greek Orthodox Church still celebrates Christmas within the confines of the Julian calendar, which actually places the day of the celebration something like 13 days (or more) behind the Gregorian calendar. Calendars can become like the person who has to take a number of medications on a daily basis over many years of time. The person starts out with eight or so prescriptions all starting on the same date when they were all prescribed. Most of them are set for a month’s worth of pills at a time. But over a long period of time that person soon discovers that one prescription last longer than the others and, as time goes by, more prescriptions seem to be doing the same thing until they are staggered to the point that the person has to get prescription renewals for each of the medication on a weekly bases. Now how did that happen? They all started at the same time and they all contained the same number of pills for each month. Yet they just no longer last up to the same date when they ran out. Did the pharmacist make a mistake, which reoccurred over the years, or did the pharmaceutical company cut down on the month’s supply as some companies have done with their products in only putting in ¾ of a pound in a pound sized can (as coffee companies seem to have done on many occasions). Like the medication dilemma over time, (to me) it’s time to readjust the prescriptions and in the same way maybe it’s time to change our calendar system so that everything is aligned.
The Lundgroanian calendar was established to simplify the days my grandkids had to go to school. School was equated with the work week and since it was for the most part a five day experience (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) with the first day back to school always being a Monday and the last day of school in the week always being a Friday. Non-school days were either a Saturday or Sunday with the Saturday always following a Friday, which was the last day of the school week and the Sunday was always being just before the Monday that started the school week. Such a rational and logical thinking process was pretty simple and straight forward for a young person to comprehend.
Unfortunately we, as workers over time, have gotten greedy and wanted more time off from our working needs so holidays were developed to give us something to celebrate and not have to work. It also gave us time to be with our families so schooling was not needed during those “holidays” either. But such additions to the weekly calendar has messed things all up so now we have some Mondays which are holidays and not workdays or school days and some Fridays which are also non-workday and school days. This was even worse when a specific calendar day was used to celebrate a holiday—such as Thanksgiving or Christmas– so conceivably any workday or school day (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, as well as Monday or Friday) could become non-work or non-school day. As adults, we had a good understanding of this contradiction because we made the rules and we can even could break them if we wanted to (it’s kind of like “I” before “E” except after “C”, or is it the other way around and before “C”?). But for a kid just learning the meaning of a calendar such exemptions and contradictions has the ability to become rather confusing unless they are good at memorizing or raised as a “do as I say not as I do” child by dictatorial parents.
The Lundgroanian calendar helps to explain these holidays in terms that kids of school age can understand and if there is an extra non-school day they can decide whether it should be an extra Saturday or Sunday. After all if the Dr. Pepper pop guy–Larry Culpepper–can have his College Super Bowl idea come into reality, why can’t the Lundroanian calendar gain traction, credibility and acceptance. Let’s face it, we can start the 2017 year with this new calendar concept if only a majority of people are willing to adopt it and pass it onto their neighbors and friends!!!!! Better yet, let’s start the new calendar on December 21 (the winter equinox) with that day becoming January 1 of the New Year. Now because of that date being before December 25 in the old calendar, we would have the ability to wait until the next December 25, which would actually be December 21 on the old Calendar (or would it be December 29). This could cause the Russian Greek Orthodox Church to now celebrate their Christmas holiday on either January 3 or 11 whichever is the correct date associated with the old Gregorian calendar.
Actually the Lundgroanian calendar is quite simple. It is a five day week calendar starting with a Monday (work day) and ending with a Sunday on the fifth day of the cycle (which would be a non-work day). The remaining three days would be a Friday (work day),which would fall on the day before Sunday ( or a Saturday/holiday whenever that happened) and the two days left would be a Tuesday (work day) that would come after a Monday and Thursday (work day) that would come before a Friday. Wednesday would, under normal circumstances, be eliminated (besides it was always the hardest day of the week for me to learn how to spell anyway). The five day week would go into the 365 day year on an equal basis of 72 weeks (with there being one extra week left over). The reason for the 72 weeks is so that the 365 day calendar could still use the 12 month cycle with each month having six 5 day weeks of 30 days in it and then the last extra week of 5 days could be added after the last month ends (this would be kind of like the time between Christmas and New Year’s currently). This calendar would also be relatively close to a “lunar month cycle” of approximately 29.5 days. If you think that this is a radical idea, you need to look up the old Egyptian and Chinese calendars which were set up on a ten day week cycle with each of the twelve months having three weeks and thirty days in them. There was an additional week added at the end of each cycle to make the system work and represent the earth’s “yearly” cycle around the sun and this was established as far back as some 4,500 years ago.
Besides each month being consistent with 30 days, each day of the week would always fall on the same numbered day in the calendar every month. With the current calendar system of seven days, there are only two months (February and March which will have the same sates on the same days of the week(with the exception of every four years, which are defined as a leap year because of the added day to the end of February) Monday would always be found on the first, sixth, 11th, 16th, 21, and 26th of each month and in four consecutive years and while Sunday would always be found on the fifth, 10th, 15, 20th, 25th, and 30th within the same four year cycle. The remaining days (Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays) would also fall to their consecutive days during each month. Even the last extra week would fall into this pattern and make the whole system work as established.
I know, nothing has been said about Saturday yet. That’s because every holiday would be considered a Saturday! This would be the only exception to the Tuesday/Thursday rule. Whenever a Saturday (holiday) would occur during the week Tuesday and Thursday would be replaced by one day called Wednesday with the 5 day week being Monday (work day), Wednesday(work day), Friday (work day), Saturday (non-work day), and Sunday (non-work day). Whenever a holiday would occur it would be listed as a Saturday and fall on a day between a Friday and Sunday and it could be listed in the calendar as a Saturday rather than the date that it fell on. This would cause Friday to move back to Thursday even though the week days in the heading for the month had it listed as Thursday. The only day (date) which might be excluded from this established system might be Thanksgiving Day which could still be rearranged to fall after a Friday during the month that it is currently celebrated in. The only date which currently is not established on a fixed date in the Christian calendar is actually Easter, which is established to fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon that occurs after the Spring Equinox or Vernal Equinox. Admittedly it seems like it is much easier to establish this calendar and just adopt it on faith than it is to explain it or show how and why it works so well.
Technically the best time to start this calendar would be either on the day of, or the first day after either the summer or winter equinox because that is a high (or low) point in the earth’s cycle around the sun and can be documented accurately over the centuries of time. Surprisingly the Druid, as well as many other cultures, like the Egyptians, used this day or date to begin their calendar year and they built monuments to align with that date for yearly verification purposes. Some of these structures are still in existence today such as Stone Hinge and Egyptian temples to give just two examples.
The only problem in implementing this new calendar, as I see it, possibly might be associated with some religious conservatives who take a very literal rather than a figurative approach to the Bible in that Genesis says that the world, as we know it, was created in six days with the seventh day being needed for rest. The all-powerful could have created it in four days if desired and rested or reflected on the fifth day (if desired) and this could have gotten mistranslated just as the Reed Sea became the Red Sea by some scholar as codification occurred. In context, the current calendar was also supposed to be aligned with the birth of Christ while in actuality his birth is now attributed to about 4B.C. rather than 0 by historians and the day of his birth is celebrated on different days based upon different calendars that are in use today. This discrepancy can be seen between western Christian religions and eastern Orthodox churches which celebrate this happening on December 25 and January 7 currently respectively (for verification of these differences, the sidebar at the end of this blog contains additional information about different calendars that have been established over time as well as what makes them different relative to the solar year and this information was gleamed from Wikipedia on the internet).
The earliest known record of a calendar goes back as far possibly as 17,500 years, according to some scholars, and has different dates associated with their year’s beginning date. In addition leaders of notoriety have established their own calendars based upon their individual needs. To some extent, the current calendar rest with the Julian system established by Julius Caesar in around 46/45 BC and it revision associated with the Gregorian calendar established by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 (which was affected by the Council of Nicaea in 325). The point here being that a group of individuals decided arbitrarily upon a certain date to represent a certain happening and this was the basis for their decisions (while in actuality, it may not have been as factual as far as reality is concerned as they would have wished it to be). Remember this same body was eventually responsible for establishing the earth as the center of the universe (during the “dark ages”) with the sun revolving around it and anyone questioning such doctrine was executed. Any known printed material with information containing contrarily ideas was also destroyed. In fact it wasn’t until the Second Vatican Council that the Catholic Church actually publically acknowledged their mistake concerning Galileo’s theory around 1962. One has to ask the question based upon these misrepresentation of what other things did they get wrong when they were establishing their universal doctrines.
So what would the advantages be to establishing the Lundgroanian calendar as the primary calendar for usage around the world one might ask? Well here are just a few of the advantages that could be attributed to such a new system:
- For employees, they could have a four-day work week.
- For students, they could have a four-day school week.
- For employers, they could have a ten hour work-day to be able to maintain the 40 hour work week.
- For students, they could have their original three month summer vacation because the number of days or weeks required for a school week would be met sooner in the year than they are now currently met.
- More weeks mean more that there is a better opportunity to schedule more vacation days within each month because there are more weeks in the months to schedule them in.
- Long range consistency would mean that there would be a better opportunity for long range planning and it would allow easier memorization process for people regardless of their smartness level.
- Finally religious leaders would actually gain a 50% number of days for religious observations since there would be 73 Sundays as compared to the current 53 that we now have.
As for problems that could be found in adopting this new calendar, I cannot really think of any dis advantages that it might have.
I Just looked at my watch and realized that I have spent enough time on the blog concerning the adoption of a new calendar system so now it’s time to share it with the enlightened world–say, after looking at the clock I just realized that it might be a great idea to create a new daily cycle of say 20 hours instead of 24 hours! Just think of the time we could save if the day only had 20 hours instead of…….
A Calendar Sidebar Established to Provide Additional Information Concerning Different Calendars Developed Over the Previous Eons of Time
The Lunar calendar may have been the earliest calendar established about 10,000 years ago which had a consistent number of cycles to represent a solar year.
The Egyptian calendar was established in around 4236 B.C.E. with 365 days.
The Chinese calendar was established in around 2637 B.C. E. with 354 days with days added at intervals to keep the Chinese lunar calendar aligned with the seasons. The first day of the New Year falls on the new moon between 21 January and 20 February. In 2016, the Chinese New Year is Monday, February 8th, starting seven days of celebration and this new year will be 4652 which commemorates the reign of one of their earliest rulers .
The Greek calendar had354 days (lunar year or the monthly cycle of the moon) with days added at intervals to keep the Chinese lunar calendar aligned with the seasons
The Jewish calendar had 354 days (lunar year) with days added at intervals to keep the Chinese lunar calendar aligned with the seasons associated with the earth’s revolution around the sun
The Julian calendar was a calendar introduced by the authority of Julius Caesar in 46 BC, in which the year consisted of 365.25 days, with every fourth year having 366 days. It was superseded by the Gregorian calendar though it is still used by some Orthodox Churches. Dates in the Julian calendar are sometimes designated “Old Style.”
The Gregorian calendar was established by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 which we are still using today with 365 and ¼ days to be adjusted every four years and it is occasionally adjusted by what is known as the atomic clock by seconds every once in a while because it is a few seconds shorter than the point (.) 25 of a day each year. Currently the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendar is approximately 13 days since the inception of the Julian calendar and that currently January 1 on the Gregorian calendar would be January 13 on the Julian calendar. To account for this discrepancy a bunch of refinements are incorporated into the calendar making based upon one hundred year intervals. The only saving grace between the two calendars is that both use the twelve same months with the same number of days allocated for each month.
Many of the Eastern Orthodox Churches still uses the Julian calendar as opposed to the Gregorian calendar
The date for Easter Sunday was established in 325CE at the Council of Nicaea where it was established that Easter would be held on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox. From that point forward, the Easter date depended on the ecclesiastical approximation of March 21 for the vernal equinox.
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People often wonder why I am as I am. In fact I too sometimes wonder why I am as I am. I think we all go through at least one traumatic event which shapes our lives at some point in that life. Sometimes we are lucky enough to remember that such event and I guess I am one of those folks that can say that they remember the event. It was clearly the first event that I really remember and I believe that it affected the rest of my life and made me what I am today. Therefore I can credit all events associated with my being directly to that traumatic event and thus any mistakes that I have made in other peoples’ eyes are a direct result of that event!
MY C’MAS TEDDY BEAR
It happened one night. On that night my Teddy Bear disappeared. I must have been four or five then and all I remember was the morning that my friend wasn’t there to see me wake up. I must have accepted the fact that it wasn’t there because I don’t remember crying or having a bad day. I remember that my dad had some health problems which affected his work situation and that shortly before my “Bear” disappeared my mom took me to the Dells by bus for a two day vacation while my dad stayed home. We had a good time and I remember riding in a boat, seeing a black panther jump from one pillar to another above us in a show, and everyone singing “Good Night Irene” in the boat on the way back to our hotel.
MY OLDEST DAUGHTER’S TEDDY BEAR
I remember getting back home late at night from the trip and going out into the garage to play in my sand box. While playing, I noticed in a back corner my Teddy Bear which was stuffed behind some brooms and mops. I was so happy to find him and so excited. I thought that I had lost him or that he had just left me. I went back into the house and told my mom about my find and how happy I was. I took him to bed with me that night and held him tight—very tight—as I drifted off to sleep. When I awoke the next morning, he was gone. At first there was a sudden thought that maybe my finding him was just a dream but that momentary doubt disappeared quickly as I knew the reunion was a real occurrence. I went in and told my mom that he disappeared again and she informed me that this time he would not be coming back.
MY YOUNGEST DAUGHTER’S TEDDY BEARS
Every child should have a special “something” to” protect” them and their innermost feelings and there is no age when that something must disappear. It’s kind of like Santa and whether he is real. He is real only as long as you believe he is real and I still believe that he exists, therefore he must exist. Did Puff the Magic Dragon disappear to Jackie Paper, Or did he just disappear from Jackie Paper by returning to his cave to wait for some other little boy (or girl) to find him?
MY YOUNGEST GRAND DAUGHTER’S TEDDY BEAR
Both of my daughters–I made sure—had that special “something” to cuddle up with and tell all of their secrets to as they were growing up. And until recently they still have their “special friend(s) resting in their special places within their homes. My oldest daughter loaned her “special” friend to her youngest niece last year to love and keep warm. I hope that in many years in the future she will be able to do the same with her children when the time comes.
Now the reason that I am willing to share this tragic story is all because at this time last year I received a very special gift from my wife. For Christmas, she presented me with a gift of a new Teddy Bear. He has a friend on his shoulder and they even tell the story about the night before C’mas if asked. I have set him in the cubical right above my head of our bed and occasionally have him recite that story as I lay my head down and start to dream about sugar plumbs. This C’mas he shall again sit by the C’mas tree and recite his story to my grandkids before we open C’mas gifts. Somehow I have come to feel that the world has righted itself and I feel much more secure in the belief that all things must not have to abide by logic or empirical data. With my friend, the world is no longer so cold or sad!!!!!!!! T’was the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring other than my Teddy Bear who is slightly larger than a mouse……………
Now if you wish to see and hear my Christmas bears recitation of T’was The Night Before Christmas, please feel free to go to my Facebook page!!!!!!!!
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Several evenings ago I spent most of the late evening hours watching two programs on the TV. The first one was on the Fusion Network and it dealt with how marijuana was processed into useable forms for personal consumption in states that have legalized it, as well as some of the politics associated with its production ( sidebar one). The second program was on one of the C-Span channels and it dealt the Manhattan Project, from the Trinity test through the final completion of the Atomic bombs in Tinian before they were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki seventy years ago this last week. After the historical narrative was completed, they had an interview with one of the scientist by the name of Benjamin Bederson (produced by the Voices of the Manhattan Project) who worked on the project from Oak Ridge Tennessee, to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and on the island of Tinian where he helped arm the nuclear devices. His first person narrative about life working on the bomb was quite interesting and revealing.
I’m seventy-one years of age so I was alive when the two nuclear devises were used on Japan to end the war. Admittedly I wasn’t old enough to know anything about it at the time. However over the years, as I continued my education, I became aware of its effects and the politics concerning its usage. My parents (biological dad, mom and stepdad) lived through both world wars and all three felt that their usage was justified. Although my biological dad passed away shortly after the end of the Korean conflict, the three lived from the first decade of the 20th century to the first century of the 21st century (almost 100 years) and the importance of this information was found in the fact that it was during their lifetimes that human civilization killed more people within that century than had been killed in many centuries before. They were also well aware of what was happening as my generation was faced with the possibility that within the next three decades after the end of the Korean conflict we had the capabilities of killing every human being left on this planet had we used the weapons unleashed against Japan with in a matter of months and on several occasions we almost did unleash those weapons.
Simply put, we are very lucky-very, very lucky. We know about the Cuban Missile Crisis and the secret deal between Kennedy and Kerchief that backed us away from the brink of a nuclear war (Sidebar Two). We know about Israel’s readiness to launch their nuclear attack upon its enemies when they almost lost the Yom Kippur War in 1973 with the Arab League (Sidebar Three). And we know about the Norwegian rocket launch in 1995 which traversed a path toward Russian territory. The Russians thought it was a surprise nuclear attack because its ascent pattern matched that of a US ballistic missile attack and they forgot about the previous notification concerning the launch that had been sent to them earlier (I sometimes wonder if the situation had been reversed, would we have waited as Yeltsin did, or would we have shot our missiles off as our hawkish attitude has indicated our intent in many instances). Some where it was stated that there were at least twenty miscues which could have inadvertently led us to a nuclear confrontation that have been made public. All of which begs to ask the question about how many close calls have never been made public and how the Peter Principal interacts with such actions. It also raises the question about what has really been put into place in space even though countries vehemently deny having any space based weapons.
In around 1974 while taking one of my required graduate administration classes, one of my professors some how got on the subject of nuclear bombs. I’m not even thirty year old yet and it has been less than thirty years since the Hiroshima bomb was detonated. And here my professor has the audacity to ask us if we knew how a nuclear bomb was made along with what causes it to explode. My first response was to wonder if we should even be talking about such secrets as his question had the fear of a national security breach occurring. After his simple explanation about creating an implosion on a specific substance, I wondered why everyone hadn’t developed their own nuclear bomb and I still wonder how we have been able to keep Iran from completing their nuclear bomb as we weren’t able to stop India, Pakistan or North Korea from doing so..
All of this lead my mind to raise a question about our human survival (as well as the survival of every other living thing) when faced with radiation fallout. It suddenly occurred to me in my dreamy state that, as we question whether or not there is life beyond our planet, radiation must play a part in any attempt either to reach such distant places with intelligent life or to have extra-terrestrials from other civilizations reach us. Since any personal physical interaction would require light years of travel time, any extra-terrestrial life would have to move faster than the speed of light and be either immune to radiation or have it be an acceptable part of its DNA. That would also mean that any direct personal contact could be deadly to humans (in other words to put us into one of their space ships to examine us would destroy us unless our DNA was adjusted to accept their radiation as part of our life form). Conversely, if we are ever, through physics, able to work out the equations for faster than light travel, we would also have to be able to adjust out DNA to be able to at least absorb radiation without any ill effects as well traveling through space (Sidebar four).
Now as we take the next step past SETI in looking for other life forms out there in space. We have already sent messages about our existence. Now we are considering new ways to let the universe know of our existence in hopes of a reply. But before we go too far, we need to realize that there could be new problem such actions might present to us. In getting to such places where extra-terrestrial life might exist, I have always thought that the problem was not exceeding the speed of light but how to slow down any object below the speed of light once it has surpassed that boundary. Now I have a new problem which is how to effectively deal with any radiation associated with traveling faster than the speed of light!!!!!!
As a reader, you might notice something new in my “Thoughts”. Many times I have wanted to add something to the content of my writings but it didn’t seem to fit at the appropriate place so as with this writing I have added something called a Sidebar, which is like an addition that accompanies articles in magazines and is usually enclosed in a box or when a judge wishes to have a conference with the attorneys without the jury’s or the recorder’s knowledge. The concept of footnoting could have been used but to me footnoting represents merely factual information associated with providing the source of the information and I wanted to do more than just providing a source for my thoughts. Thus by providing the Sidebar concept, a reader can acquire more than just a source in that he or she may also find more information for discussion purposes.
(Sidebar one) It is amazing how a sudden change in the political structure has affected the American concept about marijuana. The country has spent billions of dollars trying to eradicate its use saying that it was a gateway drug and had no positive medical effect while condoning alcohol and tobacco products. Yet once legalized, the government will make millions on it just like they have with taxes on gambling, alcohol and tobacco. Actually these are the “sins” of a free society, which places more responsibility upon the citizenry and really represents less governmental intrusions upon its citizens. What’s next—polygamy and prostitution?
(Sidebar two) We know about the secret deal between Kennedy and Kerchief to remove the nuclear weapons from Cuba as long as we removed our nuclear weapons from Turkey. But it is only recently that we became aware of how close a nuclear war was from developing during the Cuban missile crisis. It appears that there was a Russian submarine shadowing our embargo fleet during the crisis and it lost communications with its motherland. It was discovered and the American forces tried to force it to surface, which made the sub think that a war had already started. Their decision to launch their nuclear weapons was stopped only because the Executive officer Vasili Arkhipov (who happened to be aboard that sub as the commander of all four subs that were in the area) refused to allow the Captain to launch the weapons at the last minute.
(Sidebar three) We now know that Golda Meir had her air force load their planes with nuclear weapons in a last ditch effort to stop Egypt and Syria from over running the county during the Yom Kippur war. Had the United states not come to Israel’s aid with resources at that point, there is little doubt that Mrs. Meir would not have given the command to use the weapons. And still to this day, this is in part why Israel wishes to make sure no Arab country has access to nuclear weapons because they believe that those countries would not hesitate using them to destroy Israel even at the expense of their own countries. Such a nuclear attack during the Yum Kipper war would surely also have caused war between the United State and Russia and it would have gone nuclear, as well. in all probability.
(Sidebar four) Ironically this concept was supposed to be the most important part of this “Thought” blog while it almost seemed to end up as an afterthought. Yet it is questions like this that could have real relevance upon the concept of being visited by other planetary inhabitants that has not been either discussed or even considered. Such an idea raises questions about travel associated with time and certain constants that may merely rely upon current theory. Either we have to live much longer or we must be able to travel much faster to reach the distances required. Perhaps the Bible wasn’t so far off when it claimed that several of its figures lived for 700 to 900 years and perhaps with our gene technology and DNA sequencing we will be made to live longer. But without breaking the light barrier we will have to expand our lives much past that 900 year mark. The above thought is kind of like the question of whether or not the point of the singularity was spinning and moving directionally when it exploded to form the present day universe: no one to date has indicated the implications of such a possibility.
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Recently I came across an article which indicated that someone had developed a device which could translate what a dog’s barks meant and translate them into human language so that we could understand what the dog was trying to communicate to us. The hype for the device was presented as if someone had just broken through a communication barrier and we should all now be thrilled at suddenly knowing what dogs really think about us. I was not necessarily impressed with this sudden break through because I have known for a long time that my cat, Mr. Mistoffeleese, (more commonly known as Mr. M) could communicate with me without the need for such a ridiculous device.
Whenever I would play rough with him, he would scratch and bite me just to let me know he wasn’t intimidated by my size or fast movements. All during his life, I saw him only twice back away from two dogs which were both much bigger than him and snuck in on him from his back side while he was concentrating on something else. He never bit much deeper than to draw bold. But when he did draw a little blood, he would just back away and after licking his lips, he would look up and his eyes would say, ”hum, you taste good—but not that good!”. Then he would charge forward to attack another part of my body. I even watched him one day laying out in the yard sunning himself (as cats do during late afternoon hours) when a Red Tailed Hawk landed in the branch of a tree less than ten yards from him. As the hawk eyed him as a prospective meal, he just laid there as if he never had a care in the world. I was about ten yards to the side of him almost forming a perfect triangle between him and the hawk which seemed to have no concerns about my presence in the situation.
The hawk would first look at me, then him (Mr. M), then back to me as if it couldn’t decide which between Mr. M and me would be the best meal. I was ready to jump to Mr. M’s defense but in reality, I could tell by the occasional swishing of Mr. M’s tale, that he had no concern what so ever about that hawk or its intentions. In fact I’m sure that if it had dropped down from its perch on the tree limb to grab Mr. M, it would have found much more than it expected and I know that Mr. M’s response would have been–as he was biting down on a thigh, “ah, now this taste more like chicken, and I love chicken!”. After about fifteen minutes, my wife came out to check on us and I assume that the hawk figured that he was completely outnumbered because he finally left. Later that day I told Mr. M about the hawk and he just licked a paw as if to say, “smart hawk, cause I really love chicken!”.
Occasionally Mr. M would catch a chipmunk or a snake and he always would bring them to me or someone else just to let us know that his hunting skills were still very proficient and that he was smarter than most other animals. In fact that was how he really proved his salt when he first joined our family. I found him one late October morning following a student to school in the rain. The student entered the school and closed the door without so much as a look back to say, “I’m sorry but you can’t come in with me, cause this is a school and cats can’t learn like humans can!”. Seeing this kitten just sitting there in the rain eying the door told me that he was a special cat and that all he needed was someone to be able to prove that too. I have always believe that some humans are smarter than some other humans and that some animals are also smarter than some humans as well and in this case I can unconditionally say that Mr. M was definitely smarter than some of the humans that I have known.
One indication of his intelligence was when he learned about my wife’s hatred of bats. He politely set out and caught a bunch of them in the house for her. His first catch was on the evening when we had my secretary and her husband over for supper. I’m not sure but for some reason our conversation at the end of supper touched upon the fact that my wife hated bats and about ten minutes later here comes Mr. M from the basement with a live bat in his mouth. My wife had just picked up a hand full of dishes and was placing them in the sink when Mr. M came up the stairs with the bat being held gingerly in his mouth, walked right past us, and dropped it right behind my wife’s feet waiting for a thank you. You throw a bone and a dog will fetch and you think it’s a big deal, but how many doges will fetch you a bat cwhen you simply say that you don’t like bats? Now that is a skill and an understanding of the English language!
Speaking of the bats in our house, we use to play a game. Mr. M would catch them and bring them to me. My wife would say to me. ”get rid of that thing” and “thank you Mr. M for catching it!”. I would pick it up, take it outside and turn it loose. After about fifteen repetitions of this sequence, my wife suddenly started accusing us of a conspiracy to use the same bat time after time to convince her to like and want to keep Mr. M. But later she did confess that she had library several patrons who had ask if they could barrow Mr. M for a week or two to help them get rid of their bat problems.
Each day I could come home from school and tell Mr. M about everything that had occurred during that day knowing full well that he would never break confidentiality and tell anyone else what I had told him. Sometimes he would jump on my lap and tell me about his adventures while I was away. He rarely complained even when he was sick. Even when he visited the vet, he took their prodding and poking seemingly knowing that it was all for his own good. Whenever we would leave the house, he would go to his food dish and wait for his expected treats. All I had to do was pick up my car keys and he knew that meant that we were going to leave and he was supposed to get some treats. When someone came to the house, he always wanted to interrupt the conversation until he was acknowledged by the guest and then he would find a quiet place close by and listen to our conversation rarely making any judgments or objections.
Once I got very sick and spent a number of days in the hospital. My wife said that while I was gone he would roam the hose whining or moaning and hunting for me with long soulful meows. When I came home and was bedridden for about ten days, he would come up on my bed, lick me, purr and lay as close as possible either on my head or at my side as if to care for me. It was as if he knew I was sick and he wanted to assure me that with his help I would get better. Whenever he left, it wasn’t long before he would return to check on me and comfort me. I really believe he knew that I was sick and he was concerned about me. I also believe that he was doing everything that he knew to do to help me heal just as I had done to help him when he was first brought into our family. At that time I had promised him that if he was able to survive the first few days with us, he would never go hungry again and that he would always be loved and respected as an equal part of our family.
Unfortunately after twelve years of a wonderful relationship and many interactions, he contracted some type of disease with an infection that three different veterinarians could not treat or cure and I had to make the decision to have him put to sleep. Although he never complained while the illness ravaged his body, the infection caused him to refuse to loose over half of his body weight because he would not 9or could not) eat. He lost the sight in one eye and his enthusiasm for life just seemed to disappear. I have to believe his last sigh in my arms said thank you for caring for me, I did have a wonderful life, and just maybe we will be lucky enough to meet again the next time around.
When I started teaching during the middle 1960’s, there was a clear delimitation established between humans and the rest of the animal world. At that time no one even bothered to consider that plants might have any type of characteristics associated with higher life forms because first of all they couldn’t even move let alone make any sounds or emit any defenses or communicate. If one believes that only humans can communicate, then only humans can communicate which is the same as when it was thought that the earth was flat or the earth was the center of the universe: when that is the belief of the time, it just is the belief of the time and you don’t dare question it.
The Scopes monkey trial was still in the minds of the adult population within that area of the United States so to question the current beliefs of the period by saying that animals may communicate with one another was somewhat scary and controversial. It was only after Goodall, Fossey, Gladikas, and others– through their observations– established that chimpanzees and gorillas do communicate with others, establish a hierarchical orderly society, and use self-made tools that many of the misconstrued beliefs began to give way to new scientific discovery. Since then, it has been demonstrated that many more animals do have and use such capabilities.
In fact it wasn’t until Helen killer established that she could successfully communicate with others that our society recognized that humans could communicate without having sight and sound capabilities. Up until then humans without these two senses were considered “deaf and dumb” and they were treated like animals by their own species. Just think how these people would respond today if we treated then as they had been treated before Ms. Killer’s time. Sadly there are still some who believe and treat other humans as if they have less value or are less intelligent just because of their ethnicity or beliefs.
According to an article related to a presentation on Good Morning America dated 2/26/2014 by Liz Fields, a group of Scandinavian scientist from The Nordic Society for Invention and Discovery are working on a prototype form of technology which would combine electroencephalography sensoring capabilities, micro computing equipment, and brain-computer interface software to acquire the different utterances, determine what they mean, translate them, and then rebroadcast them into different human languages. Although this task hasn’t been completely completed yet because of a few minor ethical problems that need to be resolves such as how to connect the sensors into the animals without hurting them to the need perhaps for appropriate censorship when and if necessary, I believe that it is quite possible that one day in the future they will be successful.
Successful miniaturization of the equipment also needs to be taken into consideration as no dog lover would want his favorite pooch to have to carry around say 30 extra pounds of equipment just to say “supper tonight stinks”, or “Its already 8:30 in the morning and I really, really need to go outside you dumb ******!” ( I’m sure there are a lot more phrases that dogs think of which could be uttered but are probably unprintable, not to mention the secretes they hold relative to their masters that could be divulged or would be good for black mail just as in the Doritos Super bowl commercials prophesize). Once successful, they are hoping to reverse the process so humans could use the same technologies and be able to converse with their pets in their native Woof or bow wow languages with the human being also able to wear the same equipment with the same type of sensoring electrodes stuck into their brains.
I’m actually not sure about the practicality of such technology. I don’t doubt ion the slightest that it could be done and I’m sure that we would learn a lot more about our pets which would cause us to be much more compassionate towards them. I’m sure that it would also open up a whole new world relative to the ability to communicate with all types of animals ranging from elephants to snakes as they hiss their way across our paths. In fact one day this technology might even be expanded to the insect world where we could hear the pleas of a grasshopper begging for its life when caught by a human to saving a tree in the forest from falling or helping it back up after it has fallen.
Maybe this idea isn’t such a good idea after all. Let’s face it; we already have enough of a problem just communicating from one human to another using the same language. Just look at our political system not to mention spousal misunderstanding sibling rivalry or religious intolerance. Think about what it would be like if we had to add translations from other life forms when we can’t even communicate successfully between different human languages. Our whole ecological balance could be turned upside down if every living thing realized through intercommunications that they don’t like to be raise to be eaten by us and that they don’t like the pollution which is killing them made by us.
On second thought, maybe I’m just getting too old to accept this technology and the world has passed me by. I am, in spite of my old age, however just as content to know and believe that I understand my pets when they talk to me without any additional interference from technological breakthroughs because I already know and accept the fact that they can communicate if we only listen and I know that cats are smarter than dogs when it comes to intelligence because my cat told me so. I’m just so sorry that he is no longer around to verify this fact! Those who would question my account with Mr. M probably would have the same problems with Mr. Bach and his relationship with Johnathan, a noted flight tactician.
Filed under: biographical, brain theory, education, news articals of interest, philosophy | 1 Comment
WOW, I can’t believe it! After all of these years, I may find out that the earth is really flat after all!! Forty years ago I started teaching World Geography to sophomores in Northeastern Missouri. It was during the late 1960’s and 70’s when we were in the midst of the race issue, the Vietnamese war, and our mission to the moon. Sophomores are great students to work with because they are right between the giggles of junior high school and the sophistication of the junior/senior year that gives them the desire for independence, rebellion and indifference to everything. Part of the challenge to teaching is getting the attention of the students and if you don’t get it at the start of the year, it is quite likely you may never get it. Students form opinions about you and the class during the first few days, or from others who have experienced your techniques during previous years (the students’ “grapevine”, I believe, is the best in the world and news travels faster than the speed of light within it).
After the required introductions to me and the subject matter to be covered during the year, there needed to be a class activity that draws students into a discussion, debate, and even possible chaos if one really has faith in their process. Such an activity needs to be associated with something that everyone assumes to be a given, correct, and a truism. Our first unit was designed to establish where we are in relation to everything else and the “else” means the universe. It also goes from the biggest entity–the universe itself– to the smallest particle we can contemplate (within a planck’s particle). It also needed to be tied to historical perspective to understand change and realize that change does occur within our world. The two best theories to accomplish the above goal were to look at how our ancestors’ viewed their place in the world by reasoning that the earth was at the center of the universe and that the earth was flat.
Today we base almost all of our reasoning about our place in the world on the concept that we are not at the center of the universe and our world (as well as every other object) is at least somewhat round or spherical in nature. During the time when the earth was at the center of the universe, we had visual cues to prove that everything was revolving around us because that was the way everything looked to us and a religion which said that we were at the center of the universe as humans. Likewise through visual cues (and gravity), everything was up above us or beneath us and if the earth was round then somewhere we would be upside down (and fall off). Yet during the Middle Ages, our common beliefs of today created fear and caused death to the unbelievers.
Of the above two concepts, the flat earth concept was the easiest to use to create debate within my classroom because of the visual understanding that students had at their age. We had already left the surface of our planet via airplanes, sent cameras up into space far enough to show how the earth curves in an arch, and even had individuals travel in space as they got ready to visit the moon. By asking the students to prove that the earth was round, they were given the opportunity to justify their beliefs–as they understood the–as well as to challenge their teacher which will always cause excitement especially when they are so sure of something. Most students got into the discussion to the point where responses were no longer dependent upon the raising of a hand which was an exciting time for all.
But one of the most interesting things about this process was the fact that none of the students seemed to express the opinion that the earth was really flat or that the earth was really the center of the universe. Even as recently as 2005 when I made my last presentation about this consideration to a group of students, there were still no students who indicated that they really believed in the flat earth or being at the center of the universe concepts. I did have one or two students who believed that we never sent astronauts to the moon or had anyone even traveling in space (O J Simpson portrayed a roll in the movie Capricorn One in 1977 which alluded to this idea and furthered the myth that some people adhered to). I had even taken the time to discuss the above standard theories with several religious leaders to make sure that my discussion would not infringe upon standard religious teachings as they were presented and was given support for the approach that I was taking relative to the two theories.
Once the above was presented and general agreement was assumed, we then started to look at our solar system to determine where we were in relation to it. Although we could not visually see much more than the sun, moon, and stars (or other bodies of light), we generally accepted the theory that the sun was not at the center of the universe and that we traveled around it like the other planets. Our moon did really travel around the earth as opposed to the sun (as some had thought during the Middle Ages). With advanced technologies, the above could be proven by following the many objects in the sky and they appeared to be verifiable by actually traveling out into space as well. With these understandings we had order and life was good.
Yet in 2012, a survey was taken by National Science Foundation to see what American people believe about the earth’s place in the Universe and according to the results, one in four respondents stated that they believed that the sun goes around the earth instead of the earth going around the sun. The results of this survey were released at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting held in Chicago on February 14, 2014. There were some other questions relative to the origins of the universe and our place in it as well as some other questions associated with our wellness. The point, relative to the above beliefs of more than a quarter of our American population, was that what we teach as basic truths–as we understand our existence– is not accepted as truthful by a large portion of our population. In fact, it is a very small step to move from the belief that the sun revolves around the earth to the belief that we are at the center of the universe and it is made around us. With that in mind, why can’t it be possible that the earth is really flat just like a pancake and if we ever get to the end we would simply be pulled off of it ( and into ——-) just like gravity holds us down onto the top of the pancake?
The above information should scare all of us in that our teachings of basic concepts used to give us universal understanding of how there is a certain type of order within our being that helps up predict actions and reactions because the alternatives can reflect chaos. I don’t wish to infer that current knowledge is based upon a 100% understanding of everything around us or about us, but I do believe that without what we have today we will not acquire a better understanding relative to future knowledge that depends on today’s beliefs.
During the middle ages the earth was flat because Europeans believed (or were force to believe that it was flat if they wished to continue living in it) it was flat. But that period of time was also a terrible period of time for many human beings due to intimidation and lack of toleration. The rest of the world however went on without them and other cultures fared much better. It wasn’t until the “west” met the “east” and many of the forced beliefs were challenged and suppressed that the western civilization began to become revitalized.
So the basic question is, as a society, will we return to the fears of the Middle Ages because of our fear of current knowledge or will we stand up to those who wish place their values upon us as they are doing with their Universe beliefs or doctrines? Although nothing was said in the news release, I have a strong suspicion that many of those respondents who expressed their beliefs that the sun revolved around the earth are also devout Christians who and are also devout conservatives influencing the Republican party which is being led by people who wish to prey upon their weaknesses to get what they want. I know that there are certain groups of people who wish not to use certain types of technologies because of their religious beliefs, I know that there are people who do not wish to use the benefits of modern medicine because of their religious beliefs, and there are even certain groups that believe poisonous snakes will not hurt them based upon their religious teachings, but by and large the world has gone on without them (none of which in total represents 25% of our population). I only hope that the above “center of the universist” people do not have enough of an influence to force us back into the Middle Ages because of their fears and demands.
Does the earth really revolve around the sun? Is the earth the center of the Universe? Did we originate out of a cosmic “Big Bang’? Is the earth really round or spherical? Or How Many Angels can fit on the head of a pin? You be the judge.
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The other day I suddenly decided that it was time to seriously start looking for a replacement vehicle for our 14 year old SUV. During the summer of 2013 I recognized that our current SUV was beginning to show signs of its age when it was no longer responding to my every command in an even-tempered way. My basic needs for the vehicle were simple: it needed to get six people from one location to another safely (forget the economical part of that requirement in this day and age) with those trips sometimes being longer than others, or lasting for more than just a weekend excursion and it needed to be able to tow a boat that could safely handle six or more people as well. Considerations needed to include simple things like financing, the ability to be able to handle the payments that the financing would require, lots of patience along with pain medication to handle the stress of putting any type of deal together, a willingness to accept confrontations over price and sticker shock, and a working computer to give me an inside track to counter all of the salesmen’s ideologies as to why I should buy a certain vehicle from them.
With all of that in mind, are we now really interested in buying a replacement vehicle?
After looking up several vehicles within my preset parameters, I had the chance to approach a salesperson while visiting a car dealership to have my daughter’s car serviced. My questions to a sale’s person there were few and simple. His answers seemed to be curt and non-supportive. Before I approached the salesman, I looked at a new 2014 Camaro convertible with a sticker price listed as 60,000+ grand (I had purchased a 1968 Pontiac Bonneville convertible in 1968 for under $4,800 which sounded much more reasonable relative to wage income ratio-to-cost expectation for that time period) and a 2014 Chevrolet Tahoe SUV (I believe) for also over 60,000 grand. I got out of there with my daughter’s car, several pain killers, and vowed to never set foot in that establishment again. But it did give me the incentive to revisit my computer to revise my parameters as well as recognizing that my search distance needed to be increased.
Can we afford to buy a vehicle?
I’m not a good negotiator and I recognize that fact. To me, you do what you need to do and that is that. Going in to the dentist is a simple process. First, you don’t visit one unless there is a need to visit. Secondly, you go in and say you have a tooth problem and the dentist fixes it. You don’t go in to him when you have a tommy ache or an eye problem and say I have a tommy ache or an eye problem so fix it because you know (and hopefully he also knows) that he isn’t qualified to fix those kinds of problems. Usually he (or she) will look at your problem, give you a suggestion on how to resolve the problem, and give you a price which isn’t negotiable. You either accept the offer and the dentist gets right to work, or you say no thank you and look for another dentist. For some reason car sales persons want to convince you of what you want based upon what they have, try to make you fall in love with that package by taking it out on a test drive and then hit you with the price (which can also give you more than a tooth ache as well).
How hard would my Dentist try to sell me a used tooth?
This last part is where the conflict comes into play. The sales person tells you that the quoted price is non-negotiable while car buying guides tell you that the price is negotiable, so how can one tell which is correct? While on the computer, I found a vehicle that I though was within my parameters, so I visited the car dealership where it was located. The sales person was actually quite nice but really wanted me to go outside and look at the vehicle. The salesperson almost had me on the way to the vehicle when I ask about the size of the engine, as I needed something powerful enough to pull a boat, and I found out that the perspective vehicle did not have the required engine needed to pull the boat. I was assured that just like the first salesperson had said they could find a vehicle that met my needs if given just a little time and some cash for the search. That salesperson also indicated that my price expectations were tight but not impossible under the right conditions such as a good credit score and a correct assessment of the value of my possible trade in.
Does it sound like we might have found the right vehicle to buy already?
Now armed with some more information, I started to do some serious searching on the internet. I have actually bought two vehicles and one boat over the internet and found the process to be far easier for me than to have to deal with salespeople in person at the very start of any transaction. The financing for one of the vehicles and the boat were done completely over the internet, as well, so all I had to do was arrive, sign the papers, and leave with my new possessions. In the instance with the boat, the middle man even arranged for the purchase of a trailer to haul the boat. In all three transactions, I found everyone to be happy, cordial, and very helpful. I even felt sorry or one customer in one of the dealerships who was trying to work their way through their purchase and wondered if they ever completed the transaction.
Could buying a vehicle in person directly from a dealership really be possible for us?
My basic requirements for a new vehicle included the need for a large engine, a tow package, a luggage rack, a third seat, four wheel drive or all-wheel drive, good headlights, and if at all possible the side collision avoidance system. It would be nice to have a cd player and access to more cup holders than my current vehicle has but such things as those items were not considered requirements. It would also be nice to have the frontal collision avoidance system that the FCC has just approved frequencies for, which would allow vehicles to talk to one another just as airplanes do, but it won’t be available for another five to ten years. I know some people have already voiced their disapproval of such capabilities because they have the fear that the government will monitor their car’s movement but they already have that capability anyway with the GPS system and our smart phone technologies. My wife’s requirements include color and a powered passenger seats with seat warming capabilities. She would also like the vehicle to remember her seat placement settings along with the mirror settings so that she doesn’t have to reset everything independently when we change drivers.
Should we buy a vehicle on the spot if it has most of the above amenities?
Then it happened. While on the internet, I found a vehicle that I thought might meet my expectations and it was nearby. It had more whistles than I needed and was a bit more expensive but was worth looking at to make sure that my expectations were realistic. I planned to go in and just look at it and ask a couple of question. As soon as I entered the used car part of the establishment, I was greeted and ushered into a cubicle with the assurance that this salesperson would get me the deal I wanted and he would treat me “right” as that is what he had been doing there for the last twelve years. My first concern was that I was in Porsche/Audi dealership (compared to a BMW dealership on my previous visit) and everything around me spoke of money: lots of money. Of course I had to take the vehicle out for a test drive to witness all of its fine amenities. I ask my set of questions with some of them being answered with acceptable explanations. However there were a few answers which gave me the impression that the sales person did not have a real firm understanding of the particular vehicle’s characteristics when compared with other models produced by that manufacturer and that should have been my first clue to get out of there. I did end up taking it out on a test drive and admittedly I liked it and so did my wife.
Was this really the right vehicle for us?
No mention about the price was covered at that time and I decided to return the next day to take my son-in-law and our grandchildren out on a test drive to get their assessment of the vehicle. Needless to say they all liked it so I decided to make arrangements to have my wife take it out on a test drive later that day. But before turning it over to the wife for her final assessment and approval, I needed to know if it was within my price range so I put that question out on the table. First, they had to test drive my proposed trade in to find out what they would give me on a trade in, then we started to look our credit rating, whether or not they would consider reducing the price, and at the financing options. The trade in offer was lousy, the credit score was great but there was no offer of reducing the asking price, and the financing (when finally completed) came in with an acceptable interest rate for and acceptable duration. They would even hold the vehicle for me until I could get my wife there If only I would put a small deposit down to hold (which was another warning sign) the vehicle until we were able to get back for the final test drive.
Should we buy the vehicle?
Car sales people are good at reading body language and it appears that they use the same strategies that land marketers use to get a sale. There is a reason why they are rated with lawyers and snake oil salesperson: they all can’t be trusted. I believe that I can also read body language to some extent and I know that body posture, facial expressions and voice fluctuations tell something about what a person is thinking. I also know that the salesperson, when it comes to negotiations, is not the only person that will come into play when a final decision is needed relative the financial part of any deal. I could tell when “our” financial manager had to come back with his final interest rate and duration offer that he really wasn’t interested in my needs because of his matter-of-factness. At any rate I left without making a deposit and setting a return time for my wife to test drive the vehicle.
Should we by the vehicle?
When my wife was ready to go in and test drive the vehicle a week later, I called and made an appointment with our salesperson to have my wife test drive the vehicle. He told us that someone else was also interested in it and that if we wanted to test it, we better hurry in as it was on a first come basis. We hurried in and took the test drive. We also decided to sell our vehicle separately. We asked for a modest lowering of the price and were willing to provide an increased cash down payment in place of our vehicle assuming that the interest rate and duration of the loan were the same as originally quoted to us. The sales person said that he had to consult with his manage about our counter offer and left us for about 10 to 15 minutes for discussions concerning the counter offer (again a bad sign). The counter offer was rejected and the interest rate was increased by at least 0.4% of just to be on the safe side when they did the final paper work. Reluctantly I accepted this offer and signed some papers to continue the process.
Did we buy the vehicle?
We were then ushered into a lounge near to an office in another building and told to wait for a few minutes. After a good fifteen minutes of waiting, we were ushered into the office by a surly representative and given the news that our interest rate would be 4.21% and please sign the papers. At that point and in pure shock, I said no thank you, got up, and– with my wife–left the office. By the time we got to our car another representative caught up with us and asked why we were leaving. I told him about the continuous interest rate increases, the lack of consideration for our trade in, the unwillingness to even consider our counter offer, the salesperson’s seemingly lack of really knowing the vehicle and providing appropriate information, and the attitude of the last person we had to deal with. I was assured that wasn’t the way they handled their customers and everything must have been due to just simple misunderstandings. He also offered to drop the interest rate to 7.25% on the spot. We said no thank you, good bye and left.
Did we buy the vehicle?
On the following Monday, my wife got a call from the original manager who had originally given us the 2.99% interest rate and he said that they could honor that original rate as they had special rates for special circumstances like ours. She said that she would pass along the information to me when I got home from running errands. What he did not realize was that during the past week I had found another vehicle similar to the one we were looking at and the sales person there had indicated that the trade in value for my vehicle ( if it was in the condition that I said it was in was accurate) should be worth more than what we were being offered at the original dealership and that they could match the 2.99% interest rate for the same loan period (if my credit rate was as good as I said it was). In reading literature about getting loans from auto dealerships, it was also advised to be aware of loan officers setting up loans which gave the dealerships a particular part of the established interest rate. What’s more, my bank (which is very very conservative) when I had contacted them indicated that they might be able to match the same interest rate but not the duration time I was asking for.
Did we buy the vehicle?
The following day I returned the manager’s phone call and on his answering service I told him that we were not interested in doing business with his dealership. I also wished him a good day, and a good sales year! Then I started relooking on the internet for a replacement vehicle for our current vehicle.
Will they call us back with a counter offer?
Will we change our minds and buy the vehicle?
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This past Saturday the AP announced that Texas was going to do away with its requirement that all graduate must take and pass an Algebra II class. This requirement became part of their state graduation requirements as a result of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind legislation. Evidently Texas was the first state to place this requirement upon its students and now most states have fallowed their lead with Minnesota’s and Connecticut set to enact it in the very near future. It’s kind of like the lemmings following the Pied Piper as they fall off of a cliff.
Eight years ago when I retired, it was my understanding that Minnesota was in the process of establishing this same requirement so I’m not sure what has taken them so long of going from the point of saying that they were going to do it to actually following through with the requirement. Minnesota use to be a leader in educational innovation and had a system that was the envy of most other states because test data indicated that their kids were doing better in school then the kids of most other states. But it seems that both the educational leaders and the political activist who are influencing the educational system have pointed it into a different direction, which in reality may not actually be improving it. When a state that is at the top of the nation in educational quality wholehearted adopts an innovative program from a state that is ranked around 25th in the nation, the outcome is obvious: while one state improves, the other is bound to sink to the level of the other whose model they are emulating.
The Johnson City, New York School System had educational problems as it ranked towards the bottom, when compared to other districts within the state, so they adopted and adapted an innovative educational program called Outcome Based Education proposed by William Spady as a model to improve their instructional delivery system. For them the model, as adapted, worked in improving educational outcomes but it is truly debatable as to whether or not it was the OBE program or simply the additional attention placed upon the students which accounted for the improvements associated with the improved student achievement that was measured.
While serving as a secondary administrator in central Minnesota, the OBE concept was presented to us through our educational district. The district (I believe) received a state grant to be one of the few pilot sight s to demonstrate the implementation of the OBE concept for the state as it was designed by Johnson City. I may have even been lucky enough to be present and hear Mr. Spady speak about the wonders of the OBE program if enacted correctly while he was visiting Minnesota. Basically the program was forced down the school district’s throats from the top down in two ways: state education department/legislature to districts to superintendents/boards to teachers and it was started with seniors then juniors then sophomores etc. which meant that in the middle of their educational programing, the rules for graduation were changed without their permission and acceptance.
Our school district had worked hard to establish an educational program that was based upon traditional educational philosophies and it place emphasis upon the mastery of accepted skills and course content at specific grade levels which, when completed, would lead to success at the college level. At that time Minnesota had moved away from statewide content requirements and that left such course content decisions up to each district thus we so we use the Stanford Achievement Test, Iowa Test of Basic Skills, SAT, and ACT test as indicators to measure and verify our students’ progress in relation to other students throughout Minnesota and the rest of the United States. We also developed a sliding curriculum which allowed for students to take required courses while at different grade levels based upon their individual educational development and interest. All Students were required to take a number of core courses, which was beyond the state’s minimal requirements, associated with the language art, social sciences, sciences and mathematics to make sure that they had the basics to get into and be successful at the college level if they ever decided to go (no matter at what time in their lives the option would present itself).
During the adoption and attempt at implementing the OBE concept, the Minnesota Legislature mandated three new requirements to also be placed upon Minnesota schools and when combined all three had a profound effect upon the characteristics of public education. They were 1) the funding and requiring Kindergarten for all students, 2) Post-secondary Options programs for any junior or senior regardless of ability or maturity, and 3) open enrollment options. The effect of these three programs completely changed the dynamics of educational programs within the state. Requirements associated with first grade became the requirements for kindergarten students and thus the requirements for each grade thereafter dropped to the lower grade in connection with that shift. Pre-K programs were established to ready students for kindergarten just as kindergarten had been used to ready students for first grade and this process was somewhat the result of sociological mandates to require daycare services when most families needed both parents (and single parents) to work full time in order to meet their financial needs. Since many kids were already in day care programs it was relatively easy to attach formal learning to the programs and that became kindergarten.
Because OBE wasn’t meant to meet the needs of self-motivated and advanced students, and because the curriculum requirements based upon the adoption of the mandatory kindergarten program began to leave the twelfth grade as a catch up, repetitive, or just plain elective year, the state mandated that schools allow their juniors and seniors to enroll in college level courses with the college credit also being allowed to also serve as high school credits in place of existing required high school courses. Colleges (primarily the small local ones who were in need of financial assistance) acquired additional assistance for each student who enrolled in their programs from the state’s student financial aid program. Needless to say, the program became very attractive to parents because they could avoid having to pay college expenses for the first two years of college whether or not their children were ready to attend. In order to fulfill this model, colleges then needed to lower their standards for freshman level courses to meet the general ability level of their new incoming post-secondary students. Ironically post-secondary credits were nontransferable from on college to another or they required additional credits to fulfill majors rendering the economic savings to family useless.
And last, because of parental pressure upon the state department, and legislature relative to dissatisfaction with local school decision makers, the state abandoned local district boundaries and established the open enrollment program that allowed any student to go to any school district within the state that they wished to attend. Outwardly the program was sold to the public as a way to improve local education and force schools to compete to improve their curriculums. However, the reality was that parents and students sought to go to schools with better athletic and sports programs regardless of academic quality associated with that district. Many Schools were also forced to lower their academic standards to compete with neighboring districts who had less stringent requirements (this in fact forced the stat to have to reinstitute course content requirements to maintain some sort of control and accountability on the state level through a statewide testing program).
With these changes, the whole idea of improved educational success got lost in the political agenda of the time and the need to find ways to boast of improvements had little validity when looking for verification of actual improved learning abilities. No Child Left Behind then added to the smoke by basing educational learning on verifiable statewide testing with the encouragement for “difficult” students to drop out before testing and not counting special needs students within the scoring procedures. The process now placed blame upon the teachers and administrators for the lack of learning based upon statewide course content rather than placing the blame upon the culprits who established the system and forced the whole educational change down everyone’s‘ throats.
I would venture a guess that, as a result of the above mandates, students are no better off today than they were fifty years ago when it was logical to assume that everyone was not going to go to college and not everyone wanted to go to college. Students were given the option of choosing a “track” from several options based upon their desires and abilities and post high school institutions provided additional training/education in specific expertise’s to meet employment needs (which we called technical institutes, business colleges, and junior colleges for those who were not just quite ready for the actual college level academics). Today the measuring stick for our national educational program has seen us drop dramatically when compared with other industrialized (and some not so industrialized) countries. This is not to say that our system has declined while they have increased more rapidly with their industrialization as well as better aligning their expectations with a smaller specialized segment of their population to get the desired results then having to deal with their whole population as our country professes to do.
OBE, I believe, has come to represent the ills associated with our desire to improve our overall educational program. People, who profess its merits, use the logic that if its implementation has not provided success, it is due to implementers failings to correctly understand its processes rather than any innate flaw in program’s design. Additionally, educators have added so many variants and interpretations to it that it no longer has a singular definition. It reflects what Texas is about to do with its decision to drop Algebra II as a basic requirement for graduation in that it was a bad idea that caught on with other states who followed and now decisions have to be made to acknowledge its failure and backtrack which is what should be done with OBE and NCLB they affected the whole nation’s educational system
I mentioned earlier that we had developed a flexible curriculum which allowed for students to take different level courses at different grade levels. We set up our math program so that starting in eighth grade those students who were ready for Algebra I could take it while their counterparts took the basic eight grade math (pre-algebra) course. Those students who completed the algebra l course whale in eight grade then took geometry during their ninth grade year and algebra ll during their tenth grade year with the option of taking an advanced math topics course (introduction to trigonometry, calculus, statistics, and solid geometry)during their junior or senior year. Those who took the regular eight grade math during their eight grade year took either algebra l or a basic math (applied and pre-algebra) course during their ninth grade year with the algebra I students taking geometry during their tenth grade year, algebra II during their eleventh grade year and the option of the advanced math topics class during their senior year. The students who took the basic math class during their ninth grade year took the algebra I course during their sophomore year with geometry or a Business (general) math being available during their junior year. For those who took the geometry during their junior year, their options for the senior year were to take the algebra II class, the business math class, or not to take any additional math. All students basically were thus required to take at least three years of math classes starting with their freshman year. For a two or three section school, the above became quite a scheduling nightmare but was accomplished because the math program was used to schedule all of the other courses around it.
The math teachers that I had a privilege to work with during this time were all fantastic teachers and educators who worked hard to motivate the students and they succeeded in making the program a success. It would have been impossible to have implemented such a complex program without their whole hearted support and assistance in working with the above concept. First of all, they took the time to get to know their students personally and then they took the time to analyze each student at each level ability-wise along with monitoring their emotional maturity. They also took the time to assess progress on an individual level and were willing to adjust, or modify, the course content when results indicated a need for such a process to take place. They were willing to work with parents when parent involvement was needed and they listened to parents recommendations, or input, when problems seem to be on the horizon before the problems (in many cases) affected the desired outcomes.
The rationale for allowing so much flexibility in scheduling the math program was based upon the belief that the brain develops differently and at different ages and times for each individual so to expect all student at an eighth grade age to be ready conceptually to handle specific math skills could do a disservice to a large number of students. Therefore if the desired outcome is to have all students’ exposed successfully to certain math concepts, it is essential that their brains be mature enough to handle those concepts when presented. In my estimation, the program was a success in that we were successful in getting most of our students exposed successfully to the concepts associated with both geometry and algebra ll by the time they graduated from high school which was our goal. The state of Minnesota however had a different approach to seeing that all students had these skills. They used standardized statewide test to force the algebra ll concepts to be presented at an earlier age (requiring all students to take algebra l during their eight grade year) so that they could be tested on the algebraIIl concepts during their tenth grade year. In a sense, it has become so ironic to see one of the lowest ranked states in education dropping a program that they started while Minnesota is about to enact it as a requirement just as they, in effect, did with OBE twenty-five years earlier!
According to OBE, all students can learn but it doesn’t say how much. Nor should a state expect every student to learn items which may not be needed or associated with all jobs or professions. It is also important to remember the old adage that you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink when it comes to learning. Algebra ll is not a requirement for all jobs and professions. Institutions of higher learning do not require it for admission and it is not a college level required course unless you are majoring in a mathematics field. Whitmore, how long will one retain the information presented in such a course if it is not used for a long period of time? I took Algebra II while in high school and I can honestly say that I no longer remember the fundamental math concepts presented in the class nor have I had any need to recall those concepts in my daily life. I took it because I wanted to and that should be the way states should treat it.
Postscript: for anyone desiring additional information concerning OBE and Minnesota’s involvement with the program they may view the following articles of Educational Leadership, Aiming for New Outcomes: The Promise and The Reality, “The Challenge of Outcome-Based Education”’ Pages 6-10, March 1994 | Volume 51 | Number 6, by John O’Neil; Educational Leadership, Research on OBE: What We Know and Don’t Know, “The Challenge of Outcome-Based Education”, Pages 12-17, March 1994 | Volume 51 | Number 6, by Karen M. Evans and Jean A. King; Outcome-Based Education: Has It Become More Affliction Than Cure?, By Bruno V. Manno August 1, 1994; or go up on the internet for much more information on the subject.
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Well here goes blog number 101, or another era in lundgroanian thoughts. But the what if I had republished a blog left over in the draft department? Would that mean that blog number 100 was actually only the 99th blog published? And if that was the case, would this blog really be the 100th blog which would be the end of the first era of lundgroanian blogging? It is the reality of such questions that keeps new questions coming into this mind of mind and why on some nights I have serious problems sleeping.
One of the things which always intrigued me while teaching my world geography course during the winter months was how cold it could get during those winter months. The question of why could this happen for the two months after the winter solstice instead of during the two months surrounding the winter solstice confronted me even before I moved to Minnesota from Missouri. I knew and taught my students during our second unit that the earth was tilted on its axis by about 23 and 1/2 degrees and that the sun traveled around the sun in an elliptical orbit rather than a true circle which made it farther from the sun at a certain time during its rotation. With these two facts available, it was also known that the earth was always the farthest from the sun during the summer solstice for the northern hemisphere when the axis was tilted that 23 and ½ degrees towards the sun while conversely the earth was always the closest to the sun during the winter solstice when the axis was tilted the 23 and ½ degrees away from the sun
Now here is when it starts to get complex because there are two contradictions here which are: that 1) the seasons are exactly reversed between the northern and southern hemispheres and 2) the southern hemisphere will always be warmer than the northern hemispheres because it is closer to the sun during the time when the elliptical orbit is closest to the sun. Now this means that in the northern hemisphere the summer weather during the summer equinox will be cooler than the summer weather during the summer equinoxes in the southern hemisphere which is separated by six months, or a half of year, and likewise the winter weather during the winter equinox in the northern hemisphere will also be colder than the winter weather in the southern hemisphere during their winter equinox which is again separated by six months, or one half of year. this fact has made me wonder whether the terminology of “summer” and “winter” solstices are interchangeable between the two hemispheres because while one is experiencing summer the other is experiencing winter and it doesn’t seem right for us to refer to the summer solstices as “summer” when in fact the people in the southern hemisphere are actually experiencing “winter”, or conversely, they are experiencing summer while we are having the winter equinox occurring in our northern hemisphere (confusing isn’t it).
With all of the above information presented and understood, it has been noticed that the northern part of Russia seems to have very harsh winters compared to what we (people living in the United States at least). This conclusion for the most part has come from the writings of such Russia authors as Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy (who in many cases used the horrible winter weather as a backdrop to accentuate the horrible living experiences that Russian citizen were forced to experience), as well as from national weather forecasters who usually would provide a stories about a horrible cold spells gripping this area during the winter months. Occasionally such stories would mention that Europe was having one of these cold spills (sometimes called the Siberian expresses) but usually, when they had the cold weather, nothing was mentioned about Russian experiencing the same artic cold. Likewise, I don’t remember us having the same cold spill at the same time as either Europe, or Siberia, were having their cold spills. Conversely, when we have had our cold spills, like during the first part of January of this year, the news stations never mentioned that Europe or Siberia were experiencing the same weather pattern there during this time period. What’s more, during these cold streaks affecting the lower forty-eight states, the news people have consistently also mentioned that Alaska was experiencing a warmer temperatures then the ones found in the northern tier of states. Suddenly we now have what is called a polar express rather than a Siberian express (the terminology thus reflecting the astronaut/cosmonaut language conflict)but the question remains as to what causes this and do they extend south all over the hemisphere at the same time around the whole circumference of the earth?
As a rational thinker, J have come to the conclusion that the mass of colder air found at the top of the earth at the north pole in the northern hemisphere moves up and down in different segments of the earth at different times, which means that when it has dropped down to cover parts of north America it has risen from Europe, Siberia and Alaska. The other option (as explained by weather forecasters) is that bits of really cold weather mass just breaks away from the whole general mass and sides south independently of the larger mass. It becomes independently dependent upon air currents surrounding it (much like a hunk of ice breaks off of an ice sheet and becomes an iceberg floating on its own based upon the ocean currents surrounding it) and drifts away from the larger general mass. Now to the point: no one has proven my theory right, nor have they proven it wrong with a better explanation or theory on why we get these cold spells) and I’m still waiting for someone to come up with anything better logical explanation.
Now what does this have to do with anything one may ask? Well when compared to the ice ages where the whole earth suffered from the same cold spell at the same time to our current situation of believing that the earth is warming up makes a lot of difference especially when we are currently freezing. I have another theory to explain what happens during the cold weather during the winter months in the central Minnesota area. Through observations over the years. I have noticed that every spring farmers and students joined forces and rummaged the farmland for signs of new growth that had occurred unobserved during the winter. Central Minnesota (until recently) had been known for producing two things. The prime source of productivity was dependent upon the dairy industry, or the raising of milk cows, because the soil around there was so poor and the climate was not good for crop production due to the limited growing season. The second produced item, however, detracted from the economic gains of farmers and it probably accounted for producing– in quantity –100,000 times more items then each gallon of milk produced each year. The area is filled with rocks and they multiply (like mosquitoes) faster than one can eliminate them. My lundgroanian theory explains the rise of new rocks each spring by reasoning that each fall those rocks missed during the summer, while resting on the surface of the farmland, collect in pods (or coveys) and submerge just below the surface of the top-soil were they mate and produce offspring while in hibernation just as bears do.
I have challenged my students on many occasions to set up observation post on farms just to observe these phenomena with no takers. Perhaps the harsh cold of the area during the winter months creates too much adversity adequate for scientific observations and perhaps the hibernation occurs just too deep because of the cold to make it worth the while for any student to study it. It also may be possible that the students have been smart enough to know that if the theory were proven correct, they would be out of a spring job of collecting the new born rockettes because someone would come up with a new form of rock birth control to stop the process. I know that a local citizen came up with a device to mechanically pick up each of the new born rocks each spring in an attempt to avoid having to hire students to do it manually. I have over the years discussed this observation with many of my junior high students and they seem to have a much more keen interest in the possibility than their high school counterparts. I have also suggested and encouraged them to discuss the idea with their parents with the hope of getting more support for the idea.
The hypothesis concerning the sinking cold fronts was verified just yesterday evening when the national weatherman during the CBS national news stated that due to the current location of the jet steam the artic oscillation was dipping down over the United States while at the same time causing warmer air to cover Alaska. I’ve been vindicated rather than vilified and if the first if the above two theories has been essentially proven correct then there is hope that at some later date the other must also be proven correct. At this point, when it is so cold out there, I’ll settle for this good news and I’ll wait for another day to talk about the distinct possibility concerning the annual rock migration. If the old adage is true that a moving rock gathers no moss, then one must assume that they must be moving (even if ever so slowly) because most rocks that I have examined have had no moss on them!
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I wanted my one hundredth blog to be something special. I wanted it to represent my thoughts–my lundgroanian thoughts. I could have chosen to tell about the ways that I have found to relax after very stressful days at the office, about special students and educators who blessed my life, or about my theories concerning polar vortexes and how they affect us. I could even get personal and speak about my family members who all have led some very colorful and personable lives. But for the one hundredth blog, none of those ideas seemed to truly reflect the personality or character that would truly represent the lundgroaninan philosophy which carries a unique knack of coming up with something serendipitously and the exposing that new found truth to the rest of the world. Then it hit me like a cold lead snow ball being thrown right from the middle of central Minnesota on a cold winter day that in order to talk about the music, which I enjoyed along with what I have used in order to relax and even used to reflect about things, I need to let you know about my musical past along with how that past has influenced me in my music selections.
When I was very young (possible second grade I think), my parents decided that it was time for me to become involved in music of some sort. Of course I had my own ideas of what instrument I would like to learn to play but it was not the same as my parents I favored the Hawaiian guitar because of its smooth flowing melodies, which did not seem to end immediately after each note was being hit or strummed while my parents favored a more contemporary instrument closer to the piano but without the size, weight, or complexity (I think that the church’s pianist, Lawrence Welk, or even possibly Liberace had something to do with their thoughts in this matter). They chose the accordion: they won and I lost. Had the guitar won out, I could have transferred the skills learned from the Hawaiian guitar to that of the electric guitar and perhaps even replaced Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock!
My dad became my moderator and each evening I practiced on my accordion for exactly one half hour with him sitting at my side not saying a word but quietly listening. Once each week I would go to the music studio to demonstrate what I had learned and masters during the past week. Unfortunately, the student who immediately preceded me was showing what she had learned and mastered on her Hawaiian guitar. The melodies that she produced with her Hawaiian guitar were so beautiful to hear as I waited for my turn. My dad never criticized my mistakes as I practice and he never noticed that I could not master simultaneously playing the required notes with both hands on each side of the accordion at the same time. I could play the fundamental three or four notes (ump, pa, pa) with the left hand while stumbling along with the notes listed for the right hand but that was it and I never got past these three ump, pa, pa notes. I memorized the location with each little black dot on the music sheet to the correct white key on the music instrument but never with the exact timing expected to accompany it. I never figured out what the little black keys between some of the white keys were for nor did I ever get the bellows to expand and contract during the correct sequence of notes to make the music flow uninterrupted.
It wasn’t until my father passed away that I became aware of the fact that he was tone deaf and had no sense of timing associated with music. The music teacher and her husband happened to be somewhat close friends to my parents and they were evidently too embarrassed to mention to my parents their assessment about my inabilities associated with music (unless the money for the lessons was too good to pass up) while my dad was alive. However once he had passed away, the assessment quickly came out. One evening shortly after his death, they visited our house and encouraged my mom to consider cancelling my music instructions. I had already gone to bed and shouldn’t have been privy to the conversation at hand but I just couldn’t resist sitting up against the wall separating my bedroom and the living room listening to that conversation. It might have been enough to have heard that part of the conversation as I really did not like the accordion nor did I want to continue with it. The conversation continued with their assessment of my abilities relative to my future. They told my mother that she should accept the reality of my limited ability to learn and that I would be lucky to find and keep a remedial job in the steel mills as an adult. After they lift, I met my mother at the bedroom door where we shared a good cry and two things happened after that: I never tried to play that accordion again and I never saw that music instructor after that night. I did work part time in the steel mills for five summers while going to college and was offered a full scholarship from the general foreman of the plant to attend Perdue University and get an engineering degree because of my outstanding work ethic and dedication to the plant.
Yep, that’s me with my accordion in the picture and there is that beautiful Hawaiian guitar right beside me. Do you think it’s possible to have a crush as a second grader on such a lovely instrument? I also have somewhere a 78RPM recording of me my ump-pa-pa machine.
I love listening to music and I do understand its importance it has when it comes to our wellbeing. My coordination relative to playing any instruments is lacking and my ability to dance to it is also nonexistent. When my mom met my new dad to be, they noticed this lack of coordination relative to dancing and decided during my sophomore year in high school to provide me with dance lessons. The lessons took place right after school was out in the central court, or commons area, of the high school. This was one of the activities that I didn’t have to compete with my six month younger step-brother who was also in the same grade with me. I had recently just been cut from the basketball squad because of my lack of coordination so I had the free time needed to be enrolled in the dance class (I actually thought about calling this blog “Some Men Can’t Dance” after Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson’s role in the movie “White Men Can’t Jump” because my skills at dancing were as bad as playing basketball but I didn’t want to upset anyone with any kind of inference).
It’s bad enough to be cut from the basketball team because you aren’t good enough to compete but then to be forced into having to take dance lessons in front of your peers and upper classmen because you can’t dance either is horrifying. I was the only underclassman and athlete to be enrolled in the dance program and about halfway through the weekly instructional process, the jocks would be through with their sports practices and they would meet in that commons area to watch the dancers practicing (which included me). Needless to say, my coordination and the dance lessons did not improve and it wasn’t long before every athlete and girl in the school knew that fact. The end result was that I only attended one school dance, which was during my senior year with one of my senior classmates, while in high school and that was only after my step-dad refused to allow me to take the girl who I really wanted to take (I did attend the Prom as a senior and took a girl from another school as my date).
What does all of this background information mean to the topic for this blog you may ask? Well outside of the lessons, it taught me (other than the fact that sometimes we ought to more often listen to what others are trying to tell us) very little. I met my future wife while in a required college PE class where they lined us up with the girls on one side of the gym and the guys on the other. While the guys on our side were counting and moving themselves in the line to align themselves with a particular co-ed, the girls were also moving in their line to either match up with (or avoid) someone one the other side. Looking back upon this spectacle, I would have loved now to say what a funny situation it presented had it not been for the fact that I was so petrified of the oncoming embarrassing episode that I couldn’t enjoy it. Then to the beat of the music, they merged the two lines and forced us to dance with unknown strangers. So I met my future wife-to-be and we danced to the” bunny hop” music for a few minutes before they has us changing partners and going on to the next dance step. She has never said anything about how I danced (well at least not much) but she has also stopped wearing high heels around me too.
When we got married, I chose to go on a honeymoon trip right after the wedding, which eliminated the customary bridle dance scene and when my daughter got married, I did do the customary father/daughter dance with her. I also sang “Moon River” to her while walking down the aisle to give her away but that’s another story as I can’t sing or carry a tune either, but it was something to do to ease the tensions of the moment and get us to the alter! I did have expectations that both of my daughters would learn the fundamentals of playing the piano while in school because that was really the only instrument that had any qualified music teachers in the area and I think both of them (taking after me) hated it. The youngest outsmarted me during her junior year by invoking a promise that I made to her about the lessons when she was in elementary school and that got her out of them. Then, after her mom, she took up clarinet and became good enough to do a solo both at the school’s spring music recital and at graduation. The funny thing about it was that I had never heard or saw her practice so I was spellbound at both events when she stood up there on the stage and performed for everyone. Now my two granddaughters are entering that age where they say that it’s a good time to start the teaching a musical instrument if one is going to really become good at it and I suddenly have this unspeakable understanding that it would be best if I completely refrain from ever bringing up the possibility of encouraging any type of musical lessons for them!
My older step-brother picked up the guitar on his own and he has provided his family with a way to communicate and bond as a result. His youngest son has, even among other things, become a music teacher. One of my wife’s older brothers also learned to play the guitar and has shared his talents with the rest of his family. There is even speculation that one of her older sisters also played the guitar. Perhaps had I been allowed to partake in the guitar, I also might have learned how to dance correctly and I might even have been able to patent the “Moon Dance” before Michael Jackson and started a series on TV called “Dancing With the Stars”!!!!!
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The Sunday edition of 60 minutes on January 12 had a piece updating a segment done several years ago about people who could tell you the day of the week, what happened on that day in history, and about what they did when given a date in their past. I thought to have such a memory would be fantastic. In fact I have a similar talent, but in the opposite direction. You give me a date and I can’t tell you the day it fell on, what happened on that date or even what I did on that date. My memory lapse is so complete that the above for me occurs within a week’s time. Some people would attribute this talent to my age, or hard living, but I’m not old enough to be senile or have “old-timers” disease yet. My brain has just been wired to not remember much of anything and that’s why memorizing was always hard for me.
Several years ago they also did a segment (March 18, 2012) on people who could not remember peoples’ names and I thought that that described me to a tee. It verified that there was a syndrome out there to describe my affliction and other people had it too. It’s called prosopagnosia, or face blindness, and Lesley Stahl- the segment’s host -said that she suffers from it too. My syndrome may even be more acute, or general, (agnosa) because I have trouble association other things to their relationships as well. Now what I’m about to suggest is that associating items (names, places, dates, and even connections) may be a brain function that develops differently in each human being which really determines, or effects, our memorization capability and- to my knowledge- no scientist , doctor, or educator has put the connection between the two together yet.
As a young kid, I found it quite hard to memorize things like spelling words, grammar laws, and dates etc. for tests. And as a result, my grades in various classes suffered to the point that it was even very hard to get accepted into any colleges. I could attach relevancy to information presented and explain relationships but I had a difficulty presenting facts to back up those concepts. Spelling was based strictly upon phonics as I understood the sounding of each word (which is still the case today). My sentence structure was copied from the books that I read as I tried to emulate the authors (assuming that they were good writers whose grammar structure was unflawed). I depended upon mental visual images to explain and remember content (a hands-on approach, or activity, usually helped reinforcing and retaining information). And I’ve done a lot of observing, or observations, to determine what is needed for each situation (in other words follow in the path of others whenever one is unsure of how to handle a new situation). I have acquired a good vocabulary and have a relative keen sense of the meaning, or syntax, of words. And last but not least, I believe that I’ve become a pretty good guesser!
I’ll let the doctors and scientist decode the above syndrome and determine the connection between memorization and brain development relative to agnosia, but I must question whether todays education methodology is doing more harm than good when it is so dependent upon memorization and the testing of the retention of facts, or bits, of information.
Today there is a debate between the No Child Left Behind philosophy which bases learning success on test scores both for the student and the teacher and the Common-Core idea which bases learning upon using presented material in a meaningful way. There currently is a lot of scientific evidence that suggest that the wiring of the brain (left-right brain theory), hormones introduced during its development, heredity along with cultural development, and outside environmental agents all have an effect upon the way learning will occur. Our current teaching strategy, as established by both our state and federal leaders, seems to have become more focused upon economics and the cheapest way to provide programming rather than, in laymen terms, looking at the needs of each student based upon his or her brain development and then setting up a prescription to accomplish the best delivery system that each individual’s brain will handle.
Let’s face it, if all we want to accomplish is produce individuals who can recite and “parrot” information on demand, then our current system measures up to the task excellently. But let’s not force everyone to be force through the “mold” and let’s not target them with “failure” labels through grade retention or encouraging them to drop out as is the case now. We do spend a lot of money on education and education is a lifelong process. More research on brain development is needed to address how the brain really learns, as well as the different ways in which the brain learns. There is more than one way to bake a cake or to put a worm on a pole to catch a fish and in both cases, the results are just as much affected by outside forces as by the directions given to us by the experts. When we solve the riddle of what makes a savant a savant and when we are able to apply that information across the whole spectrum of learning, then we will have the true answers on how to provide effective leaning strategies to each individual based upon the maximum potential available at all levels of development.
Now if any of this makes any sense, please take the time to hunt up both 60 minute reports, view them, and then start asking the questions that I have been forced to face relative to myself and the profession which I served for 38 years. Also please pass along the above information and questions to start a national discussion on why we need to change our approach to educating our youth.
Postscript: Coincidently, just after publishing the above blog, Yahoo new came out with an article about a new self-taken 15 minute pencil and paper test created at Ohio State University to help predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease (which to me can be associated with old timer’s disease too). If you would desire to acquire more information on this subject, it can be found in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences.
Filed under: brain theory, education, Politics | Leave a Comment
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