Final Thoughts from 2013

I collect quotations the way people collect coins, stamps, and matchbook covers. I collect them from Internet sites, from books and magazines, and from miscellaneous social and unsocial media -- T-shirts are an under-utilized source of inspiration. At one time, early in my pre-computer career, I pasted address-sized stickers of sayings on interoffice mail envelopes until the mailroom stopped that practice after most of the envelopes of the school were cluttered with my little bits of wisdom.

Now, my life's work is to fill the digital capacity of the world's servers with witticisms. But rather than hoard them in digital folders buried many layers down, I recycle quotations on email messages, classroom whiteboards, assorted posters, and lesson PowerPoints.

Before I retire 2013 quotes from active use to inactive memory, I thought I would give a dozen favorites one more moment to digitally shine. Think of this post as a parting, end-of-the year gift for those just starting their collections of wisdom.

Many of my favorite quotations talk of journeys:

"It doesn't matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going." Brian Tracy.

"The best sermons are lived, not preached." Cowboy saying.

"If it's both terrifying and amazing, then you should pursue it." Erada.

Some talk of overcoming problems along that journey:

"One cannot stumble upon an idea unless one is running." Vladimir Kosma Zworykin.

"A bird only flies. It does not turn to another bird and ask, "Am I doing this right?" Mary Ann Rademacher.

"No one would have crossed the ocean if he could have gotten off the ship in the middle of the storm." Paul Boese.

Some talk of persistence while overcoming problems along that journey:

"It's hard to beat a person who never gives up." Babe Ruth.

"Never make decisions while running up a hill." Christina Cox, runner.

"If Plan A didn't work, the alphabet has 25 other letters." Unknown.

And some talk of our most difficult journeys: those we take within ourselves:

"If you don't have confidence, you'll always find a way not to win." Carl Lewis.

"You become what you think about." Earl Nightingale.

"Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken." Oscar Wilde.

Counting and Measuring in the Classroom

At the end of every month, I open up my old-school attendance notebook and total data points in columns and rows. This is a habit I started back seven years ago as an adjunct in the Basic Ed classroom when I first wanted to know how I was doing and how I could improve it.

Sure, the creative free-flowing part of my brain saw the results of daily lessons and thought that everything was brilliant, just brilliant, but my business, quantitative-numbers side wasn't so easily persuaded by colorful thoughts. It asked persistently, "Do you have the data to back that up?" I know from a variety of business experiences that almost everything can be measured or counted: it's just a matter of asking the right questions and tallying the data.

If you can't count or measure something, it probably doesn't exist.

At first though, I wasn't sure what data I needed. So I started to collect and organize what I had at hand: number of students per session, programs represented, hours attended, tests taken, results achieved, and so forth. After one semester collection, I had a baseline of data points. One semester of data still didn't answer the question of how I was doing since I had nothing else to compare it to. So I kept on.

After another semester, I started to notice trends by comparing the first semester to the next. I felt better, but two semesters of data didn't seem to be terrifically valid since I suspected that the fall semester differs from the spring or summer semesters (which it does by quite a bit). What I needed was a full academic year including the summer term.

In the meantime, I continued to collect and to ask questions of the data and pass the reports on to the center managers and my associate dean. Some of the information has been important for Basic Ed funding (student numbers, attendance, and entry and exit tests: all part of GED scorecards), some for center BE scheduling, and some information, while interesting, didn't have immediate practical importance. For example, at one time I tracked how many students signed into the center lab just for testing and how many were there for GED or pre-program instruction: since testing has moved to other desks, that data is now irrelevant.

And, my old notebooks and monthly reports have provided a hard record of the evolution of the Basic Ed program at my two sites. Initial data quantified the old system of open academic skills labs, while the 2012-2013 Academic Year data showed how the school-wide Pathways initiative changed the flow of students at my two sites. Now, this fall (AY 2013-2014), the data shows upward trends possibly due to changes we made in delivery of both the GED/HSED content and the college prep classes. I say "possibly due" since the increase might have more to do with the GED 2002 series Closeout Campaign, than any structural changes we have made. Time will tell. Data collection is an exercise in patience as well as persistence. Ask me about trends in May or next fall.

In the meantime, the monthly exercise of data collection, comparison, and trends satisfies my personal business numbers curiosity and helps me recommend the best BE strategy at the centers. And, the data comes in handy when my center managers or associate dean have specific questions of me. When you have the data, you have the basis for intelligent evidence-based answers. Without data, well, your guess is as good as mine.

Mandela's Code of Respect

When students fill out paperwork to enter Basic Education classes, they have to read and sign a Code of Conduct form promising to behave themselves in the classroom. It's a shame we have to waste the paper on the obvious, but there have been incidents and lawyers must make a living too. But when a student seems overly intimidated by the two-column legalese, I say, "Look, just respect the other students who are working alongside you. That's all this code means: respect one another."

I thought of that Code as I watched and read of memorials this past week to the late President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. Surrounded by a world-wide celebration of his life, I reflected on the qualities of a Code of Respect, the basis for the Mandela legend.

One network correspondent summed his life saying Mandela believed that no one was above him. He would not acknowledge the power that others had over him, even as a prisoner for twenty-seven long years. Stories said he respected his jailers as fellow human beings, but would not bow to the system of apartheid that they represented. It takes an amazing inner reserve to respect your opponents without agreeing with them and then, in turn, to earn their respect by your strength of convictions.

Left unsaid by the reporter but equally true is just as Mandela believed no one was above him, he also believed no one was below him. He offered equal respect for people from all social and economic, racial and ethnic levels. This is what gave him his generous spirit that was loved by his countrymen and admired by the world. So many of the tributes during the past week spoke of vignettes that showed Mandela's humor and common touch when he walked among his people and focused on their individual stories. 

But respect, it seems to me, needs to crystalize within us before we can project it into the world. We need to begin our personal Mandela transformation by really, honestly, and openly accepting who we are. Self-respect may be the hardest part of the personal Code to form, because we all are too aware of our faults, gifts, and gaffes. Even Mandela. He once asked his followers, "Do not judge me by my successes, but judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again."

A life lived in a Code of Respect is an ideal that few of us can achieve on a consistent basis, which is why, I suppose, we need to be reminded of it as we sign classroom Codes of Conduct. It is also why we are attracted like moths to shining examples, like Mandela, who show us that we have the power to rise above daily pettiness and indecision that mires us to baser instincts. As Mandela once said, "A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination."

Post-Graduation is like Shepherd's Pie

Of course I like Thanksgiving. Who wouldn't like slow-roasted turkey infusing the house with sage-spiced memories; or pumpkin pie bars, or a legendary green bean casserole; or gossiping with the latest in-laws, out-laws and new family additions; or, of course, NFL football -- well, maybe not NFL football this time around.

Of course I like Thanksgiving. It's a holiday that seems uniquely shaped around the American psyche.

What I like almost as much as Thanksgiving are the three days following Turkey Day: additional family gatherings (congrats to Hannah and Brandon), college football rivalries (cheers to Auburn, Penn State, and nice try, Michigan), and the start of the Christmas season (on Black Friday, mind you, not Thursday). But what I like most is our family's leftover culinary tradition, Shepherd's Pie, which can only be made after Thanksgiving because it is built on layers of stuffing filled with turkey meat and topped by carrots, gravy, and mashed potatoes. All Thanksgiving leftovers.

So, why the change of blog theme from mostly education to holiday recipes? Am I now underwritten by the Food Channel? I wish, but no. It occurred to me, as I watched my wife spoon in the stuffing crust for this weekend's Shepherd's Pie that things built off a main event are sometimes as tasty as the main event itself. Let me explain.

In a little more than a month, on Dec. 20th, NWTC students will graduate in mid-year ceremonies at the Resch Center in Green Bay. This is a single central celebration that hundreds have been working toward. You might call it our school's Academic Thanksgiving Day.

Yet, what happens the day after the graduation gown is folded up and put away? Just as we need to guard against post-holiday blues, a newly-hatched alumni needs to guard against a post-graduation let down. Somehow the student needs to collect all the blessings and benefits he or she has accumulated from their work and mix these academic ingredients layer by layer to create a new wonderful concoction.

For example: if you are a student you shouldn't think of graduation as an end point, but as a beginning. You should stay in contact with the school, the instructors and staff. We would love to be able to help you as you move forward. Next, don't just up and sell texts, workbooks or manuals: there might be ideas, activities, inspiration that will be handy in the future -- who can say? That will be worth more than the 50% or less cash back. And, stay in touch with classmates, with employer mentors, and with professional organizations. Exchange contact information before, during, and after the Resch ceremony -- this will be the beginning of your professional network and probably one of the most important layers of your future academic feast.

So, by all means celebrate the holidays and the December graduation. Make time for family, for parties, and even for more football (there's always time for football). But, at the same time, don't forget to package, label, store, repurpose all the "leftovers" from your academic career. These may be as important, as nutritious, and as tasty as the main event.

What I'm Thankful For

The world seems lit in a different kind of light this time of the year. The sun travels lower in the sky, the moon brighter in the cold dark night, but what is different is the star-stuff that glows about us. There are still moments, like now, in which I have the time to pause and consider everything I am thankful for.

As the end of the series approaches, I am thankful for GED 2002. The fabled, tested credential opened career and academic doors for hundreds of thousands of students. GED 2002 will be a hard act to follow.

I am thankful for the staff of our Assessment Center. They work behind the scenes with little acclaim but lead the state in preparing our school and students for the new GED 2014 credential. We are in very good shape because of their work.

I am thankful for clever quotations that inspire me each day from Facebook friends, Sunrise Inspirations, and Runner's World -- running, I have found, is a lot like working in a classroom. And, I am thankful for the supply of inspirational cards from The Attic Coffee and Books on Bodart Street in downtown Green Bay: next year, I promise to buy envelopes to go with them so I don't unbalance the stock.

I am thankful for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and, my newfound article-source favorite, Zite: it's much easier keeping up with news, trends and ideas than it was in the past. In a busy world, one hundred forty-words updates are not a bad thing.

I am thankful for technology and for succinct, informative emails which allow me to stay in touch everyone all the time. For those emails that are not succinct and informative, I am thankful for the delete key.

I am thankful for whiteboards.

I am thankful for the STAR Reading Program and ANI (Adult Numeracy Instruction), both promulgated and promoted by the Wisconsin Technical College System. This instruction has changed the way I think about teaching adults.

And, while I am thanking those who have formed my teaching, I am thankful for the IPA (Instructor Preparation Academy); my mentor, Tom Bice-Allen; and the Talent Development folks of NWTC. I hope they like their new offices.

I am thankful for this blog. It helps me compare my craft against the lessons of others. I am thankful for the readers who point out my typos.

I am thankful for bosses who are patient with my impatience and for my PASS team members. We share the same passion for the success of our students, which is more important than sharing similar political views. And, some day, I will share a ride with the group.

I am thankful for my students. They may think that I am the instructor, but often our roles are reversed. I think I learn much deeper life lessons from them than the lessons in subject-verb agreement they get from me. Persistent gradual steps can change a life and can overcome any obstacle. 

And, I am humbly thankful for the teaching opportunity I have been given by the school. I am thankful for the dual assignments at Shawano and Oconto Falls. Two plus years in and I am still wowed by the talent, dedication and student service of both of those staffs. They don't realize how good they are.

A recent Prudential television commercial asks viewers what would you do with your life if money was not an object? What would I do? Exactly what I am doing right now and exactly where I am doing it. For that, I am truly thankful. Have a good holiday.

Failing Forward

Uncomfortable and unprepared. That's understandable. The typical new GED student would rather be almost anywhere except in a classroom. Most of them are forced by circumstances -- and the reality of needing the credential to find a job today -- to reenter a place (the classroom) with bad memories. In their eyes, classroom work is a slog through an incomprehensible mire, lectures drone on far too long, PowerPoint projects seem pointless, and the idea of actually passing test, much less a course, a semester or a program, seems a fantasy just left of the turn toward Neverland.

Yet here they sit. Askew in the seats, rarely facing you head on, their body language screams "Let me out of here!" Yet, something directed them here and keeps them in their seats. I give them a world of credit for that kind of courage. As they sit, a little more attentive if you can get their attention and trust, the GED orientation moves deliberately, mixing information about the test sequence with guides for student success. Most of them can attain the GED and move on to better job opportunities or college courses. They can succeed if they believe in that success and put in the time and the effort.

However, I know everything is not suddenly changed in their lives as if by a sprinkle of pixie dust. Disappointments and mistakes of the past need to be addressed. We owe the students that bit of reality. Everyone, absolutely everyone, makes mistakes and suffers the consequences. What's important is what happens next.

A few years ago, a colleague recommended I read John C. Maxwell, best-selling author and motivator, who says even positive, upbeat, successful people, the kind of people we admire for their resoluteness, have "a tough time learning how to see failure positively." Even the best of us, he says, fail at what we do. In his 2000 book, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success, Maxwell prescribes a Cinderella-like transformation of discouragement, mistakes, and failure into success. He calls that process "failing forward."

During the GED orientation, I list the many successful people who failed before they succeeded (Edison, Disney, J.K.Rowling -- the list goes on and on): persistence not brilliance is the key to success. Then, I pass out a list of the book's 15 stepping stones and ask students to chose which of those steps seem to make the most sense to them. Maxwell's steps include "Learn a new definition of failure," "Change yourself and your world changes," and "Manage the weakness that manages you." I write the steps students choose on the board and we talk about why the particular steps seemed relevant to them. It's a valuable discussion. These students know about failure and disappointment. They need to know what they need to do to right their academic ship.

Every time I present this exercise, I notice many students favor the last of Maxwell's 15 steps: "Get up, get over it, get going." To my students this means they can't rely on their past, on others, or on best wishes to succeed. I think they know that. That's why they are sitting in front of me starting work on their GED. I can help guide them, but they need to provide the motive power themselves.

Maxwell's book was probably written for self-help and business audiences, but I think his ideas also line up well for students. I tell my GED students there will be times when they feel discouraged, disheartened and want to give up. These feelings are natural for anyone who wants to push the boundaries of where they are into new unknown challenges. They will make mistakes. They will be discouraged. They will fail. There is nothing wrong with that.

The key point is what do they do after they pick themselves up and brush themselves off? How do they turn mistakes into success? How will they decide to "fail forward?"

Books Every Man Should Read

"These are the books the Internet says every man should read, and it's pretty disappointing," read the Huffington Post article title (Nov. 6, 2013). Aside from asking who exactly is Mr. Internet? (an unnamed conglomeration of digital sources), I wondered how many real guys voted for the list and if the vote was before or after their team's QB was injured: yes, that would make a difference. Huffington opined, "It's not that these are bad books individually... it's just that, taken together and put in these lists, they seem to showcase an infantile, reductive version of what our culture sees as 'masculinity.'"

Mr. Internet divided the thirty-some man books into five categories (war, brothers, politics, sex, and adventure). I didn't have a problem with the general divisions, though I would substitute science fiction/horror for sex because if a guy really wants to read about sex, he's not going to consult this list. I agreed with some of the books from Mr. Internet's list though not many. Others (such as Don Quixote by Cervantes) quietly should be allowed to quietly recede into English major optional reading lists. 

It's time to stand up, say I'm a man. I read, and I think I can do better. Here's my list.

1. Books about War. The Internet correctly chose two classic guy books to front this category: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. Billy Pilgrim and Yossarian are atypical protagonists caught in the tragedy of their times as are most guys. Both novels are as chaotic as the conflict they describe, a perfect example of form following message. No problem there. I substituted the Internet's choice of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (I really need to read that some day), with The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkein. LOTR combines a buddy trip along with a manly, magical struggle between light and dark, plus the character names are easier to remember even in Elvish. And then, to replace predictable Internet selections from Hemingway and Mailer that no one reads any more, I chose another book no one reads any more (but should), Instant Replay: The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer by Jerry Kramer. If a guy wants to read about the modern equivalent of war, there is nothing better than a book about Lombardi and the NFL.

2. Books about Brothers. The Internet's category parameters are a little fuzzy here. Sure, Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyesky is an obvious choice, though I prefer Crime and Punishment. No to the collected stories of John Cheever and how did Corman McCarthy end here with The Road? Push that to another category. I'll agree to the Internet's choice of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, so long as I can add another play to modernize and fantacize the bard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard. And, I would include two-non fiction books of brothers bonding through creation: The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes, and Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder. Nothing binds guys together more than puttering with incomprehensilbe tools in a undisclosed workshop somewhere. Los Alamos and Data General are the ultimate man caves.

3. Books about Politics. Kudos to the Internet choices of The Autobiography of Malcom X by Malcom X, Lord of the Flies by William Golding (though why not George Orwell's Animal Farm -- guys like bacon), and All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. I'll pass on Phillip Roth and George Saunders. My substitute choices for the theme, "Politics are a Man's Business," are The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam, the excellent, continuing Lyndon Johnson biography by Robert Caro, and Lincoln's masterful maneuvering chronicled in Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. And, just for fun, I would add the politics of our souls in The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.

4. Books about Horror and Science Fiction. I know that the genre has outstanding female authors such as Ursula LeGuin and James Tiptree, but go to a sci-fi con and 80-percent of the registrants are guys so I'll be guy-centric here. Start this list with the classics: The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (OK, yes, I did make an exception for this extraordinary fireside story). Horror doesn't get any better. Add Ray Bradbury's "I love to burn" Fahrenheit 451, Frank Herbert's Dune, and anything else by Harlan Ellison and Phillip K. Dick. The Road by Cormac McCarthy should have been here along with a dose of hard sci-fi; the three volume Mars series (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson would work well. And the category could not be complete without Stephen King. For my taste, I would add The Stand and Pet Sematary, but you really can't make a wrong man-choice with King.

5. Books about Adventure. I kept five Internet selections here, after all what guy could argue with Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Call of the Wild by Jack London, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Most guys cut their reading teeth on these books in addition to stories about Arthur, Robin and the Arabian Nights. I did cull Internet picks from Cervantes, Hunter S. Thompson, Patrick O'Brien (though my wife disagreed with this one), Don Delillo, Jack Kerovac, Robert Pirsig, James Joyce (who would pick Ulysses as an adventure book -- no wonder the original list was criticized as a "reductive version" of masculinity), and another Cormac McCarthy (a Western would have been good, but, sorry, I don't read them and this is my list). If other books need to be added -- and I'm not sure they need to be -- I would add The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe, and something by Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy.

Five categories and thirty-four books. Are there more? Indeed there are. Would others pick other books? Well, yeah, that's what guys do: we argue about inconsequential things (see category #3), but, I think, these selections up the macho level of Mr. Internet's list. From my man cave La-Z-Boy, these books provide more backbone to male literacy. Excuse my reach but pass the buffalo wings.