Does Blogging Count?

Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.
Seriously!  I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives.
—     Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
From a letter to students at Xavier High School in New York City in response to an invitation to visit their school.
The quote is part of a larger response which was found on one of the blogs I follow:  https://news.lettersofnote.com/
The specific post can be found at:  https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/make-your-soul-grow
[Please visit the original site if you have a spare minute.    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2020	Even Being President For Almost Four Years
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2019	And Autumnal Foliage
2018	Up Hill, Both Ways
2017	Trump Carnivores – The Revolution So Far
2016	Election Results
2015	Speak Louder
2014	Why I Frequently Give In
2013	Am Remembering
2012	Sustained Fear
2011	Commitment

 

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Learning And Teaching

Feynman Learning Technique:
1)  Take a piece of paper and write the concept’s name at the top.
2)  Explain the concept using simple language (show examples to demonstrate you know how the concept works)
3)  Identify problem areas in your explanation or examples and then go back to the sources to review the material / concept
4)  Pinpoint any complicated terms and challenge yourself to simplify them.
Several days ago, I posted a quote and made a comment about excellence in teaching.  (Why We Have So Few Personal Favorites )  Basically, my proposition was that it is extremely difficult to evaluate the competence and productivity of a teacher because of the number of variables and an inability to control them to a point sufficient to determine what are the tools we could provide the “most effective” teachers to make them better (or any teachers for that matter).
I never gave much thought about teaching until I joined the Army and they insisted I learn, participate in and practice “Performance Oriented Training” (POTs training) when I attended the NCO Academy in Frankfurt, Germany.  Essentially, POTs stipulates that until the student can perform the task, the training has not been effective.  There were three elements:  1)  the instructor demonstrates the task to be performed / explaining the objective of the task, the reason for the task, and each step necessary to complete the task;  2)  the instructor then walks / talks the student through each step as they (the student) follows along with each step;  and, 3)  the instructor asks the student to perform the task independently.  If the student fails in performance (step 3), the instructor must return to element 2.  Re-cycle through elements 2 and 3 until 3 can be accomplished independently.  At that point, the student can perform the task and the training has been effective.  (Of course long term retention of the knowledge / skill is a different matter.)
This training methodology served me very well during my working life / career as I was frequently called upon to instruct on topics in the military, and then as a civilian:  from credit card fraud prevention, to correspondent banking, to numerous Information Technology topics (basic trouble-shooting, using spreadsheets, using word processing applications, server and network administration, setting up databases, conducting data analysis and creating web pages to display the analysis / data).
Rather late in my career, I “discovered” (i.e. read about) Dr Richard P. Feynman (PhD) and his personal learning methodology.  Post-employment (i.e. in retirement), I’ve now watched bits and pieces of Professor Feynman’s lectures (on YouTube) and I believe his methodology is a civilian / academic equivalent of personal POTs training.  That is:  how we should expect to teach ourselves and verify our own knowledge / competency in a subject.  I shudder to think of the number of lectures / classes / training sessions I’ve attended where the instructor either did not have this level of personal expertise or expect the student to demonstrate understanding at the end of the session.  Which, (again) is why we remember our few “great” teachers over our lifetimes.
Disclaimer:  The list of four steps above are available in several books and on the web and the exact wording is neither mine nor exclusive to any specific source so I have not bothered to cite any “original” source.  I apologize in advance if anyone reading this feels I have used their exact language describing Dr. Feynman’s technique.
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On This Day In:
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2019	10,000 Tries
2018	Keep America Great – Vote This Tuesday
2017	Old Style Ear Candy
2016	Next Tuesday
2015	Wanna Trade?
2014	Brothers And Friends
2013	So Suddenly
2012	At The Center
2011	Live Long And Thinner
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2010	SF Giants – 2010 World Series Champions!!!
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2009	Diet Update
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Why We Have So Few Personal Favorites

Teaching is the only major occupation of man for which we have not yet developed tools that make an average person capable of competence and performance.  In teaching we rely on the ‘naturals’, the ones who somehow know how to teach.
—     Peter Drucker
[One of the few times I don’t agree with Drucker…   I believe we rely on ‘willing to’ rather than ‘naturals’ to become teachers and then hope most rise to a level of competence and performance.  First, I’m not convinced “average” people are capable of being competent teachers.  I don’t think the ability to teach academic subjects is a skill the average person has.  I do believe that everyone can teach “some” things – just not academic topics, and certainly not at all levels.  Second, I believe “tools” make most people better at “some” things, but do not necessarily make average people competent or able to perform in academic areas.  I’m not convinced tools necessarily make a below-average (whatever that is) person average (whatever that is);  just better than they might have been otherwise.  Third, I’m not convinced we have adequate testing methodologies to rate an academic teacher’s competence and / or performance.  Students are living beings and not subject to controlled experiments as inputs or as outputs.  The “best” we can do is use statistics to estimate student competence / performance under very limited circumstances and, therefore, the results of the comparisons may or may not be widely applicable across wider groups in society.  Even the world’s greatest high school math teacher may not be good (or average) in a grammar school or at a university, let alone at another high school or in other subjects.  Finally, we believe we can use standardized tests to measure the students performance and, therefore, “measure / determine” a teacher’s competence.  This is an assumption which may or may not be valid.  In any case, my understanding is that social / economic banding is the most common important factor for economic progress / success.  This banding has very little to do with an individual teacher’s ability or a student’s performance.  The same teacher can teach multiple siblings at the same school and still end up with a wide variance of sibling performance success.     —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2020	Why We Must Vote #45 Out
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2019	Sometimes I Still Have Trouble Sleeping
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2018	And Flights Of Fancy
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2017	By Their Acts Thy Shall Know Them
2016	Remembering
2015	One
2014	Sure Experiments And Demonstrated Arguments
2013	Irrational Complacency
2012	Why Criticize?
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2011	Saying Just Enough
2010	Giants Win Game 2 Shutout of Rangers – 9 to 0!!!

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Three Or Four Elements

I have been learning to play guitar since January of this year.  Although I’ve always liked music and songs, I’ve never given much thought to what music is.  I mean, I’ve always considered it as “sound” (in a physics sense), but learning to “play” music (make sounds) as turned into a deep and enriching exercise in itself.  Last night, I read someone’s definition of “music” as a combination of three things: rhythm, melody and harmony.  I thought this was interesting, so, today I went on Google and Wikipedia to see what they had to say about it…
There seems to be a (little / minor) disagreement about what “makes” music.  Most of what I read agrees with the three parts above, but I also found other sources which added a fourth:  dynamics.
This is my simplistic understanding of each:
1)  Rhythm:  the beat and speed of the sound(s);
2)  Melody:  the grouping of the sounds (typically making it – the “music” – distinctively memorable) into start, order and ending;
3)  Harmony:  the mixing of sounds for effect (happy / sad, blending / discordant); and,
4)  Dynamics:  how loud or quietly / soft or hard something sounds.
I’m sure any readers who are “real” musicians will find my explanation / understanding of these elements of music simplistic, and I’m okay with that.  LoL!  I think it’s amusing (amazing) I’ve enjoyed music my whole life, but never thought about ANY of this.  And, to be honest, I have large blind spots about most things under “arts and culture”.  I know I don’t know about them, but I have no idea how much I don’t know about them.  It’s fun starting to learn!
C’est la vie…
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On This Day In:
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2019	…And Bullet-Proof Suits
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2018	What Do You Hear?
2017	I’ve Got A Pocket Protector
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2016	Better Value
2015	Any Port In A Storm
2014	Babies (II)
2013	Why The Young Stay In College Longer These Days
2012	Perceptions Of Worth
2011	Flavor
2010	Giants Win 1-0 !!

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How Learning Infections Begin

We destroy our children’s songs of existence by giving them inhibitions, teaching them to be cynical, manipulative, and all the rest of it…  You become hardened, but you can find that playfulness again.  We’ve got to find a way to get music and kids together, as well as to teach teachers how to discover their own love of learning.  Then the infectious process begins.
—     Leonard Bernstein
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On This Day In:
2020	Policies Not People
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2019	Should I Start With My Religion?
2018	Fear And Hope
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2017	Directions
2016	Handle With Care
2015	Nothing But Pride
2014	Go
2013	Well, Does It?
2012	Near Misses Aren’t Successes
2011	Uncomfortable Feelings
2010	San Francisco (favorites)…
	Bullets or Butter?

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Awaiting The Polisher

I consider a human soul without education like marble in the quarry, which shows none of its inherent beauties till the skill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot and vein that runs through the body of it.
—     Joseph Addison
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On This Day In:
2020	I Don’t Want To Get Any Older…
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2019	Free At Last!
2018	Some Basic Virtues
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2017	Too Soon We Part…
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2016	Where And Why
2015	The Beauty Of Thy Voice
2014	Faith In Men
2013	An Average Verge
2012	Dew Drop Secrets
2011	Champion Freedom

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We Are More Alike

I would encourage us all, African Americans, Asians, Latinos, Whites, Native Americans to study history.  I long for the time when all the human history is taught as one history.  I am stronger because you are stronger.  I am weaker if you are weak.  So we are more alike than we are unlike.
—    Maya Angelou
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On This Day In:
2020	One Lesson In Diversity
2019	And Yet, I Believe
2018	Beats
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2017	Effective Stimuli
2016	Dave’s Not Here, Man
2015	Blink
2014	The Struggle To Educate America Continues…
2013	On Elections
2012	Warm Smiles
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2011	Straight Shooters

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Don’t Forget Luck

Inherently, each one of us has the substance within to achieve whatever our goals and dreams define.  What is missing from each of us is the training, education, knowledge and insight to utilize what we already have.
—    Mark Twain
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On This Day In:
2020	Plumbers, Philosophers Or Presidents
2019	Watching
2018	Even #45 Shall Pass To Sand
2017	Shedding Light
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2016	The Responsibility Of Freedom
2015	Face It
	Birdfight
2014	Honoring Firefighters
2013	And Never Will
2012	The Human Adventure Continues
2011	Almost Never

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Best To Be Trained And Educated

To be prepared against surprise is to be trained.  To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.
—    James P. Carse
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On This Day In:
2020	Diversity And Uniqueness
2019	Ebb And Flow
2018	America: Paging #45
2017	Near By
2016	Maybe Someday
2015	How’s The Cow?
2014	Mind Made Up
2013	On Purpose
2012	The Dream
2011	What Could Be More Comfortable?

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Start Reading / Start Building

I conceive a knowledge of books is the basis upon which other knowledge is to be built.
―    George Washington
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On This Day In:
2020	Nurturing Trees And Plants
2019	Seeking Needs
2018	Not Sure Anyway…
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2017	Forms Of Conservation
2016	Oh, So Lacking
2015	e pluribus unum
2014	Nothing So Far Removed
2013	Positions
2012	Two Errors
2011	Long Live The King!

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Spending A Lifetime Learning To Draw

All of life is a constant education.
—    Eleanor Roosevelt
Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.
—    John W. Gardner
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On This Day In:
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2019	My Dog Scratches At The Bedroom Door
2018	One Person Can
2017	Been There, Thought That
2016	Diligent Students
2015	Unanswered Prayers
2014	Pray, v.
2013	As I…
2012	But We Need Room
2011	A Definition Of Leadership

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Standing Next To Anyone?

A great teacher never strives to explain his vision.  He simply invites you to stand beside him and see for yourself.
—     The Rev. R. Inman
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On This Day In:
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2019	I Think I’ve Been Blurred
2018	Progress On The Honey Do List
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2017	Both Dismissed
2016	Poetry Isn’t Going To Work
2015	MA Fix
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2014	Actually
2013	Unfortunate Evolutionary Accidents
2012	Tense (Past, Present And Future)
2011	What Is Your Preference?

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Horticulture Anyone?

Much education today is monumentally ineffective.  All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants.
—    John W. Gardner
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On This Day In:
2020	Heroes Die Too
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2019	The Ones Worth Remembering, Anyway
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2018	To Reach The Next Threshold
2017	Streaking Tales
2016	Singular Reality
2015	He Says It’s Hard To Get There From Here
2014	Question From A Founding Father
2013	Make Heroes
2012	See And Hold
2011	Am Not, Are So

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Starting Young

I am convinced that every effort must be made in childhood to teach the young to use their own minds.  For one thing is sure:  If they don’t make up their minds, someone will do it for them.
—    Eleanor Roosevelt
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On This Day In:
2020	My Thoughts On #LyingDonald’s Corona Briefings
2019	As I Recall
2018	Effective Violence And A Government At Risk
2017	Playing The Same Music
2016	Survival Instinct
2015	Tears
2014	Bourne Again (4)
2013	God’s Protection
2012	Happy Easter!!
	Edge, Class, Clash, And Flight
	The Value Of Bureaucracies
2011	Logic Cuts

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Avoiding Corners

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.  Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.
—    Mark Twain
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On This Day In:
2020	First Buds
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2019	What If Nobody Believes Them Either
2018	It’s About Heart Not Skill
2017	Winning So Much I’m Already Tired Of It (Not)
2016	Punishing Red Binge
2015	Bits In The Soup
2014	More Beef, Less Bull
2013	Where Are Your Mountains
2012	Spherical Knowledge Of Hamsters
2011	Taking Stock Over Time

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