Remember Those Who Have Served

Yesterday was Memorial Day. Many think of Memorial Day as the unofficial start of summer and picture trips to the shore and barbeques with family and friends. And this is fine. Last Thursday I walked my students over to the high school where each student placed two American flags arranged in rows on the front lawn along Route 9. Each flag symbolizes an American soldier who made the ultimate sacrifice -- that being lost his or her life -- in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. I am glad that the Student Council in the high school came up with and planned this commemoration, as it not only produces a powerful and beautiful tribute to these American heroes but also gives our students the opportunity to reflect upon the many freedoms they enjoy and the great dangers so many of their fellow Americans are placing themselves in to protect us and our freedoms. Here are two powerful films that I feel are ideal for Memorial Day and, in another week or so, the anniversary of D-Day (allied invasion of Normandy, France in WWII). The first film is title Taking Chance, and it depicts the true story of the death of 19-year-old Marine Chance Phelps and the return of his body to his family. I never knew how much respect and attention to detail were taken in so doing. It's a moving and powerful film, and one we showed our students last year before they placed flags as 7th graders. The second film is Saving Private Ryan by Steven Speilberg, depicting the D-Day invasion and the search for a sole surviving brother in the middle of France during WWII. It is graphic and disturbing and reveals all the horrors of war; however, underscoring this graphic violence is the valor and sacrifice of those who serve our country. Enjoy the time off and the barbeques and the beach...but also take time to remember those who allow us to do so.

Dartmouth or Drano?

This past week, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, "Compare a plumber to going to Harvard College — being a plumber, actually for the average person, probably would be a better deal. You don’t spend ... four years spending $40,000, $50,000 in tuition without earning income.” [Extracted from Pipe dream: Skip college, become a plumber]. His comments sparked controversy and raised questions about the advantages of pursuing a college degree with tuition rates that have skyrocketed some 400% in the past thirty years. Bloomberg added, "The people who are going to have the biggest problem are college graduates who aren’t rocket scientists, if you will, not at the top of their class" and that "Success in college and careers requires good writing and critical thinking skills as well as good math and science skills." [Pipe Dream] Perhaps Bloomberg meant more precisely that if you attend college and don't do well there, you may be wasting your time and money, and maybe you would be better off learning a trade. This point about doing well at a trade is one I understand. After Superstorm Sandy devastated the northeast region, I returned to my island home to the clanking noise of gas company workmen dismantling my now turned-off gas meter -- it had been submersed by flooding seawater and required replacement. Faced with being homeless for weeks or possibly months, I was elated to return home to my new gas meter one week later, replete with red ribbon and tag for the plumber-I'd-have-to-find to reconnect to my home. I quite literally collared a plumber who was working on my street two days later and -- a half-hour later and $125 poorer -- my gas was reconnected with my house and I was reconnected with my home. That's a lot of money for time spent with no cost for parts, but I'm not complaining. So to be or not to be a plumber? In an economy where jobs are being eliminated as quickly as others are being created, Bloomberg notes that it's "hard to farm that out and it’s hard to automate that." [Pipe Dreams] That said, I decided to poke my nose further into the issue and discovered Trends in Higher Education, which pointed out the much higher job loss and unemployment rates of high school level educated workers compared with college educated ones. And this makes sense. As our world whirls forward with innovation and technology, it follows that certain jobs that once required manpower no longer do. A drive up the parkway shows how toll collectors have been mostly replaced by EZ Pass, and tours through modern factories reveal marvelously complex robotics completing intricate manufacturing. The end result is a loss of blue-collared jobs. At the same time, computers and technology have impacted white-collared jobs, too. Think of the accountants who have lost clients to Turbo Tax and lawyers to online legal resources like Legal Zoom? A Georgetown study showed the advantages of a college education in "The College Advantage: Weathering the Economic Storm.", where it confirms much higher job loss in blue-collar jobs during the Great Recession of 2007 and the overall job recovery for college graduates. In addition, the report suggest that college graduates recoup the money invested in college on average in 11 years and that the economic advantage is enormous over the course of a career. So, what's the final answer? Plumber or college graduate? Perhaps the answer is as simple as this -- you better be great at whatever you choose to do. And this, I believe, is as simple as common sense.

Epiphany and True Grit

Pondering what critical thinking is, I viewed a few videos on YouTube and stumbled upon "Imagine: How creativity works," in which I found several interesting points, some of which confirmed and sort of explained some understandings I already had, and others which I found surprising but, with explanation, made some sense. The presenter Jonah Lehrer discussed how insights are made and what science and neurology have discovered about the process. One point Lehrer made was that the brain tries to find solutions in one part of the brain, but when the answers or solutions aren't forthcoming, it begins to use other parts of the brain, one being the "interior superior temporal gyrus" (yeah, right!). This part, it seems, becomes active when the ordinary solutions don't seem to be working, and it seems to be operating when one is in a more relaxed state. Epiphanies (sudden realizations) seem to come from this part of the brain. From the video it appears there are times where one has to grind away to find the solution to a problem and there are others where one needs to step away and relax to find the answer. One critical thinking activity I have my students complete is to try to connect a box of nine dots using four, continuous straight lines without ever lifting your pencil. To so To solve the problem, one has to go outside the box of dots; however, in most cases, people just don't do that. Visually, it seems, the constrain themselves within the box. I usually give students a week to try to solve the problem, and my advice to them is to draw a new set of dots each time they try and advise them to see what isn't working. As the week progresses, I offer some visual clues (abstract pictures with the meanings "Think outside the box") In addition, I offer some quotes to provides some guidance, such as Edward Albee's "Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly." I endeavor to challenge my students to think and to work hard. Last year, I had one student named Emily who really became obsessed with trying to find the solution. And I mean obsessed. After nearly a week of failed attempts, Emily was posting on Edmodo how she had nine (that's right 9!) pages of failed attempts, and I was honestly becoming concerned about the frustration Emily was expressing from her posts. I told her to look over her failed attempt and to think about what was not working. Later, whatever happened, Emily discovered the solution. Once it occurred to Emily to go beyond the box of dots, she found the one and only solution. Here, you can see how she found it. This experience seems to line up with what Lehrer mentions about how the minds works in a dual state to find new and fresh solutions to problems. And Emily showed both the grit (determination to succeed) and ability to find the solution.