Oh, no, he's been talking to education theorists!

The text of what President Obama will say tomorrow:

"Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America."

Note that he repeatedly invokes "no excuses" and "work hard," both of which are themes that currently are being studied by education researchers. Basically, it looks like kids who work hard to overcome adversity continue to work hard once the adversity is gone and they are more successful in school, life, and work. Amazing.

so, I haven't updated in a while

It's not that I don't have anything to say or that I've stopped having strong opinions. It's more to do with the fact that the news has turned into a parody of itself and my personal life is at a point where there's not much that I can discuss publicly.

On the personal front, my wife has had our second child (two months ago) and, like much of the country, I'm under-paid for my family's needs. Professionally, I'm still teaching and now working mostly as a Social Studies teacher. I've taken on a Government class, which means that I get to instill my obsession with US politics and governance in a new generation of learners. That's actually pretty exciting, and if I had time to do it the right way, this would be an absolutely incredible class. As I don't have that time, it'll likely be a good class.

Here's my newest rant (not that you haven't read it already in a hundred other places):

What kind of supposedly responsible parent would keep a child out of school on Tuesday?

What good can possibly come of keeping your kid from hearing President Obama speak? I've read of places where schools are starting to realize that they will lose money by not having kids in school. I've read numerous accusations that this speech is an attempt to force socialism on our kids. I've read numerous paranoid assertions that this is unconstitutional or in some way a failure to separate politics from education. Folks, here's the reality of it. It doesn't matter if Obama is a socialist (he's not) or if he wants to indoctrinate your kids (he may) or if he's not separating politics from education (his speech is on staying in school - not sure where the politics are there). What matters is that this is a great opportunity for students to hear the President of the United States of America address them directly and begin a conversation that should continue in the classrooms after he has finished speaking.

Seriously, now. We show kids video of Hitler and Hussein, give them transcripts of Churchill and Roosevelt, and have them study maps of Waterloo and the Somme. We expect them to analyze forms of government around the world and assess various political ideologies for their strengths and weaknesses. Surely, their fragile little minds can handle one speech encouraging them to take their education seriously. I don't care about the fact that GHWB and Reagan both addressed students like this. I don't care that most schools fail to teach adequately the things that I've listed above. What I care is that this is a great opportunity for students to actively learn how our government really operates, and they are being taught all of the wrong lessons in far too many places. Ironically, timing and technology may keep me from being able to show it live to my Government class, but I certainly plan to get it recorded and use it as soon as possible.

ending poverty

OK, I know that it is highly atypical for me to post twice in one day, let alone one right after the other, but my last post made me remember a shower thought* I had the other day.

For as long as I can remember, "world peace" and "ending poverty" were the classic Miss America desires for all politicians to work towards. Eradication of world hunger usually made the list, too. Whether or not any of the three is truly doable in a real world situation is a matter for debate other than the one that concerned me while lathering. Without further preface, here goes:

If we were to truly end poverty worldwide and bring all people in all nations to a standard of living that the average American/European would find to be basic, what other problems would result? For instance, if all child labor ended as a result of wages being brought up for adults and those children were able to engage in more leisurely activities (school, for one), what would that do to the world's markets? Would enough rice be produced? Would there be a global devaluing of education in a generation akin to what has happened in the United States in the past half century? If all people were given the ability to live in housing that met Western standards, what increases in energy consumption and refuse production would result?

Basically, my shower thought ran a line of reasoning that led me to an uncomfortable conclusion: the world as we currently know it needs poverty to exist, to horrific extents in many places, in order to support the entire population of the globe at current standards of living. To do otherwise invites the major problem with communism: if even a small group of people choose not to comply with the system, the system will collapse.

*I don't know about you, but much of my best thinking takes place during the short amount of time I spend each day depleting the local groundwater supply.

I know what the world needs.

Forget ending poverty or hunger. Forget solving overpopulation and the AIDS epidemic. Forget finding a way to make Rick Astley disappear again.

The world needs another iconic movie series from the 1980s to be revitalized 20 or more years later on the weakest of premises.

letter to Bashas' customer service

Below is the text of an email that I just sent to Bashas' customer service. I expect stupidity from teenaged cashiers, but managers with 36 years in the business...

I just got home from a trip to your Camp Verde store. While there, I had an experience that I think you should be aware of.

While in the produce section, I chose to pick up some cucumber. I looked to see the price and was first pleased, then astounded. It was supposed to be listed for 79¢, but someone had erred and posted .79¢! If I were unscrupulous enough to point this out to a manager and force the issue, I could get 100 cucumbers for the price that one was supposed to cost!

As I headed out of the produce section, I noticed that the same error had been made on kiwi fruit and on honeydew melons. I can only assume that other items were mis-marked as well, but I could have easily obtained several hundred pounds of produce for five dollars or less, according to the posted prices.

I called this to the attention of my cashier, who insisted to me that the decimal was absolutely necessary in order to indicate "cents" (he's very, very wrong). Instead of arguing with a dumb high-schooler, I chose instead to point the issue out to the customer service manager. He made a small excuse or two and seemed similarly unaware of how significant an error in labelling that was. On my way out the door, I noticed that my cucumber (marked at ".79¢ ea.") had actually cost me 89¢! Rather than press the issue, I walked outside and related this story to my wife, who was as amused and disappointed as I.

I don't really know if there is some sort of restitution that I should be asking for here, but I WOULD really appreciate if you could make sure that your employees understand the difference between marking an item as "seventy-nine cents" and marking it as "seventy-nine hundredths of a cent" (or simply stop using the "¢" symbol in your produce section).

Hope this helps!

thank you, Sarah

Between yesterday evening and right now, my total page views jumped nearly 870%. My first thought is that I have to attribute this to Sarah Palin, unless there are a LOT of people who are interested in rhetoric.

Sarah Palin resigns, grammarians breathe sigh of relief?

Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come to put rhetoric back in school curricula.

In her resignation press conference, Palin said:

And so as I thought about this announcement that I wouldn't run for re-election and what it means for Alaska, I thought about how much fun some governors have as lame ducks... travel around the state, to the Lower 48 (maybe), overseas on international trade - as so many politicians do. And then I thought - that's what's wrong - many just accept that lame duck status, hit the road, draw the paycheck, and "milk it".

Several transcript paragraphs later, she mentioned having just returned from a trip to Europe where she was visiting with Alaskan soldiers. Before that trip, she was notably in New York City, where she was able to catch a Yankees game. She's also made it to Indiana for a fundraiser, DC for some dumb Alfalfa dinner, DC again for a major GOP fundraiser, and Auburn, New York. For a governor whose state has suffered earthquakes, volcanoes, mudslides, and food shortages (all since January), it sure seems that she's managed to do a decent amount of traveling to "the Lower 48" as well as overseas. Oddly enough, though she's drawing the paycheck, letting Alaska foot the bill for her ethics investigations, hitting the road, and milking it, she's not yet managed to travel around her own state. She has been notably absent from Emmonak, despite the fact that their lack of salmon for subsistence and profit has gotten national attention.

OK, I can't really read any more stuff about Sarah Palin. The woman has always driven me crazy. It's not that I mind women in positions of power; the last two states I've lived in have had female governors. It's not that I can't deal with people espousing political positions I find idiotic; I live in Arizona and read the local paper. It's that she talks like idiocy is a virtue. She may not be a moron, but you wouldn't know it from listening to her or observing from a distance. For further reading on Alaskan politics and how Sarah Palin failsed as a governor, check out The Mudflats.

Who advocates for the young?

Ten years ago, I was getting ready to go to college. As many of my cohort did, I selected a school that matched my interests and would provide me with opportunities to learn and grow and to change my mind. While there, I received training that prepared me for my selected occupation and then went out into the wide, wide world. What I found was a shock.

You see, when I was in high school, counsellors and career experts told me (and most others my age) that there would be a remarkable hiring frenzy when we got out of college. The Baby Boom generation was reaching retirement age, and hundreds of thousands of teachers, doctors, lawyers, nurses, and other public servants would be leaving the workforce. They would need replaced, and my generation would be the ones to do it! Unfortunately, in the early part of the 21st Century, the economy of the United States started to falter. As it did so, those Baby Boomers made a pragmatic decision: they didn't stop working. To be fair, some retired, but they then moved to other jobs or got rehired to the positions they were working before retirement. Though I don't question their right to still be drawing their retirement payments, this practice of double-dipping has hurt their children and grandchildren and the country as a whole.

When I graduated from college, I spent half a year looking for a job. At first, I sent carefully prepared resumes and cover letters to districts in Michigan and Ohio, as those were the states I knew best and I wanted to stay near family and friends. As time progressed, I stopped spending the time to prepare individual cover letters and began sending more applications online. My search broadened, and I eventually moved 1800 miles ten days after accepting a job offer, site and sight unseen. The pay for this job was relatively generous for a new teacher, but still far beneath what most people would consider a reasonable salary for someone with a college education. Though I considered myself somewhat unfortunate for waiting as long as I did and then going through such hoops to get a job, I was far better off than many who have graduated in the ensuing years.

My reason for relating this story is that it is but one example of the young being victimized by their elders in our society. Legally excluded from the legislative bodies that could make changes to the system, teenagers and young adults are unable to work on their own behalf. Powerful lobbying groups work for the elderly, but no such groups exist for the young. Insurance companies offer group rates that are charitable to those with high risk but devastating to those in good health. Social Security payments made by workers of all ages today to support those of retirement age will not exist when the youth of today are of an age to draw those benefits. Student loan debt is the only type that cannot be forgiven through bankruptcy, yet many people in their twenties are drawing more debt to stay in school when they cannot find jobs.

It seems that someone, somewhere must speak for the young. Someone must raise a voice and champion the cause of youth and protect the future of our society from the present. Who will it be?

I'm a whore

OK, so it's been a good six months since I've touched this blog and I'm sure that nobody has read it, nor that anybody will read it, but I have signed up for AdSense. This will (I hope) have three consequences:

1. That I will post more frequently in order to bolster reading.
2. That I will be able to monitor site traffic, such as it is.
3. Oh, man, money.

Who are the adults?

I wish I were a teacher in a time when children were allowed to be children. I wish I were a teacher in a time when children were expected to be children. I wish I were a teacher in a time when the adults were the adults.

The school where I teach is a private boarding school and, as such, is constantly concerned about enrollment. Teachers and administrators fret over retention and recruitment and seem to be consumed with fear of low numbers. Even worse, it seems that nobody knows how to say "no" to parents or alumni, so the only people who have the knowledge and experience to be making the tough decisions (the teachers and administrators on-site) are acquiescing to the slightest whim of every other constituency of the school. This is no secret. The unfortunate side effect of this, though, is that the inmates run the asylum. Last year, there was a lot of student unrest because it seemed that the students had no voice in the goings-on on campus. This year, largely due to the efforts of two teachers who took it upon themselves to give the students a greater voice, the tables have been turned. I take my marching orders from a person who takes his marching orders from a person who takes her marching orders from a pair of students.

It's like a plotline from Heller.