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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Your hand, please

Conceit

Give me your hand

Make room for me
to lead and follow
you
beyond this rage of poetry.

Let others have
the privacy of
touching words
and the love of loss
of love.

For me
Give me your hand.

Maya Angelou (2003);

The literary term conceit is a metaphor whose comparison is more complex than the simple comparison of most metaphors.  So by naming her poem the literary term, Angelou is telling the reader that there is more than something simple here.  If the title is merely sarcasm of the types of poems people normally write (as stated in the stanza saying that others could have the poetry about love lost), then the poem fails in being complex.  So, what is meant?

Angelou is wanting to go beyond what is normal.  Those who love, write poetry about their loved one or their experience of love, especially lost love.  But, she wants to ensure that she is not writing about love lost.  She wants to be above words.  Others can have the privacy of their words.  She wants the active love in addition to the verbal love.

The poem starts and ends the same way... almost.  The first line has no punctuation.  It anticipates explanation.  However, the last line ends with a period.  The explanation is finished.  It is time for love... at least by invitation.  Extending an invitation should be simple.  But this invitation is more complex than merely asking for your hand and is best understood through a play on words.  The expression of love through the rage of poetry is compared to a higher expression of love: rising above the rage.  The pun on rage is intended.  Normally, people cathardically spill their rage (anger) by scribbling off a few lines; they should rise above it.  And, the invitation extends to escaping the fashionable (rage) response - jilted love.  She doesn't want to be a casualty of either anger or fashion.  Angelou is asking the one she loves to make room for her - escape with her.  

So... give me your hand.




Monday, October 29, 2012

Living in temperate places


The Earth has two poles, and both are extremely cold places to live.  Humans have decided not to tackle living in the extremes.  They have opted for all the places in between, especially the temperate zones.

Inside every person are two poles of realization about living.  One is represented by T.S. Eliot's The Hollow Men. He very pessimistically penned the words representing his world:

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion.

The other pole is represented by the psychological notion that what we think of ourselves in the world is what we actually become in the world, also known as inner self talk.  This notion was put forth by Albert Ellis in the form of an ABC model (A is an activating event, B is one's belief as a result of A, C is the consequence of B).  Eldon Taylor has commercialized this model in his work with subliminal messages, helping people create a robust belief in themselves.  He tells them that through positive inner talk they can achieve what they desire or alter their mode of operating.

Most of us have decided to live according to realizations of our own somewhere in between the extremes of the Hollow Men, where nothing counts for anything and the world ends "with a whimper, not with a bang," and the positive inner self talk, where the world is merely a reflection of the perception of ourselves.  Those poles are too extreme to live at; it's much more temperate between them... and I'm satisfied with that.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

False measures

The exercise was to define success.  The audience was a group of adults who had never attended public schools with one exception.  They all defined success in terms of performance, determination, or hard work with the exception of the person who had attended public school.  That person defined success in terms of high grades leading to success in the workplace.

That's very troubling to me, not because I think that those who make high grades aren't successful but because the correlation between high grades and success can't be made statistically unless there is a clear definition for the term.  If something can be defined, it can be measured, and if it can be measured, then some conclusions can be drawn.  I suppose a person could survey a large number of people and find out what factors surface most often in their definitions of success, but that would still pose problems in measuring it since the factors would have to be weighted according to their frequency in the surveys.  As it stands, it's just as likely that drinking sodas is a factor in success as it is that grades or anything else are a factor.

If success can't really be defined, then it leads to another question about the message public schools are sending with their grading systems.  If grades led to success, then I would say, "Grade away."  But if success is some nebulous idea, then I say that grades don't show progress toward anything except the percentage of retention in the short term for a subset of skills.  If stamina is a contributing factor to success, then measure stamina.  If determination is a factor, measure it.  If ability to solve problems is a factor, then students need to develop that ability.  If oral communication is a factor, then measures should include that.

Giving an average of grades taken over a subset of skills disconnected from the package called success doesn't measure what is contained in the definitions I received for the word.  It's high time to halt the practice of equating grades with success.  Even if grade averages accidentally were the right measure  of academic success in some explainable way, a quantum leap still exists in correlating academic success to what adults define as success

If we want more successful people in society, we need to define that concept and reshape what we tout as paramount in our schools.  What IS measurable in the business world is the amount of money it takes to reeducate young people in what businesses expect people to know.  They could use some help from those in charge of educating our youth in the first place with teaching and measuring what counts in the workplace.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Behind and ahead

In the early days of recorded history, people looked at the skies and saw that the stars rotated, that the sun rose in the morning and set in the evening, and that the days were longer in summer, shorter in winter.  There are monuments built by them that highlight the solstices, rotation of the stars, and their understanding of the days of the year.

Thousands of years passed, and finally, in the Middle Ages, people figured out that the Earth revolved and rotated, the sun was the center of the universe, that the 8 planets also revolved around the sun as the Earth did, and that the moon controled the Earth's tides to a large degree.

A few hundred more years passed.  Then, people figured out how to calculate distances in space. They also discovered that the stars represented other solar systems, ours was just one of many, that galaxies existed everywhere, that black holes and white holes served as mechanisms to destroy and birth stars, that galaxies were on the move toward each other, destroying each other, that galaxies were connected by a solar type of matter that appeared like thread, and much more.

I'm thinking that as we learn to terraform and populate Mars and learn to travel beyond the solar system we now inhabit, that we will continue to be spellbound and  unravel the great mysteries that will have arisen from our knowledge.  An astronomer working for NASA was interviewed about all of our current exploration, including the search for a habitable planet like Earth in galaxies far away.  She said, "If we ever find an Earth-like planet somewhere else, it will profoundly change the way we look at the skies."

I guess our own lives are microcosms of the journey civilization has taken with the skies.  We are trained to reason a certain  way until we are about 30 before we start exploring on our own.  Then, we learn the world around us so well that we began to manipulate it to our advantage.  Eventually, we discover the more accurate truths about living and change our thinking to match our new knowledge.  But, there's that one pending piece of knowledge, that if discovered, will profoundly change our thinking.


I have changed my thinking already... a lot... along my way.  But I also know of an Earth-like planet that exists in a sphere outside of mine.  If I ever get there, it will profoundly change the way I look at and live life.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

There's always something


The island bustled with the activity of all of its 200  residents.  They were busy getting their wares set up for the tourists to buy because they represented a number of different countries and quite a few states from across the nation, thus a great opportunity for money to be made.  The wares being sold weren't cheap.  They weren't trinkets.  The island was 5 miles around the perimeter.  Bicycle riding was the main mode of transportation for both tourists and residents.  People had gathered to soak in Atlantic beauty as it washed up on a rocky coastline.  Other islands dotted the view all the way around the coast of the one at the center of the view.

That was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, idyllic really.  I look at those pictures from time to time so that I will remember the feeling of utter relaxation.  One notable memory, though, marred the otherwise celestial scene...  all that oceanic majesty was enjoyed by one person, not shared by two.

Life presents circumstances that are many times so cruel.  I think that is supposed to make a person stronger somehow, or perhaps clearer headed so that a strategy can be developed for not allowing the circumstance to happen again.  I'm sure, though, that the angst created is greater than the spectacular vista and the lesson to be learned.  I find myself still shouting at the gulls circling the waves crashing into the 20 feet sheer sides of the stony bluffs, "No, no, no!"

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Keeping that edge

Writers all have something that drives them to write for others who read their work.  Their motivations are many, but they will tell you that they need that reason to drive them because they normally don't finish their work in one sitting.  They rely on something to keep them coming back to the computer to type until they get finished.  And we're all glad they do because a little something for everyone's interests are contained in those books.

That's a pretty good analogy for the way life is.  Some days are hard to get up for.  But, we all know we have to, and it's nice to also perform at a decent or high level while we're up for the day.  But what keeps us going day after day?  Something drives us; perhaps, someone inspires us.

And if we ever lose that reason, that person... well... it's not pretty.  For writers, the story turns south or doesn't get completed.  In life, one's edge is lost, and that works itself into many different endings.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

What a long night

There is an American saying, "the night is the darkest right before dawn."  For the most part, that is true literally and figuratively. Sometimes life intensifies before catching a break.  But I do rely on the fact that around the corner darkness breaks.  A more poetic version of the above saying is, "as sure as the night follows the day, so day breaks at the end of each night."  I'm not thankful for the first part of the cycle, but when that part of the cycle is in force, I do count on the truth of the second part of the saying.


I'm waiting on the turn of the Earth for the hint of the sun's rays.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Different Worlds

"Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write." H.G.Wells

 Well, that's what I was thinking too.  Apparently, though, there is another school of thought.  I volunteered to "crunch" numbers for a cause that the executive director of a charity could use to make herself and her cause look very good.  Nope, she didn't bite.  She had a different perception of statistics.
"Not everything that can be counted counts; and not everything that counts can be counted."
Albert Einstein 

OK.  But I don't want to hear any moaning and groaning when suddenly things unravel and the things that should have been counted weren't, and the things that counted weren't.  Signiificance, trends, central tendencies, growth, and decline can be known factors.

Oh well.  I tried.  For free even.  But I think she thought I was arrogant or didn't really know what I was talking about.  Even if the first part was true, she should have looked past the attitude for the benefit to her.  She'll never know whether the second part was true or not since she couldn't ever understand that my offer contained something besides the raw numbers she was presenting in a table and calling statistics.
 
The two of us live in different worlds.  She wants to marvel at numbers.  I want to know what the numbers mean.  It's a matter of efficient citizenship to me.


Friday, October 12, 2012

First blood

USA Today carried an article two days ago of a survey taken.  I need to read the full survey before making too many comments.  And, a survey is the softest kind of statistical data to base too many predictions on, but I do want to comment on the direction the percentages suggest.

The article was about companies' hiring practices in the U.S.  Companies are still hiring people in the baby boom generation over younger generations for two reasons: 1) they are more reliable, and 2) they don't have to be reeducated to have good communication skills.  That's not as surprising as the pecentages given for reason 2.  Companies had to retrain 5 times as many younger workers as baby boom workers in the area of communication.

On one hand the percentage is surprising.  It is not often that the business world opts for older workers over younger workers.  On the other hand, it was predictable.  Jane Healy's book Endangered Minds was one of the first to speak of young people's "fuzzy grammar" in 1991.  Many people then and since have noted the effects of teaching to tests in favor of presenting a non-uniform, robust curriculum transferable to unpredictable situations.  Over the last decade, that fuzzy grammar group has begun and is continuing to come of age.  That's good news for baby boomers... at least for the moment.

The other side of the coin will take place soon, but certainly no later than the death of most of the baby boomers.  Communication will adjust itself to whatever the younger generations want it to be.  And that is the point of this blog.  The survey supports the idea that the major forms of communication are about to change.  Judging from the amount of You Tube activity, even for education, the amount of video consumption from TV to cell phone, the format of tracking one's life through pictures and short video clips through many formats including Picaso and Facebook, and the advent of holographic transmission, communication form has no choice but to be transformed.

Reading and writing are being phased out.  It's beginning to show up now in statistical data, not anecdotal data.  Soon more quantitative studies will surface showing the same trends that the survey showed.  Dinosaurs take note.  The KT boundary is now being put in place separating the Old World from the New. 

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Quantifying satisfaction


In baseball, many a batter has envied a batting average of 200 or better.  Pitches come in fast and low, sometimes fast and high.  Pitches curve from left to right and from right to left.  Balls come straight for the corner of the plate, then tail off.  Sometimes the pitches change up and come in more slowly than anticipated.

That's why it is enviable to hit more than 200.  Every ball a batter hits, counts.  It increases the average by a small fraction of a point.  That translates into about a point and a half for each hit a batter is lucky to connect with.  An average of 250 is even harder to achieve.  Batters would love to have that average and work extremely hard to achieve it.  Not many actually do.

200 is written as .200.  It's a percentage - 20%.  That's not much.  Such an average fails in school.  One would expect a professional who gets paid millions to do much better than hit and become a base runner 20% of the time or even 25% of the time.  Occasionally, amazing players come along and put 250 to shame, hitting 3 out of 10 pitches.  A person in a business who showed up for work everyday but only was productive 30% of the time would go bankrupt or be fired.  An accountant who only made right decisions about numbers 30% of the time would retain no client.

But, context is everything.  3 out of 10 is what I am shooting for right now. I will come by all I've wanted if I but only achieve 300.  I'll outstrip the 200s and 250s by excelling to 300.  30% and I'll be the most satisfied person alive.

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Savoring the flavor

Among my vices is good ole fried chicken.  I call it a vice because it is not really the best food for me to be eating.  It raises my cholesterol level immediately and adds three pounds to my weight.  Working out removes the effects well enough, but it takes twice the number of exercises or daily walks to accomplish that removal.  So, I don't eat it often, certainly not as often as my taste buds create the craving.

Fortunately, I can spare an extra cholesterol spike or a couple of pounds on the body every once in a while so that deprivation doesn't drive me completely crazy.  And fortunately, in life I have a hint enough of fried chicken experiences to keep me from wasting away with the diet that is required to keep me getting up in the mornings.  Just that hint of beautiful visuals in my mind's eye sets my mouth to watering every time.

Friday, October 05, 2012

Non-plused

Headlines about education in today's newspaper were supposed to be sensational - and would have been if the year was 1990.  The Secretary of Education announced that the day of the physical, bound textbook would be over with the next adoption of any subject's textbook.  In 1990 for sure that would have been absolutely sensational.  In 2000 the announcement would have been notable and admirable.  But, in 2012?

In my world in the last week alone, I never wrote one word other than my signature.  I typed everything I sent or used.  The files I typed were either saved to a resident hard drive or to a drive in the cloud.  I transferred money and checked balances at three different banks electronically.  Everyone I needed to contact for some reason or another by written word was sent an email or a text.  I made a presentation to a group of people during which I projected a YouTube interview, typed live feedback into a Power Point program, then showed pictures for ideas from a website suited for that purpose.  I read correspondence from my doctor and saw a table detailing results from blood work done on a website the hospital uses for all of its patients.


And, of course, last week I used the handiest device yet invented.  The news I receive daily was not on my driveway in the mornings, but on my phone whenever I had time to read.  I also took a poll from my phone for USA Today and a split second later saw the results of voting from my city, state, and nation.  I received pictures of people important to me by phone and attended a song writing session via Skype with my cousin.  When I picked up prescriptions from the pharmacy, I knew they were ready because I had received a text message saying so along with the amount.  To pay for them I signed an electronic pad authorizing insurance coverage.  I had to buy a motor for my dryer this week also.  When I paid the amount at the end of the service call, the repairman took out a white square card reader, attached it to his phone, swiped my card, had me sign his screen, and sent an sent a receipt automatically to my email account.  A little later, my granddaughter sat in my lap, and we watched my phone screen as I streamed in an episode from Disney's Snow White.  And, I did use my phone  to make a phone call, but I never dialed a number.  I touched the name or picture of someone or pressed a linked phone number. 


I'm pretty sure the good Secretary lives in the same world.  So, he knows that his announcement today is really an announcement that is at least one decade late, two in my opinion.  So, his words were not even important or relevant for 2012.  Now, if he had said that the new textbooks would be readable from an app on a phone or a television, then I might have taken notice.  If he had remarked that the schools would be required to make teaching videos available like the ones called Kahn Academy, then I would have applauded him.  If he had announced a partnership with Exxon Mobil to to fund the use of the new 3D Google Maps for geography, holographic, virtual labs in STEM courses, and 3D manipulative software for reading the stratigraphy of the Earth in geology courses, I would have loved his forward thinking.  If he had acknowledged the existence of online high schools and that brick and mortar schools would be phased out in favor of funding for new digital tablets for students to attend the online schools, then I would have been ecstatic.


But he didn't.  He announced the use of technology available in the last decade of the 20th century.  Electronic textbooks have been available for more than 10 years, widely available for more than 5 years, and most school districts already have them available to both students and parents.  Even RSS feeds from a teacher and school are as old as electronic textbooks.  So, Mr. Secretary, once again you are acknowledging the state of ill repair for the public schools you oversee.  Apparently, you want the nation's students to continue their slide into new depths of failure and ignorance, distancing them behind more and more developing countries.  Our country's higher education schools have world class status.  But, our lower education schools are second class rather than second to none.  Our nation is full of students who would like to use today's tools for information that will prepare them for tomorrow rather than see themselves forced to use yesterday's tools for information that prepare them to maintain what is already known.