Spring, 1970

   Just to let you know I am consistent I wrote the following in the Spring of 1970 while helping to teach an undergraduate class while I was in Graduate School.  deja vu, nothing changes, all the issues that bother me now bothered me then.  I was a History Major and the professor asked me to write a position statement on
why I was teaching his class!

WHY I AM HERE.
Instructor's Position Statement

   If I said that I was here to help you, that would put me into the position of being a doctor -- that you have ills that I could cure.  I am neither sure that you have ills nor that I could cure them.  A teacher of any kind is not a doctor; he does not diagnose symptoms and prescribe medication.  But perhaps I can tell you where the pharmacy is.  One role of a teacher is as a provider of choices; he does not show a direction, but directions.  In this sense, education is the key to freedom, and freedom is a means to individual discovery.  This is what I am interested in and primarily why I am here.
   Freedom is not so much the absence of restriction as it is the presence of alternatives.  American society has put the first men on the moon and educators perhaps deserve to pat their backs for their helping hand.
But American society also has the highest mental illness rate in the world.  Where can educators pat themselves for this?  On the one hand, we demand freedom and even fight for it, yet we discard it at every possible instance.  We choose without knowing what our choices are.  There are as many different kinds of teachers as there are people teaching; each is a group of one.  The possibilities are endless and without limit. I would like you to explore the possibilities of you.  That is why I am here.
   You have been given a proposition in this course: write a contract.  This is an incredibly simple task:
a couple of tiny reports, a diagram or two, an observation feedback, hold a "conference," etc.  All this could be accomplished in a rainy weekend and you will have passed the course.  Sound like a Mickey?  It is, if that is all you do.
   But there is a catch!  What do you have to offer a child growing up?  Will you be just "another teacher" and look upon each student as just another student?  Why should you be teaching someone else's kid something?  What do you have to teach them anyway?
   You have tough competition ahead of you.  Not from the 130 students registered in Block I, they are not your problem; they might even be your aid.  Have you ever bashed ideas around with them or talked about a good book you've read?  Have you ever read a good book?  By the way, where is Biafra?
   Your competition is the machine --you might want to make sure that what you have to offer the machine cannot offer.  Machines could free us to do what they cannot do if we let them, yet do we even have the guts to turn the damned things off?
   Your competition will be a student coming to you with idealism, hatred, ignorance, prejudice, love.  What can you tell him?  his name is Sammy and he has a world to grow up in. How do you explain it to him? How do you help him come to know himself?
   Society is a conglomeration of Sammy's and Susan's.  One in ten is being treated for mental illness.  Many are killed in wars, many more by automobiles, and many are starving.  We have an extremely high rate of suicides; divorce rate in Oregon is 51%. A list of societal ills takes more paper than I have.  But these are not just society's illnesses; they belong to Sammy and Susan.  Can you teach them anything?
   This course is about teaching.  You will be given bits of technical methodology interspersed with philosophical ideas, commentaries, and practical achievements that we could put into a machine -- you we can't.
   There is no recipe for being a good teacher.  You are given two conditions and some ideas.  The conditions are you and your students, not necessarily in the position of giver and receiver, but toucher and touched, developer and developed, with teacher and student often switching roles.  We learn where we can.
Consider for a second a searcher lost at night.  You are not so much a guide as a spotlight, showing many paths; if you show them adequately, the searcher will know when he has found the right one.  You will be working with people in a state of transition so you must be able to find them and help them transcend.  Can you find a way to reach someone -- to get Sammy interested in listening to you?  Why should he?  What will you have to say?
   Hopefully, you will get three (maybe more) experiences from this class:
                   1.  You will get some practical suggestions concerning observations; a bit of methodology in
                        how to improve and create your teaching ability; how to communicate effectively.
                        Obviously, a term will not be enough time to complete the task; you must feel free to start
                        a task to be finished later.
                   2.  You will learn about Sammy and Susan: Hopefully, they will become a part of you, and
                         teaching won't become something to be "left at school" as you leave for home.  What do
                         Sammy and Susan need and how can you help them get it?
                    3.  Hopefully you will learn something about yourself. Why do you want to be a teacher?
                         What will you have to say?  How can you reach someone else?  How can you reach
                          into yourself?  What will you find?

   We hope you use your freedom wisely.  You have not been given an outline of responsibility that might restrain you.  You have been given a "carte blanche."  You must put your name on it and, periodically during the term, bits and pieces of your mind. (Don't wait until the last minute!).
   I am interested in the discovery of Sammy and Susan and you --that is why I am here.  In self discovery, one may discover nothing, but that is not to be feared -- nothing is a place from where to depart.

(Jerome Anthony Carlin was a senior history major at the University of Oregon when he wrote this statement.  He received credit for teaching the course outlined in this article. Published in SPATE Journal,
Spring 1970).

Well, that's my story and I am sticking with it. The times and dates have changed, that is all. Life is still about children and identity, what's it all about and who we are.  I haven't changed much, really I haven't.

My Art Site is HERE

  

  

The World is bigger...

than whatever town or city that you might live in.  We live in Springfield, just under 50,000 people, next to and almost attached to Eugene, just over 125,000 but I wanted my daughters to see far beyond this view and to realize the world is a very big place, full of different people, full of different lifestyles, experiences, attitudes, cultures, different hopes and different dreams and different places called "home."
     Much of life is spent conquering a fear that is not even real, and success is more a measure of attitude than skill. I remember when my daughters were very young and doing their homework at the kitchen table. They were working on simple multiplication, like 25 X 12 = ?? and I had fun teaching them that 28523712 X
70938726615 = ?? was not a different problem, only more numbers.  Never be afraid of something that you have not seen before.  This concept extends beyond math.
   Reading is perhaps the easiest way to explore the world and from an early age both my daughters were voracious readers, devouring books, one upon the other, to reach I knew not where?  They both had friends
that failed, got involved with drugs, got pregnant or both.  Somehow fell off the edge.  They learned some art of observation without participation.  They learned the direction of a path and by skill and luck, avoided the unseemly dark side of life.  I don't discount "luck" at all.  Sometimes all the perfection in the world will for some unaccountable reason just turn dark.  My daughters did realize though that they could dig themselves out.  They had skills, abilities and attitudes to alter courses trod upon, to change paths, to go where they wanted to go.
     Some of life is clearly black and white.  There are consequences to bad behavior and all choices eventually boil down to two:  this or that?  With every decision you never know where the other road would have taken you.  I did not grow up in a household where our way was the only way and neither did my daughters.  There is something confining and limiting in the belief when we think that we have gotten life "right" and other people haven't.  When we are the "best" and others aren't.  When our religion or politics is the only way.  It is a bit frightening if we believe everyone should be like us.
     This gives you a reason and license to explore!  Both my daughters became World Travellers, teaching abroad and the Peace Corps, students studying in foreign countries, sometimes just for adventure and always to raise their horizons.
My other Blog is Here.

Making Bread

     The easiest way to get someone to do something to ask for their help.  Not to assign them with tasks and responsibilities that they may not be familiar with but to get them to help you.  In this process you can transfer a skill and an attitude:  the job needs doing, the mess needs cleaned up, let's do it together!
    I taught my daughters to do the dishes and clean up the kitchen by encouraging them to make a mess. They have helped me make bread since they were two years old, standing on chairs so they could reach the counter.  The big bread bowl was way too heavy for their little hands and we learned to make bread the old fashioned way, without any bowls at all.  You make a circle of flour on the counter and place the other ingredients into this circle, the liquids too and you hope the flour makes a damn!  It is actually a lot of fun, making bread this way and it is a good way to make bread but it will make a mess.
    Making bread is probably one of my fondest memories, doing things with my daughters.  It is time consuming in a wonderful way.  It is product development and magical, it makes good smells and offers hours of conversation.  We learned to sweep the flour off the floor, my daughters with their little hand brooms and me with a bigger kitchen broom.  We learned that no one appreciates good bread or a nice meal if the kitchen is left in a mess.  We learned patience, waiting for the bread to rise.  And we always experimented, adding raisins or cheese or chocolate to this mix!  Some was pretty good and other batches were failures.  We learned that too.
     Somebody could probably write a book about what can be learned while making bread.  We learned to like each other.  We learned success and failure, to read and follow a recipe and to ignore it.  We learned that "eggs have to be broken to make omelets", it is okay to make a mess and appreciated when it is cleaned up.
     Often we would have that conversation, "what will you do when you grow up"?  I would always joke and say I didn't know yet!  But from the very beginning it was just expected that they would go on to college, at least get that four year experience and degree, and then they could make up their minds.  I am not sure that it was even a matter of choice, it was more like, yes the sun will come up tomorrow and yes, you will go on to the University.
What I do is HERE

Democracy in America

          Democracy is a slow process.  It is a balancing act.  In our country it is not majority rule and that is a good thing.  Our Constitution is purposely set up to prevent huge swings in popular opinion to rule the country.  At our core belief is our Bill of Rights and maybe our strongest right is the right to be left alone.
We didn't get to where we are very fast.  Less than one hundred years ago we had child labor and children as young as eight years old were tied to machine, chained to their task.  Only fifty years ago Black Americans had to sit at the back of the bus!  Women couldn't vote until 1917 and equal pay for equal work is still an issue and not even thought of until the 1960's.  There were no environmental laws and our rivers became our sewer systems, the air we breathe our smokestacks.  It wasn't until after World War II that we developed a public education system that went through High School and the GI Bill encouraging College and a University Education for more people.
      We vote for these things and with each improvement we give a little more.  Our taxes, our contribution to make our society a little better.  This brings me to My Question of the Day!
      What is the role of Public Education?  Teachers set goals for every day, goals for the week.  At the end of the year they want the students to have learned something!  What should it be?  Educational goals change on a whim, are often locally determined and dependent upon public persuasion. 
     Personally I do not think we should teach for a job.  I think that is the role of Community Colleges and Industry.  Let them train their own.  What is bothering me today is we do not know what is going on in the world.  It is appalling to me that the protests in Egypt were not anticipated.  Don't our Diplomats ever have coffee with "regular people"?  Americans don't know what is going on because we are not taught anything anymore.  There is a big drive now to teach more science and math for industry and that "competitive edge"
and we no longer teach World History or Geography.  Most Americans couldn't find Egypt on the map!
We no longer teach the why of Democracy.  Most Americans have never read the words of Jefferson or Adams or earlier precursors to our Democratic Beliefs.  Sarah Palin could not name ONE Chief Justice of the Supreme Court!!!
     We don't teach Music or Art or Theater or Debate.  Even Physical Education is being dropped from the curriculum and we are getting fat, lazy and bored.  Shakespeare is no longer read and almost all literature.
It has become acceptable to base our opinions on emotion.  When we no longer read the newspaper I guess this is the logical conclusion.  When we teach for Industry, our Diplomats don't have time for coffee with regular people.  They are hunting for oil.

This is What I do.

A Thought Towards Reading...

It has been a long time since I was a school teacher and I am wondering how it is done now?  My whole life has been in teaching, I know that now.  I taught High School for only one year and then move down a bit to Junior High School where I taught for only two years.  In 1979 the Recession of the '80's was upon us and I was laid off with 30 other teachers so that part of it was a short lived career.  I found other work, I've told that story, and always had people working for me.  It is the same relationship: teacher-student or boss and employee.  If you want someone to do something you have to show them how.  There is no penalty for a teacher when they give a "C" Grade and some would even grade on a curve: 5 "A's" and 5 "F's" and a bunch of "C's" in the middle. I never did that as a teacher and would have gone out of business if I ran my company that way.  I wanted all my employees to be their best and did everything I could to make sure this happened.
As a teacher I always considered it my failure if I gave a "C" grade.  Why couldn't I reach that kid anyway?
What should I have done that I didn't?
       I suspect that reading is even less important now than it was then.  Junior High School teaching is a bit different than any other level.  Kids are bouncing around all over the place.  There is a lot of energy and hormones are in a race with brain cells for supremacy.  They know just enough to get themselves in trouble and lack the experience to know it.  Most kids don't read because their parents don't read.  It is that simple.
They have no concept of reading as pleasure.  I could spot the students within fifteen minutes who grew up in a house without books.  They have a different language and can't see as far.
     This situation is getting worse, not better at all.  There is no improvement.  We don't even enjoy a newspaper anymore and they are going out of business or getting smaller, dumbing down the articles.
We lose the ability to read, to think critically, to analyze, to synthesize, to write a report, form an opinion,
to even enjoy the experience.  You can actually get IN a book become a part of whatever is happening.  The process will expand your vocabulary, tangle your synopses, enlarge your imagination, tickle your funny bone and lift your horizon.  Television puts you in the audience, not on the stage, and it is not the same thing at all.
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