The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible -- and achieve it, generation after generation.
Pearl S. Buck
An Original Quote
"Your future is only limited if you don't think big enough."
[From an email I wrote to one of my nephews. An Eagle Scout, he is an engineering major at a major state university and is the drum major for its outstanding marching band.]
We All Remember Dr. J, but Dr. Shaj?
I loved baseball and football growing up, but I had a decent jump shot and would shoot in a gym or outside hoop every chance I got. Just shooting around, I once hit 6 half-court shots in a row: no lie, there were witnesses. I was ready to stop after hitting my first (finishing on a high note), but the guys kept goading me on, and I had an unbelievable hot hand, nothing but net each time.
I went out for my junior high team in Salina, Kansas, and made it through multiple cuts. I'll never forget hitting a final jumper cutting across the court around the circle on a dead run; the coach whistled the practice over, came over, put his arm around me and said the one thing you never want to hear: I was cut. I remember looking at some of the guys still on the squad, thinking how unfair it seemed, because I thought I had better skills. But they had one big advantage: coaches love to say that you can't teach height. (I wasn't that short, but even some of the junior high female basketball players were close to 6 feet tall.)
While I was an undergraduate at OLL, the San Antonio Spurs ABA franchise began in earnest. We got a number of game tickets for a song. It was a blast--the red, white and blue ball, the 3-point shot (at that time a radical innovation), etc. I remember the visiting Julius "Dr. J" Erving, with a big Afro, flying down the court after a steal and nailing the last-second winning jumper with someone's hand in his face.
I have a lot of respect for entertainers like Bill Cosby getting their doctorates. So arguably the most dominant big man in the history of the game, Shaquille O'Neal, is pursuing a doctorate in Human Resource Development at Barry University. I love the fact that he's setting a good example for basketball-loving kids everywhere....
Hell Freezes Over: I Agree With Obama On Something
 |
| Courtesy of inca.org.uk: Table 15 |
Obama made the following points, all of which I agree with:
- we need longer school years
- the United States doesn't owe (and can't afford to give) mediocre teachers a living
- we particularly need to emphasize the hiring of qualified math, science, technology and engineering teachers
Now just in case you think I stopped by the White House to drink some Kool Aid, let me raise some points the President and I probably disagree on (I'm listing my preferences):
- elimination of teacher tenure: good teachers don't need protection
- downscaling the federal role in education: I think the government is part of the problem, not the solution
- breakup of public education and union monopolies and at minimum, partial privitization
- multiple indicator criteria of teaching effectiveness, with more emphasis on objective measures of student learning; elimination of "good old boy" network teacher evaluations
- market-based teacher compensation
Waiting for Superman?
I love the show Smallville (final season) and its topical theme song (in fact, I bought the soundtrack just for the single):
My personal belief, of course, is that the very title implies that we ourselves are not responsible for our own destiny, that we have unrealistic expectations of some altruistic soul to come and save us from ourselves. Everybody shares responsibilities, including those parents not holding their kids responsible for going to school and for their performance in school.
I have not seen the film by Davis Guggenheim (see a movie trailer below), but I saw a quick clip of Michelle Rhee, whom is one of my favorite education reformers. (She does not necessarily agree with my points of view.) Adrian Fenty, Washington DC's brave mayor whom stood up to the teacher unions, was recently defeated by a union crony, Vincent Gray, which means Rhee's days are numbered. Rhee recently announced she was firing 241 unsatisfactory teachers, and the union, of course, vows to fight the firing of each and every one of those incompetent teachers.
Political Humor
There's a new opera about Bill Clinton. I don't know how it ends, but I bet it isn't with the fat lady singing. - Craig Ferguson
[No, but Vernon Jordan heard about the show and then got her some auditions on Broadway.]
Katy Perry sang her version of "Hot N Cold" for Sesame Street, but the show's producers decided her bustier was too revealing and pulled the segment before it aired. Too bad, no doubt millions of kids would have never forgotten "B is for Boobjob." - Janice Hough
[No, "D is for D-cup". I'm not saying that the puppets got fresh, but Katy told Elmo to stop tickling her. I don't know much about Katy Perry (I think she's a pop singer), but I saw her cleavage on a recent episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition. I personally admire voluptuous young women (at least 18 years old), but there's a time and a place...]
Musical Interlude: The American Songbook. This is the final segment in this series. We have just barely touched the full American songbook, and I'll likely do follow-up series in the future, especially focusing on specific writers (e.g., Gershwin or Cole Porter) or artists. The next series features songs from the pop "British invasion" of the 1960's.
Johnny Mercer, "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive".
