Watching Children Sleep

I walked into my kids' rooms tonight at 12:30 to day good night. It had been an especially long time since I've seen my now 13_year old son fast asleep like that. It kind of made me sad.

All better now! 

my Corona Life

We've been on lockdown since March 17th. Being May 8th, I guess we've been at it for almost two months.

I try to get up every morning Monday through Friday around 7 AM. Or at least, that's what my alarm is set for. Usually, my wife is already out of bed and working out. She is training for a full Ironman Triathlon this September and is hoping that it will still happen, although she has reservations about it because she is unable to do any swim training. The unknowns of Corona Life make all of this so much harder.

Anyway, unless I stayed up late the night before playing NHL 20 on Xbox One, I get up at 7 to my alarm clock. 7:00am is because my older son, a 7th grader, starts school at 8:30, so I want to make sure that he is able to get up and have breakfast before checking the morning announcements at 8, then go through his school emails and write down all of the things that he actually has to turn in and when he should do all of it.

My son loves to have waffles or chocolate chip pancakes and bacon for breakfast. So, that actually helps motivate me to get up and start cooking. As I did before Corona Life, I make enough so there are usually leftovers. He's eating and growing so much (it's the age you know,) that he often will eat a double batch. I use Klondike Cakes pancake mix, which is higher protein than regular homemade or Bisquick, and also add protein powder. I only buy uncured bacon (Coleman's from Costco is really good, as is the house-made from Whole Foods at the meat counter) and serve it typically once or twice a week, as it's expensive and not the healthiest thing in the world. And, again pointing to the age, he'll down a pound no problem.
(My recipe, because the box recipe is WAY too thin: put a mixing bowl on a scale. 2 scoops of Vega protein powder is around 50g, then I add enough mix to get to 240g. Whisk in 2 cups of milk until just combined (don't go crazy whisking.) If you don't have a scale, the ratio is 3/4c. milk for every 1c powder. The batter should stream, not drip, from the whisk. If dripping, add a tablespoon of powder at a time until it does stream and not drip. I transfer it to a measuring cup because I find it easier to pour than scoop then sprinkle chips on the cakes on the griddle, but a 3oz ice cream scoop does a good job for dollar cakes and a 1/2c ladle does a good job for larger cakes, in which case you'd fold 1/4-1/2c chocolate chips into the bowl.)

After he gets going for his day, I wake my daughter up at 8:45. My son's morning wake up is borderline miraculous. The moment I say, "hey hey it's time to get up," he sits up, gets out of bed, gets dressed, and gets to the kitchen in less than 5 minutes. My daughter, on the other hand, is not quite so quick. It is all I can do to keep from going crazy every few minutes saying, okay! Time to get dressed! Time to get dressed! Time to get dressed!

By the time I'm done with her, it's around 9:15 or 9:30 and her day begins at 9:40. Being in fifth grade, she has less to do during the day. She usually has a read-aloud, read by one of the fifth grade teachers, from 9:40 to 10, then a live meeting at 10, and then usually one more live meeting and focuses on two subjects during that day. Once she's going, she is actually more independent than my son.

For both of them, I definitely need to check in on their work to make sure it's being done to completion, with comprehension, and giving more than 50% effort. Just like any of us, they can try to skate by doing the bare minimum, or, need a little help seeing the full scope of what can be done. I'm trying to continue to hold them to a high standard even though Corona life makes that difficult.

When I'm not checking in with them, I'm doing laundry, preparing our meals, cleaning the kitchen, going shopping once or twice a week, and trying not to go crazy. It's hard to not be depressed as I don't have my usual outlets, just as everybody else is feeling. I'm usually on two hockey teams and sub on a third, so I usually have one or two and sometimes even four hockey games in a week.

Now there's none of that which is why I've been playing Xbox so much more. I had all but given up playing video games, at least as much as I had in my youth, because there simply wasn't time to both play real hockey and to play video games. Playing games online is fun and I get pretty riled up with elation and frustration. Wanna go? Downtowndad1203 is my handle. I know - shocking.

For our meals, I am a short-order cook. I know it's not necessarily the right thing to do and isn't necessarily good for the kids' development - giving them whatever they want - but it does give me an opportunity to have some control over what they eat - I insist on a fruit or vegetable at both lunch and dinner - while also giving them some control during a time when we all feel like so much is out of our control.

I've been playing a solitaire game called shisen-sho probably more often than I should. But, I found that it's an amazing way to kill 5 to 10 minutes and keeps me mentally active. My wife and I have also been doing the Sunday Chicago Tribune crossword puzzle every week. And, once we run out of answers, I get on a video call with my mom and she can usually help get me through the rest of the crossword. That makes it a really nice way to keep in touch and have a reason for the call that isn't just a mundane, "How are you?" Because we all know what the answer is.

The answer is that this really sucks. And at the same time, we have so much to be thankful for, or at least for those of us who continue to be healthy. And for those of us who are not in financial dire straits. I am very conscious of how fortunate my family is to have those things going for us. And so, we have our Xbox, we have Netflix and cable TV and Disney Plus. We have high speed internet. We have a smartphone for each of our four family members. Both of our kids have iPads. We all have headphones that also have microphones so that we can stay out of each other's way during the day when we have these live meetings or video chats.

The weather is getting nice, so it's a lot easier to get outside and go for walks, or shoot baskets in the alley, or go for a run. Just last Sunday, we got our bags (or cornhole) set and play as a family. I also bought a similar game called Hockey Sauce which is essentially the same thing but instead you use hockey pucks and hockey sticks and shoot into a miniature net.

I think it's really important that we make sure that we keep getting outside, and not just so that we are being active and not staring at screens all the time, but also so that we have an opportunity to simply see other people and say hello.

I'm trying to do more homemade food items. I made pretzel buns yesterday (Thanks "My Baking Addiction!) and they were fantastic. I've also been making beans from dried beans using my Instant Pot.

I wouldn't say that the house is tons cleaner than usual, but a little bit. I probably should be cleaning the bathrooms more often, and the showers, but those seem like such daunting tasks just as much or maybe even more than usual. And then I get depressed thinking about how lazy I'm feeling. But then I try and give myself a break.

We are all struggling to keep our minds in a positive place. I know that playing video games and watching TV is not always the answer, but at least it's a little something. Making food that tastes delicious and executing something that works out gives us something to have confidence in and to feel some sense of accomplishment.

Maybe that's what we all need to find are not necessarily big ways to feel accomplishment, but small ways. So maybe cleaning the bathroom does not give you a sense of accomplishment; maybe cooking doesn't give you a sense of accomplishment; maybe clearing out your closets doesn't; but maybe one of those does for you. Maybe wood-working projects will make you feel good, or sewing or knitting or learning a new hobby, or picking up the musical instrument you used to play or even a new one; or writing or journaling; or taking a free online class or reading a book or writing to friends.

Should we be more like children and just try lots of different things and not feel bad about starting and stopping things? As long as it doesn't cause clutter, it's okay to start things until we find the thing that we want to stick. Or, we just end up being dabblers where we do one thing one day, and a new thing the next day and never master any of them - at least we've been exposed to lots of things. There just isn't a one-size-fits-all and I don't think we need to make it so.

Today, I'm getting out my Spaghetti Sauces (Biba Caggiano) book and trying the Tomatoes, Pancetta, and Hot Pepper Sauce Roman Style. Because, why not?

Earth Day - Why I'm not turning off the lights

Earth Day is a great idea. It's a reminder that the small things we can do as individuals can make a big impact when those small efforts are done collectively by a large group or portion of the population.

I consider this a sort of Hallmark Holiday. For example, I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day 💔. I do not need a day of the year to tell my wife that I love her and just how much. It's a lot of pressure from within and societal pressure. Not just for the giver, but also for the receiver: was your ring / flowers / chocolates / other display as big as the other person's?

Before I go wildly off into that tangent, the point is that I prefer to rely on what I do on a day-to-day basis. I tell my wife that she's hot regularly 😍 and I do things to reduce my impact on the environment on a daily basis.

Here are some pictures of things that we do to be more sustainable.

Instant Pot and 2-cup mason jars with chickpeas.
I don't know why I put the cooking liquid in the shot.

 This is my Instant Pot. While we aren't big "one-pot-meals" kind of people, I do love the results I get when I make beans from dried. Why make them from dried?
Price: Organic bulk beans at whole foods range $1.99 - 3.49 per pound. Each pound yields approximately 6 cups of beans. You get 2 cups of beans per can at the store, and organics can run $2-$4 per can.
Using Dry: I read the back of a can of powder laundry detergent recently. It talked about the effects of transporting water. First, it reduces the number of units that can be transported because of the volume of water that the container includes. Second, you're burning fossil fuels to transport water.
Cans: Now I don't throw away all of those cans! When it's not COVID-19 time, I reuse the paper bags from the bulk section to purchase the next bulk thing, like beans and oats.
Oh, and I NEVER EVER use plastic bags to hold my produce. I'm going to wash it and for a lot of it, cook it.

I buy as much as I can in bulk: beans, oats, spices, oils. Yes - it's nice to have the space to store the large bags and bottles. If you don't have the space for it all, then this isn't a solution for you.
Throwing things away that have the potential to be reused hurts me.
Every time.

My bulk drawer.
The jar with the bronze top was marinated artichoke hearts from Costco.
Now, it stores our quinoa. Bought in bulk from Costco.

Bottles of oil, hot sauces, vinegars.
Okay, so I don't make and bottle my own hot sauce.
Or make my own vinegar.

Spices - I make my own seasonings from raw spices, such as SPG.
Not pictured: mortar and pestle, mostly for crushing peppercorns because grinding any more than 1/2 tsp of pepper is a chore. And if you're not using freshly ground seeds, you're not really cooking.

Parsley, mint, and what I think is an orchid that I've managed to keep alive.
Soon I'll add basil and cilantro.
Perhaps I'll eventually make my own CBD oil?

 Growing my own herbs.
Buying parsley and cilantro week after week is a bit ridiculous. $2 or so each every week or so. It doesn't break that bank, but it's stupid. And, after getting this awesome south-facing picture window with a nice ledge, I can fit some plants.

Now, we're not transporting produce from all over the place - specifically produce that I can easily grow, unlike the rest of the things that I can't possibly grow, like lettuces, berries, etc. (Well, some of it I could grow, but a lot of that becomes impractical with a 25x150' lot in Chicago.)

Towels drawer.
I probably should have put my cleanest-looking ones on top.
And perhaps make the drawer look nice and neat. I guess I'm keeping it real.

Using towels instead of paper towels.
Washcloths, too. You know, keep a stash in the bathroom for when you've got that not-so-fresh feeling! A lot better than throwing those wet-wipes down the toilet that claim to be safe for the system.
If you have access to Costco, you can get a pack of cotton terry towels and a pack of the yellow microfiber towels. They'll last years. I think we go through a Costco case of paper towels every year or so.

Left: Hand soap with Dr. Bronner's Castile Peppermint
Right: All Purpose Spray with Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds

Making hand and dish soap from concentrates. I like Dr. Bronner products, but you can find what you like. We've been using them for quite a while with success.
Hand soap: 2/3 water : 1/3 Dr Bronner's Castile Soap (Costco only sells the peppermint, but Whole Foods has more varieties.) Works well in both regular and foaming dispensers.

My cleaning supplies

Dry Laundry Detergent: for the water transport reason I mentioned in the dry beans section.
Window wash? Use 1:1 vinegar and water.
Bleach for the bathroom? 16oz water : 1 Tbls bleach.
Sal Suds All Purpose spray: 32oz water : 1 Tbls Sal Suds

Laundry drying rack hung in the laundry room.
I think it was like $25 from Container Store.
Hanging a linen towel that didn't come completely dry in the dryer.

While we're in the laundry room, let's hang some of our laundry.
First, your athletic and most athleisure wear should almost exclusively be hung to dry. When you put it in the dryer, you're baking in leftover oils and other stuff that inevitably didn't get washed out in the laundry, which leads to premature stinking. You're also ruining the synthetic fibers that don't do well in heat and will inevitably lost their elasticity over time and much faster in the dryer.

Hanging your clothes will make them last longer and keep their shape. You'll find out which items prefer the dryer (end up like cardboard on the line) and the ones that prefer being hung to dry (come out soft.) Most of our t-shirts are so much nicer to wear after being hung.
One clue to what should just be hung - if it's soft and semi dry out of the washer, just hang it up.
Jeans, sweaters - duh.
I even hang stuff that's done washing if the dryer is still going. Yeah, I'm a little nuts.

Also, during the winter, we're fighting to keep our houses humidified. While this isn't the definitive answer, better to use the dry air to dry and the moisture to contribute even a minuscule amount to the humidity of the house.

Composting is something that I'm not entirely sure I've got the hang of, but we do have a garbage can with holes drilled that I throw things into. However, I've found that I can just chop up a lot of what's left over and just throw it in the grass.

Cuisinart Burr Grinder
Veken Stainless Steel French Press
Miroco Electic Kettle

Take coffee, for example. I do grind whole beans with a burr grinder (yes - electric. I have a manual, but it was just taking too long every morning.) We use an electric kettle (more energy efficient than using the stove.) After I'm done pouring the finished product, I put some water in the press, swish the grounds, and toss it into the grass. I also water my plants with it - grounds are great for soil. (I'm sure someone much smarter with gardening will be able to tell us what plants like the grounds and which don't.)

The best part - the coffee is so much better.
The other best part - nothing goes in the garbage.
(Side note on the kettle - I use it to boil water for pasta and the like, as it's much faster and more energy efficient than the stove.)

But, yes, I take leftover stems, peels, and ends, chop them up, and toss them into the grass out back. The birds get to it or it decomposes. I'll run it over with the mower once the grass grows and it'll be healthier for it. Healthier than throwing it in the garbage and sending it to the dump.

Yes, we use LED lights throughout the house. Yes, we turn them off when we leave the room.
I run the dishwasher at night when the electric company has an overage of electricity that it needs to output.

I also drive a 2009 Honda Pilot. At around 15-18 MPG combined, it's not the greenest vehicle out there. Sometimes I even drive to the grocery store that's 2 blocks away because I don't want to go to the store extra times in the week and can't carry everything home (especially now in the COVID-19 days.)

We can't all do everything without moving away from urban society and away from populated areas. Gone are any towns in America that function without energy, water, and waste infrastructure of some kind (outside a handful of religious-based areas.)

What we can do is the little things that, collectively, can minimize our impact.

Reduce, reuse, repurpose, recycle.

News Flash: Sleep is good!

I have to admit it - I funtion better on a full night of sleep.

I have to admit a second thing - I function better with coffee.

Putting those two things together, plus some planning, results in actually feel motivated to get things done.

A full night of sleep beats short sleep plus coffee.

Some days, though, are simply fueled by coffee.

Yes, Master of the Obvious! Welcome to this realization that everyone else knew!

I hear you, O wise crowd, the party that has been raging to which I am late (albeit fashionably.)

What am I doing with this magical formula?

• Not getting sucked into the void that could be caused by sheltering-in-place.
• Monitoring the kids' daily school schedules.
• The kitchen has never been cleaner on a regular basis.
• The laundry is always done.
• My corners of disarray are shrinking.
• I am getting better at NHL 20, though painfully slowly.
• I am getting better at crossword puzzles.
• I have learned backgammon.
• Reading some books that have been collecting dust. Currently, working on Harvard Classics, specifically, Philip Sidney's, "Poesy," (pronounced: PO-eh-see.)
• Some baking. Made chocolate chip cookies. Wife has been asking for scones for a week or so. Perhaps I will finally fulfill that request, even though she's the only one who really likes scones in the house.

That's about it. Perhaps I'll post some pics. Why not?!

Is your neck of the woods under shelter-in-place?
What are you doing to keep from going nuts?

Combating COVID-19 requires a plan

March 20, 2020

COVID-19, the current strain of coronavirus that has the world on high alert, has many of us thinking about our own futures.

Schools have been closed for as long as two weeks as of now. I live in Chicago and Chicago Public Schools have been closed since this Tuesday, 3/17/20. Chicago originally began with a two week closure, but have already extended the closure to April 20, 2020.

Bars and restaurants are closed to dine-in customers.

Public gatherings have been banned, which means no concerts, no conferences, no flying.

All of those jobs have, within a matter of a couple of weeks, vanished.

There will be winners in this game of economics. Medical supplies and virtual conferencing are the two that I can think of right now. But that is few and far between compared with the number of industries that are shut down.

The United States government has just proposed a package to support people and businesses. I see all of the people that they're trying to help - tax breaks for businesses with less than 500 employees and cash for middle-to-low income households are just two of the measures.

First, is there a plan for how this will be made up? Anyone can pull out their credit card, but fiscally responsible people have a plan for repayment, even when it's an emergency and they're spending beyond their immediate means.

There has to be a plan.

Colleges and Universities have closed their campuses. However, medical institutions are going to need more staff sooner than later, and forget doctors - we're talking nurses, nurse aids, lab techs, phlebotomists, and more.

There has to be a plan.

It is being reported the the Trump Administration did a run through on the government's preparedness for a pandemic last year which showed that the country was not prepared to deal with the situation we're facing. Here's a terrific article by the New York Times about the lack of response by the current administration to a pandemic test scenario that was failed.

There was no plan.

Here's what I think we need to do:

Despite school and other institutional closures, emergency training needs to be done for new medical staff in areas listed above: nurses, techs, aids, etc. In other words, the people who are hands-on in patient care and who can actually read tests. A single doctor with excellent delegation skills can do a lot with a well-trained support staff and system.

Distribution of supplies needs to be centralized by leading logistics companies. We're talking about air, rail, and ground. We're talking about warehousing, manufacturing, and sourcing. In other words, vertical and horizontal integration. Does anybody do that better than Wal-Mart and Amazon? Combine that with companies like XPO, UPS, and DHL.

Technological infrastucture to support workforce and supply chains? Who better than Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Ziprecruiter?

Manufacturing like Ford, GM, Tesla, and 3M.

In this age of social networking, data analytics, and technological advances, there is no reason that these massive "too big to fail" companies, in this time of extreme need, can't work together in an effort that resembles a war-time retooling.

In short, we're all in this together for the next 18 months. Hopefully we won't solely rely on tax breaks, but instead on planning and execution in a cooperative way (as opposed to centralized) in order to achieve the desired result: the slowing of the COVID-19 outbreak until our eventual ability to actually treat and prevent it.

Conveying and Understanding Instructions

Written on 3/10/2020. My, how times have changed (now that this is being written on 3/20/20, just a week into school closings due to COVID-19,) but I believe the idea is universal.

I have been a substitute teacher for about a month. It has been a terrific way to reenter the workforce for me, as it encompasses both my education and experience prior to being a homemaker as well as that of the last 13 years as a homemaker, parent, and youth sports coach.

Today, however, I did not get as much accomplished in the teacher’s plans as I had hoped. Perhaps the teacher, as I do in my practice plans, plan for more than we have time for and then scrap things that we simply can’t get to and put them in future plans.

Failure #1: I didn’t follow my morning routine once I had the lesson plan in hand. 

Traffic was particularly bad despite leaving as early as possible (have to get the kids up and going before I can leave the house.) Still - the moment I have the instructions in hand, I need to get out another piece of paper and start transcribing. I may as well call it translating. Instead, I simply read the instructions and hoped to remember. Ha! Fail.

Failure #2: I didn't rewrite the instructions in outline form. 

Rewriting instructions provides two main benefits to me. First, I can scan the items much easier if they are written in separate lines. When written in paragraph form, I have a hard time seeing the second or third sentence before moving on to the next paragraph. By creating an outline, I force myself to separate out each sentence and pull out the main ideas.

The second part – and perhaps more important – is that I remember what I write. For example, when I cook, I take recipes from a cookbook or online and then rewrite them on a piece of scrap paper. First, I don’t want to get my cookbook nor laptop/smartphone dirty with spatter. Second, I’ll notice details and nuances more closely, such as the doneness that should be achieved which can differ from the time given.

Rewriting the lesson plans enables me to see the objectives and nuances much more clearly and recall them in order with much greater accuracy.

Today, by failing to follow what makes me successful

1. I read the wrong books at the wrong times
2. didn’t do two lessons
3. felt guilty about perhaps setting the teacher back a day 

Perhaps she gave me more than what could realistically be accomplished, but I don’t know because I didn’t follow the one thing that makes me follow instructions successfully.

Thoughts on a story written about exceptionalism

I am interested in a story, the premise of which is the burden of being exceptional.

Here's an example from the #MeToo movement: being a particularly attractive woman. It's easy for most of us who do not have exceptional appearance to believe that those who do have it "so easy." They receive attention and favoritism.

Anyone with something exceptional will tell you that it comes with considerable consequences. Unwanted attention from crushes or people who want something from you for your exceptionalism.

What if the exceptional person is an introvert? She may appear off-putting and arrogant, but really just has all of her energy sucked from her with unwanted or unsolicited attention.

Crushes or pure physical attraction would be especially difficult to deal with - and especially prone to danger. When someone has a crush, they often wonder, why not them? Why doesn't the beautiful person understand just how great they'll be together? Then it becomes the burden of the attractive person to have to reject people over and over who are desperately in love with their appearance.

I feel that men are especially prone to using conviction or coercion to have a physical encounter with a woman whose beauty is to their standards. The entertainment industry is full of stories of women being promised success if they'll "put out." (See: Harvey Weinstein accusations.)

Do their friends like them for their personality or because of the attention and association?

How does it effect family relationships, such as siblings and their friends; parents and their friends; extended family, etc. What if your older/younger sister is especially beautiful? Eventually, your friends can't help but to notice. What if a peer that you have a crush on has a crush on your beautiful sister?

How teachers, coaches, clergy, and others in the world, whom the beautiful person either knows or doesn't know, looks at and treats the beautiful person.

Others who could fall into this category - athletes, wealthy people, artists, intellectuals . . .

My concern with the viability of the storyline is whether or not the audience will sympathize with the exceptional person? It could certainly have elements of comedy as well as drama. Some "woe is me," moments, as well as legitimate woe is me moments.

There could be various exceptional characters that are followed. Some who are just nice people with the exceptional quality, and others, more nefarious, who use their exceptionalism to get ahead and break all the rules.

There are probably many stories like this that I'm not thinking of, but I wonder if they focus heavily on this theme?

Little Boost

As a frequent volunteer at school, I am often in the position where I find myself helping out a distressed little one.

The best way I have found to get a shy, scared, or sad child to summon the courage to move forward with their day is to tell them how important they are to their class.

In my observations, little kids feel as small as their stature. They have no idea about their place in the world. Having someone tell them that they are important can boost their inner strength.

Education System

Many people criticize the modern American education system. The reality is that no two classrooms are identical, let alone schools within the same district that teach the same grade levels. So how can we truly measure how well the system educates students?

The vast majority of us believe that education is essential to every person’s life. From there, the questions start: 

What does education mean? 

What should a student take away from their experience? 

Is it best to give students a diverse education or to allow them to become educated by the things that interest them? 

What is the end that the education is seeking?

To get to those answers, schools have developed curriculum that they use as the concepts given to teachers who then implement using their own teaching methods combined with methods curated by the school. Therefore, other questions emerge:

Why do our schools use the programs they use? 

What makes a teacher qualified to teach the curriculum of the subject matter to the age level to which they are assigned?

Is every teacher equipped to teach every subject equally?

My biggest problem with the traditional American K-12 system: it doesn’t focus on mastery. Students complete a unit, get graded, then move on. 

What of the students who did not master?

What about students who went into the unit having already mastered the subject matter, or who master it quickly as others struggle?

And, do people succeed in the “real world” because they’ve been exposed to a diverse education without dedication to mastery in any particular subject? 

This does not resemble the real world. Modern marketing (AT&T’s “Just okay isn’t okay” campaign) and comedy (Chris Rock - "Tamborine", there are some jobs that can’t have “bad apples” such as police and airline pilots) make light of the idea that just getting by is not acceptable. Getting Bs in most jobs will get you fired.

To reverse engineer that concept: How many employers are okay with less than 90% accuracy? Is a Starbucks barista allowed to screw up 1 in 10 drinks? Is a McDonald’s cashier allowed to mess up 1 in 10 orders? Is a line cook allowed to undercook 1 in 10 chicken breasts (or fail to heed a customer allergy warning)? And we’re not even talking about medical, transportation, and public safety professionals.

Kids are not little adults. A 10-year-old is not half a 20-year-old, so holding them to that accountability and maturity would be wrong. To the same end, child development holds that different ages have capacity for mastery in some things and not others, so why not focus on those things at those times? No doubt that schools are getting better, but is that trickling down far enough?

Primary schools pass kids to middle school who pass kids to high school who pass them to colleges and universities. Many arrive at their first post-educational jobs in debt. These people were trained in what? To read and write? To solve difficult problems? Or, are they trained to get by while living an active social life (and getting good at binge drinking)? 

The essential question: do they have any applicable experience completing an assignment that would be asked of them by an employer?

Why isn’t an after school job just as important an extra-curricular as playing a sport, an instrument, drama, forensics, debate, and the rest? How is a student to know what to pursue in college if they’ve never seen the world from behind the counter, behind the desk, in the stock room, or behind a broom? Eliminating the choices we know that we don’t want is typically essential when finding the choice that we do want.

Why is there such a gap between workplaces and the education system? Do schools get input on what to teach from the employers who hope to get a trained workforce? 

Students are raised to believe they “can do anything they want” or “anything they put their mind to.” Chris Rock has a take on this angle in a way that resonated with me: while at a student orientation with his daughter, Rock heard the typical, “You can be anything you want to be!” 

Rock’s response? “Why are you lying to these children? . .  . Really? They can be anything they want to be? . . . (Instead) Tell the kids, ‘you can be anything you’re good at - as long as they’re hiring.’ And even then, it helps to know somebody.”

It is not bad to have dreams. Quite the contrary - it is great to have big dreams! Here’s a question: are students taught how to turn dreams into goals? Without goals, big dreams stay dreams.

The reality is that few people end up pursuing their dream. 

Perhaps more importantly, for many people, the dream is not a way to earn a living, but what they want to do with the money they earn. For many, this may be engaging in a hobby that isn’t something they care to pursue professionally, such as playing a sport, arts, attending arts or sports, and travel. How can we train people for that lifestyle - to find an occupation that will fund these adventures?

We end up with people out of high school who aren’t prepared for the workforce because of this mindset. Not everyone wants to climb the corporate ladder nor do they want to work in an environment that requires literary analysis. Others will rarely use basic algebra. Are those things handy in one’s greater life, in general? Certainly. Can those skills be attained while learning the thing that actually interests them? Why not?

Would they rather use their hands? Kitchen, construction, welding, carpentry, masonry, glazing, auto repair, robot repair, machinery repair? 

Operate computers? Keyboarding, Data entry, data analysis, network infrastructure, programming, software engineering? 

Operate machinery? Driving a truck, forklift, or other heavy machinery, manufacturing machinery?

Understand their rights as citizens? 

Do basic algebraic computations?

Work with people?

NOT work with people?

I don’t blame teachers themselves, but I do blame the teaching union system for preserving the status quo so that people don’t lose their jobs.

I don’t blame the education administration, but I do blame the politicians who favor the easiest way to win the next election.

Many of our organizational systems have changed over time, especially those in for-profit environments. Why, then, is it so hard to use child development models to improve the system? Because change is hard. 

Perhaps on another day, I’ll give the same amount of criticism to parents as the reason why kids don’t succeed in school (or just get by,) get addicted to caffeine, junk food, and video games (and drugs); then feel all depressed in their teens and directionless in their twenties. Hint: say no and take it away.

Instead of just griping, here is a system that I thought about:

Home Room teacher: takes attendance, keeps the schedule, teaches executive functioning, groups students into various subjects, makes sure students are hitting goals or getting help in areas of need.

Subject specific teams: teach core skills of reading, writing (broken into handwriting, keyboarding, spelling, and organizing ideas and storytelling;) math, physical science, and social science to small groups of students. (I’m sure reading, math, science, and social science can be broken down further, but I don’t have that one up my sleeve like I did with writing.)

There must be a way to find out which students work better independently with check-ins and which students need a lot of individual help (regardless of level of learner.) Find ways to group those students effectively. Most likely, there are effective ways to group diverse learners for the benefit of the group. Asking peers to teach peers should not be overlooked, as little shows mastery like the ability to teach it, as well as the skills learned by teaching what one has learned.

Make study skills or “learning to learn” a subject. Knowing how to “do school” is the most important thing that students can be taught so that getting taught is easier.

Have extra time every day or week for struggling students or those who want to pursue a subject further that does not interfere with main class time.

Finally, get kids into work environments as soon as possible. From home to workplace, there are things they can do and should learn so they can be better students, better workers, and are more equipped to find what they’re looking for when pursuing a career. Laws getting in the way? Let’s reconsider child labor restrictions in a way that actually benefits children and families.

What am I going to do with my big idea? Probably nothing, as I wouldn't know how to implement an idea like this, but if anyone thinks it’s interesting and thinks of a way to implement it, please steal it or help me make it a reality.