Dereliction of Duty

I will confess. As a member-elected ISTE Board member, I failed to represent you yesterday afternoon. I instead represented me at the anti-war rally being held in front of the White House here in DC. Me and 99,999 other protesters. More pictures.

I try to keep blatant politics out of all my professional writing, including this blog, or at least comment only when politics impact education. But the war is turning the lives of my friends and colleagues in schools (and especially the lives of their children) upside down. Of the nearly 2000 American dead in this war, each was someone’s child, someone’s student, someone’s love. My good friend Steve’s daughter is shipping out to Iraq soon. For her sake alone, I want this war to end.

If you get the chance, read John Crawford’s The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell, a first person account of a National Guardsman serving in Iraq. It’s a riveting set of narratives with echos of our involvement in Vietnam. Or perhaps just the sad retelling of incidents from any war.

I’ll be back at the board meeting this morning, voting on ISTE fiduciary, personnel and policy matters, never fear. But I hope you will forgive me for being missing in action for a few hours yesterday.

 Oh, and I am refunding a portion of my travel costs to ISTE.

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2 Comments »
Good for you! I was there in spirit, if not in reality.
BTW: on our local NPR station is *The No Show* — ” a new showcase for the idiosyncratic views and humor of Steve Post, a world-class curmudgeon whose irreverence and iconoclasm have entertained audiences and appalled radio station managers for three and one-half decades. (Give or take.) ”
On his playlist for the 9/24 show: “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” by Pete Seeger, and “Chicken Hawk” by Roy Zimmerman — both most appropriate!

Comment by Alice Yucht — September 25, 2005 @ 2:46 pm

Amazing the number of slogans “repurposed” from Vietnam for this protest. More than a few outfits as well. - Doug

Comment by dougj — September 26, 2005 @ 11:08 am

All 10 fingers, all 10 toes

 Miles Benjamin Roberts was born yesterday, September 22 at about 2:00PM.

Miles will start school in 2010 or 2011. Here’s what I hope he finds:

1. A place that cares as much about his happiness as his education.
2. A place that cares more about his love of learning than his test scores.
3. A place where he feels safe and welcome and can’t wait to get to every morning.
4. A place that honors creativity more than memorization.
5. A place that has a library full of stories and a librarian who makes them come alive.
6. A place where technology hasn’t taken the place of playing with blocks, finger-painting, naps, graham crackers, or a teacher’s soft encouragement.
7. A place where he learns to work and play with kids who make not have been given the blessings of a middle-class lifestyle or a fully-functioning body or brain.
8. A place that teaches kindness along with math, tolerance along with history, and conservation along with science.
9. A place where teachers are excited about teaching and passionate about encouraging the passions in their students.
10. A place where he is never compared to his older brother, Paul.

Mom and baby are doing fine, but Dad sounded a little hyper. - Grandpa Doug
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4 Comments »
Congrats and good wishes!
Your list is inspiring… especially #10.

Comment by Alice Yucht — September 23, 2005 @ 2:57 pm

I wish the Johnson/Roberts family all the very best with their new little one and hope Mr. Paulie will adjust easily. I’m watching for a picture as soon as you can post one. Your list is wonderfully touching. Hope you get to cuddle him soon

Comment by Sara — September 23, 2005 @ 6:35 pm

Congratulations!! I have shared your list with my faculty. I copied it into an email along with the blog address so they would not miss it - in spite of the fact that our filter will block access to the actual blog. What a lucky baby to have you for a grandfather.

Your blog posting will go into my “beginning of the year” folder so that I am sure to read it every September. Enjoy every moment with your new little blessing!

Comment by Jacquie Henry — September 23, 2005 @ 7:11 pm

Mazel tov! Don’t worry - Dad will calm down and Paul will figure things out. Can’t make guarantees about the other items on your list, but we can all hope. Enjoy!

Comment by Frances Jacobson Harris — September 24, 2005 @ 4:37 pm

Showing Up, Bathroom Reads, and other Idle Weekend Thoughts

Seems like it as important to rest one’s brain on the weekend as it is one’s bod, so just few small ideas, perhaps less professional than the norm.

1. We really should heed Woody Allen’s observation that “eighty percent of success is showing up.” I thought about this statement this morning as the LWW and I participated in the school’s annual “Run for Education” fundraiser. This is the seventh year it’s been held, and I haven’t missed one yet. (I walk.) While the event is fun and good exercise, it is also a chance to “show up.” Ed the superintendent, a couple school board members, some community leaders, and of course quite a few teachers, principals and parents are there. It’s a chance to be associated (no matter how subliminally) with something positive. Also one feels justified eating the large breakfast at the local pancake house afterwards.

2. Perhaps it is a guy thing, but I like having handy reading material near the “throne.” Magazines are good and poetry anthologies are OK, but books with short little chapters are even better. I’m currently enjoying Why Do Men Have Nipples?, a collection of answers to questions you’d be too embarassed to ask unless you had a few drinks. While I have not yet read the answer to the titular question (pun intended), I do now know that I can swallow my gum without health risk.

3. There’s been some back and forth about the benefits or lack thereof of gripe sessions among librarians. I suspect such things are healthy so long they are among friends, rather than just acquaintances or co-workers. One thing I try NOT to do is ever start a grip session with my boss. Richard A. Moran says, “Never go to your boss with a problem that doesn’t have a solution. You are paid to think, not to whine.” Whining, if one needs to do it, should be done to one’s spouse or cat (and if you don’t have one or other you really should for no other reason). There is an old riddle told in principals’ circles: “What is the difference between a puppy and a teacher? The puppy stops whining when you let it in the door.” Ouch.

4. Would someone please explain “9 Chickweed Lane” comic strip to me? I have yet to find anything understandable, let alone humorous in the panels that have been running for about the last three weeks in the paper. Thank you.

5. David Warlick’s 2 Cents Worth blog has a recent entry on the amount of television that is being offered today - something like 29,000 hours per week. Here’s the irony: When I was a little boy growing up on the Iowa prairie, we had two channels that didn’t start programming until Sunrise Semester at 6am and ended with the National Anthem at, what, 11pm? But I was still a TV fiend and would have watched TV all day had I more understanding parents. As it was, I’m sure I watched more than today’s kids’ average of 3.5 hours a day. Currently I sometimes catch the Daily Show - that’s it. I am not trying to be a snob, but I can’t find a single other thing to watch that is worth sitting through commercials for. I guess I’d rather spend my leisure time reading David’s thoughts than hearing Homer Simpson’s. (Damned by faint praise?)

Tomorrow I spend preparing for my visit to Encylo-Media in Tulsa, OK, next week. Sooners are great folks, but I always feel intimidated knowing that librarians from Norman may be in the audience. Outside of southern Minnesota, these folks are the best school librarians I know. I better be on top of my game.
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1 Comment »
9 Chickweed Lane — was *originally* a strip about 3 generations of women in 1 household (4 if you count the cat), each with very distinct personalities and story-lines. Within the past year, however, the creator seems to have shifted the focus to concentrate on Edda and her adventures as a ballet dancer in NYC. If you know the backstory, the strip is still good; if you’re new to it, it may be less appealing/understandable.
FWIW, take a look at some of the ‘history’ of this strip, at http://www.comics.com/comics/chickweed//html/cast_Chickweedlane.html

Comment by Alice Yucht — September 19, 2005 @ 12:16 pm