Black Hills: Adventure and Accomplishment

Get your nose out of those comic books and look at the scenery. (Trip to Black Hills, 1965)

Get your nose out of those video games and look at the scenery. (Trip to Black Hills, 2011)

The LWW and I got home about noon yesterday after a wonderful week in the Black Hills of South Dakota with grandsons Paul, age 10, and Miles, age almost 6. My parents took my sister and me there in the 60s and I took my son in the 90s. I think we saw and did everything on our respective lists of 'things to do"*

A few rules and some observations about traveling with the grands...

Rule 1: Eat ice cream at least once a day. (Across from the Corn Palace in Mitchell.)

Rule 2: Climb rocks whenever you get the chance. (Badlands.)

Rule 3: Always believe your grandpa when he tells you about things like jackalopes. (Wall Drug.)

See Rule 2 (Sylvan Lake.)

Rule 4: Get your picture at famous places to prove you've been there. (Mount Rushmore.)

Rule 5: Be loving to your brother because he may never return from his next adventure. (Harney Peak trail head.)

Rule 6: Challenge yourself. (Fire tower at summit of Harney Peak - highest point east of the Rocky Mountains. 1200 ft elevation gain, 8 mile hike.)

Rule 7: Take pride in your accomplishments. (The bump Paul is pointing to is the fire tower to which he hiked.)

Rule 8: A little rain never hurt anybody. (A short, violent rain/sleet storm added excitement to our open-sided jeep safari in Custer Park. We survived despite Miles's prediction "We're all gonna die!")

 

See Rule 2: Rocks at Sylvan Lake where Miles made the statement, "This is the worst day of my entire life." when told we had to leave for supper - and he wasn't ready to go.

Rule 9: Never let a chance to amuse your brother pass. (Reptile Gardens.)

Rule 10: Never let a chance to relax pass - if you are a grandparent. (1880 train in Hill City.)

When asked where he'd like to go next summer with Grandpa and Grandma, Paul automatically replied, "The Black Hills." I liked that.

_________________

We bought a set of Grade One Brain Quest cards to play with while driving - simple short answer trivia questions that Miles was not interested in and Paul found way too simple. So we invented a new game. Answer the question with a defensible answer that was not the one given as correct. For example: What makes the ground white when it falls from the sky? Given answer: snow. Our challenge answers: sleet, hail, frozen ground fog, flower petals, etc. I worry a lot about this "one right answer" mentality schools so seem to love. This was way more fun - and subversive.

_________________

Nobody but Grandpa thought his idea of "kiddie kennels" was very good. These would be places parents could leave their children when they wanted to go on vacation alone. The children would get a small room, food, and care for the week they were there. For an extra fee, the children would be exercized and played with. I guess some of us are just ahead of our time.

_________________

One of the pleasures of going to the Black Hills is how little it has really changed since I remember going there as a child. The winding roads, the smell of pine, the thrill of bison crossing the road just ahead of your car. The one change I did not like was that jumping and diving from the rocks into Sylvan Lake is now illegal - something I remember as great fun on previous trips. The price we pay for living in a society with too many lawyers and not enough common sense, I suppose.

_________________

Your suggestions for next summer's trip with the boys? I am thinking Wisconsin Dells.

_________________

* Places we visited on this vacation:

• Pipestone National Monument, Pipestone, MN
• Corn Palace, Mitchell
• Badlands National Park
• Wall Drug where we had lunch with free ice water
• Sylvan Lake, staying at the Sylvan Lake Resort, Custer State Park
• Mount Rushmore and the evening lighting ceremony
• Crazy Horse monument
• Wind Cave, Natural Entrance tour
• Mammoth Site, Hot Springs
• Needles Highway (several times)
• Black Hills Playhouse, attending the musical All Shook Up
• Hike of Harney Peak
• Jeep Wildlife Safari and cowboy cookout, Custer State Park
• Cosmos Mystery Area (Paul's favorite)
• Reptile Gardens
• Drive on Iron Mountain road
• 1880s Train Ride

Not bad for four days! (Other photos.)

BFTP: Quit Leading and Start Managing

Original post June 2, 2008. This also evolved into a column that can be found here. Reposted for Scott McLeod's Leadership Day #leadershipday11

Warning: I threw my back out yesterday and I hurt. What you will be reading may be written more by sore muscles than brain cells.

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. Peter Drucker

You can't do the right things unless you know how to do things right. - the Blue Skunk 

I am getting a little tired of the emphasis on "leadership" in society and especially in education. For all the talk, all the theories, all the studies, all the exhortations, this push is getting us nowhere - and good management may be suffering as a result.

Here are some deadly warning signs I've noticed lately...

• Has your local grad school replaced its "administration and management" classes with "leadership" classes?
• Has your professional organization's standards become a "visionary" document instead a practical description of and guidelines for an effective program?
• Has your last administrator been hired based on his philosophy and not his track record of running schools well?

I will state right up front that I am better manager than I am "leader." The workshops and articles of which I am most proud tend to be "management" rather than "leader" focused. Budgeting, tech planning, policy-making, skills integration, effective staff development and program evaluation are among my favorites. It's pretty easy to sneer at sharing "how-I-done-it-good" stories rather than research or high-blown commentary. But those looking down their noses probably aren't the folks trying to make actual changes in the classroom or library. 

Let's face it - anybody can create a "vision" and cry loudly about all the things that are wrong and paint a utopian view that sounds pretty good (and it seems like almost everyone does). But what is usually lacking is any practical means of moving from Point A to Point B - especially within the parameters of working with real people, real budgets and a real number of hours in a day. I would contend that true genius is in finding ways to make vision reality - working where the rubber hits the road.

I've been wondering a good deal about what seems to be a round of recent political, economic and educational disasters - the Iraq War, the handling of Hurricane Katrina, the housing bubble, NCLB - and questioning whether it was a lack of leadership or piss-poor management that created (or exacerbated) the mess. Lets see:

• removing an evil dictator and establishing a democracy in the Middle East - good vision, poor execution
• helping the victims of a natural disaster - good vision, poor execution
• increasing the number of people who own their own homes - good vision, poor execution
• assuring that all children have good reading and math skills - good vision, poor execution

Where did we go wrong? Might it have been putting people who couldn't manage a one-car parade in charge? Leaders, not managers? Hmmmmm.

Pat a good manager on the back today...