My never-ending writing project continues

Now that I have had a COVID vaccination, I feel safe enough to "hit the road" and find a nice warm place to sit outdoors and write for a week or so. While I have gone to the Dominican Republic in the past for this writing retreat, I am still not 100% confident of air travel and international destinations.

So my plan is to follow the Mississippi River south, eventually steering toward Atlanta to visit my son and his wife. From there I'll head toward the Gulf Coast, checking out small resorts along the coast. (Any recommendations for cheap places to stay for a week would be appreciated!) My plan is to visit my daughter and family in Kansas City on the way home. I miss my children and grandchildren very much.

My writing project is more personal than professional. For some time, I have been compiling portions of Blue Skunk entries that might be considered "keepers." Originally I planned to write a sequel to my "back of the room book," Machines Are the Easy Part; People Are the Hard Part that I wrote and my son illustrated in 2004 (free download here). Unlike my other books, published by respectable national companies, this little 126 booklet I self-published, allowing me to be a bit more personal, less formal in sharing my pithy insights and riotous humor. (Hah). Its primary audience was teachers, librarians, and technologists. I’d bring a few print copies to my workshops and give them as door prizes. It was, and still is, a fun little book. And did I mention it is a free download?

But I am changing the audience for this yet-to-be-named sequel. To help me focus on what writings might have a better shelf life, my grandsons will be my target readers. (Not that I actually expect them to do so.)  I doubt either will go into teaching, educational technology, or librarianship, so my thoughts need to be sufficiently generic to have meaning to engineers, doctors, and post-hole diggers.

Writing about education - especially when it comes to technology and librarianship - has always been tricky - being relevant without soon being dated. I felt my professional books really only had a shelf life of about five years before they needed a revision. Nothing like a reference to Myspace to have readers question your work.

To sort of put myself in the mood for writing, I will be posting chapters from Machines Are the Easy Part over the next couple of weeks. 

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From Machines Are the Easy Part; People Are the Hard Part. 

Illustrations by Brady Johnson

Forward: the true miracle of the pyramids

I once visited the Great Pyramids of Giza and have always remembered an observation made by the Gaddafi look-alike tour guide:

“Most people marvel at the engineering and building when looking at these ancient wonders. But the true miracle was the sophistication of human management 4,000 years ago. How did this early civilization feed, house, train, organize and motivate the workers in order to complete these giant undertakings?”

Many books and articles on educational technology focus on the equipment itself – what software to use, how to create and manage networks, how to write lesson plans that incorporate technology, what technology skills all students need – all sprinkled with a generous dose of TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms). Heavy on the machines; light on the humanity.

This little book takes a somewhat skewed approach to educational technology. It’s focus is on the human elements to which attention must be paid before technology can have an impact on teaching and learning.

The book is designed to be read in one sitting or in lots of little sittings. (I know where I will be keeping my copy!) It doesn’t replace anything already available. It’s not definitive on any topic.

But it is my hope it will make you think, give you an insight or two, appeal to those of you who wish to think about technology only a healthy amount of your waking lives, be reassuring to those of you who are top-notch educators without being technology gurus, and perhaps give you a chuckle or two. No “feature creep” here.

Will you be remembered for what you did right or what you did wrong?

For me, one of the most memorable images from Egyptian mythology is the "weighing of the heart." After death, the ancient Egyptians felt, one's heart was placed on a scale opposite the "feather of truth and justice" . If the heart, which recorded all things one did in life both good and bad, was too heavy, you did not go to heaven - simple as that.

A good number of people's lives seemed to being judged in a similar way right now - especially literary and historical figures. Figures from the Civil War, not just Confederate Generals, but even Abraham Lincoln, are being evaluated on their worthiness for public statuary. Here in Minnesota, Henry Sibley, our first governor, had his name removed from a high school and renaming Sibley Park in Mankato is being seriously discussed. The depictions of Native Americans, Blacks, and Asians by beloved authors Laura Ingalls Wilder and Dr. Seuss are being criticized, and by implication, the characters of Wilder and Seuss as well.

When Anubis weighed Sibley's heart, I would not take a bet on the outcome. Letter writers' (historians both amateur and professional) opinions in the Mankato newspaper about the renaming of its largest and most well-known park show two very different interpretations of Sibley's role in the Dakota Uprising of 1862. Was he a primary actor in a baseless genocide of Indians that included the hanging of 38 Dakota natives who may or may not have been part of what may or may not have been a justified uprising that killed white settlers? Or did he stand up to public opinion and save the lives of hundreds of Dakota men, women, and children from whites out for revenge in his role of military commander? Anubis, did Sibley gain access to heaven or not?

Theodor Geisel's (Dr. Seuss) heart may also be an interesting case for the postmortem scales. Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham were fun read-alouds both in my home and in my libraries. Seuss's pro-conservation and pro-kindness lessons were good for kids. Yes, some images were drawn in what are now considered stereotypical fashion. Do we leave his books on the shelves for their humor and sound messages - or do we remove them because he colored a "Chinaman" yellow and showed him with chopsticks? Will the scales of social media and the press consign him and his works to heaven or hell?

Most of us are lucky (or unlucky?) enough to not be sufficiently famous for the public to have an opinion of our value. But in our families, in our communities, and especially in our own consciences we are judged. I hope to be more remembered for the good works, however small, I tried to do than by wrongs I have surely committed. Or by the standards of a future generation.

MN Book Awards - and the winner is...

A good friend is one of the judges for the Minnesota Book Award "Genre Fiction" category this year. (He himself is a past honoree.) I am not exactly sure what all his responsibilities are, but I know he has to at least read all four of the nominees. It may take him awhile since he moves his lips when he reads. Happily though, he suggested I read them as well. I did, and here are my short reviews.

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The Deep, Deep Snow by Brian Freeman

A very good mystery set in a remote small town in either Minnesota or Wisconsin. The narrator, a deputy sheriff, attempts to discover how and why a boy has disappeared, leaving only his bicycle by the roadside. (Shades of Jacob Wetterling.) The disappearance remains a mystery for 10 years until another clue is discovered. The book has unusual depth for a mystery novel - a mysterious adoption of an abandoned child, older adults in stages of dementia, and complex relationships among the members of the small community. Highly engaging read in which I actually cared about the characters. Bought a copy for my mom. 

From the Grave: A MacKenzie Novel by Dave Housewright

While I enjoyed this book (especially the references to Twin Cities locations and restaurants), I was disappointed that the plot revolved around supernatural happenings that were never resolved by non-supernatural explanations. This is the first McKenzie novel I have read in the series and I wish I could say I liked the protagonist more but he seemed, well, a bit bland and insensitive to me. Fast, entertaining read.

Get Idiota by Nate Granzow

Very funny (silly, actually) fast paced read. Being immature myself, I did enjoy the immature humor. Plot revolves around two simpletons trying to escape a deranged Mexican drug lord and his sexy assassin with an old truck full of marijuana and an emu, encountering a village of sex-crazed Amazons along the way. Improbable situations and broad, nutty characters might make this a good movie, but I am not sure it has the gravitas to be given a Minnesota Book Award.  Oh, neither the characters nor setting had anything to do with Minnesota.

Things We Didn't Say by Amy Lynn Green

I was not prepared to like this book. I usually prefer male authors of historical fiction, straight narrative rather than epistolary style, and less religion. But this book was extremely well researched, brilliantly written, and so relevant to today's atmosphere of xenophobia that it really kept me reading - and thinking. The female protagonist is articulate and assertive (to the dismay of much of her small town) and the other characters fully-drawn. Interesting details on WWII POW camps in Minnesota that I had not given much thought to previously. A bit heavy on the prayer and such, but enjoyed it so much I bought a copy of this title for my mother too.

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So there you are. You can probably tell from my reviews how I would rank them were I a contest judge. Knowing these books were all submitted for recognition of being the best in their category, I perhaps read them with a bit more critical eye. And I had to ask myself - what exactly makes a high quality book? For me, it revolves around readability, uniqueness, and especially, characters about whom one cares. And a little sex and violence plus a murder or two, never hurt.

I may make reading the genre fiction entries of the MBA an annual event!