The way we were - meme

Dear Grandson Paul,

When I was your age, I was a pioneer child on the prairie in the wilds of northwest Iowa. All 13 of my brothers, all 12 of my sisters, my mom and dad, two second cousins and I lived in the little log cabin that is still in the city park. There are now only me, your great-aunt Becky and great-uncle Jeff left of all my brothers and sisters. Two were carried away in a flood, four were adopted by wolves, a tornado carried away three, a band of robbers captured four, giant rattlesnakes scared away five, one went missing in a blizzard, a great golden eagle swooped down and flew off with one, and we think one just got left someplace and nobody remembers where. We are looking for some of my brothers and sisters to this day. It was a hard life when I was a little boy growing up on the prairie. Most parents always had a few extra children - just to have some spares. from The Grandpa Assignment

Been awhile since I've done a meme, but I was tagged by Mr. Wham down South who asked us to write about things we did as kids that are now "off-limits." I suspect it is a miracle any of us lived given the complete disregard our parents showed us ... (Just a joke, Mom.)

1. Unsupervised play. Growing up a farm, we were pretty much turned loose in the morning and then simply expected to show up for meals. For me this meant riding my Coast King bike as fast and recklessly as possible (sans helmet, of course), riding my cousin's mean ponies, playing in the haymow often with pitchforks and corn knives, fishing and swimming in a near-by drainage ditch, shooting pigeons with any firearm that I could find, and sneaking off to read to avoid work whenever I could. The LWW and I often comment that while we know we have children living in our housing development, we rarely see them out and about. I don't know if it is due to video game addition or parental worries about safety, but to me our lakeside area would have been a dream environment as a kid and these kids are missing out.
2. Hitchhiking. From about the age of 12 on through college, hitchhiking was a viable means of getting from one place to another. After getting kicked off the school bus for misbehavior (it was never my fault), I could often beat the bus home having hitchhiked a ride. It was satisfying waving at the bus driver as he stopped to let my sister off the bus. I suspect too many horror movies have sounded the death knell to this interesting and environmentally friendly means of transport. I wonder if there could be a security check and an "I am not a weirdo" card issued to make hitchhiking comeback? Oh, while the lifted skirt technique may have worked for Claudette, I never got any mileage from it.
3. Eating past the expiration date. We ate potato salad, even after it sat on the picnic table all afternoon. We ate apples right off the trees and rhubarb straight from the garden (licking the stalk and dipping it into to the pilfered sugar bowl before biting off each tart bite.) We drank coffee that was more milk and sugar than coffee, put sugar on our Sugar Smacks, drank whole milk, high fat ice cream and stuff cooked with lard and Crisco. But we also burned lots of calories (see #1).
4. Riding in the back of the pickup. Like Mr. Wham, I remember riding in the ledge below the back car window, but our biggest thrill was riding in the back of farm pickup trucks (standing up in our Ben Hur mode); riding on a tractor's hitch, loader or fender; or on whatever contrivance was being pulled by said tractor (except manure spreaders). The higher the speed, the better. I do admire the bravery of children today who perform similar acts of daring-do on ATVs and snowmobiles.

We all worry a lot about kids safety today - especially online safety. And I suppose we should - natural selection is not exactly a kind science to apply to human beings, despite our guilty love of the Darwin Awards. But also wonder if we aren't growing a crop of hot house flowers - young adults who have not made enough mistakes and had sufficient close calls to have developed some survival techniques.

Sara Johns, Paul Cornier, and Rob Rubis - tag you're it.

Applying a "brand" aid?

I find it a little troubling that we are beginning to take our values from marketers. I'm speaking specifically about our concern over personal "brands."

After reading Jeff Utecht's post about helping his students create personal "brands," I decided I ought to look the term up to see what it actually meant, having no background in business. The website buildingbrands.com has a variety of definitions, but opens with this interesting observation:

What is a brand? Too often even marketing professionals don't have an answer, and too many have their 'own' answer. Which makes life very confusing!

Indeed. But the article quotes The Dictionary of Business and Management as:

"a name, sign or symbol used to identify items or services of the seller(s) and to differentiate them from goods of competitors."

While I certainly understand and agree with the advice that we need to help all Internet users be aware of their online (and I hope offline) reputation and history, I am concerned that we are stepping too far into the realm of image rather than accomplishment.

Are we about style or about substance? Is it in our student's and our own best interest to simply think of ourselves as products that should be made as marketable as possible? To what extent do we truly encourage individuals to purposely develop unique identities online, especially when being true to oneself may not be appealing to mainstream society and work against traditional employment or "successful" career paths? (What if a student should decide to "brand" herself as the foremost authority and practitioner of devil worship on the planet - following a probably passing adolescent interest?)

Are we making sure that students understand that an image alone has little value? A clever brand might get attention, but unless it backed up by a body of meaningful work and experiences, reliability and consistency, of positive values and thoughtfulness, it might work against an individual as well as for him. (Edsel, Thalidomide and Nazi were all brands, after all.)

I'm not sure this topic deserves the kind of attention I've given it, but something didn't' set right with me about teaching self-marketing to seventh graders. Have we all drunk of Seth Godin's Kool-aid, and developed a 24/7 neurosis about being purple cows in order to survive in tomorrow's society?

Oh, do consider the source: if this writer has a "brand" it may be a small, smelly mammal that is either very cold or depressed.