The joys of a long book

If I have a complaint about the Goodreads social network for readers*, it's about their Reading Challenge. Goodreads encourages members to set a goal for the number of books they will read in a given year. My goal is 36 books and I have read 19. (Actually, I have read 17, one was counted twice, and I listened to audio version of another.)

What the challenge does not recognize is that books come in lots of different lengths. And this has been my year, it seems, for re-reading tomes:

• Alaska by James Michener 1152 pages
• The Journeyer by Gary Jennings 1024 pages
• Winds of War by Herman Wouk 898 pages
• The Stand (uncut edition) by Stephen King at 1348 pages

While I would not trust an English Major's math, I show these four books alone come to 4422 pages. The average fiction book is about 350 pages. So my 4 books are the reading equivalent of nearly 13 books.

This reading challenge is, of course, self-imposed. And no one but me probably sees or cares about whether I meet it or not. It is perhaps even ironic, given my long-standing criticism of extrinsic motivation in getting kids to read, that I even sign up. Even I admit that as complaints go, this is pretty damn petty. But it does kind of bug me that I cannot choose a total number of pages read rather than number of books. 

I will however continue to read long books. Why? Like a long hot shower or a week-long hike, there are some works that are so pleasurable, so engaging you really don't want to see them end. A good book has characters you know you will miss when it ends, places that are so interesting you wish to continue to explore, situations so intriguing you need a few more twists and turns. 

For those of us who read for pleasure, there are no deadlines. Perhaps book club members might disagree, but while I like checking off the "read" button in Goodreads, I relish the freedom to do so at my own pace.

Provided, of course, I am on track to complete my reading challenge for the year.

* Steve Tetreault has a great blog post about Goodreads on the AASL blog.

The endless bathtub project

For many, post retirement plans involve some kind of home improvement project. For me, it was replacing the shower curtain in my bathroom with a sliding glass door. On reflection, I don't know why I felt I needed to do this. But I did.

My small bathroom has a sink and commode on one side and a combo molded bath/shower on the other. The sink and all accessories (TP holder, faucets, wastebasket, drinking glass, Kleenex holder, mirror trim) are all colored what is commonly known as "oil-rubbed bronze." Which I like since it looks sorta manly. So when asked by the person who was to install my new sliding glass shower door the color trim I wanted, I of course replied, "oil-rubbed bronze." And that was what was very competently installed.

What I realized, now able to gaze through my lovely glass doors, was that the fixtures in the tub itself were chrome. How tacky to have half the bathroom metallic silver and the other deep brown. Simple enough to correct, I thought. Just replace:

• Shower pipe and shower head.
• Tub faucet and cover plate
• Tub spout
• Overflow cover
• Drain
• Grab bar affixed to the tub

I will tackle one piece at a time, basking in the sense of accomplishment as each task is completed!

I started with the overflow cover and drain:

 

Amazon promised they would be easy to install. What they didn't day was how hard the old ones were to remove. Nor did they say that if one did not tighten the new drain sufficiently, water from the tub would drip through the ceiling of the laundry closet downstairs. But after only a couple sleepless nights of worry, these pieces were successfully installed. (And after watching several YouTune how-to videos.)

Next I tackled the shower head and shower pipe:

This time I shopped at Home Depot. The pipe was easy. I only had to try two shower heads before I got one that sprayed at the right angle. Two trips to the store. For me, not bad.

While at Home Depot, I picked up a bronze tub spout. It looked like this and claimed to be universal:

It wasn't. The Home Depot plumbing guru suggested I go to a plumbing supply store with a photo of the pipe to which the spout needed to be attached. See below:

The lady behind the counter of the plumbing supply store laughed and informed me that that style of connection had not been used since the early 1980s. And good luck finding a bronze spout in that style - they didn't carry them. So I reattached the old chrome spout and tackled the faucet and plate next.

What you are looking at here are actually two pieces. A faucet (the round part in the middle with the handle) and a large plate that covers the holes left when the tub had separate hot and cold faucets. Neither Home Depot, Menards, Lowes, Target, Walmart, or Ace Hardware carried the cover plate in bronze. I finally found one used via Amazon. Surprisingly, once in hand, these were fairly easy to install. Except the handle. I eventually turned off the water, turned the spout upside down (open), and used gravity to help me insert and tighten the set screw. Thankfully I had the presence of mind to close the drain which kept the often dropped screw from being lost forever. And me from having to make yet another trip to Home Depot.

That left two seemingly insurmountable replacements to make. The tub spout and the grab bar that was a part of the tub itself:

Yeah, that irremovable bar like the one above. Just an FYI to other do-it-yourselfers, a vice grip will not budge these bars, but it will leave a nice dent in them. What to do...

Then one night during my 3am worry-fest, I hit on a solution: just paint the existing chrome bits! And Amazon even helped me find the right paint - first click:

So yesterday, I set the tub spout in a cardboard box and sprayed the dickens out of it - two coats. I carefully taped the areas around the grab bar in the tub and sprayed two coats of bronze on it as well. 

This morning I reinstalled a nice looking tub spout that now matches my sink faucet handles (in color if not in style) and the grab bar is nicely browned.

As is one streak where the paint got through the masking on the tub. Given that the paint is a dark brown, it looks like another substance commonly found in bathrooms - but usually not in bathtubs. I have faith Home Depot will be able to sell me some kind of paint remover that will not eat the tub as well. Although the can promises that the paint "bonds" to plastic. Ominous.

While projects like this don't really determine whether one is leading a happy, productive life, they certainly make one reflect on one's competence - not just as a handyman, but as someone who has any foresight at all. It's a wonder I kept a job.

I'm going to give it a week or so before tackling my next home improvement task.

BFTP: 7 reasons educators secretly fear creativity

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. - Apple Inc "Think Different" ad.

Developing creativity in the classroom, in the school, in the district is not particularly difficult. Simple teaching techniques can spur divergent thinking. Innovation can be a part of all content areas and disciplines. Any project can have recognition of originality in its assessment. But creativity tends to be actively suppressed by teachers and administrators*. Here's why.

Educators actually fear creativity - whether we like to admit or not, whether we're conscious of it or not.

Off the top of my head, I can think a number of reasons...

1. It upsets the organizational status quo. Creative approaches to education mean change. And change always means there are winners and losers - in power, in budgets, in comfort levels. Even if one has been only modestly successful in one's role at school, with change it could get worse. Any truly creative approach to solving a problem runs a real risk of making things worse, rather than better. Educators don't like risk.
2. It changes relationships. Hugh MacLeod accurately reports that "a big idea will change you." We may like or dislike any individual student, but at least we "know" them and how to deal with them. Creative students grow in unpredictable ways. Creative people can just plain be uncomfortable to around. And we as educators love our "norms." (See Why Robots Make the Best Students.)
3. It offends sensibilities. Artists (visual, musical, etc.) have always had the ability to shock. I'll bet that the Cro-Magnon (probably a teenager) who used two sticks to beat on a hollow log was driven from the cave. My dad couldn't stand rock-and-roll and I find rap tough to appreciate. Language or visuals one's own generation may find obscene or distasteful are often perfectly acceptable by kids - like it or not. 
4. It makes us feel inferior. When the tech department asks us to use a creative means of using a tool, we may feel inadequate. As librarians we all know we have a lot to learn about e-resources. As parents ask to be contacted using social media, our learning curve rises. Ask a person to do something new usually means learning on our parts. Why does your being creative always seem to mean more work for me?
5. It undermines our efforts to create good test takers. The antithesis of creativity is asking for the "one right answer" which is exactly what educators ask students to regurgitate on standardized tests. (Ever wonder why they were called "standardized?) Tests are timed; creativity takes time. Tests are supposedly objective; creativity is often subjective. Tests demand respect for the authority of the test-takers; creativity questions and often defies authority.
6. It's hard to measure. Which is more creative? A new vocal interpretation of a classic song or an new computer program that helps a diabetic monitor his blood sugar? The song will be assessed by music critics - and by the music-purchasing public. The software will be judged by a single factor - it works reliably or it doesn't. You can't place students or their ideas on a creativity bell curve. There are no creativity lexiles. Teachers especially have been led to doubt the value of their subjective judgments about their students.
7. It may mean we adults are expected to demonstrate creativity as well. School cultures that value creativity ask for it from students AND staff. But I am doing everything perfectly now. Why change?

So are there antidotes to creativity aversion? Hmmmmmm....

1. For the risk adverse, think small step approaches.
2. Instead of "change," think of students growing and improving through creative approaches to problems, know they are practicing real-world dispositions.
3. Think of how much a geezer you are when you start a sentence, "I can't believe today's kids' tastes in ______________." And try to remember what your parents hated about they way you dressed, what you listened, how you wore your hair, etc. (But you probably really shouldn't have gotten that tattoo.)
4. Think upstream costs vs. downstream time savings. Yes, it may take some time to learn a new social networking tool for communications, but in the long run, more effective means of communication always saves time.
5. Creativity also demands what I call "craftsmanship." Content knowledge, good skills, and other testable kinds of stuff is still necessary for creative individuals. Think assessment balance - although I know our politicians make this tough. More on craftsmanship in a future post.
6. As educators, we need to reexamine the value of subjectivity when we deal with kids and their accomplishments. We are forcing way too many "round" kids into very "square" holes. Think personalization of education - taking evaluating each person's accomplishments personally, as well as their interests.
7. If you don't want to try new things, take some risks, be adventurous, have a divergent (even subversive) thought now and then, you need to find a new line of work since you've lost your passion for education and are just collecting the paycheck. Think of a field far away from children. Thanks.

* Loved The Lego Movie's perceptive take on creativity and conformity. It's a must see.

Original post 2/17/14