My parents were old from the time I became aware of them as people. Their friends were old and when I met my in-laws for the first time they were old. In my earliest memories of these people they were all younger than I am now.
I frequently fool around and call myself an old man. In some ways I do feel old. I have many memories, I have many experiences to look back on, I have made decisions in my past – some good – some bad – all made with the best of intentions. I have a lot of years behind me.
But in many ways I don’t feel old. I have new ideas and I learn something new almost every day. If old dogs can’t learn new tricks then I’m not an old dog.
I am ready for adventure – actually more ready for adventure now (in my old age) than I was when I was young. In fact now I seek adventure. I try to create challenges for myself in ways that I never did when I was younger. Maybe its the freedom of my time of life or maybe I’ve just learned to enjoy new things, adventuresome things, creative, stimulating things.
I do know that for a long time my goal in life was stability and evenness. Maybe I achieved that and now I need a little instability.
All this thinking for two reasons
On Friday one of my inportant mentors died.
I sometimes look back on my career and think that I didn’t do the typical ‘academic’ work. I was practical, I did things, I contributed to things – my thinking and analysis and insights were focused on creating and changing – so that children’s lives and teachers’ lives could be changed – perhaps made a bit easier – rather than codifying and ‘researching’ so that refereed articles could be written and published.
I have suffered in some ways because of the way my career – so far – has gone
But I am proud of what we accomplished – and it was ‘we’ – nothing is ever done alone.
I was guided at the beginnings of my career by three men that I grew to respect and cherish. I have written about them and others in an earlier blog entry.
Errol Young died on Friday.
Does that mean I am officially old now?
Well perhaps in a way it does – but in some ways it doesn’t
I am being mentored still – except my guess is that the people that are mentoring me – really I mean teaching me, showing me a new way, assisting me, nurturing me, encouraging me – don’t even know they are my mentors
They are the people – I can only think of them as friends – who show interest in me by talking to me and encouraging me every day, who trust me enough to do research and write articles with me on an ongoing basis, who think I know something and ask me questions regularly, who are open to my opinions and stories and paranoias and listen to them regularly – accepting, valuing and appreciating – and it goes on and on.
I grow everyday with these people around me – I am a lucky man – perhaps not chronologically young but because of these people – my friends and loved ones – I see the world as a young person, I see potential, I see and embrace change.
My sister sent me the second motive for this introspective entry. If you remember Pete Townsend’s line – I hope I die before I get old – you’ll appreciate this article.
Check it out:
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/11/Perspective/Too_old_to_die_young.shtml
I should explain why the dates on this blog are a bit screwy. I am trying to figure out how to use Edublog so I am maintaining this blog in a way as my experiment – I’m not getting far in mastering Edublog.
My real blog is http://theteachinglife.blogspot.com/
I try to post at the same time to each blog – I always write the blog over in blogspot – but sometimes I’m a day or two off – like today.
That’s it for the explanation!!!
Yesterday we had our second meeting to try to find a core or foundation for our faculty’s teacher education programs. It was a much smaller group as compared to the first week and the conversation reflected that.
I was late and by the time I got there our new middle years program was being discussed. The central focus of that program is Social Justice – so everything, it seems, has that perspective built in.
Although I agree with the notion of having teachers try to right some wrongs, be aware of the implicit racism and bias of our school systems – I just have a problem with anything taking the focus away from what I see as a faculty of education’s prime purpose – and that is to help interested individuals become excellent teachers.
Now I recognize that the definition of excellence will vary – but I believe that it centres around the teacher’s ability in the classroom, their ability to understand what is needed in the classroom, why it should be there and how to make the life of the learners happier, safe, productive and meaningful.
Structuring a program over four years (or over two years) that accomplishes all of our goals will be very difficult – there is a reason I believe that so few teacher education facilities do a poor job of this work. It will be taxing physically, demanding intellectually and politically difficult within the academy.
But it is worth it
A colleague used the word synergy today and I’ve been thinking about it all day. Here’s what Wikipedia says about synergy:
Synergy or synergism (from the Greek synergos meaning working together, circa 1660) refers to the phenomenon in which two or more discrete influences or agents acting together create an effect greater than the sum of the effects each is able to create independently. The opposite of synergy is antagonism, the phenomenon where two agents in combination have an overall effect which is less than the sum of their individual effects. Synergism stems from the 1657 theological doctrine that human will cooperates with divine grace in regeneration. The term began to be used in the broader, non-theological, sense by 1925. In the 1960s it was first used to describe supposed economies of scale in business, reappearing in the 1990s as a common business buzzword. Synergy can also mean:
* A mutually advantageous conjunction where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
* A dynamic state in which combined action is favored over the sum of individual component actions.
* Behavior of whole systems unpredicted by the behavior of their parts taken separately. More accurately known as emergent behavior[
Maybe this is what I have meant when I talked about being more creative when I work with colleagues that I like and respect. I like the phrase “mutually advantageous conjunction” I hope when I work with my friends and colleagues that we both realize value from our collaboration – and it always seems to me that we do better work together than alone – or at least when I work alone.
I experienced synergy today – I had to write my Editor’s Comments for the NABTE Review. I have struggled with it for days but today I finally sat down and pushed out 500 words. I was not happy at all with what I had written. I asked a colleague – someone I respect a great deal – to read what I had written and to be brutally frank. She was brutally frank!!! But we discussed what I thought I wanted to write and she pointed out what I did write – in her own unique way she allowed me to create something that I actually do like. Her input clearly raised my bar – the sum was more than its parts. So I can only imagine what the ‘mutually advantageous’ part was for her but as far as I am concerned she should take some satisfaction in knowing she made me better.
I am close to finishing a big project I embarked on just about this time last year. I am doing the finishing touches and will send the whole thing off by the end of the week. It is something I have never done before and although there were major bumps along the way I am more or less satisfied (are we ever really satisfied?) with this project. I will be repeating this activity next year and it will be so much easier.
I also was able to spend quality time with colleagues today. I use the word colleague to imply people who are interested in the same things as I am but I truly mean friends. A day when a few words are exchanged, to encourage or praise, to support or even to criticize is a good day. This academic life can be a solitary life sometimes – we have to sit and think and work on classes and grade and create research ideas, etc. But for me some of the joy in this work is the people I spend part of the day with – talking about work, life and anything else that happens to come up.
So today was a productive day
I digress
This weekend has been filled with music – two distinctly different kinds of music.
On Friday night we saw Petula Clark. I remembered her from the 60’s but the only song I remembered was Downtown. Did she have any others? Was she a one hit wonder with a name that stuck?
I won’t go through her resume – check her out on the Internet. www.petulaclark.co.uk
This is what Wikipedia has to say about her:
“Petula Sally Olwen Clark, CBE, (born November 15, 1932), is a British singer, actress and composer, best known for her upbeat popular international hits of the 1960s. With nearly 70 million recordings sold worldwide, she is the most successful British solo recording artist to date. She also holds the distinction of having the longest span on the international pop charts of any artistÂ51 yearsÂfrom 1954, when “The Little Shoemaker” made the UK Top Twenty, through 2005, when her CD “L’essentiel – 20 Succès Inoubliables” charted in Belgium.”
“…….”Downtown” went to #1 on the US charts in January 1965 and ultimately sold three million copies in America alone. It was the first of fifteen consecutive Top 40 hits Clark scored in the US, including “I Know A Place”, “My Love”, “A Sign of the Times”, “I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love”, “Color My World”, “This Is My Song” (from the Charles Chaplin film A Countess from Hong Kong), and “Don’t Sleep In The Subway.” The American recording industry honored her with Grammy Awards for “Best Rock & Roll Record” for “Downtown” in 1964 and for “Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance” for “I Know a Place” in 1965. In 2003, her recording of “Downtown” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.”
For someone that was born in 1932 she still has an unbelievably clear and strong voice (yep she’s close to 74 years old!) It was a great show – very professional and she told terrific stories between terrific songs!
Saturday night we went to see the Prairie Pride Chorus – Regina’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Choir. They were performing Watershed Stories 1 and 2. James McNinch and Scott Thompson both sing in the choir.
Watershed Stories are a series of songs that in some ways tell the stories of the men and women in the choir – the words and music were written by David McIntyre the choir’s conductor. It was a terrific night – the voices were very good and the words and music created every kind of emotion possible.
I felt in some ways I understood what was being portrayed through my own feelings of marginalization, being different, having to defend myself as a jew in a christian world. Clearly the parallels are limited – my parents and relatives were jewish, etc. – but the need to understand and take joy in the differences is similar.
I’m glad we went to both these concerts. Petula brought back my youth but showed that age doesn’t need to diminish powers and that all those experiences and memories are good things. And the Chorus reminded me that this world is made up of such a wonderful variety of people and opinions and needs.
Age, differences, abilities, experiences, memories, drive, determination, focus, are all things this weekend got me thinking about. Its a pretty good world when people with talent can use that talent to educate, inform, stimulate and entertain.
It was a good weekend
We got the email today that announced that Michael Tymchak would be the Acting Dean of our faculty for the next two years. Michael had been dean immediately before Margaret McKinnon – our departing dean. I think this is a good choice. And although I am sorry we weren’t able to attract a new dean I think in the end this was a good thing too.
The failed search seems to have mobilized our faculty. People are talking to each other about the future, about programs and what to do about them, about how to fit research and service into our busy lives. In a few short weeks I can feel the change. It isn’t extremely noticeable but I feel that it is happening – Thursday’s meeting about finding the ‘core’ or foundations of our programs was well attended.
I have always held the belief that in our faculty we, the faculty members, could set our own course. Through discussion, tension, disagreement, negotiation, etc. we could find ways that would serve our students well, our profession well, and ourselves well. I think we lost that belief as a group a while ago. But this new need or willingness to talk encourages me in thinking that perhaps we can take the leadership role again. I have no idea where that leadership will take us – and I won’t make any guesses. There are so many new people in the faculty who have wonderful ideas – I am excited to listen, learn and then do new and creative things. I have always seen working with teachers and prospective teachers as being very important work and now there is the chance we can create new and different and better ways of doing that.
Having Michael as Acting Dean will allow this to happen. It always seemed to me that Michael always trusted the faculty. I believe that if he sees a movement within the faculty he will encourage and support it.
Fragmentation and isolation of programs and people have hurt this faculty – perhaps now things will be different
It turns out that, much to my surprise, I am an expert on Business Education in the Middle Years classroom!!
A few months ago I was being interviewed for an article on financial literacy. I guess the woman that was interviewing me liked what I was saying and told me that she was doing another article on Middle Years and asked if we could talk about that topic too.
My direct experience with middle years kids is limited to my own children passing through those years and a very brief – very brief – attempt to work with some Junior High kids when I was teaching in Transcona in 1975! I was asked to come to their school and help the drama teacher with some direction and some dance sequences she wanted to put into their play.
My line has always been – “don’t blame them – its really the hormones!!!”
So when I was asked to talk about Middle Years I talked about my perspectives about those years and reflected some of what I knew was going on in Saskatchewan schools and in out Middle Years Teacher Education Program.
I received the most recent copy of the Business Education Forum today and sure enough there was the article called (Inventing) The Future of Middle School Business Education. So I started to read it with an eye out for my name. I got through the first three pages of the article and I was nowhere to be found. I thought the author was sort of smart – did I really give her anything of value? Best to leave me out of it – and anyway I was giving her a Canadian/Saskatchewan perspective and so far this article was clearly American – there even is a table where 9 important people talk about hat is happening in their areas concerning Business Education and Middle Schools.
You can imagine how shocked I was when I turned to the 4th page and found (on the page opposite) a pullout box fully two thirds of the page entitled Educating the Whole Child: One Canadian’s Perspective!!!!!
She used everything that I said – and I think I actually sounded sort of intelligent.
It was a surprise but I am quite pleased and maybe a bit proud of this. I do care about educating the whole child – remember I started out as an elementary teacher. And I do care about teaching the crucial knowledge that every child, every adult, should have that comes from Business Education.
When you think of the billions of consumer dollars that are effectively controlled by children the earlier we start to help them understand the economic world they live in the better it will be for all of us.
I do have a small criticism of the article – unfortunately I think it reflects what is turning out to be the dominant thought in Business Education today – that is that Business Education is only technology or job preparation.
These ideas will always, in my opinion, interfere with a proper move of our content into the lower grades. Middle years and elementary teachers are neither technology teachers nor do they have a pressing need to feel they are preparing their students for work.
There are much more profound arguments that would support and facilitate a move to the lower grades – we just don’t seem to know those arguments any more – not even at the high school level. That’s disappointing.
So I will bask in my experthood – and hope that someone that really knows something about Business Education in the Middle Years won’t get too offended.
Now, perhaps I can start doing workshops on this topic – wouldn’t that be funny – or maybe it would be a good thing!
I have gotten a little more involved with doing research and publishing over the last few years. I have always been a little worried about the state of research in my area. It never seemed to have the focus or depth as did science education or reading, etc. There were and still are a number of good researchers in Business Education but too often the articles I read were superficial and really didn’t contribute to a well developed theoretical knowledge base.
This is a symptom of the wide range of content, interests and issues inherent in Business Education. Are we Career and Technology Educators? General Educators? Technology Educators? Or something totally different or a combination of all of these? Its confusing.
For instance there are numerous studies in our literature studying the needs of entry level employees. We ask business people what they want from our graduates – from high school, technical/community colleges and universities. We frequently get the same answers – someone who can learn, a team player, good interpersonal skills, a self starter and on and on – which frustrates us because those are generic skills which are taught by many programs beyond business education. Yet we don’t seem to be confident enough in identifying for ourselves what a good business education ought to be – it seems hard for us to be leaders. We shouldn’t be asking what business wants from out students – we should be telling business what our students have and why they need that knowledge and skill. And anyway, why do we worry so much about employment readiness when we should be teaching all students – everyone has a connection to the economic/business world and every one should be properly prepared.
So what topics should our research address? I’m not 100% sure for everyone but I know the areas in which I am interested. I need to know what it takes to become an excellent business teacher. What is peculiar and unique about business teacher education? What skills, knowledge, attitudes etc. are important to survive the first few years of teaching business subjects and which are important for the long term benefit of career business teachers?
I am hopeful that we can get our research on track!
We had a meeting the other day where we discussed beginning a process of looking for the ‘core’ of our teacher education process. In a way I do agree that we do need to find those ideas, concepts, attitudes and skills that all teachers need to have. But I resist using the word ‘core’ A colleague pointed out that if the core becomes the ‘canon’ then we are in trouble – academic freedom, independent thinking, individualistic approaches and thoughts will all be put in jeopardy.
So what are the commonalities? And how do we find them?
I don’t think this will be an easy project. On the other hand I think there are some things that I can easily identify that every prospective teacher should know. From the most mechanical – how to create a plan for teaching, how to find resources, how to do basic student assessment, to the most esoteric – an opportunity to delve into themselves and discover if and why they are driven to become teachers. Regardless of where a person teaches there are many commonalities – schwab’s commonplaces are a good place to start.
But then what makes teaching one area different from teaching in another area?
My thinking so far is that if we analyzed the content of each of our courses we would find considerable overlap. Some of the overlap would be because the material wasn’t available to everyone elsewhere – the example that comes to mind is lesson planning. There are small differences between planning a lesson in Phys. Ed and planning a lesson in Physics – but the differences are marginal and easily picked up. Other bits of overlap are contextual and require the overlap – the example there is content analysis for instructional planning – the analysis is basically the same but the context of the subject area requires that students learn the process under the guidance of a subject area specialist using subject area material.
Once we identify where and why the overlaps exist I believe that we can start to build a common experience for all students in our programs. Once this is firmly established then the subject areas, which are able to rely on the common experience, can focus on the unique needs and demands of their area. In my case I would be able to work with my students in the Business Education context, addressing the wide range of content, the demands of technology, career and technical education, etc.
I think we will need to be creative and collaborative in our efforts to accomplish this task. But I also think that a coherent, integrated program with faculty and staff that are invested and committed to the program will help prospective teachers understand teaching and the education context as well as be able to operate and improve that context.
