Still Important

To My Teacher Friends Far and Near,

There is a fog across the meadow this morning. It brings a peaceful quiet to the country and a special sense of solitude. The magnificent green of this Wisconsin summer is slightly muted and the trees seem more stately in the mist. The change in light seems a signal to the working teacher in this household. Without much conscious thought, small signs begin to appear. The box of colored pencils she found at a rummage sale is added to a collection of yogurt containers she saved. The walk in the nearby field includes observations about how many monarch butterflies are around. A new copy of A Very Hungry Caterpillar appears on the coffee table. All simple reflections of the way teachers think about their work even in the summer. I know many of you are doing similar things and I need you to know your work has never been more important.

I know your patience will be tested as the year begins. You likely will be asked to listen to consultants or motivational speakers at the start. I know it can be frustrating, especially if the “consultant” never worked in the classroom. Just remember, it’s well meant, and you’ve live through this before. And sometimes the speakers are really good, and they make you laugh and nod your head. So, there’s that.  Some may even help you remember the teachers you admired growing up.  

I always liked teachers who had an easy sense of humor. They could reassure me with just a smile or a corny joke. I liked teachers who were inviting and encouraging. They made me feel welcome and capable. I liked teachers who listened to me - who valued my ideas and let me explain my feelings. I liked teachers who saw me as a person. I liked teachers who knew a lot of stuff but didn’t act like it. Those are the teachers I remember. They made school an important place for me because they were well trained professionals and really good at their jobs. They knew how to balance the HOW of learning with the WHAT. They knew what many of you also know – no one can “teach” us anything, they can only help us learn. I know this sounds like semantic hair-splitting, but it really is the heart of education. All of us come to understand the world in our own way. Teachers can help us look at new things, but they can’t “see” for us. This helps explain why some of the most important things we learn in the classroom are not always the things teachers plan and they certainly are not the easiest to measure. The teacher who creates a trusting relationship with a student can help the kid learn a great deal even if they don’t “get” the subject. They can help students learn how to keep learning beyond the classroom.

          But most of you know that already.

          The bigger picture for public schools is also a challenge for you. Education leads to enlightenment and enlightenment leads to new ideas and new beliefs. Good education compels us to reflect on who we are and what we do through reasoned discussion. This has always caused conflict. The Ancient Greeks did not want Socrates asking too many questions. The Catholic church didn’t want Galileo rearranging the heavens. The Confederacy didn’t want to discuss “All men are created equal”. Some modern Americans don’t want to believe we are changing our climate. This conflict is especially challenging today because some people want to use it as a tactic to “divide and conquer”. They find it useful to keep people confused and uninformed. They don’t encourage people to get more education, they tell them they don’t need it. They don’t encourage people to listen to experts, they call them “elitists”.  It helps explain why public education has been so brutally attacked in the last decade. What better way to keep the public confused and uninformed than to degrade teachers, claim public schools are failing, argue that college is a waste of money, and call the news media “fake”?

            I don’t mean to suggest you need to add another item to your list of – what’s the new buzz word, “must haves”?  I just want you to know how necessary your work is today. Every time you help a child understand a new concept, every time you help them use logic and reasoning, every time you help them feel the excitement of learning new things, you are making our society stronger. Every time you ask them to create a painting or sing a song or write a story, you are helping them reveal how they see the world. Every time you let them share their ideas with the group and ask them to listen carefully, you are showing them that we are better when we work together. These are things you do every day, but never forget their importance.

            In his novella And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer And Longer, Frederick Bachman tells the moving story of a grandson helping his beloved Grandpa come to terms with dementia. At the very end, as Grandpa struggles to remember, Noah comforts him.

            “Don’t be scared,” the young man whispers.

            “I don’t know who you are,” he whispers.

            The young man strokes his forearm.

            “I’m Noah. You’re my grandpa. You taught me to cycle on the road outside your house and you loved my grandma so much there was no room for you in your feet……. If you tie this string around your wrist you can keep hold of the balloon when you fall asleep, and when you get scared you just yank it and I’ll pull you back. Every time.”

            Grandpa nods slowly and strokes Noah’s cheek in wonder.

            “You look different, Noahnoah. How is school? Are the teachers better now?”

            “Yes, Grandpa, the teachers are better. I’m one of them now. The teachers are great now.”

            “That’s good, that’s good, Noahnoah”, Grandpa whispers as he closes his eyes. “A great brain can never be kept on Earth.”

          Have a great year.

Seeing and believing

     When I was a kid, my farmer father would frequently talk to me about “common sense”. He strongly believed that experience and observation would solve most of the problems we encountered. If the tractor tire was flat, it would be unwise to drive it. (Of course, my father would not have said “unwise”. He would have said something about pulling your head out of a certain part of your anatomy.) He would often tell the story of the new, young supervisor who came to work at the Heil Company where Dad also worked as a machinist. As Dad told it, the supervisor wanted to add a new machine to the shop floor and he drew up blue prints for the job. The plans were neat and well prepared. So, when the supervisor brought the plans out to the shop, he was surprised when Dad said, “It won’t work.” Of course, the new supervisor assumed my father didn’t understand the blue print. When he began explaining, my dad pulled out his tape measure and showed the supervisor that the machine would not fit in the space. It was my dad’s way of illustrating that without careful observation and experience avoidable mistakes are often made. (I will not share the exact words he used to describe the young supervisor, but you get my point.) While it made him feel validated to demonstrate his concrete skills, he struggled with the changes that surrounded him as he grew older. He no longer was able to “tune up” the cars he bought because he had neither the tools nor the knowledge to manage electronic ignitions. Carburetors were a thing of the past. And three speed manual transmissions? Oh, he still worked on the old stuff still around, but the world was different. Like many, many others, my dad’s biggest limitation was his lack of knowledge and the difficulty of obtaining more. Working a full-time factory job and running a beef farm left little time for education.  Perhaps that’s why he placed such an emphasis on education for his kids. He knew that insight and enlightenment along with common sense would be necessary to solve problems. He also recognized that he needed advice from others who knew more than he did. I wonder what he would say if he were alive today?

     I’m pretty sure I couldn’t print what he’d say. My father had his faults, but he taught me that a society without some sense decency and honor was lost. He would laugh at the lying phony who resides in Washington. He would laugh because common sense tells you that liars can’t be trusted. He would laugh because everyone knows anything you achieve by lying and cheating is spoiled. Your elders and your ministers and your teachers all said lying is wrong. He would laugh that the son of the preacher Billy Graham, THE Billy Graham, would defend a lying phony. He would laugh, not because he was a devout Christian, but because the only thing worse than being a liar is being a hypocrite. Finally, he would laugh – and shake his head- at those who say they know he is a lying phony but it’s worth it. They know he is an uninformed, ego driven, deceptive little man but he’s making things better. My dad would say, “Use your common sense.”

     My dad lived through some of the most difficult times in American history. The World Wars, the Great Depression, the 1960’s, Watergate. Like millions of others, he never lost faith in the essential values of our democracy. He never lost faith that average people, when given a decent education and enough information, would use their common sense to select leaders who truly understand what it means to be a statesman. When a political leader stands up and encourges people to mock and hate, when he urges people to stop reading the free press, when he states, “don’t believe what you see and hear”, it’s not surprising to know this little man lost the popular election by 3 million votes. He is laughable and will be thrown on the trash heap of history along with the other liars and phonies of the past. But those who enable him, those representatives who ignore the damage he has done, also need to be held accountable. Here in Janesville, Wisconsin, we watch in bewilderment as Paul Ryan abandons his convictions about fiscal responsibility. He used to give huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires and then argue that we couldn’t afford to fund Social Security and Medicare. Now, he gives huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires and says not a word about fiscal responsibility or social justice. Scott Walker is even worse. He gave huge tax breaks to his corporate cronies and the wealthy.  Then he slashed almost a BILLION dollars from public education because he said, "We're broke!" He attacked our university system and even tried to alter the Wisconsin Idea.   And now he claims he is the EDUCATION governor. As Abe Lincoln said, “You can call a jackass a racehorse, but everybody knows he still a jackass.” I can hear my dad laughing. Fortunately, our history tells us we have been in places like this before and we have depended on the common sense of average citizens. As we approach our new election, I hope you will look closely at candidates who truly offer a vision of America we can be proud of.

As my dad would say, “Use your common sense. Then, Go VOTE!

Still Sound Advice

I was digging around in an old briefcase when I found a copy of this letter I wrote in 2010. I still believe what it says and, since the Olympics have started, I think it's still timely.

When Coach Herb Brooks was selecting the players for what was to become the “Miracle on Ice” hockey team of Olympic history, he turned down a player that everybody thought was better than some he had selected. When he was asked about it he said, “I don’t need the best players, I need the RIGHT players.”  What he meant, of course, is that the best players don’t necessarily make the best teams. The success of next year’s basketball team will depend on how well you learn to be the “right” players. As I am sure you have noticed, I believe the success of a team (and it’s CHARACTER) is determined by how well they play defense. Defense is plain hard work. No headlines in the paper, no cheers from the crowd. The player that dedicates themselves to defense understands what 12 time NBA champion Bill Russell calls “the secret”. What is “the secret”?  It is the idea that “team” is the only thing that matters. No individual statistics, no personal agendas, just the “team” winning. Good defense says something about the kind of person you are. I hope you remember the things we discussed about defense.

 The “right” players also know something about fundamentals. They can dribble and pass. Shoot free throws and jump shots. These are things you can practice in your backyard and basement. The “right” players know how to motivate themselves to practice the basics.

Finally, just a general observation about athletic competition.  In 1988, Wisconsin born speed skater Dan Jansen went to the Olympics as the world record holder in the 500 meter event. Sadly, he went to the Olympics knowing that his sister Jane was losing her battle with leukemia. On the evening before his competition, he spoke to his sister by phone even though she was too ill to respond. In the early hours of the morning, Jane died. Dan Jansen went on to race, but he fell in both events. He competed out of respect for his sister and for his sport. Four years later he returned to the Olympics and once again, even though he was the world record holder, he failed to win gold. He said the experience taught him that “winning” is not just having the most points at the end. “To persevere when the odds are against you and to do your best, that is what wining really means.” That is what I hope you take from your athletic career. I want you to feel like you did something as well as you could without any regrets. I have enjoyed coaching you this summer.

Coach D

(By the way, Dan Jansen went back to his final Olympics in 1994 and finally won a gold medal. To celebrate, he took a victory lap carrying his 1 year old daughter, Jane.)