On the Timeline of History

The takeover of local, state, and federal governments that included Wisconsin's era of Scott Walker, voting restrictions, and Act 10 was calculated and progressed in planned, concerted steps.

With that 10+ year success, which was partially cracked only this year with the gerrymandering conviction and mandated redistricting in WI, the next plan being leaned on is Project 2025, which is populated by a host of individuals associated with former president Trump.


It's vital to understand this:

A new, long-range, and detailed political plan is in place and its scope in both depth and breadth deserves a title Version 2.0. It is being packaged as being for the modern patriot and that the entire system, not just the current administration, is King George.

I don't accept that. To do so is to say the Great American Experiment is over.


Yes, I do find myself wondering if I'm wrong and my descendants will carry the stigma that colonists who remained loyal to the crown did, as did their descendants.


I hope not. I don’t believe the facts validate this fear. When I look at the list of changes being promoted, I cannot support them. Dismantling the Department of Education? Rolling back regulations enforced by the EPA? Reversing Health & Human Services policies on reproductive rights (including birth control) and LGBTQIA issues? Making it OK to quickly fire and replace career civil service employees if they are objecting to an administration?


I believe those Americans grabbing for the mirage being sold want to belong to a group that promises a piece of imagined glory that no one else can provide as their reward. That method of manipulation is a tried and true one. We have to remember that those who lived in the South who didn’t own people didn’t fight that system because they actually hoped to someday be in that position of wealth and power themselves. They were incentivized to support slavery.

Project 2025 was written by 35 main authors and hundreds of contributors. Twelve of the main ones listed are:

- Rick Dearborn for the White House Office

- Russ Vought for the Executive Office of the President

- Christopher Miller for the Department of Defense

- Ken Cuccinelli for the Department of Homeland Security

- Kiron K. Skinner for the Department of State

- Lindsey M. Burke for the Department of Education

- Bernard L. McNamee for the Department of Energy

- Roger Severino for the Department of Health and Human Services

- Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., MD for the Department of Housing and Urban Development

- Gene Hamilton for the Department of Justice

- Jonathan Berry for the Department of Labor

- Diana Furchtgott-Roth for the Department of Transportation


You can get the full chapter and author list on the Heritage Foundation website.


Don’t get me wrong, I applaud anyone who has the foresight and organizational skills to design, build, and maintain a detailed action plan. It shows dedication and determination to set out one’s desires and plans and follow it. I certainly hope all political parties do this. And all businesses, charities, etc.


It’s all about the actual content and how one seeks to achieve one’s plans. That’s the problem here. The people behind this project supported the 45th president and they are writing this plan to ensure that his next time through doesn’t face any inside roadblocks as was seen in the first or outside ones.


This plan *could* be applied under any “conservative” presidency. 2024, 2028…whenever. It’s built for whoever wants this machine to work for them and them for that person. If that person fails this group think, I am sure they will be abandoned and a new figurehead would be found who will.

Racism, sexism, cronyism…all the -isms where here when “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” was written, and they are still here today. We’ve changed- thank goodness. We need to evolve much more- please, may it be.

I have faith it’s possible within the system we have that’s lasted now for 248 years.


If we don’t give up.


Please vote in every election you are eligible to vote it.

On the Subject of Education

 This week, our public school board posted on their website the "resolution to affirm" they approved in January with this as the final (of six) statements:

"No student shall be compelled to affirm, through speech, writing or action, an opinion that violates their deeply held personal, religious or moral beliefs."

It's in a resolution officially titled as being supportive of "parent rights" and "transparency".

I know why this whole resolution was even proposed let alone voted on and passed. It's based on templates designed by and promoted by groups who identify themselves as "conservative" in an attempt to “save” something. They picture specific topics they wish to not see promoted because they feel that would negatively impact their histories and beliefs.

As I outlined in a response to Sen. Kapenga's recent newsletter about a survey conducted by the UW System on First Amendment Rights, I'm concerned about the application of words like "opinion" and "beliefs" within the education system. This applies to all minds. Opinion and belief are not necessarily, at the very root, true. And our understanding of what is true grows the more we explore.

I do believe this resolution substantiates my assertion to both boys during the years that they do NOT have to recite at school the current Pledge of Allegiance that includes the phrase "Under God" instead of “indivisible” as it was originally written because it goes against my beliefs. My kids' beliefs at early ages are, as 99% of all kids' are, influenced and directed by my own. That’s the beginning of early childhood development.

Brennan is still under 18 and still within the district. If he decided to say the modern pledge or write an assigned argumentative essay in support of his opinion that God created the world in 6 24-hour periods of time and that each species we see was created as-is, I will question his logic. I will ask if he truly believes these things and why. 

Will I get upset? Probably. Will I blame the sources he cites? No, but I will examine them and provide contradictory ones with as accurate & true supporting data as I can find. Would I email the teacher to ask questions to see why he’s writing this? Probably. That, calling, and meeting with teachers has ALWAYS been available. It didn't need a resolution promoting "transparency".

Will I seek to get myself elected to the board to get a resolution passed that I believe supports my opinions/side but could be used in other directions that I hadn't intended and actually wasn't needed in the first place? Probably not.

Public education is supposed to build an understanding of the realities of this world. I can go into it with loads of opinions, but studying and experiencing different realities will mold those opinions. Hopefully, for my overall growth and benefit. There have been many examples over time that this hasn’t been the case- either because of a single individual or a more systemic one.

However faulty and deeply affected by the society from which it springs may be, public education's goal has always been to help set children up with the tools they will need to live the long-sought goal of "a good life". What does that mean and are we providing that to all of our public? All of our children? 

Just like the evolution of the realities behind our founding documents, the methodologies and details have changed over time. Thankfully. "We the People" means something completely different today than it did when it was written. "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" also means something vastly different today than it did when it was written. 

We and everything else in this world are both deliciously diverse and intrinsically connected. Every day we're alive should be an opportunity to explore those truths and reach deeper understandings. 

That’s real education.

Time Will Tell: The Mess and Hopes of Wisconsin and Beyond

I didn’t do a monthly look back on the 14th as I have since we were all back intto school back in September here in Wisconsin. The data spoke for themselves. The increasing numbers of folks knowing friends and loved ones suffering and dying spoke of our realities.


For a great review of where the nation is at, I again refer you to Dr. Tom Frieden and his blog, Covid Epidemiology, where this week he says this will hopefully be his last report as the federal government operations that normally are in charge of this stuff aren’t being muzzled anymore and are posting this information publicly as they should have been since the beginning. It’s bad. Most of the nation is about “six times the rate at which we figured contact tracing would be hard or impossible” to do.

Through 12/21, Milwaukee County has lost 942 to COVID19 while neighboring Waukesha County (with 42% the population) has lost 310. There’s a disparity there just as there is in the populations that need addressing but that’s for another day. One could argue that it’s “only” 0.10% and 0.08% of each county’s respective total population suffering the ultimate penalty. One could say it’s “only” a death rate of 1.2% of all positives in Milwaukee County and 0.9% of all positives in Waukesha County.


But it’s also 1,252 families with new holes at the family tables. Thousands of friends with one less number on their phones. Probably hundreds of workplaces with one less employee, religious organizations with one less congregant, and businesses with one less customer.


It’s also about 112,944 folks who have had to isolate- or who should have. Who had to stop working and interacting with others to not spread the virus, thus affecting everyone they live with. Or should have. If those folks worked, it impacted their employers and probably cost them wages. Or should have. The government isn’t helping much in that regard.


It’s about the approximate 4,870 people of that 112,944 who have been hospitalized and have either slowly recovered or...are still fighting. 4% of all positives in Waukesha end up in hospital care. 5.8% of all the Milwaukee County ones do.


It’s thousands of healthcare workers who have to treat all the positives in their care at nursing homes, care facilities, and at clinics and hospitals as positive cases become critical. Those HCW impacted also have families of their own who are touched by this all: children, spouses, parents…


Looking at today’s totals on world rates of covid, the US has the 5th highest overall positive count in the world from the beginning of this pandemic- behind only Czechia, San Marino, Montenegro, Luxembourg, and Andorra. 55,075 cases for every million people. People are suffering around the world, make no mistake. But the US is showing the world a side of COVID19 in a shameful scale.


The world isn’t partying while the US wallows in some false reality of a fake virus. The fact that the “greatest” country in the world has a huge percent of the population believing things like this and not working together with medicine and science is so depressingly mind-blowing. Watching this unfold has been stomach-turning.


We have so much work ahead of us. Dr. Frieden highlights this, too. This virus needs to be controlled and THEN people need to be reintroduced in widening circles to each other in systematic ways. National and international pandemic plans need to be created to be in place for the next time this happens. (I love how Dr. Frieden put it: “It’s literally now or never to fix public health at local, city, state, national, [and on] global levels.”) Our economy needs to be rebuilt, including collecting taxes and/or donations of investment from our most solvent corporations and individuals to restore the nation’s financial strength. All the other crises the US is facing also need to be addressed in their own ways by thought-leaders within those fields, including racial equity, climate change, green economy, education, and health care.


After this year is done, we can take a look back and see how our overall death rates compared in 2020 to what we have experienced in previous years. Perhaps folks like me will be begging forgiveness at blowing this virus out of proportion. I for one would be glad to do so.


We have to get through this virus first. I eagerly await 2021.

4 Reasons Why B.A.P's 'Wake Me Up' is My Favorite Song of 2017

I don’t claim to be a music expert in any way, and I definitely have my own quirky tastes, but I felt compelled to claim B.A.P’s Wake Me Up as my favorite for 2017. There were many other incredible K-Pop works this year, but this one grabbed my philosophical side, which is what gives it a special spot in my heart.

(Side note: The other song that hit me this this year was the collaboration of BTS's RM and rapper Wale, which I wrote about in When's it Gonna Change? Right Now.)

B.A.P has been a group since 2012 and in their most recent years, have focused on songs with messages covering important topics often avoided by many, whether performing artists or not. Columnist Jeff Benjamin highlights their history and his own support for this song in his March 2017 Billboard article, Why B.A.P's 'Wake Me Up' Is the K-Pop Act's Most Personal & Accomplished Single Yet. Here are my thoughts on why this song is my 2017 favorite.

1. Lyrics of physical & mental reality

The lyrics to Wake Me Up aren’t revolutionary but they are important and forcefully presented. They speak a good therapist’s truths, but based in their own experiences. B.A.P knows the reality of the warfare we wage on the inside. “Wake my other self within me, fading light that was dim” “To the soul deep inside me, burn up everything. Wake me up, wake them all.” 

Let me make clear what I think is expressed in this song: we have social and emotional barriers that we must break down and connections to make.

We try to hide our misery, and we know hate and anger are around us more and more. Something has to give- we need and deserve to live our supportive truths- but we can’t do it alone. We need others to help us out of our dark times. We need to call other people out of their darkness, as well.

2. Inclusive video  

The actors in the Wake Me Up video clearly come from all racial and social backgrounds and all suffer from deception, alienation and violence. This is a critical part of the video’s success. By coming together and being willing to struggle as a group, they *may* overcome. 

Initially blinded by choice and manipulation, the people start to see reality. One woman finally sees that her food isn’t really food. Another stops hiding behind masks and vomits out the pills and alcohol she’s been using to deal. A man, desperately trying to clear the puppet-inducing darkness people are walking through (he promotes an Emotion Revolution), smashes a stalled car before tiny lights start to appear: first from the band members who want to share their light, and then larger and varied types of fires as people come together.

3. Melody that supports the lyrical call to arms

Of course, this song's addictive sound was what first drew me in. It's been a mainstay of my workout soundtrack. B.A.P are masters at layering beats, vocals, and instrumentals. 

The song first whimpers, then cries, yells, howls and finally explodes in a crescendo as you’re moved to an energized, hopeful energy as the group paints a picture of What Could Be. The singers glare and the music lacks any fluff but is not all gloom, either. There are no guarantees. However, we absolutely must try to reach up and out so we can all experience a bit of the warm sun.

4. KPop tragedy affirms this song's truth

B.A.P’s great strength is rooted, in part, to the huge problems of their industry. Illnesses based in depression, anxiety and other mental conditions connected to isolation and feelings of lack of control are part of the modern world on the whole, however, and we all have to face that fact. Thankfully, they have dealt with their trials openly. SHINee’s Kim Jong-hyun’s magical talent was no match to what he felt he was facing, alone. He didn’t escape his pain. His fans embraced the symbol of a hand holding a red rose after his death: the rose of love. In B.A.P’s video, you see the newly awakened, in their new world, holding red roses and smiling.

Many fans are making connections between this song and that tragedy. For all of us who see the sun rise in the morning, we have the choice, opportunity and obligation to try for that new world for everyone to feel respected, loved, and valued. Together. 

The alternative? Our destruction.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this or your own 2017 favorites. Please comment below.

Hopes and Opportunities

Today, I am sharing an essay from my book, Dear Teachers, which is available at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. From the beautiful pictures of Marlene Oswald, I wrote messages to educators of my own life struggles and understandings in the hopes that they might help others in their own. I made writing space for the reader to connect because I think we all have things to share- we’re together.

Hope

Sometimes, I open my eyes in the morning feeling more tired than when I closed them the night before. My feet ache, my ankles crack and my knees pop as I stumble down the hall, seeking the healing warmth that is my morning joe.

I hear Time ticking. It all reminds me that nothing lasts forever. I can no more forever hold back the ravages of time as I can see the universe in a single glance. But I can be OK with that. I can still have hope and take opportunities.

Hope is feeling an empty page is an opportunity for a new tale or seeing a barren field as tomorrow’s harvest. Hope is what powers that step off the porch for the last time, turning our backs on one dream to begin a journey toward another. There can be more.

Both the veteran educator and the newbie can fall short. Whatever the cause, reality sometimes strips us bare despite our best efforts and plans. Yet, we can still have hope. We can take another chance.

We must remember a truth of all human life: what we have built will stand in some way, shape or form. What we’ve even tried to build will live on in another’s memory or their future discovery. The rusted fence may no longer hold back the wilds of nature or retain the builder’s fortunes, but it still stands. It is. It can be. Something. The life-giving windmill still sings a song, although today it may be a completely different tune and to an entirely different listener. It just needs an ear to hear it.

There is always pain. There is always discord. Yet, there is also always hope and opportunity.

Reflections on Hope: Who, what and where are my own hopes and my opportunities?

One Year of Becoming

We joke about how much can change in a year. My life is a case in point.

My first blog ever was published on July 31, 2016- just over a year ago. That piece earned a whopping 6 views! I had no idea what I was doing. The biggest accomplishment in that case was the very act of putting it out there. At 45 years old, I was finally done with beating myself up over whether or not I had any right or talent to write. I told that voice it wasn’t in charge anymore. After almost a ½ century of living, I’d finally decided I couldn’t listen to it anymore and I would listen to the other inner voice saying “Do it. Just...write what you feel.”

I was something. I was becoming something.

At the time, I was working part-time. For 5 years, I had immersed myself in the amazing world of elementary education. I was an educational assistant. I was a mom. I was a wife. I was a type 1 diabetic.

Earlier in the summer, I had started to run. I was becoming a runner. I had started to lift weights and dance. I was becoming healthier. I had started listening to new music. I was becoming a Kpop fan. I had started to write. I was becoming a writer.

The only constant in life is change, as they say.

Next, I started to explore Twitter. I am becoming a regular. I started collaborating with a photographer friend. I am becoming an author now by publishing my own book, Dear Teachers, and seeking to do it again. I am starting to reach out to more experts in education to introduce myself and my work. I am exploring and dreaming of more.

I estimate I’ve written over 100,000 words over the last year. I’ve connected with over 1,000 people on Twitter. I’ve gratefully seen over 130 of my books go out to amazing people both near and far. I’ve posted 85 essays on my blog and they have been viewed on 6 continents over 7,000 times.

I was. I am. I am becoming. I will become.

I started with nothing and am only 1 of 7 billion other people. I’m not writing this for compliments. I’m writing this as a reminder to myself and anyone else who finds my words: we can all change and grow over time. If we stumble or lose, we can find something (or someone) new or find what we lost again in another place and time. If we don’t give up.

I desperately want to earn a living writing and speaking. I desperately seek to be a voice of community and opportunity. I desperately wish to be a spark of light by writing not only for those in education, but for those with type 1 diabetes. I have other ideas to explore.  I’m not there yet. But I have hope, though.

Let’s all try to move forward with that: hope.

Sum of Our Struggles

I shot this photo this morning at the park I took my boys to for a walk. The older one had been struggling with his math work and I decided a (forced) bit of fresh air was just what we all needed.

My VerboStratis logo features a dandelion and this one caught my eye. We had a miserably cold and wet the day yesterday and this flower was weighed down with the damp. And yet, it was standing upright, waiting for the winds of chance to allow its seeds to fly free.

This is a weed. I consider myself a weed, and perhaps we all are. We live as best we can and try to spread our influence, molded by our experiences, to the wider world.

My son is a weed and he’s in the thick of the very beginnings of his growth. He needs guidance on perseverance, smart use of resources, relaxing techniques to fight anxiety and learning when it’s best to beat a calculated retreat in order to regroup and revise plans before going out once more to try.

I’m sure he doesn’t feel it, but he has a unique and fascinating beauty. Look at this seed head closely and you can see enchanting patterns of architecture and textures. He’s the same way- one has to look closely to get his glow. He struggles with school but he has a wit and charm that are both edgy and engaging. He sees things and understands things I did not at his age (and probably never will)  and that’s a needed reminder to me: we are all different, but we all want to, and can, shine.

We’re weeds. We struggle day-by-day. We all want to grow and let what we are- what we’ve become- float on the winds to the world. Let's help each other along the way.

Good news! There is still time to order my book, Dear Teachers, though both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, in time for school year-end gifts, but TIME IS RUNNING OUT!

Dear Teachers offers a year’s worth of supportive essays, great nature photography and room for teachers to pen their own ideas. In addition, I will be hosting a closed Facebook page for readers for 2017-18 to offer additional weekly encouragements and opportunities to share.

A Plea for Education

The United States and The United Kingdom share common problems and futures regarding our public school systems. A healthy public school system offers a country hope for the future. It is vital to remember that as we make decisions today.

The current UK government is set on a course to dramatically overhaul their state education system, resulting in substantial cuts to many schools across all age groups. Some of the issues include per-student funding cuts, job eliminations, course offerings slashings, abandonment of infrastructure items and increasing class sizes.

I do not pretend to be an expert on their situation. It does, however, sound very familiar to what we see in the United States.

Educator Coach Angela Browne wrote her own response to the current UK crisis in her blog and it offers a personal view from the ground on what this development means to educators and their students. What really struck me was her emphatic response as she thought of a specific student in crisis: “‘Not on my watch will you be failed by the school system’, ‘Not on my watch.’”. She talks of struggling to deal with “children in crisis” as though there are situations with students who are free from crisis. In truth, everyone in education is dealing with crises, both academic and otherwise, with their students on a daily basis. Our children or their friends know first-hand and share the good, the bad and the ugly with each other. Schools need the means to address these issues in addition to the more traditional subjects.

In regards to the challenges wholesale budget cuts create for those in education, Ms. Browne sums up the plight educators find themselves in:

“Because of course, school leaders and dedicated school staff will keep going, they will keep advocating for the children in the communities within which they live and work, they will not fly off on that metaphorical jet plane. I can’t leave the children behind and yet the silk purse that I am being forced to sew in no way matches the ambitions for the provision I would want to have for them.”

Sound familiar? (Her silk purse and sow’s ear idiom is masterfully used.)

Schools cannot solve the world’s current problems- they inherit them. What they CAN do, is become the places from which we launch our FUTURE. As entire communities (towns, states, nations and beyond) we need to work on defining and strengthening what we feel matters most. We can’t have it ALL. We do have to evaluate our practices and be as efficient and as effective as we can. That all requires careful thought, stamina, cooperation, brainstorming, creative problem-solving, negotiations and broad-picture views. If we do that, we can then channel support through our institutions, including schools, to help reach our overall targets. Simple slashing to meet some financial goal without thought to long-term societal goals leads to escalating chaos and fractures.

I confess that I have had changes in flight plans regarding my own plans with the metaphorical jet plane that is the world of education, both as a parent and professionally. I struggle daily to understand what and assist where I can. One cannot truly abandon the field once one has been immersed in it.

Returning to Ms. Browne, she does not continue with the farmyard analogies for long, however, where one can become mired in fruitless fatalism and pessimism. She goes on:

“The time has certainly come for creativity, for entrepreneurship and for thinking outside the box.”

Sound familiar?

I hope so because I recently wrote about ways we use to deal with failing to obtain what we want in my essay When NOT Having Something is Good. Her words match my own: creative thinking, working together, redefining what we really want and not giving up.

Why is this all important? The answer goes back to the theme of Ms. Browne’s essay: Not on my watch. We have a societal duty to work as hard as we can to educate our youth as well as we can. Our investments in them are returned back to us all as highly functioning adults making their own contributions to the world. The alternative option, of abandoning our watch, of continuing to strip away funding and making this not a priority in our governments, results in thousands and eventually millions of unskilled, ill-informed, maladaptive and miserable people. These abandoned students will more likely become citizens who either do not have the means to adequately support themselves no matter how hard they try or who will be choosing ways to do so that breed even more, ever-widening suffering for themselves, their own children and those around them.

But this negative scenario doesn’t apply to everyone, right? You are absolutely correct. If we keep going down this road, along with the abandoned masses there will be the few who can afford to buy themselves and their children a proper education. There will also be further isolation and fear of “the other” as more people migrate out of organized educational systems altogether.  “Good” primary school entrance will go the way of higher education: affordable only to those with the most means and a long term debt burden for those who can’t. The odds of what side of the coin we’ll end up being on in this sort of future is looking more bleak as time marches on.

What might help? Dramatically lowering the student-to-teacher ratios. Adding mental health specialists to all schools. Offering social and emotional skills training programs for all students. Building on the existing electronic academy formats to connect more people, ideas and industries together. Big picture ideas need to be laid out and implemented.

It also demands of us the ability to zoom back in all the way on Ms. Browne’s “Not on my watch will you be failed by the school system”. That student looking up to us for help today is depending on us to be there for them.

For the sake of us all living today and those yet to come, I hope we will be.

When NOT Having Something Is Good

Dingy days and flying fur. January has been been kind of rough. It seems like everyone has a long list of things they don’t have. Personal, professional, societal, philosophical- we’re all dissatisfied by not having something.

There are several ways we deal with feelings that we are missing out. We can ignore it, we can find like-minded people to commiserate with us, we can work alone or with others to actively obtain what we feel is missing or we can change our perspective about the situation.

Ignore It

If we ignore the missing piece in our puzzle, it (or our interest in it) may just go away on its own. This option requires no effort but probably has the lowest success rate on obtaining the original goal. But if the desire or need goes away on its own, that’s a pretty good deal, right?

Sympathize

Sometimes we can reduce our stress by commiserating with others.  Sharing burdens makes them feel lighter. For example, as a young mom, those precious moments caught in a store or coffee shop with an adult friend can be invaluable and feel like a life-saver. As I have a deep interest in education, I can relate to The Guardian’s recent pieces on the struggles that England is having regarding their education funding so I follow that. Or, when you’re trying to get in better shape physically, having a buddy or two to keep you moving forward and being there for your successes and failures makes the process much more enjoyable and fruitful.

Plow Ahead...

Then there’s always the “try try try again” method. We can put our heads down and just try to soldier on but we need to think with agility to avoid the other adage about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

...And Synergize

Let’s remember that when we make connections with others it can inspire us to find new ways to actively achieve our goals with the benefit of new resources being available. We’re seeing this type of behavior exhibited today in large-scale and I believe we’ll continue to do so moving forward. For example, I’ve been blown away by the skills and techniques exhibited by K-Pop fans like the US BTS ARMY to plan and coordinate events and projects. On a smaller scale, sometimes we participate in buying clubs or share babysitting, sports equipment or carpooling duties to stretch our means.

Revisualize

The last mechanism I’d like to explore is that of changing our perspective. As I’ve written before, I have had Type 1 Diabetes since 1994. It’s a chronic disease with downright scary side effects and potential outcomes. I could scream and howl at the injustice of having this disease. I could rant and rave about the mental and financial costs to myself and my family. (Yes, in case you’re wondering, I have.) But do you know what? Because of T1D, I don’t have a limited understanding of my body. I don’t have any diagnosed eye damage, heart damage, kidney damage, nerve damage or skin damage. (Yet.) I don’t have a fear of working my butt off (yes, pun intended) to eat well, lose weight and get into better cardiovascular health. This disease has taught me some hard lessons and I don’t fear dancing and having a great time with fans at a concert when I’m twice as old as many of the other attendees because I’m still enthusiastically alive and I want to celebrate that fact.

The Forge’s Fire

Not having everything we initially want or need ends up being good for us. Yes, it’s miserable at times. However, it teaches us to chill. It teaches us to reach out to others. It teaches us to think and decide what REALLY matters to us. It teaches us to come up with creative ways to achieve our goals. Lastly, it can teach us that perhaps what we initially feared or hated the most is actually the defining fire that our inner self and soul will emerge from.

Team Humanity: Post-Truth Playing out on our Playgrounds

It’s tough for us adults to attempt living in a world described as “post-truth”. What about the little ones who will soon inherit this world we’re creating? A philosopher took a stab at the big picture in an education & family BBC article this week.

I’d like to ask: “How does a post-truth world playout on the playground?” I wrote about it once already, but I’d like to revisit the idea with a story.

Set Scene:

You’re a recess supervisor. Your job is to walk the school playground, eyes forever swiveling back and forth, up and down, ensuring all the students are getting some play into their busy days within the structure of a safe and inclusive system. Playworks is a great example. You see a student pull another student off the monkey bars by the back of their shirt and take their place. The pulled student lays on the ground in the wood chips, silently looking up and surrounding students continue on.

You approach and attempt a teaching moment on how one should behave on the playground. You are met with an exclamation:

“What did I do!? I didn’t do anything wrong!”

You press your point and describe again what you observed and try to get the student to come up with another, more helpful, series of actions. You’re ready to offer them ideas to do that.

You are met with: a blank stare into the distance. Eventually the student responds hotly with, “They pushed me before. Whatever!” They move to get back on the monkey bars. By now, the student on the ground is standing back up, complaining loudly about how the other child always does this, and even worse, stuff. Other students start congregating, chiming in agreement, listing events while others yell that they should be able to do whatever they want.

You feel a rising sense of frustration and you may grimace as you tell them to go play nicely. You’ve heard a shout of alarm from another part of the playground and you excuse yourself to check on that.

End Scene.

Firstly, what were you originally looking for when you approached the situation? Ideally, everyone has a right to be out there playing. Everyone should have a turn. Anyone can make a mistake, apologize and correct themselves.

Next, what is missing in the participants’ responses- even your own? Answer: Team Spirit. There was an overall avoidance of facts and and over-reliance upon personal beliefs and emotional response. All of it was aimed at one thing: self-preservation. In addition to the pusher’s choices, the pushed person should have made different choices, as should the crowd. The pushed child and crowd should stand up and both should speak calmly and with clarity of what is expected of the team we all call our own: humanity.

How to move forward? How to step ABOVE and BEYOND post-truth?

The beauty of living is that you always have another chance as long as you’re breathing. The situation can get away from you but the teaching moment is not lost forever. In this story, the adult needs to continue to promote effort, compromise, sharing and helping every single day. They need to catch those students making strong, positive choices and with genuineness, applaud loudly for all to see and feel. The squeaky wheel (the shouts of outrage and pain) should not be the only thing that gets greased. During a quiet moment, the adult should talk again about the painful situations- we all have them and we can learn from them.

Sports need rules and teamwork. Humanity needs them as well.