You know that you are capable, but you underestimate yourselves.
When George Washington was asked about the secret of his success, and he said, "the straight line," he did not say that you would be successful, nor did he say that you would not by other means.
He said, in his view, which was his from when he was a boy and through all his life, that the worthy path to keep an eye on, and yourself to endeavor to get back to if fallen from, is the straight line.
The greatest difference in our lives, between his time and now, can be summed up in the word, expectations.
The expectations, then, were very different from now, in that, the field of vision was then great, but is now, narrow.
Then, you had the benefit of knowing that there was much that you did not know, and you had to get this knowledge.
Now, it's on the menu.
The essential foundations of education, are in the processes of learning, the getting to the knowing, as much as being there. This is why we time and again rest and review both math and history, many passes over the same material are required, and our writing is something we should learn as a craft, draft, again, draft, again, Pound that shoe, DING!, Pound that shoe, DING!, Heat! that shoe, POPS CRACKS SPARKS!, Pound that shoe, DING!, Pound that shoe, DING!
In all three cases, "reading, writing, 'n 'rithmetic," our "experts with expertise" in education, now ridicule these fundamentals in lieu of "goals ___ < fill in the year > " that are ticked off their job satisfaction charts. (The checkmark says that the topic has been covered. All the boxes that must be checked, in order to be paid, are filled, and thus "education" has happened; wordity is every the accepted empircal evidence. Sign another N.E.A. contract, right here < place your mark if you knows how to write > .)
Whether or not the students have made their progress.
I could go on, but it's all in my book, Electricity Comes from Walls (c)1995; the chapter about how we don't need a war to change things, we only need to turn off the electricity.
To give people time to think.
Giving people time to think????
UGH...what a MESS that would be... little heads imploding!
The greatest difference in our lives, between his time and now, can be summed up in the word, expectations.Let's just say that the expectations Washington faced were a wee higher than those set upon his stable boy. What, there were no scoundrels, no drunks around Washington? His times were full of them. The difference, I suppose, is in "expectations," if you must, but I'd rather put it at "too much information."
Looking back, we're blessed by the filters of history -- no need for unwanted details. For example, I know quite a few idiots and theives up in Maine. I just don't let them define it for me.
On top of the credenza, there is a bust of Israeli General Moshe Dayan.
This bust was made by my friend, when only 15 years old. It is an exact likeness of the General.
My friend looked at some pictures of the general, and then produced an exact likeness.
It is a magnificent work of art.
Any kid could do it; and all kids do.
What my friend could see, all kids do, but their talents are not necessarily in the fields of what we call art.
You kids see life, and many times, you have fashioned a work from your experience. Often, of late, these last few years, you have done this here, on this forum.
Because you see something that you know is missing from the paths of other people, and so you try to get the word out, about it, because you also know of its importance in helping other people to "put a bend on" toward what is true.
I say that you underestimate youselves, because your value here, especially to me, is that you are unreplaceable.
On occasion we hear somebody say, "That's what it's all about."
I say that it's about the story.
The story of mankind is so great, nobody can tell the whole of it, chapter and verse.
Except by verse, by work, by faith, by love, and by creation, by God.
We craft what represents the soul of it.
That is what you see, on the cave walls, not language, but the heart of it.
The greatest stories ever told.
In the end, that is all there is of us, here on earth, the writing is on the wall, written in stone.
God Bless