You know how sometimes, you’re looking for something in particular online and you accidentally come across something that grabs your interest? I don’t remember what I was looking for, but I came across a Facebook post that featured pages of my elementary school newspaper. I’m not on Facebook, but it was apparently a public page, because I could scroll through the entire thing. It was fun to read the “news” we reported in grade school and to recognize the names of the kids I interacted with every day in school (50-60 students in eight grades) and around town (population about 200). In such a small school, we didn’t have a newspaper staff. Everyone contributed to the newspaper, with sections dedicated to the primary, intermediate, and upper grades. I selected some pages to post here. Most of them include an article by one of my brothers or by me.

I don’t remember the name of the newspaper–if it even had one–but this is how the grade-level sections were labeled. For this edition, the primary grades were apparently assigned to write about their pets. We didn’t have a pet at that time, so the last article in the left column describes how much my brother, Steve, wanted a horse. FYI, there weren’t many horses on the nearby farms, and I never saw a Palomino, but Roy Rogers, a 1950s TV cowboy, rode his Palomino, Trigger, on his weekly show. Maybe that counts as seeing Palominos “a lot,” as Steve writes.

Tom, another one of my brothers and younger than Steve, wrote a short paragraph for the “Miscellaneous Corner” about the earth (first article, left column). It sounds like his class was studying the solar system. Note that the page, like a real newspaper, includes a cartoon drawn by John Kappers, one of the primary grade students.

Denny, my oldest brother, wrote about the radio programs that provided the 1950s equivalent of online learning (first article, right column). Small, rural schools like ours could not afford specialized instructors so, four days of each week, our classrooms tuned in to Wisconsin Public Radio for an hour-long program and we followed the radio teachers’ instructions for singing (“Let’s Sing”), drawing (“Let’s Draw”), and writing (“Let’s Write”). We also had some music instruction (“Music Time”). I remember singing along with the “Let’s Sing” teacher, but I don’t recall “Music Time.” Online information indicates it might have included music theory information, and maybe a variety of musical styles (popular, classical, etc.) that we listened to. The article to the left (first one, left column) reports that we also learned about the musical instruments in orchestras.

In the last article in the right column on this page, Dale Wilterdink reports on who had which duties at school. The school janitor was always a woman from our small town (usually a classmate’s mom) who cleaned after school hours for a little extra spending money. Students were required to do minor duties after school to (1) assist the single janitor/schoolkeeper/mom and to (2) learn responsibility. Duties were assigned for either a 1- or 2-week period–I don’t remember which. I don’t think primary grade students had duties because I remember being in first grade and seeing Jimmy, an older student, clapping erasers outside after school to clean them. When Jimmy told me he was doing his duty, I didn’t have a clue what a duty was and I thought it might be a euphemism for a bodily function.

I still remember the African speaker we had at school one day. I wrote about him in the second article in the left column. Our area of Wisconsin was all white, so a person of color was a novelty. Not only that, but he was actually from Africa–a distant and exotic place that we were studying in Social Studies. Above my article, Linda Neustel reports on a Moroccan earthquake. I looked it up and found that on April 29, 1960, the city of Agadir experienced the most destructive earthquake in the country’s history. 12,000-15,000 people were killed, 12,000 more were injured, and 35,000 residents were left homeless. Chances are, we read about this earthquake in The Weekly Reader in school.

My story in the right column (second article) explains a scientific classroom mystery. I’m not sure why dried and spray-painted weeds needed water. Given that all of us had sandboxes at home filled with sand from the Lake Michigan beaches, I’ll bet that’s where the sand in the vase came from. Judging by the process I used to solve the morning glory mystery, maybe I should have been a research scientist!

Here’s a poem I wrote about Easter (first article, left column). The poem shows that I can provide rhythm and rhyme, but it doesn’t look promising for my future as a poet.

Just like the local newspapers our parents subscribed to, our school paper included a sports section. My brother, Denny, is reported as being a member of the basketball team (list of school team members, top of left column). We used to play against a few other small rural schools, complete with cheerleaders in matching outfits that their mothers sewed. None of the schools had a gym, so basketball practice and games took place in the local village community halls.

I love grade school jokes, and here’s a full page of them from the school paper. As our kids went through elementary school, Ted and I agreed that the fourth-grade jokes the kids told were the best, so maybe these were written by fourth-graders. Margie could draw very well, so that’s probably why she was drafted to draw the map of Italy and Sicily.

A newspaper wouldn’t be complete without a crossword puzzle. It’s not the New York Times’ crossword, but it’s fun to read and to solve the clues.

The newspaper pages I found on Facebook are apparently from a variety of editions of the school newspaper. Since every student wrote an article for the paper, I can’t imagine a single student contributing more than one article to any edition of the “news.” The former student who saved these pages probably saved the ones s/he was most interested in (i.e., those with articles by people close to her/him), which could explain why I found three articles I wrote, only two with Denny’s name, and only one each for Steve and Tom.

Theo, our grandson, recently had a high school assignment to interview someone who was alive in the 1950s. (I saw all the kids in his group contacting their grandparents for this one!) One of the questions he had for me was, “What would you do differently growing up?” My answer was, “Nothing. It was fun,” and that’s the truth.

The Francis Howell School District grew rapidly in the 1970s and needed many new buildings. Jeff and Kathy attended Fairmount Elementary School the first year it opened. The school filled so rapidly that, when Jeff was in sixth grade, he attended another new school–Henderson Junior High. I remember that the library had a minimal number of books, including a single set of encyclopedias for reference. As an increasing number of students attended that school, a new junior high school was constructed on the property, and the building Jeff attended was renamed Francis Howell North High School.

Jeff attended school in that same building from sixth through twelfth grade. The building was oddly constructed and had a confusing system of room numbers. Parents were given school maps to find the classrooms for parent-teacher conferences. During the time Jeff and our other children attended that school, additions to the building kept coming and the layout became even more challenging to navigate. Jeff and a good friend of his gave a speech together on graduation day. Like all graduation speeches, it was forgettable, except for one remark that I still remember. In essence, the boys mentioned that every year, they were in the same building, but every year, the front door was in a different place.

That school was not built to last. Fairmount Elementary School is still doing well, as is the second Henderson Junior High, but Francis Howell North built an entirely new high school on the property and demolished the original building this past year.

Note: Cost overruns on the new building were extraordinary–$86 million became $164 million. Due this cost overrun, 71 other projects expected to be funded by $240 million provided for district building improvements by the voter-approved Proposition S in 2020 are currently on hold. The state auditor is investigating the building costs and the fact that a former district employee hired a low-rated management firm owned by his brother to oversee the project. Our tax dollars at work, right?

The new high school is finished, and the original building is now a pile of rubble. In contrast, the high school my Grandma S. attended (graduated in 1911) is still standing and so is the high school my father attended (graduated 1937).

In 1985, after the Sunday church service, one of our members spoke to the congregation about an upcoming ballot issue–establishing a community college in St. Charles County. I was surrounded by my four young children and not employed at that time, but I remember thinking, “By the time they get a college started, I’ll be ready to work there.”

At first, the college met in a variety of rented buildings loosely called “the east campus” and “the west campus” because of their relative locations to each other. On January 6, 1992, the first three buildings of the permanent college campus were dedicated, and Ted and I attended the dedication. I was one of three lucky people to win in the drawing for a college poster. It features the college logo, the date, and the artist’s signature–David O’Dell, a member of the fledgling college Marketing Department. My poster is numbered 25/145.

My dream came true and I worked at St. Charles Community College for 20 years. I had my poster framed and it hung first in my own office and then, as my Adult Education Program grew to more than a staff of one (me), in our Adult Education office suite. I took it home when I retired, but it’s not really a “home” kind of picture, so I called the current marketing director to ask if she’d like to hang it somewhere on the campus. She enthusiastically said “yes.” I delivered it to her and she and I had a nice catch-up visit. (We knew each other from before I retired.) She said my poster is in such good condition, she’s going to hang it in the Marketing Department office. That’s a perfect place for it, and much nicer than my basement.

As a book lover, an avid reader, and an educator, if I started talking about these issues, I might never stop. I’ll just say two things: (1) The best way to get people to read a book is to ban it; and (2) Legislators, do your job and let teachers do theirs.

I’ve been very sick for nearly three weeks. As a result, I’ve also been very inactive, and my self-improvement goals have been set aside. I haven’t exercised or played my piano since I started feeling ill. I’d been doing almost an hour a day toward each goal: exercising, playing piano, and studying Spanish with other family members on the Duolingo app.

I didn’t have enough energy to play piano or to exercise, but I was close to a 100-day streak on Duolingo, and I wanted to make it to the 100-day mark. No matter how badly I felt, I did one Spanish lesson each day (5-10 minutes), just to keep my streak alive. I didn’t learn much. I felt so awful, it was hard to concentrate, and sometimes I lost three or four hearts on a single 10-12 question lesson. (Each error costs one heart. If you lose five hearts, you’re locked out until the hearts refill over a period of hours.) I’ll have to re-do that entire unit when I feel better so I can learn the new vocabulary words, but I kept my streak alive.

My weekly report from Duolingo noted my decreased activity on the app over the first two weeks of my illness.

Duolingo wasn’t happy about that, and the app took action. I was close to promotion to the next league, but I lost that opportunity and was demoted to a lower league.

The cheerful (?) “Better luck next time” wasn’t exactly heartwarming. Is this what I get for working to keep my streak alive, even when no me siento bien (I don’t feel well)?

It’s fun to know that other family members are also learning Spanish with Duolingo, and I generally enjoy the app, but I would prefer learning with in-person classmates and a classroom teacher. My Duolingo goal is not to have the longest streak, the most extra points, or the highest rank. My goal is to learn a lot of vocabulary and then to take a continuing education Spanish class next fall or winter to work on grammatical constructions and to practice speaking with a group of like-minded students.

I’m not heartbroken about my Duolingo demotion, but after I reach 100 consecutive days of using Duolingo (four to go), I’m not going to worry about another streak. I have a life, and even God took a day off! 🙂

Ted and I both attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison (lucky for us, because that’s where we met), and for an unknown and mysterious reason, I was recently thinking about our college school songs. During half-time at every football game, the UW band and cheerleaders led the sell-out crowd (±23,000 more seats than the GB Packers’ Lambeau Field at that time*) to sing “On Wisconsin,” the fight song (also the state song); “If You Want to Be a Badger,” an up-beat song; and “Varsity,” a hymn-like song of praise to UW. The internet knows everything, so I looked up the songs to find the lyrics and put my curious mind at ease.

Of course, “On, Wisconsin” is kind of obligatory–after all, it’s the University of Wisconsin in Wisconsin–but it has a good march tempo for a school song.

“If You Want to Be a Badger” is a peppy song and fun to sing. It revs up the crowd. There are four or five verses, which we usually didn’t sing at the games. Only the line–“If you want to be a Badger, just…da da da da da” changes with each verse.

The history of “Varsity” surprised me. I never heard or thought about it while I was in college, but it’s something to be appreciated.

It was a sight to behold 76,000 fans singing with the arm movements, and I do fondly remember these lyrics. The “famous arm swinging” refers to everyone raising their right arm to the left at the start of each line, then slowly moving it to the right for the last half of the first line, then slowly back to the left to begin the next line, and so on, keeping it in constant motion. The tempo is slow, and it’s actually a kind of moving thing to be there and to participate.** After that, however, it’s on with the game.

Ah, those were good days!

*Since our college days, both stadiums have been renovated to include more seating and both are still sell-outs for every football game. Lambeau Field now seats 80,978 fans, and Camp Randall now has seating for 80,321 fans.

**You can find videos of fans singing “Varsity” on YouTube, but you won’t get the in-person emotional experience of actually participating.

The novel I’m currently reading is set in a fictional small lakeside town (population ±1,000) in New Hampshire. There are no hotels, resorts, boutique shops, or fancy restaurants in the area, so it’s not a tourist attraction. It is, however, a desirable place to live on the lakeshore because it has low taxes and is quiet, beautiful, etc., etc. The main character in the story is advocating for improving the school in the town to provide its resident youth with a top-notch education. This will, of course, increase the tax rate.

“You’ll never get that by the natives,” says our hero’s best friend.

“Well,” our hero responds, “they can either pay for education today or for welfare tomorrow.”

Absolutely! That’s a no-brainer.

Self-improvement. Can it become too much of a good thing?

Right now, I’m practicing on my (untouched for years) piano; learning Spanish; and working my way back into great physical shape after two months of minimal physical activity following foot surgery late last fall. I became involved in these three activities simultaneously in a variety of ways.

Piano. As Ted and were moving furniture from room to room for our interior house update and getting rid of things we no longer wanted to keep, I looked at my piano and made a decision: I would either get back to playing it regularly within the next six months, or I would get rid of it. There’s no point in keeping it just to have something to dust.

Spanish. I’ve always thought it would be great to speak a second language. I took German for three years in high school and in college, but there are few (if any) opportunities to use it in the middle of the U.S. When our older son decided to learn Spanish online, he invited family members to join him and to support each other as a group. Quite a few of us, including me, accepted his invitation. Maybe when Ted and I are in Barcelona later this year, I’ll have an opportunity to speak with someone and to say, “¡Hola! Mucho gusto. Yo hablos español.”

Exercise. Daily physical activity and exercise have always been a part of my life. After being off my feet for two months following my foot surgery, it was discouraging that I didn’t feel strong, and that my range of motion and flexibility were greatly reduced. Use it or lose it, right?

When I started these activities six weeks ago, my goals were 30 minutes of piano, 15 minutes of Spanish lessons, and 30 minutes of exercise daily. In reality, I’m spending about an hour each day on each of the three activities because I’m enjoying every one of them. That’s three hours of my day 6-7 days each week for self-improvement activities. Is that a good lifestyle or too much of a good thing? Either way, I’m having fun with all of them.

To keep your brain healthy, research says we need to keep trying new challenges. Our brains need exercise just as much as our muscles do. My exercise routine will take care of my muscles, and the Spanish and piano work will help my brain. To prove it, La sent me this.

Wow! Who (except La) knew that piano playing involved all of this?! If I add my Spanish lessons and my exercise routine, my brain and body are getting a total workout every day. Good for me!

When I saw this cartoon, my passion for improving reading comprehension skills kicked in. When we read, we recognize an arrangement of symbols as words; when we comprehend, we create meaning from those recognized words. There’s a big difference between these two skills. Have you ever heard someone say, “It doesn’t matter how many times I read it; I just don’t get it”? That’s clear evidence of a lack of reading comprehension skills.

There are many studies of children’s academic skills through twelfth grade. The most well-known of these is the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress), the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America’s students know and can do in various subject areas. The NAEP began in 1969 and is published every four years. It assesses students’ academic skills in 4th, 8th and 12th grade. Among developed countries in the world, the United States spends, by far, the most money on education overall and the second-most per student: $810 billion overall and about $12,800 per student in public education. In spite of that, the U.S. 2019 NAEP scores in reading, math, and science are disappointing.

Given those results, is it any wonder adults have reading comprehension difficulties? There are very few studies of the academic competencies of adults. The biggest reason for this is that children can be tracked and followed fairly easily through the school system for a number of years. Adults, on the other hand, relocate and change jobs, making them harder to find for follow-up studies.

The first national comprehensive study of adult literacy was the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS). The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) was the first time a follow-up adult literacy study was done. The results were not good for either study. In fact, the results of the follow-up NAAL showed a decline in adult literacy when compared to the earlier NALS. Both surveys indicated that the “golden age” of literacy in the United States is made up of the group of adults who learned to read between 1955 and 1965. And yet, only thirty percent of that group scored at a proficient literacy level.

The chart below describes the assessed literacy levels from each study. The NAAL combined Levels 3 and 4 of the NALS to describe intermediate level readers. I was honored to be selected as a member of the group of educators invited to Washington, D.C. to work with the U.S. Department of Education prior to administering the NAAL. Our group set cut-points for the described literacy skills on the NAAL. It was an exciting experience to work on this project. You might find it interesting to see how literate you are. Read the descriptors below and decide.

Now the bad news–and the reason the above cartoon is too true. These are 1992 NALS results. The 2003 NAAL results were worse.

As if half the adult population being barely literate isn’t bad enough, I found the following results to be even more surprising. Again, these are 1992 NALS results.

What does this mean for you? It means that if you could make sense of this blog post (and the national study odds are 52 to 48 that you couldn’t), don’t assume that the people you’re interacting with are equally skilled in literacy. Far too many of them are not.

Author’s note: It is possible to improve reading comprehension. Two of the biggest misconceptions regarding good readers are that good readers read quickly and that they instantly comprehend what they read. In fact, good readers read for meaning, not for speed, and they re-read texts to improve their understanding of the content. If you need to improve your reading comprehension, here are seven simple strategies you can use to work on your comprehension skills.

  1. Improve your vocabulary.
  2. Come up with questions about the text you are reading.
  3. Use context clues.
  4. Look for the main idea.
  5. Write a summary of what you read.
  6. Break up the reading into smaller sections.
  7. Pace yourself.

Although selective information regarding educational budgets at the state and federal levels may indicate increased funding, those figures do not include adjustments for inflation.

Lots of people are asking me about the trainings I was asked to do in India.  It’s been frustrating for me because, since the scheduled February departure date was cancelled, I’ve had no idea what comes next.

Today, I went to Dr. P.’s office to drop off invoices for reimbursement for John (my co-trainer) and me for expenses we’ve incurred (visas, inoculations, etc.).  Dr. P. and I had a chance to speak for a few minutes, which I appreciated.  He became ill on a visit to India in October 2016 and has never fully recovered from that episode.  He told me he recently returned from Chicago, where he was receiving some medical treatments, and that he is not yet completely well.

I asked Dr. P. if he is still interested in having John and me provide trainings for his teachers and he said yes, he is, but he cannot set a date at this time.  Since John and I both have some summer commitments, we previously agreed that we will not be available to go to India before September.  Dr. P. is amenable to this and said he will call me when he is ready to proceed.

I want to follow through with the trainings, and I hope I will hear from Dr. P. in a few months.  If this doesn’t happen, I’m sure I will find another way to help others through education.  And I can still visit India.  After all, I already have a visa and the necessary medical protection.

I brought cookies to school today to celebrate my birthday with the kids I help on my weekly volunteer day.  They are all teenagers, so of course they’re always hungry.  Even so, they were very appreciative and repeatedly complimented me.  The most frequent remarks were, “Thank you,” “Did you make these?” and “Did you work as a baker?”

It was fun to bake a variety of cookies like I used to do before our kids left home.  While the kids were growing up, I baked about three batches of cookies every two weeks; now I make a half batch and it still lasts too long for Ted and me.  I split these 14 dozen cookies three ways:  some for school, some for Kari’s family, and some for Ted and me.  At least for a few days, while Ted and I eat our share of the cookies, we can enjoy the variety of flavors like in the old days.

Left to right:  carmel-filled bars with mini chocolate chips; brownies with raisins and nuts, topped with melted marshmallows and fudge frosting; TV squares (no reason for that name) with mini chocolate chips in a meringue topping.

The only thing I brought home was an empty (reusable) box.  I think the cookies were a hit.

On February 8, 2016, Dr. P. asked me if I would be willing to provide some trainings for the teachers at his school in India.  With Dr. P.’s permission, I invited my friend and adult education mentor, John, to be my co-trainer.  After much planning and a number of meetings, we set a departure date for December 27.  For several reasons directly related to Dr. P., it became obvious that not everything would be in place by that date, so we set February 9 as a more viable departure date.

Ted and I are in Washington state right now, getting acquainted with our new grandson, Sefton.  Because we will return to St. Louis just three days before the departure date for India, I already have most of my things packed for that trip.  John, my co-trainer, and I have had our inoculations and have received our Indian visas.  We have also spent a great deal of time preparing our training materials.  We are ready to go.

Imagine my surprise this morning when Dr. P.’s office manager called to tell me that the training will have to be postponed because Dr. P. will not have the necessary funding in place in time to purchase the airline tickets for the trip.  There is a possibility the training will be rescheduled for April or May.  I guess I’ll unpack when Ted and I get home on Sunday.

I’m feeling disappointed. . . . Is there an emoji for that?

It’s starting to seem very real that John and I will be going to India eight weeks and two days from now (February 9-18).  I got my typhoid and hepatitis A shots this morning and the prescription for my malaria prevention medication will be called out later today.

Last night, we had our second meeting of the docs–Dr. Polineni, Dr. John, and Dr. Me–to iron out some details for training Dr. P.’s teachers in India.  It was a very positive and fruitful meeting and we are all feeling good about the upcoming trainings.

At our first group meeting several months ago, Dr. P. told John and me that the schools in India (with only a handful of exceptions) have been teaching by memorization since the 1980s.  The basic method of instruction is for the teachers to write the lesson material on the board and for the students to copy that material, memorize it, and spit it back word-for-word on the test.  The graduates of this instructional method, Dr. P. said, are about 90 percent what he called “technicians”–people who can follow the steps that result in a product.  Classroom discussion, questioning, and elaboration are not part of the curriculum, and creative and innovative thinking are not taught or fostered.

What Dr. P. wants John and me to do is guide the instructors in his school to develop an interactive teaching style that will foster creative thinking.  One of my graduate textbooks by K. Patricia Cross includes the observation that “Teaching without learning is just talking.”  If the teachers in Dr. P.’s school are just talking, John and I have some serious training to do.  We choose to accept this mission.

The major results of last night’s meeting are:  We will be leaving for India February 9; I have scheduled my necessary inoculations for next week Tuesday; Dr. P. is going to reserve our airline tickets; and Dr. P. is checking on what we need for multiple-entry visas, since we will be doing follow-up trainings several months apart.  John and I, meanwhile, continue to prepare our training materials.

This is all starting to feel very real and I’m getting very excited.  Nine weeks to India and counting.  What an adventure!

Pay no attention to the man behind the screen; it’s Google that is the source of all information.  As I was blogging about Ella Genzmer and adding a link to the post, I noticed that one of my menu choices was “Search Google for ‘Ella Genzmer'” so I did.  I couldn’t believe what came up!!!  This was in the State of Wisconsin Assembly Journal, documenting the proceedings of the State Assembly.genzmer-pix-e

Hingham and Gibbsville Grade Schools became a consolidated school district with Oostburg when I was in eighth grade.  To help the eighth graders from all three schools get to know each other before starting high school in the fall, we had an eighth grade bus trip together.  We visited the Capitol in Madison and were introduced to the legislature.  (Apparently, a lot of other school kids from the state did the same thing that day.)  After the Capitol, we went to the Cave of the Mounds and then toured Little Norway.  It was a great day trip and I still have a small keepsake cedar box I bought that day at the Cave of the Mounds.

I never dreamed in 1961 that my eighth-grade school trip would re-surface in a Google search 55 years later.  Is this wonderful or scary?  Either way, it was kind of fun to find this old record.

At Kyle and Lauren’s wedding, my brother Tom quoted Ella Genzmer in his toast to the bride and groom.  He interrupted the toast to ask how many people in the room were acquainted with Ella Genzmer.  My brother Steve and I raised our hands.  With Tom, that made a total of three of us who knew her.

I grew up in Hingham, WI, a town of about 200 people, and Mrs. Genzmer was a long-time teacher in the Hingham Grade School.  The school building was two stories tall and had two classrooms, two teachers and usually somewhere around 50-60 students.  (It also had an awesome fire escape from the second floor, but that’s a different story.)  At some point, the upper floor was remodeled to form a third room, and a third teacher was added.  I don’t remember which grade I was in when that happened, but there are 63 students and three teachers in my seventh grade school picture.  (Yes, we are all in one picture.)

Important people: Mrs. Genzmer (back row, left); Denny (back row, second boy from left); me (back row, 5th from right); Steve (3rd row, 3rd from right); Tom (front row, 3rd from left).

Important people:  Mrs. Genzmer (back row, left); Denny (back row, 2nd boy from left); me (back row, 5th from right); Steve (3rd row, 3rd from right); Tom (front row, 3rd from left).

Mrs. Genzmer was my teacher for five of the eight years I was in grade school.  There was an interruption in my time with her when Mr. Prinsen, the principal, left and Mrs. Genzmer became the principal.  The principal always taught grades 5-8 (on the second floor), and I was still in a lower grade (on the first floor) when Mrs. Genzmer moved upstairs.  When I reached fifth grade, I had Mrs. Genzmer again until I graduated in one of the largest Hingham Grade School classes ever–seven of us!

"L-

Mrs. Genzmer was a grammarian.  I learned everything I know about diagramming sentences from her, and I took honors English in high school and college because of her.  In talking about her at Kyle and Lauren’s wedding, my brothers and I agreed that we received an excellent education in our little country school.

So what did Tom quote from Mrs. Genzmer?  In praising love and marriage, Tom reminded us that Mrs. Genzmer taught us “When using a dictionary, the first definition of a word is the most common use of the word.”  Tom also quoted Nietzsche in his toast.  I’ll bet Mrs. Genzmer would be surprised to be joined by Nietzsche!

My advisor, mentor, friend, and India training partner is awesome.  I introduced John Henschke in an earlier post and included some of his zillion+ accomplishments.  As soon as I knew John was going to be my training partner, I knew I would be working with the best and could set aside my worries about messing up my first overseas teacher trainings.

Today, I learned that John has yet another achievement to add to his resumé.  On November 14, he will be in Orlando, FL for his induction into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame.  What an honor!

Every so often, I hear that John is retiring.  When I ask him about it, he paraphrases Mark Twain and says, “The rumors of my retirement are greatly exaggerated.”  When I spoke with John last week, he told me he is retiring December 31.  I had to ask if this is the real retirement, or one more in his string of exaggerated rumored retirements.  This is the real one.

So what will John do in his retirement?  Since he won’t be teaching university classes after this semester, he sees retirement as an opportunity to have a more open calendar to schedule trainings and other activities.  He’ll be training adult educators in New Mexico the first week of December, in Tennessee the second week of January, and in India in February with me.

The best part of all is that not only do I count John as my friend and partner, but that he also counts me as a friend and partner.

Image result for john a henschke photo

My friend and partner, the awesome and world-renowned adult educator, John Henschke.

In January, I did some tutoring in a classroom that was formerly used for industrial arts.  I commented on the variety of things that were stored in that room, including a washer and a dryer.  When I returned to the school in September for the 2016-17 school year, I wrote about the changes made in the room so that it can be used as a meeting room.  I mentioned that the room is now more attractive, and that the washer and dryer are still there.

Former "storage" decor

Former storage-style decor

New and improved classroom-style decor

New and improved classroom-style decor

Today I was working with two students in the re-decorated meeting room when a teacher came in to launder a football practice uniform.  I asked her if this was a typical thing to do and she said “yes.”  I remembered that she had given one student some Cheerios and another some saltines this morning, so I asked if she provides food as well as laundry services for the students.  She said “yes.”  I asked if there were a lot of kids in need of both and she said “too many.”

I’ve worked with many people who are poor and in need of services, and they’ve told me about their struggles.  For example, they sometimes use an extension cord to get electricity from their neighbors when their own is shut off for lack of payment.  When I wrote grants to fund the Adult Education and Literacy program that I supervised, I always had to include data on the number of students who received free hot lunch in the school districts we served.

Neither working with low-income students nor including low-income statistics in my grants came as close to reality as seeing this teacher providing direct and immediate help for some low-income students.  Today, in her classroom, two students were fed and another went home with a clean football uniform.  If they don’t already do it, maybe more schools should include an on-site washer and dryer.  Little things really do make a difference.

The washer and dryer that help meet students' needs

The washer and dryer that help meet students’ needs.

Dr. John A. Henschke--my mentor, friend, and partner

Dr. John A. Henschke–my mentor, friend, and partner

Before going to India in December, I’m trying to become familiar with Dr. Polineni (the surgeon who invited me to train his teachers in India), with Dr. John Henschke (my training partner whom I’ve known for at least 20 years), and with India (where I’ve never been).  One of the things I’m doing is googling the subjects; another is checking them out on YouTube.  I’ve learned a lot about the two men, less about India.

I’ve known John for a long time and was honored to have him as my dissertation chair and even more honored to have him hood me at my doctoral graduation.  My professional knowledge of him is general, but sufficient to yield no surprise when I heard him introduced on a YouTube video as a “world-renowned adult educator” and as a “renowned educational expert.”  This is what I knew:

–He studied under and was a personal friend of Malcolm Knowles, the “father of adult education.”

–He has trained adult educators in 20 countries.

–He was a delegate at the UNESCO Institute of Education at the 1997 World Conference in Hamburg, Germany.

–He was an observer-delegate at the 5th World Conference in Adult Education.

–He serves as a juror (reviewer) of professional articles in the Adult Learning publication.

Given all that, I was still amazed at the breadth and depth of his work.  His vita shows the following:

–1.5 single-spaced pages of awards received, including national and international awards.

–Over 12 pages of “selected” articles he’s published.

–5 pages of dissertation committees he’s chaired (including mine) and 3 more pages of dissertation committees on which he’s been a member, but not the chairperson.

–3 pages of academic research he’s done in adult education.

–2 pages of courses he’s developed at six universities.

–22 pages of papers he’s presented at conferences.

–He has four websites focused on adult education information.

And this is the man who didn’t hesitate for even a second before saying “yes” when I asked him to be my partner for the India trainings.  I’m working with the best and will be a much better trainer for the experience.  I don’t see myself following in his giant footsteps, but maybe this experience will lead me on a “Little John” course of future work in adult education.

Yesterday was my last day of volunteering at the Success School.  The kids have final exams next week and–surprise!–I’m not allowed to assist them while they take exams.  Last week the principal asked if I’m interested in coming back next fall and I told her I would be happy to do so if the teachers and students felt that I was helpful this year.  She laughed and assured me they want to see me again.  Most volunteers, she said, want to work with the little kids, so they don’t get much help at the high school level, even though there are plenty of high school students who could use some extra one-on-one tutoring.

Before I left, I stopped in the classrooms of the teachers I’d worked with to say good-bye and to wish them a good summer break.  Then I stopped in the office to sign out and the secretary gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a thank you card signed by all the teachers.  She told me that everyone wanted to sign it, even if I hadn’t worked directly with their classes because “It’s a small school (ten classrooms) and people talk” (i.e., had heard about me).  What a sweet thing to do and say.  I have felt so appreciated all year, and the flowers and notes on the card still have me smiling and looking forward to next fall.

IMG_20160511_095503

A beautiful appreciation bouquet

Shakespeare doodle

Today’s Google doodle pays homage to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.  The circles represent eight of the 38 plays he wrote.  Can you name them?

 

Answers, left to right:  Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, King Lear, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Awhile back, I was reflecting on my volunteer tutoring with Ted and his need for extra time for learning.

Ted seems to catch on to things fairly quickly and can do math in his head, so I asked him why he failed so many courses.  He said he thinks the teachers just went too fast for him.  Isn’t that a shame?  How hard would it be to give the guy a little extra time or a little extra help before he fails the class?

Today, I was working with Ted again when I found the teacher who will do this.

As Ted and I were working, his social studies teacher came up to us.  She offered to talk with Ted’s teachers in his other classes (those he’s taking and hasn’t yet failed).  If he is willing to stay after school, Mrs. L. will help him finish his work in those classes before the end of the school year so that he won’t get an incomplete or a failing grade in them.  When Ted replied that he doesn’t have a ride home if he doesn’t take the bus,  Mrs. L. immediately offered to drive him home after they finished their work together.  Ted agreed and Mrs. L. will talk with the other teachers.

Since I work mainly with Ted now, I offered to adjust my volunteer hours as needed to help him finish.  I will also take him home if he needs a ride.  After all, he lives near Kari, so I could stop in for a quick “hello.”

Preparations are moving forward for the teacher training I’ll be doing in India.  John and I had a strategy planning meeting last night to discuss how we will meld the elements of adult learning, critical thinking, and teaching strategies into our presentation.  We are going to outline four trainings to be presented over the next two years.  When we have that ready, we will meet again with Dr. P. to discuss our plans with him.

One of the teachers at the Success School where I volunteer is from India–not too far south of where we’ll be going.  When I told her I will be going to India, she was eager to share information about the people, the area, the climate, etc.  Among the things she told me today:  (1) people will want to touch me because I am so light-skinned and blonde that I will be unusual to them; (2) I should ask for food to be prepared in a less spicy way or I will sweat for hours after eating it; and (3) if we go in August, it will be so hot we will need to shower several times during the night to stay comfortable enough to sleep.  I think she’s going to be an essential element of my well-being while I’m in India!

 

Where we’ll be:

Location:  (village) Martur, (district) Prakasam, (state) Andhra Pradesh.  It’s on the southeast coast of India.

School:  Sri Sarada Niketan Public School

Teammates:  Dr. Subbarao Polineni, Dr. John A. Henschke

 

Today, I saw Dr. P. for a checkup on my wrist.  (It’s doing well.)  After the medical business, I planned to ask Dr P. if he was serious about the teacher trainings, or if he’d spent the last three weeks wondering what made him suggest such a crazy idea.  Before I could say a word, he asked if I’d given any thought to doing the trainings.  It turns out that he was very serious about the idea and that he is very passionate about training the teachers in his school to teach in a method other than memorization, as they do now.  

Those who know me won’t be surprised that I had prepared a folder for him with a written proposal outlining a training schedule, the skills to be addressed in that training, and the follow-up trainings needed.  We talked for a few minutes and agreed that we need a meeting of the docs:  Dr. P., Dr. John, and Dr. Me.  As soon as I got home, I called John.  We set a date, time, and place to meet (March 14, 7:00 pm, John’s office) and it’s beginning to sink in that I am definitely going to India to provide teacher trainings later this year.  

The children in Dr. P.’s school are poor and orphaned, and are unlikely to have an opportunity to develop any skills they have.  Dr. P.’s goal is to give these underprivileged and undereducated children a chance to develop their abilities.  This is an amazing opportunity for me to help achieve that goal.  I am excited, but also humbled and definitely grateful for what I am sure was the Lord’s intervention in bringing this gift to my life.

After missing three weeks of tutoring at the Success School because I was sick, I went back today.  It felt so good!  Everyone said how much they missed me and how Ted asked for me every week and was disappointed that I wasn’t there.  They even sent me a get-well card and everyone signed it.  (The mystery is where it went, because I didn’t get it in the mail.)

Ted and I spent three hours working on his social studies and geometry.  We are a good match and we work well together.  (See January 27.)  Ted seems to catch on to things fairly quickly and can do math in his head, so I asked him why he failed so many courses.  He said he thinks the teachers just went too fast for him.  Isn’t that a shame?  How hard would it be to give the guy a little extra time or a little extra help before he fails the class?

While I was out sick, “my” room, the Blue Lagoon (so called because the outer woodwork is painted blue), was refurnished.  They put in a (very well-used) sofa and a comfy chair.  Unfortunately, they took out the table.  Luckily, there are folding tables in the old shop classroom Ted and I used one week (also January 27), so I got one of those and the learning continued.

My "Blue Lagoon"

My “Blue Lagoon” (actual size)

Today I met with John, my mentor, to discuss the teacher trainings in India.  As I expected, John had some good questions, suggestions, and advice.

One of John’s questions was whether I’d ever done any team trainings.  I said I had and that I actually prefer doing team trainings because I believe two personalities contribute to learning and help avoid boredom.  In fact, I told John, I’ve already asked Dr. P. if it would be possible to bring another trainer with me, and he said “yes.”  I told John that I have two people in mind–one of my teachers, who is now retired, and John, if he’d be willing to come with me.

Without missing a beat, John said he’d be happy to go to India with me.  Well, that’s just frosting on my cake!!  Thick frosting!!  With someone of John’s stature and experience at my side, a successful outcome is assured and my nervousness is gone.  John’s area of expertise is adult education; mine is teaching reading comprehension skills–what some people call “teaching kids to think.”  John will be very effective in getting the teachers onboard, while my strength will be teaching the specific skills to be addressed.  What a team we will be!

I asked John if he’d be willing to take the lead role, since this is a new experience for me.  His response was that there is no need for this, since he saw excellent leadership from me when I was president of the state education association (of which he is also a lifetime member), and then he said, “We will lead together.”  What an awesome man he is!  I’m so fortunate to know him and to count him as one of my friends.

I have a follow-up appointment for my wrist with Dr. P. on March 3. Between now and then, I’ll be preparing an outline of what John and I will include in the training and afterward for support.  If Dr. P. likes what he sees (this is the “I think” part, because even though it was Dr. P.’s idea, it still seems unreal to me), I’ll schedule a time for the three of us–John, Dr. P. and me–to meet and discuss the details.

One of my retirement goals was to offer my time and knowledge to help undereducated people in a meaningful way.  I’ve been doing that with my volunteer hours at the Success School.  Now, in addition to that, I have a chance to support education in an exciting way I never dreamed of, and with the best possible partner.  If God spoke to me from a burning bush, I don’t think He could make it more clear that He is guiding (shoving?) me in the way I should go at this time.  I wonder where it will lead, because surely this is not the end.

I’m working on gathering information so I can give Dr. P. an answer about doing teacher trainings for him in India.  I checked out Dr. P.’s foundation website (http://brightlifefoundation.org) and listened to a one-hour interview with him on You Tube about his foundation and the school.  I also asked another medical doctor about him and received an unconditional character reference, as well as the information that Dr. P. is well-known for his work with his school.  Two days from now, I’m meeting with Dr. John H., my friend and mentor, who has done many educational trainings in 20 countries.  I’m hoping for some expert, solid guidance from him.

As I’m doing these things, the idea of going to India in an educational capacity is becoming more real and I’m getting a little nervous about it.  I’m not nervous about doing the training (I’ve done a lot of those); I’m nervous about doing it in an unfamiliar culture, where I know nothing about the educational system or about the teachers and their teaching styles.  I’m assuming that, if I agree to do this, Dr. P. will spend the necessary time with me to provide that information.

And then I saw the quotation below, and again had the feeling that maybe I’m being guided to this.

 

FB_IMG_1455601754872

Today I had a follow-up with Dr. P., the hand surgeon, to have the stitches removed from my wrist.  While he pulled and snipped, he chatted with me about the school he built and supports in India through his foundation.

He knows I worked in the educational field and that I’m retired, so he started telling me some of his concerns about the school.  I responded with some simple suggestions, and he moved on to more detail and teacher trainings.  I finally asked what he was really trying to tell me.  (At this point, I catch my breath, my heart rate accelerates, and my eyes widen.)  He wants me to put together a training for his teachers and then go to India to train them, at the expense of his foundation!

I’ve explored some avenues to make a meaningful contribution to education, especially for those who struggle to be educated, but the roads haven’t taken me where I want to go.  Could this be the Lord working in one of his famously mysterious ways?  The more Dr. P. and I talked, the more excited I became.  Sanity did not totally disappear, however, and I asked for time to consider this.  He said there is no hurry.

When I got home, I emailed the person I most respect in education:  Dr. John Henschke–my mentor, advisor, and friend.  I asked him to meet with me to discuss this idea.  John has taught adult education in 20 countries.  I know he will be able to guide me in asking the right questions and in doing the necessary research to verify whether or not I’ve discovered a shining star in my retirement sky.

When Oprah turned 50, she said she knew that her best work was yet to be done.  I always hoped that would be true for me as well.  This may or may not be the direction for me to take, but just think:  What if it is?

20160126_133136_001

Since the Christmas break, I’ve been spending most of my weekly tutoring time helping Ted with algebra and geometry.  Ted is 17 and has failed a number of classes, so he’s working on them in the Success School, as well as working at a job.

Ted told me he intends to study hard to achieve his high school diploma.  The classroom teacher told me Ted likes working with me and he feels like he’s finally “getting it.”  Today, he scored 100 percent on a chapter test, making this a very good day for Ted.

. . . And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why teachers teach.

Today, another teacher was using the closet-size room in which I usually tutor students, so I was put in the former “shop” classroom.  It’s a large room with a bare concrete floor, a high ceiling that includes ceiling-mounted electrical outlets for power tools, and a few amenities such as a desk, a table, and large plants under some of the windows.

It addition to other activities, the room is apparently used as a storage space, as evidenced by two dozen computer towers, extra folded tables, and a rolling rack filled with folding chairs.  Some of the more unusual items in the room included an antique large-screen classroom TV; an also-antique set of bound World Book encyclopedias; and scattered pieces of exercise equipment (a Nordictrack-type thing, a treadmill, a recumbent bike, and a yoga mat).

Even more unusual were the two gas grills and the washer/dryer–complete with detergent and the original energy use sticker.  You never know when you’ll want to fire up the grill and/or do your laundry between classes!

Treadmill and gas grills

Treadmill and gas grills

 

Washer and dryer

Washer and dryer–with energy sticker!