Swickard: Harming students with summer vacation

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.   If we know allowing academic skills to go unused causes those skills to atrophy, why have three-month summer vacations in public schools? And, why is there the notion that after high school graduation people don’t need to use their academic skills to retain them?

            The reason some high school graduates cannot read, write coherently or do math to an adequate level is not because they haven’t been taught these skills. Rather, it is that the students have allowed their academic skills to degenerate by not using those skills.

            The students are victims of the gap between being able to use a skill and the subsequent loss of the skill. If a skill such as writing or math is not used in a certain amount of time it will be lost. Some lose their skills slowly, but everyone will lose their skills if enough time passes without the skills being used.

            Summer vacations are harmful to students since most do not continue to use their academic skills, in fact, most do not open a book the entire vacation. When the students come back to school, the first two months are getting back to where the students were before the summer vacation. What a waste of academic time.

            The benefits of three months off are: janitors can leisurely wax floors, teachers get summer jobs or return to college and parents can send the kids to relatives. Students work on their tans, play video games late at night and sleep until noon.

            The three months off looks like everyone gets what they want. In the short term that is true, but the tragedy is that in the long term, students are short changed their proper education by these summer vacations.

            At high school graduation, students are told in glowing terms that they have achieved a great wisdom. They are finished developing their skills and no longer have to use these skills regularly. Many high school graduates believe those graduation speeches.

            The truth is they will achieve wisdom when their kids graduate from high school and not before. Their high school skills have a shelf life, like bread has a shelf life. They must use the skills regularly to retain those skills. If, at age twenty-five, the former students lack skills, most often these skills were lost from lack of use rather than never having been developed.

            Students must use their academic skills during their days in school and during the rest of their life. Summer vacations are one of the biggest threats to their ability to progress in school. It isn’t the vacation per se that harms the student, it is any time that months pass without the person using their academic skills.

            When that happens some people ask, “Why didn’t those darn schools teach them anything?” The answer doesn’t matter. Whether they had those academic skills and then lost them for lack of use or never had those skills, it’s all the same in the end.

            They do not have those skills.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s novel, Hideaway Hills,is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: Harming students with summer vacation

Swickard: A funny thing happened in line

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  Many years ago, I was standing in a line at the university. It was the usual kind of line that college students stand and have stood in since the beginning of time.

            No one was speaking, each barricaded in their own world, secretly wishing the other people would have heart attacks so they could step over the fallen bodies to the head of the line. No matter what happens to our world, we will still have lines to stand in.

            Someone walked up, looked carefully at a piece of paper and then looked worriedly at the sign in front of the line. He started to leave, wavered, almost spoke aloud. He was fearful of being in the wrong line.

            At last, with an air of resignation, he stuck the paper in his pocket, sighed heavily and stepped into line; having decided it was the wrong line but he was going to have to go to the front of this line to find out which line he should have been standing in.

            I turned to him and said, “I wouldn’t mind lines so much if it wasn’t for all the waiting.”

            The effect on the people in line was immediate. Most smiled. I also smiled. Like the air rushing out of a balloon, the tension in the line vanished and people started talking to each other.

            You cannot stand in line with people who are on edge, ill-tempered and full of anger without it affecting you. Likewise, if person after person steps to the front of the line full of bile, it rubs off on the people behind the window until they are surly.

            Sooner than later, they hand that mouthful of bile right back to someone in the line forming a very destructive cycle.

            The way out is to talk to the people around you. Try a little humor if you like. Something like:

            I hear Governor Martinez just flew in from Santa Fe, I’ll bet her arms are tired. Or, how many psychology students does it take to change a light bulb? One, but the bulb has to want to change.

            You can just speak to the people in a friendly manner. You will be surprised how much better you both feel. While it is true that all workers should be nice to us regardless of how they are treated, the way it works is simply: the nicer you are, the better your chance to succeed in getting what you want.

            Seriously, when standing in any line to pay bills, get loans, buy stamps, ask simple questions, ask hard questions, ask unanswerable questions; whatever you are doing in lines, take your humor with you. Be gentle, I may be in the same line.

            Also, if you can’t bring yourself to laugh, at least smile, when you hear: I understand the Aggie football team is so tough that when they play horseshoes, they don’t even bother taking the shoes off of the horses.

            That will move the line right along.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s new novel, HideawayHills, is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: A funny thing happened in line

Swickard: In praise of dabblers

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.   Working smart is a mainstay of our country. I sometimes find people who I call “Dabblers” able to work smart in many different endeavors. My uncle Ralph and my Grandfather McKim were both dabblers of many different abilities to fix things.

            A hallmark of a great dabbler is not being entirely into a college career. Rather, it is the ability and inclination to take on an impressive array of jobs and do each one well. These people are not usually experts but they are completely competent in many areas.

            Myself, I’m competent at most home and auto repairs. But what I really know is when to call in someone who can fix whatever I’m working on. This last week I ran into a dabbler extraordinaire who amazed me with his abilities.

            The way this came about is that my uncle that I took care of many years until his passing in 2015 built his house in 1959. He had a 1934 Plymouth Coupe that he drove occasionally. The house was done in September and he parked the Plymouth in the garage. One of his friends helped him take the engine out to rebuild it. They disassembled the car.

            Then it happened, his mechanic friend was suddenly transferred by his job to the East Coast. Said Plymouth sat all these years awaiting a new mechanic. My uncle never reassembled the car.

            The dabbler this week bought the car from my uncle’s estate. We had to get it out of the garage. My uncle was from the Great Depression and didn’t throw anything away in all those years. Even plastic spoons. We carefully cleaned out the garage and loaded the car body on a trailer along with boxes and boxes of parts.

            This dabbler mechanic knew instantly every bolt, nut and piece of the car. He was able to mentally reassemble it in his mind. The real reassemble at his place will take a long time.

            We need the next generation of kids to learn how to dabble in many areas of fixing stuff. We have enough people who can sit and pass paper back and forth. We will need the next generation to have dabblers who can look at things that break in a house or car and fix them.

            For me it was taking three years of shop when I was in public school. No longer is shop a core curriculum and our society and students are missing out. In my three years I learned woodworking, electronics repair, automotive repair, welding and using tools.

            Shop needs to return to our public schools for every student. Boys and girls. Make all of them handy and then let them sort out what needs to be fixed. For every person who looks at the stars we need someone who can look at the biffy and know how to get it working again.

            Our society has a bountiful amount of goods but someone (dabblers) must be encouraged to learn how to fix these things.

Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s new novel, HideawayHills, is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: In praise of dabblers

Swickard: We need real driving tests

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.   One great adventure is driving. From sitting safely in your home within seconds we can be at the edge of death. Just seconds. Turn the key and away we go. Most of the time we are fine.

            Our society has a blind spot. There are people who should not be driving. It is not that they cannot drive down a road. It’s they cannot deal with emergencies.

            After one large and three small driving issues, I took the keys away from an older relative. He was unhappy but that’s my job. Then I would see him out in the second car trying to start it.

            Nope, I fixed the car since he no longer had a driver’s license. He’d say, “I think I can still drive the car.” I would reply, “That car will take you right to the scene of the accident and you will be there ten minutes before the police. That gives you ten minutes to think of a reason why you are driving without a license.”

            He didn’t like it but saw the humor. Truthfully, he could drive but he was unable to deal with emergency situations. We owe our older citizens to take the keys away before a wreck.

            More so, we don’t test this aspect of driving. When renewing a license there’s no test to check those skills. In flying there is and it should be something we do with driving.

            Likewise, there is the notion that someone can drink and drive providing it isn’t past a limit. However, “Buzzed driving is drunk driving” means any impairment is potentially fatal.

            We talk a good game of safety but we don’t play the game. Example: I was standing in line and a person was describing that they had their sixth accident that year. Yikes! Why does that person have a driver’s license?

            Yes, we hear often of drivers driving on suspended licenses. The consequences of violating the law must be robust enough to stop all but the most egregious offenders and those we will have to incarcerate for our own safety.

            Are we going to get serious about safety or is it such a good living for the accident lawyers and undertakers? We need to have driving academies for anyone in an accident whither our fault or not. And, for everyone we need rigorous driving tests every two years. This needs to be not just for commercial drivers but for all drivers.

            Our society must take away the driving privileges of those people no longer able to deal with emergencies. It is not good enough to get the car in gear, like flying, every two years we must recertify our ability to deal with life or death driving situations.

            Yes, I know my license to drive will most likely be taken from me some day. Shuckins. But it is better safe than sorry. It would be nice if it was the driving tests that show my inability to handle emergencies rather than a real emergency.

Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s new novel, HideawayHills, is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: We need real driving tests

Swickard: When technology breaks suddenly

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.   Early in life I learned how technology can let us down. It was my seventh birthday and I had lobbied desperately for a drum without much hope considering the look on my mother’s face.

            So, my Uncle Gene bought me a guitar for my birthday. When I opened the package my mother and I said simultaneously, “Oh my God!”

            It wasn’t a real guitar, rather, it had a crank which when turned played the tune “Oh Susanna.” This was before anyone with that name became the Governor of New Mexico.

            I turned the crank and the song was a hit. Uncle Gene had a big smile, even when my mother, while bringing him hot coffee, accidentally spilled it on him.

            I played the song again, and again. Then I decided to sing and even added some yodeling and a few yips. I was Johnny One Song all day long. My parents looked a little frayed.

            Then it was time to say my prayers, brush my teeth and go to bed. I played the song one last time for my mother as she tucked me in. What a present!

            Next morning, I jumped up, grabbed the guitar and turned the crank. No sound came out. The technological wonder broke while I was asleep. I was crestfallen. My uncle looked glum.

            I asked him, “Can you fix this?” He looked at my mother and then slowly shook his head. We all called him Uncle Genius, and I immediately knew that if he couldn’t fix it, heck, it was broken for good since he was an electrical engineer.

            I’ll admit I suspected that one of the grown-ups had some hand in the guitar not working, so I asked my mother if she or my dad had been playing “Old Susanna” on my guitar after I went to sleep. Her expression wavered between hysteria and alarm.

            She firmly stated that no one had been playing “Oh Susanna.” That meant I was forced to accept that the guitar broke on its own. Over the years other technological wonders have broken and they have broken at the most inconvenient times. In fact, I have come to expect it.

            We don’t know when our technology will break except it will be unexpectedly. That rule has been true. Lightning hit a few houses away and everything connected to the cable died. The power in the house wasn’t affected, just everything tied to the cable.

            I brought the almost still smoking cable box into the local cable office. The representative immediately proclaimed that when lightning hits and blows up technology, “It is an act of God.”

            I smiled, “Can I quote you?” He hesitated a moment and then nodded. So, I wrote a column a few years ago that a major international company affirms that there is a God. He seemed cranky the next time I saw him.

            It is likely that it wasn’t God who broke my guitar. But I now understand and have long since forgiven her.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s new novel, HideawayHills, is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: When technology breaks suddenly

Swickard: The Chaos Theory of Education

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  At a recent meeting someone said in frustration, “I wish schools would just educate kids.” The person was vague as to specifics. I asked, “So you think educating is simple?”

            “Yes, you get a teacher and some children and let the teacher teach. It’s no big deal.”

            Perhaps that notion is both right and wrong. Simply put: education is when there is something you want to learn and you listen to someone or read something. But there’s an entire public education industrial complex in our society.

            That system of education is incredibly complex and fraught with dysfunction. Paul Simon wrote in a 1973 song, “When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all.”

            There is a Chaos Theory in Weather Prediction stating when a butterfly flaps its wings in Beijing the weather changes ever so slightly in New York City. We know it will rain but not when. No matter how much money goes into weather prediction, it is limited to perhaps a week.

            In education, we know some children will learn, but not how much each will learn at any given time. Despite the industrial mania for testing we don’t have the ability to say if a teacher does something, students are guaranteed to learn.

            It is a very complex. There are so many factors that it is impossible to name them all. Some major factors are: interaction with parents, student age in months, brain development in the child, the child’s nutrition, eyesight, allergies and other physical issues.

            Some minor factors are: the latitude of the school. The northern schools have more coughing making it harder to hear. If we research the many thousands we might see school lunches are a 1.3% factor and the school having a winning football season a .0001% factor.

            What the Chaos Theory of Education illuminates is that despite the assurances that our educational leaders “know” what they are doing, they are as good as the weather service is at making one year weather predictions.

            In weather and public education, the plan has been that if the endeavor could be broken into a large enough number of measurable steps we would be able to rely upon the prediction. In education, every year there are more and more measures, more and more new strategies and pretty much the same percentage of children doing well or not doing well.

            The all-knowing expression many educational leaders wear should no longer cause us to be silent. That these leaders have impressive credentials or impressive titles or ornate offices does not matter.

            Perhaps the factory model of education which we use in America where all children are similar enough to educate in the same way will finally be proven to be false. Perhaps in the coming years children will spend less time in institutions and more time learning individually.

            Each student learns differently in so many ways. Public education can never function satisfactorily using a factory model.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s new novel, HideawayHills, is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: The Chaos Theory of Education

Swickard: Developing public school students correctly

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” Michelangelo

             His full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. He died at age 88, 453 years ago and left us wondrous art that we enjoy to this day. Two of his statements many years ago go directly to problems in our public education system today.

            First, we Americans are not aiming high enough for our students and assuming this generation cannot do things. They can do what they think they can do. It is critical to awaken the curiosity and passion inside each student early in their education.

            Example: public schools are telling young students that they simply must go to college. What about our society’s artists, artisans and trades people? We need electricians and woodworkers. But the Educational Industrial Complex needs students to go to college to keep those educational dollars up.

            The second statement is central to the dysfunction in our public schools. Michelangelo wrote: Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. The educational leadership task is to reveal what is inside of each student as to their curiosity and passion to learn.

            Instead, the Factory Model of Education believes the public schools should mold the students into something useful for the society, not necessarily useful for the students. Public schools are not looking at the wondrous statue inside of the child, rather, they are only focused on their own self-perpetuation.

            Example: in 2009 Sir Ken Robinson gave a talk about creativity. He found a music teacher in Liverpool, England who at one time had both George Harrison and Paul McCartney in his class. He had half of the future band, The Beatles but he noticed nothing creative about them.

            How many truly exceptional people are languishing in public school because the factory model is not looking for exceptionalism or creativity, it only rewards compliance with rules and learning to take tests well.

            The huge problem is that public schools are run by distant autocratic administrators who rarely see the little blocks of marble. Certainly, the administration does not see anything but test scores. How sad.

            The teachers can get a glimpse of greatness in students but are threatened with being fired if they do anything with the students other than what the administrators command. Why even have teachers, eh?

            The leaders of our educational systems must support the students rather than the adults working in the system. Superintendents of Public Schools must see that the students develop according to their curiosity and passion, not just to be a widget in society.

            That is an awesome responsibility that these leaders have. Can they be true to the students? We must watch for the student’s sake. Forget all the testing administrators. Our society needs more public school teachers who understand curiosity and passion in their students.

Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s new novel, Hideaway Hills, is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: Developing public school students correctly

Swickard Column: Frustration then and now

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.   “Expectation is the mother of all frustration.” Antonio Banderas

            Graduation from high school was May 1968. In technological terms that was at a time when everyone put hay in one end of their personal transportation. Then had just as many frustrations every day despite the notion of a kinder and gentler time in America.

            Speaking of personal frustration: I didn’t have a car so I could go anywhere if I had enough time to walk. In the verbiage of the day, “What a drag.” But I survived that frustration.

            Back then I had three technological wonders: a ball-point ink pen, a Timex wrist-watch that “takes a licking and keeps on ticking.” And, I had use of my grandmother’s 1930 Underwood manual typewriter.

            My first newspaper column was written in 1969 on that manual typewriter with carbon paper for a copy. It was nothing like the ease of writing this column using a computer. But I am frustrated today, almost to the level of using a manual typewriter.

            Going to college in the 1960s meant that if you had communication technology it was a phone tied to the wall with a three-foot cord. And a clock radio with only the AM band. I lived a mile off campus with a relative so spent lots of time walking back and forth through mostly sunshine. But there was dust, rain, gloom of night and blisters.

            My expectation those years was that I would survive and get a college degree followed by a good paying job to replace the small paying jobs that kept me going in college. That did happen. So why am I so frustrated?

            Over the last twenty years of having a cellphone, I have enjoyed them except when having to get getting a new one. And, the technological frustration making the new one work. That why I am frustrated. I’d rather have a beating than change cellphones.

            But the new ads for the Samsung Galaxy S8 seemed wonderful though my S5 still worked. In a moment of weakness instead of taking a nap I called my Cell Company. In a long conversation, I was persuaded that the S7 was better than the new S8. I know: buyer beware.

            The short of it is that the unit would not activate but the Cell Company was able to deactivate my phone as I was talking to Tech Support. I have dubbed them: Tech Non-Support. In nine hours of calls and calls the new unit could not be activated which is the uncertainty I was trying to avoid in the new Samsung but got in an older model.

            Yes, I spoke to them nine hours over two days trying to make this technological wonder work. As of now it has little chance to come to life. It is a good thing that I experienced all that frustration earlier in my life so I take this setback well. Other than sarcasm which has flourished.

            I’m frustrated because somehow I was expecting it to work.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s new novel, Hideaway Hills, is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard Column: Frustration then and now

Swickard: What it means to be an American

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  Talk show host Dennis Prager was asked: What’s the biggest danger to America? He said, “We have not passed on what it means to be an American to this generation.”

            Our country was founded because British leaders acted oppressively. The English King and his Parliament changed the course of history for the entire world by planting the seeds of rebellion in a society strong enough to resist and wise enough to construct a lasting representative republic. There were no free countries when Americans revolted.

            The King and his advisors were arrogant and ignorant, two traits that infest oppressive governments. A reasonable British government would not have inspired rebellion and I would be drinking tea while writing my columns instead of coffee.

            Americans hold three American ideas: the presumptions of innocence, commerce and freedom. But these presumptions are under attack in our country and not taught in schools as often as they were when I was young. They are some of the reasons that America is the shining light of liberty. Or was.

            As to innocence, we are supposed to assume those accused of a crime are innocent unless convicted in a court of law. The media has lead an assault on that presumption. There really is no longer this presumption.

            As to commerce, except where the government has made winners, our rich have gotten so by public free exchange where both parties walked away happy. Steve Jobs became rich by anticipating what we wanted, not because the government poured money into his pocket.

            Our country became a great example for all of the world because of our principle that a willing buyer and a willing seller, both happy with the outcome are the cornerstones of our nation. Little by little over the last one hundred years the government has intruded and we no longer have free markets.

            Finally, American freedom is the ability of citizens to not have to do what they do not want to do so long as it does not harm someone else. However, our government lives to impose its will upon Americans. I pray we retain enough freedom to teach our children what freedom means along with the other two presumptions.

            The great question for us geezers and geezerettes is how to teach something to the young people that isn’t prominently on display in our country. It is tough to do but must be done. It isn’t just restoring Civics to the public-school classrooms, we must change some of the narratives. One is the country is basically unfair.

            While the founding of this country involved men who kept slaves we are long past that and we should not reject the good with the bad. The men who put their lives, their possessions and their sacred honor on the line so we could be free were magnificent

            And the Constitution is unique to our nation even though it has been under assault for a hundred years. We must teach these uniquely American ideas to our young people.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s new novel, Hideaway Hills, is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: What it means to be an American

Swickard: It isn't smart to be that stupid

© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “Stupid is as stupid does.” Forest Gump

            Sometimes there is a fine line between genius and stupid so it’s hard to know which it is. But with New Mexico the mantra for the state is: let’s always do the stupid thing. Shuckins.

            In a state dead last in education it would seem to call for a change, but no. In a state that is the only state in the Sun Belt to be losing citizens it would seem to call for a change, but no. In a state with institutions of higher learning losing students it would seem to call for a change, alas, but no.

            Let’s start with the colleges. Most have been having financial difficulties because their student population is dropping. Concurrently that have raised the cost of attendance dramatically. At New Mexico State University in 1993 the cost of Tuition and Fees was under $600 a semester. Twenty-five years later it is around $3,000 a semester.

            This is important since some jobs will only pay about $18,000 a year. The cost of getting a degree becomes a limiting factor. Certainly not so with Electrical Engineers but when five years cost $6,000 in tuition and fees, any degree was fine. Make that cost $30,000 and some graduates will have trouble making ends meet.

            The population at these colleges is dropping. That should signal to drop the cost of tuition and fees to get students back. Instead, they are raising the cost of attendance. It isn’t smart to be that stupid.

            In a state that is in a budget crisis because oil and gas is much lower and the state is losing businesses and citizens the idea of increasing taxes should be labeled as a stupid thing to do. But no, that is the solution which of course won’t work long because more businesses and citizens will leave the state. Sad.

            Finally, in education all of the high powered smart people who have screwed up the New Mexico public schools are doubling down on bad advice. Again sad. What the public schools need to do is release so much administration and experts while going back to the teachers.

            The research is compelling that all of these supposedly new programs are nothing but educational fads which have not worked in the past, will not work now and sadly, when the experts try to use them in the future they will not work then. Over the last fifty years there are many fads that experts bring back to not work again.

            New Mexico has many very smart people but the leaders are not listening. To get students back in New Mexico colleges these colleges must be student centered. They are administration centered now and that why every solution does not work. Same in the legislature and in the public schools.

            After the next few years of stuff not working could we have a moratorium of stupid in the state? Just a few years of doing intelligent things would be so welcome.

 Email: drswickard@comcast.net - Swickard’s new novel, Hideaway Hills, is available at Amazon.com 

Swickard: It isn't smart to be that stupid