Showing posts with label Teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teaching. Show all posts
September 13, 2024
October 3, 2023
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April 2, 2022
Teaching Our Children To Be Good Jews
What happened to genuine faith in G-d, belief in the holy Torah, our duty to abide by the 613 commandments, and generally doing right in this world by our fellow man and before G-d Almighty? Maybe I’m being too literal here but being a “good Jew” has got to mean something important. We are keeping alive the tradition of our parents, grandparents and great grandparents, spanning back thousands of years to our Forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to G-d delivering us from Egyptian servitude, and His giving to us the Torah on Mount Sinai, and to His bringing us to Israel, the Land of Milk and Honey, and keeping us from being wiped away by one great empire after another. Being a Jew means being part of an important important and yes, “chosen” for a special mission of being a “light unto the nations” and that means action on our part: thinking, saying, and doing what’s right all the time!We are tested daily to do what’s right, even when it’s not convenient, easy, enjoyable, or popular. What is a Jew? We need to really ask ourselves that question. It’s not trivial and neither should the answer be. Our lives in this world and the next are depending on how we live up to the high bar that is set for us each and every day of our lives that Hashem mercifully grants to us.
June 2, 2021
What Children Learn
What children experience at home is what they learn to become.
Sure people can change their thinking and actions.
But any negative voices of the past may still echo in theirs heads.
That is until people tell them "hush, be quiet!"
And they replace old voices and experiences with new thinking about themselves and what they are capable of positively doing with their lives and in their relationships with others.
We all need to know what we value about ourselves and our lives and then make sure that we do those things.
So at the end of days, we can answer for our lives in an affirmative way! ;-)
(Credit Photo: Etsy)
February 25, 2021
Teach Me To Fish
December 12, 2020
Teach Your Children Well
I am grateful to write that I had my first grandchild, a wonderful baby boy, thank G-d. Now, as with all children, comes the next very exciting part which is, please G-d, to raise and teach him to live a good life of Torah, family, hopes and dreams.
We teach our children, even as we learn along the way ourselves. Two critical things we have from Hashem to help us on this journey: we have the Torah as our holy guidebook, and we have our soul and conscience as our inner voice exhorting us, right from wrong. These are the tools that we go forward with to try and perfect ourselves and the world, and to teach our children to do the same.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
August 29, 2020
Teaching Kids To You Know What
Mini toilets to teach the kids to go potty.
The big pot can probably be scary for a little kid.
Don't want them to end up falling in and whoosh!
Ok, not funny!
Seriously though, these little training toilets are cute.
Honestly, I think there are some adults that need some potty training too.
Yes, you know who you are! ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
August 18, 2020
When Planning Is A Joke
The College of Architecture and Planning apparently didn't plan enough space for the "C" of college and so it's plastered to the brick wall at a corner angle.
Talk about irony!
Would you want them teaching your architect and planners?
Oy this is just too classic. ;-)
(Source Photo: Facebook)
February 6, 2020
Build Others Up
It says:
"Don't Cut Down Others"
It's far better to build people up then to tear them down.
Jut like with trees, it's better to plant a trillion trees than deforest the Amazon Rainforest.
Trees are life and people are life.
Be constructive and not destructive.
Offer a nice word or compliment; provide an attentive and empathetic ear; give direction with some advice or guidance; lend a hand to someone in need; and in general, be a good influence.
Unfortunately, too many people default to cutting down the old cherry tree! ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
June 10, 2019
Why Only Two, Daddy?
The father goes on to explain that these are the commandments that G-d gave to the Jews (when they were redeemed from slavery in Egypt). He enumerates just two examples: keeping the Shabbat and honoring your mother and father. The son asks, 'What are the other commandments?' The father hesitates either not knowing any of the other commandments or simply unable to remember any more of them on the spot. And all of a sudden, the little boy starts wailing to his father: 'Daddy, why do you know only two, why?'
Knowing the Torah and commandments is not only for ourselves to do what's rights, but also to pass on the torch to the next generation. It's not always easy to be good examples, but it's the challenge we all face. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
November 6, 2018
Training Them To Be Like Us
This kid was pushing the shopping cart with groceries in it.
And a little sign at the top that says:
Customer in Training
His mom is nearby with the big shopping cart full of even more groceries.
It's interesting how we teach our kids to be just like us and at the same time to be not like us.
They emulate some things and they reject others.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
But no two apples are the same either.
Teaching is an important component of parenting and schooling.
We need to impart important lessons from the past, so children don't have to recreate the wheel in the present and future.
But spitting out little clones is not helpful to innovation and the engine of "what's next."
Sometimes, I envision that there is a really big war--maybe World War III--nukes are used and all our bits and bytes are wiped out, and we are thrown back to the Stone Age.
All the teaching is evaporated in the vapor of the blasts.
All that's left in what's in the soul of the remaining. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
June 17, 2018
Today is Father's Day
Also, the message she wrote to me inside was so thoughtful and mature.
It is wonderful for me to see her grow up to be such a lovely young lady.
The cover of the card:
"Father:
Neither an anchor to hold us back,
nor a sail to take us there,
but a guiding light whose
love shows us the way."
As parents, we certainly don't have all the answers either for ourselves or certainly for our children.
And frankly, the kids don't want us to tell them what to do or how to do it.
The best we can really do is to be there for them--to spend time with them, to support them, to show them we really care, and to provide perspective, balance, and faith.
I used to love going to my parent's house even if just to lay on the couch and feel the comfort of being "home" and with them.
I didn't have to think about what I did or said--I could just be me, and they loved me for that.
Now, I want my home to be that for my kids.
Even though they are adults now, they know we are always here for them in any way that they want or need us.
Our home is always their home.
Our love is always surrounding them.
My father used to say, he would go through fire for his family, and I always knew he meant it.
I could count on him for anything.
I miss him always, and especially today, Father's Day.
But I can carry on his fatherhood to my children and try to be a good dad--there, and loving and giving--no bounds, no expectations, no judgment--just love, plain and simple. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
April 19, 2018
Make The Right Move To Agile Education
Generally, we teach by strict curriculum forcing children to learn what we consider "the fundamentals".
But they are anything but that and kids come out not knowing how to do the very basics or survive in life.
Test scores have not been improving--that's not the student's fault, but the education system, which cannot force feed what students minds are rejecting as "old school" and out of touch.
Not only don't we fish for them, but we don't even teach them to fish.
We throw at them esoteric subjects to memorize, spit back, and forget.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
We waste years of their life and the productivity and creativity of society.
Ever really wonder why GDP growth is only around 2% despite all the rapid technology that we are rolling out.
It is just not drones that we are rolling off the assembly line, but human automatons as well.
This is where agile education comes into aspect.
Like with software development, we can gather requirements and build, and then show the customer, and then refine again and again.
We let the development grow and mature naturally as the code takes shape.
No more years of development and voila here's something for you, and with the customer exclaiming loudly, "What the F*** is that!"
So too with education, we need to follow the spirit and train of thought naturally.
Where we let the students guide the teacher to what their questions are, what they are interested in learning about, where their creative juices take them, and what is relevant.
Rigidity in the education system leaves our students as dead ends, and not as critical thinkers and innovators.
We have a dearth of leaders we can look up to and a plethora of people that couldn't survive the Spring without their Visa/Mastercard.
Ever wonder why so many of our great innovators are college dropouts who built their companies in their garages instead of occupying a seat in a classroom and filling their heads with teacher rhetoric.
Most people learn by seeing, internalizing, and doing useful things for themselves, not by listening and violently rejecting the irrelevant in their lives.
Let us release the choking reigns of our education system.
Teachers should be able to follow the questions and interests and natural evolution of thought and creativity and wonderment with their students.
The mark of learning is not the answers on a standardized test, but the light bulb of critical thinking and innovation from our progeny.
Exploration and discovery and skills to be self-sufficient and survive are far more beneficial than what we are giving our children today.
We owe them a better education, but we are not delivering because we are the automatons of yesteryear.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
January 27, 2017
A Little Wear and Tear
Danielle Ofri in the New York Times points out:
"Our bodies evolved to live about 40 years and then be finished off by a mammoth or a microbe. [However,] thanks to a century of staggering medical progress, now now live past 80, but evolution hasn't caught up; the cartilage in our joints still wears down in our 40s and we are more obese and more sedentary that we used to be, which doesn't help."I hear from so many people in their 40s that they are already getting knee and hip replacements; they have high blood pressure, diabetes, and are having heart attacks, and many even are seeing their first bouts of cancer.
So in many ways, the 40s really sucks!
Many of us would be dead many times over already, if not for G-d's grace and the miracles of medical science and technology these days.
So life is prolonged, and we even often get pain relief, while we are able to continue forward with our families, communities, and careers.
As we read in Psalms 39:4
"Show me, LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is."Perhaps that's what illness is...G-d showing us that we are just mortal and that life is short and we need to make the most of every minute.
When everything is going just swell, how easy it is to become arrogant and forget how mortal we really are.
My father used to say:
"G-d doesn't let any tree grow into the heavens."By our 40s, when most of us are growing our families, careers, wealth, and stature--unfortunately, maybe we sort of need that kick in the pants from Above.
G-d is our maker and our teacher, and he guides us to the end of our days, and hopefully they are reached with wisdom, meaningful contributions, piety, and love. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
March 29, 2016
STEM Lost And Found
So this was a shirt of a local college campus that I took yesterday.
It shows aspirations to be all sorts of things...from a doctor and lawyer to a cowgirl and princess.
However, in this list of 22 professional aspirations there is a noticeable lack of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
Yes, doctors do have to know science, but not necessarily the type that opens up the world of discovery and innovation like a researcher or scientist!
STEM are the fields that over and over again have been reported as grossly lacking in this country.
"America Desperately Needs More STEM Students" (Forbes 2012)
"Americas Lack of STEM Students is Bad News For National Security" (US News and World Report June 2015)
Another article in IEEE Spectrum (August 2013) claims that while the "STEM crisis is a myth," still "we should figure out how to make all children literate in the sciences, technology, and the arts."
From my experience, while I certainly get to see a lot of awesome technical talent, I also see and hear too many moans and groans when it comes to a lot of basic skills in STEM.
One colleague said the other day (and in a public forum), "Oh, don't depend on my math skills for that!"
Others that I know have difficulty with everything from simple spreadsheets, backing up their computer files, or even balancing a checkbook, and other such fundamental skills.
Growing up with a dad who was a math whiz, a sister with a PhD in bio-medical science, and me majoring in accounting, business, and later diving into IT, I learned to appreciate, on many fronts, how important basic STEM skills are, and I in turn used to drill my own kids with workbooks and worksheets--and they perhaps at the time resented me for it, and maybe only later in life, started to love me for caring and trying.
In school, I found a lot of the education in STEM to be lacking coming across too often as esoteric and disappointingly devoid of day-to-day meaning and application in the real world for the regular people not building bridges or spaceships, so I certainly understand the frustration of young people who while they may be interested in pursuing these critical areas of education, may be turned off at the way it's being presented to them.
We need great teachers who not only know the material, but love what they do and know how to make the material come alive to their students. Also, we need jobs that pay commensurate to the value of the talent and not nickle and dime the developers, researchers, and engineers while lining the pockets of the executive suite. Finally, we should focus the hearts and minds of our people on the real meaning of the work they do and how it helps people and society, and not just on what often comes across as isolated tasks or the organization's free dry cleaning and all you can eat buffet lunches. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
December 29, 2015
Why Yell And Intimidate The Child?
So at the table next to us this morning at breakfast was a mean looking lady and a fidgety young child.
The lady as we found out over the course of their dialogue was the child's grandmother.
And she wouldn't stop berating this kid, maybe 5-years old.
Grandmother: "Don't you dare get up from the table until I'm done with my coffee, [and then this weird chilling] thank you."
Child: Obviously looking to run around and have some fun, "But I just want to go."
Grandmother: Who has finished her breakfast and coffee and is just making a continuing point, "You'll wait until I'm done, and I say we're ready, [and again, the long controlling pause and then] thank you."
Child: "I'm tired."
Grandmother: "Then you'll go upstairs, get back into bed and go to sleep, and no tv, just sleep--you will not move!"
Child: Looks up helplessly sad.
Grandmother: Now the truth starts to come out, "You know I don't like the way you treat you mother. Your disrespectful! And that won't go with me."
Child: Appears to not really understand what she is saying and legs dangle anxiously off the chair, but clearly very afraid to get up.
Grandmother: "You'll learn to be respectful to your mother. You will learn!"
Child: Head leaning sideways on table, says nothing.
Grandmother: Makes child wait some more and more, and finally, "Now we can go."
Child: Child picks head up and runs to take her hand.
Grandmother: Sneers and smirks with her power over the child--she looks like a freakin' witch.
Whole scene was sort of heartbreaking.
My wife and I look at each other, and shake our heads.
This was not teaching or loving, but something else and it wasn't normal or nice.
I say, "Perhaps, when a child is abused this way--day after day, year after year--this is why they grow up and then do horrible and hateful things."
It's amazing how adults take out their issues on children--and they think it's legit--but deep down you can see it really isn't--and the children and society pays for the sins of the adults. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
December 12, 2015
Helping Kids To Stand On Their Own
Her perspective:
TEACH TO CARE - Get the kids to do them for themselves, learn to be independent, by doing they learn to stand on their own two feet, don't baby them, by teaching them to do for themselves you are caring for the kids, if you jump every time they ask then there is no reason for them to try themselves.
His perspective:
CARE TO TEACH - Do for the kids when they are young, by showing them how then they start to learn how to do it for themselves later in life, children need to be shown love and caring so they can learn to one day care for themselves as well as for others, by loving and giving selflessly to children they learn that they are valuable human beings and grow to a healthy maturity.
The reality:
CARE AND TEACH - We need to show care and love to children, but also need to teach them to do for themselves. We can't smother children nor can we send them out into the world unprepared. Care for them at an early age, show them how, and then give them opportunities to do it for themselves and become full adults.
Like with most things in marriage, and relationships in general, the bringing together of two heads and hearts is better than just one alone. We balance each other, complement each other, and synergize each other--one is alone and deficient, two is together and with G-d making three, it is a whole.
And always tell your wife she was right. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
October 28, 2015
Indians and Palestinians
September 4, 1886, Geronimo, the last American Indian warrior surrenders to the United States and later after some time in prison, Geronimo converts and becomes a successful farmer.
November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly votes 33-13 in favor of a partition from what was land prior under the control of Britain leading to the establishment of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948 at which time the surrounding Arab nations attacked and were defeated, and this replayed many times in 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982 and subsequent Intifadas.
Recently, I had a conversation with a lady who is a Lacota Indian and who happens to be a proud supporter of the State of Israel.
This is what she told me:
"The Indians and Palestinians have a lot in common in that we both have to share land."
But, what is different is that we [American Indians] don't act like some [extremist] Palestinians teaching endless cycles of hatred and violence.
We don't go around knifing people, throwing stones, shooting, or blowing people up."
I had understood many people think this, but I had never heard anyone actually come out and say it--let alone a Native American Indian.
Even now-a-days, I think we must admit that American Indians live in a challenging state in this country and certainly they deserve more and their standard of living should be vastly improved, but at the same time, they manage to live with all the immigrants that came to the United States from all over the world, and they do this in peace.
Perhaps, in Israel, where there is tacit agreement towards an even better scenario--a two-state solution--with the real potential of peace, prosperity, and security for both Jews and Palestinians--the cycle of hatred and violence can end and should end. ;-)
(Source Photo: here with attribution to Maryland GovPics)
February 27, 2015
Reform The Movement
Sheik Ahmend al-Tayeb, a grand imam in Cairo said "corrupt interpretations" of the Koran and of Muhammad was leading to a rise of Middle East-based terrorism.
This to hopefully stem the flow of what is now being reported as 20,000 foreign fighters flocking to join ISIS.
What is amazing here is that good Muslim people are recognizing the problem with radicalization, extremism, and violence and are speaking out.
Yet, many of our own leaders in the Western world still refuse to say the dirty words "Islamic terrorism."
The President saying instead: "No religion is responsible for terrorism--people are responsible for violence and terrorism."
So perhaps, according to this "logic," no movement is responsible for what their people do--only the individuals are?
And therefore, accordingly, the Nazis would not be responsible for the Holocaust, nor America for Slavery, nor Communism for political purges, oppression, and violation of human rights, etc. etc.
...in which case, there would be no apologies, no regrets, no reparations, no museums, no memorials, nothing--because this was just some individuals doing some bad things and those individuals are may no longer even be here with us.
Doesn't this ignore the very basic and fundamental fact that when the masses follow a movement's (genuine or distorted) ideological teachings of hatred, racism, and discrimination, and the people act act nefariously on this, then does not the movement itself hold some responsibility for the murderous and evil actions committed based on their doctrine?
The Sheik who denounced terror and called for changes to the education in the Muslim community is recognizing what apparently many of our own leaders refuse to, which is that they--and we--are responsible for what is taught and tolerated in our communities.
As Peggy Noonan recently wrote, "The reality is that the Islamic State is...very Islamic.
Currently, we are fighting a war on radical Islamic terrorism...whether that terror is committed on Charlie Hebdo, a Jewish grocery store, or the World Trade Centers.
That does not mean that tomorrow, we are not fighting against some other movement's treachery.
This is why good people everywhere must stand up and speak out when they see religions, governments, institutions, or other movements preach and teach lies, hatred, and terror.
Bad (or hijacked good) movements drive bad actors...so we must not only go after the bad guys, but also hold the movements themselves to account.
We must demand that the lies and distortions be called out for what they are and that truth and virtue be held up in its place. ;-)
(Source Photo: here with attribution to Front Page Magazine)
April 26, 2014
Treat People Nice
The quote is by Maya Angelou and it is very powerful:
"People will forget what you said,
People will forget what you did,
But people will never forget how you made them feel."
As human beings in this world, we come and go.
Our time here is finite.
We will be replaced by others.
What is truly memorable about us is our relationships and how we treat others.
When we show kindness to people or when we are cruel to others--these things are never forgotten.
Our interactions are the mark of who we are inside--do we sincerely care about others and the bigger picture or are we just plain selfish?
How about you--can you remember:
- how that parent who loved you made you feel?
- how that teacher who taught you made you feel?
- how that friend who played with you made you feel?
- how that boss who mentored you made you feel?
- how that clergy who inspired you made you feel?
- how that spouse who was your companion made you feel?
- how those children who looked up to you made you feel?
- how those colleagues who supported your work made you feel?
I'm sure you can also remember times when people made you feel not so good--perhaps, you scowled or even cursed them under your breath.
Getting results in life is not enough--we can't do it by stepping on other people and really being successful that way.
Empathy and kindness or a hard heart and cruelty--you will be remembered one way or another. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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