The Progressively Regressive Law of Short-Term Memory
I collect blurbs, snippets, sayings, musings, thoughts, notes, ideas, excerpts, scenarios, concepts, fragments, data and documentation from a wide variety of people, books, articles, conversations and the occasional personal thought in a dozen or so small notebooks - each with its own pen or pencil - and kept in random places throughout the house. Sometimes these scribblings are no more than interesting or unusual words like mendacious, imputation, assiduity or animadversion that I read and had to look up or just thought they looked lonely and unloved and needed a sentence to call their own and sometimes it’s a thought I wish I had created like the Fermi paradox * or Clarke’s Third Law or darn near anything Mark Twain wrote. So no, these are, unfortunately, not all original thoughts, but I wish they were. I do find it interesting that the more I learn the less I seem to know for sure, and a lot of that comes from an increasingly recalcitrant short term memory and if I don’t write stuff down it disappears into nothingness. Hey! Maybe that’s a good one - I’ll call it Jim’s Progressively Regressive Law of Short Term Memory - or “Why Did I Walk Into This Room?” Either works. So anyway, here are some of the things I’ve written down that were worth remembering and sharing…some of the ones I’ve found, anyway.
Just so I won’t have to repetitively type “I believe” before each sentence, use your mental acuity and imagine those two words at the beginning of each of the following blurbs:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”
Mama said there are two things we need to remember about God - 1) There is one, and 2) you ain’t Him.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I think of this every time I swipe my debit or credit card and money that I have but cannot see magically goes from my bank account to another entity in exchange for something I want. That simple transaction would have been seen as witchcraft a few short years ago.
One of the most difficult lessons every person has to learn is that being an adult does not mean doing what you want. Being an adult, more often than not, requires doing what you are supposed to do without your mama standing behind you to make sure it is done.
Boy, did that one cause some highly creative mental gymnastics and relationship issues in high school.
Education is like religion in that those that do not seek shall not find, except by that hardest and most cruel of teachers - experience.
There are more similarities in a good teacher and a good minister than most people see. Both, after all, are called to their profession, both must undergo daily trials and hardships to accomplish what they are called to do, and both require deep commitment and faith to maintain any semblance of sanity while doing it.
Those that are not called should not answer. Do something else. Especially if you think teachers get 3 months off in the summer or that preachers only work on Sundays..
Sometimes parents (and grandparents) stand in the way of our children’ s growth by giving them too much and removing too many obstacles. A little tribulation early in life can often pay dividends later.
Antithetically - the rule at our house for grandkids is, more often than not, whatever they want when they want it.
One of the reasons so many students fail their first year in college (22-30%) is because they never challenged themselves with coursework or activities or both in high school. Learning to do “Just enough to get by” is just enough to stunt your mental acuity and development.
AI has written more papers and homework assignments in the last few years than we can imagine. Unfortunately, it’s not AI that will be searching for another degree or gainful employment after graduation.
The best predictor of success in college is not the SAT or ACT, but grades given by high school teachers. Look it up.
Those who think there is no prayer in schools have never been in the hallways and classrooms during exam week.
Harry Truman was right when he said “those who believe in situational ethics do not understand the meaning of the word ethics.”
Mental maturity and chronological maturity rarely coincide.
Chronological age and IQ do, however, creep closer and closer to equivalence.
If you have not failed at something you need to try harder.
Your parents will always be your parents. Thank them every day for what they have given you, never desert them and plan on returning to them at some point in their lives without complaint the shelter, love and affection they have given you.
We are blessed indeed to live in this country at this time that provides so many opportunities that have never been available in any other place at any other time in history.
It is sometimes difficult to understand why those that say they believe in socialism don’t set an example and share all their money and belongings to others before demanding the same from you.
Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you.
Mark Twain’s advice is still good today - “When in doubt, tell the truth.”
A man who is not a socialist at 20 has no heart; a man who is a socialist after 30 has no brain.
You are not responsible for my happiness and I am not responsible for yours, but both of us can be nice about it.
We should not forgive others because they deserve it, but because we deserve peace.
We cannot control the wind, but we can adjust the sails.
The things we do for ourselves are gone when we go, but the things you do for others are your legacy.
Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it.
We should never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
20 years from now you will be more disappointed at the things you didn’t do than the things you did…mostly.
The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
Happiness is not achieved by the constant pursuit of happiness, but is instead the by-product of other activities.
We should not sweat the petty things and don’t pet the sweaty things.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
I choose the life I live. If I don’t like it, it’s up to me to change it because no one else is going to do it for me.
It’s important to do what you feel in your heart to be right, because you will be criticized anyway.
Prayer should never be a once a day occurrence. Pray early, pray late and pray often.
The reason we struggle with insecurity is we compare our behind the scenes life with everyone else’s highlight reel.
Mama was right. It is indeed possible to get glad in the same britches in which you got mad. It’s not pleasant and usually means you have to admit you were wrong to begin with, but it is possible.
All things come to an end. Do you remember the last day you played with your neighborhood friends or your last little league game? Me neither.
If you always do what interests you, at least one person will be pleased.
I should try to be the reason someone believes in the goodness of people.
A point in every direction is no point at all.
Endeavor to persevere.
If you are doing something, show up every day and something good might happen. It’s not going to happen if you don’t show up.
Democracy and socialism have only one word in common - equality. Here’s the difference - while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude...this is the contrast between freedom and enforced equality.
Any government cannot give to anyone anything it first doesn’t take from someone else.
The difference in communism and socialism is the difference in murder and suicide.
Every politician at every level should be required to substitute teach for a minimum of 2 weeks in public schools before being allowed to vote on any education bill.
It’s true you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, but I can’t understand why anybody would want flies in either.
Discipline may not be personal. To be effective, all education must be personal. These statements do not conflict.
It’s hard to understand the reasoning behind Braille markings on drive-through ATM’s.
Only politicians and other snake oil salespersons believe excellence can be legislated.
No one pretends that democracy is perfect. It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.
A good employee will succeed in spite of the system more often than because of it. Hire good people and have the courage to get out of their way and allow them to do what you hired them to do.
When I began teaching my goal was to change the world through music. What I didn’t realize was that this would only be accomplished one student at a time.
Socialists lust for the power to plan society. Which is worse?
There is an inversely proportional relationship between contact hours with students and the quality and effectiveness of decisions at any level made about education.
The majority of teachers agree that every child deserves an individualized education. What they do not understand is how that individualized education can be measured by a standardized test. That’s commensurate with the farmer that wanted his cows to gain weight so he weighed them every day.
If a married couple fights over whether or not the toilet seat is up or down there are undoubtedly deeper issues and problems they are ignoring.
There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. (This one even has its own acronym - TANSTAAFL)
Anyone that believes that all students can learn in the same way at the same time to the same degree because they are grouped chronologically wants your vote, your money or both. I contend they are either criminally stupid or believe you are, and have purposefully ignored The Great Bell Curve of Life.
The most effective form of leadership is found in serving others.
Every person entering the field of education is expected to develop a personal philosophy of education. If you cannot state it from memory and it is longer than two sentences, you do not have a philosophy, you have a statement that was built to answer an education professor’s test question.
My personal philosophy of education is simply this: Model the behaviors you expect to see in others.
Mama always told us that it was an important thing in life to not only have something to believe in but be able to clearly state exactly what it was that you believed. After all, she said, if you can’t tell someone else exactly what it is you believe, can you honestly believe in it yourself? She occasionally reminded me of the old saying “A man that stands for nothing will fall for anything” and, with a little twinkle in her eye would add “and that goes double for women.” I thought for a second and asked “Does that mean women need to know twice as much as men or men will fall for anything women say or women will fall for anything men say?” Her answer, which did nothing to clear up my confusion, was “yes.” What she meant - at least what I thought she meant - was that without a set of clear core beliefs it was possible to be vulnerable to persuasive people, even if they didn’t really know what they were talking about - or maybe especially if they didn’t know what they were talking about. Those who cannot or have not yet taken time to examine and decide upon core beliefs can, and often are, more vulnerable to deception, exploitation and outright cons. I’ve got more of these somewhere, if I can just remember where I left my other notebooks.
The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high likelihood of its existence. Also known as the “where is everybody” question.