Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Adams, and Excellence

I recently watched the HBO presentation of David McCullough's book John Adams Both in the book, and on the DVD, Mr. McCullogh describes an incident late in John Adam's life. Ralph Waldo Emerson, freshly graduated from Havard, went out to visit the almost 90 year old ex-President. The details of the visit can be found at several web sites:

• John Adams -- BLAZER 159 (12): 2125 -- Am J Psychiatry
• Ralph Waldo Emerson: Philosopher and Poet - Google Books Result
• John Adams - Google Books Result

One of the more memorable comments was when Mr. Emerson asked Mr. Adams to comment on the mood of the times. Mr. Adams remarked, "I would to God there were more ambition in the country," by which he meant, "ambition of that laudable kind, to excel."

Do you think that wish should apply to our times? So much of what we see as ambition to excel is ambition to get rich. Seeing all the executives that are being indited for illegal activities, it is obvious to me that the ambition to excel is not the same as the ambition to be rich. How many of our students wish to excel just for the sake of excellence? What can we do to promote excellence? How do we recognize excellence?

Please add comments below.

The Legend of King Thamus

King Thamus was an ancient Egyptian King who felt that technology was not always such a good thing. When offered the gift of writing by the God Theuth, King Thamus said:

“Those who acquire it [writing] will cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful; they will rely on writing to bring things to their remembrance by external signs instead of their own internal resources. What you have discovered is a receipt for recollection, not for memory. And as for wisdom, your pupils will have the reputation for it without the reality: they will receive a quantity of information without proper instruction, and in consequence be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant. And because they are filled with the conceit of wisdom they will be a burden to society” (Plato in Postman, 1993: p4)

Do you agree? When is it a good idea to use technology? When is it a bad idea to use technology? Please post your thoughts.

How do you learn to be a good problem solver?

In today's business world, you must be an efficient problem solver. You can count on your competitors always trying to find a more efficient way to do your job, so you must always be trying to improve your methods and procedures to stay in business. You can never rest on your laurels!

However, in order to make money, you cannot be continually re-inventing the wheel. Sometimes you have to use the same methods and procedures over and over in order to be efficient and generate the profits that the market place demands.

So as teachers we have to equip our students with excellent problem solving skills. Students need to leave school with the attitude that what ever problem is put in front of them, they can solve it. However, they have to be efficient also. They do not have the time to re-invent the wheel on every single assignment.

This blog is asking for input on what is the best way to do that? In a traditional math class we give students the same type of problems that we were given 40 years ago. Anyone remember the deductive proof that the sum of two even numbers is an even number? As you might guess, that is not too meaningful to many of today's students. Yet, we need to put problems in front of students that make no sense to them and teach them the skills so they can make sense of them. If every problem that we give them is something practical that they can relate, then will they develop the necessary skills to solve problems that initially make no sense. Unfortunately, many students have learned to just give up if they do not understand something or do not like something. Please offer your comments as to how we can help students become good problem solvers.

To Test or Not to Test. That is the Question!

One item passed at the end of this legislative session was the requirement that students who are in eighth grade in the 2005-2006 school year must pass the MCA II Math test in 11th grade in order to graduate from high school. The exact details of the MCA II are not known yet, but the general idea is that students must take three years of math in high school and then pass a standardized test to show that they know the material covered by those classes. The MCA II will be some combination of the current 8th grade Basic Skills Test and the current 11th grade Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment test.

What are your opinions about this change? Is this too much to expect of our students? Are these required skills needed to compete in the global economy? Post responses to let me know your opinion. I hope you find this discussion interesting and enlighting. I look forward to hear your comments.