Quotations to guide your life … mostly stolen and poorly remembered …

“When in danger, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout” …. On the wall in the gym of Jefferson Junior High School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee …

“Never before have times resembled the present than they do now” … a famous American politician and ex-President …

My brother explaining the hereafter to his future wife one day in the Smokey Mountains: “If you are not here after what I am here after, you will be here after I have gone” …

“leave that damned bear alone” … my mother yelled at our dog one day in the Smokey Mountains …

“Why?” Noah asked G-d and got a lecture on the history of the universe in response …

“Don’t ask the question if you don’t want to hear the answer” my father’s advice to one of my sisters …

At a graduate symposium someone asked O. K. Bouwsma that he wanted to leave Locke’s methaphysics of substance and properties behind and talk about Plato’s Symposium, and Bouwsma framed the essential question of that dialogue and said, “What is love?” and I said that it was like substance and properties … substance being what properties got stuck in and I supidly said that love was what people got stuck in and Bouwsma made me repeat it and said he thought it was the glue that binds us together  … I never spoke in those symposia again … I am such a slow and poor learner …

On a gravestone in a cemetery on Lookout Mountain outside Denver there was a tombstone that read “Life is a joke and all things show … at first I wan’t sure but now I know it.”

On a road trip I once tried to guess what my little sister was thinking … after many tries I gave up and she said in response to my question what she was thinking …  “nothing” …

I think the phrase “faith, hope and charity” is backwards … charity should come first … and then followed by hope of better times for all … and perhaps much later … a little faith … start with what one can do  … the with what one hopes for all … and then perhaps faith will arrive … I am still working on the first step in that trilogy …

mike

For what it’s worth …

 

For what it’s worth …

I heard this group in person in the early 70s in Denver when I was working for the American Friends Service Committee helping war resistors … it is my theme song I guess …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp5JCrSXkJY

I now minimize my time listening to the news … so much worse than my memories of the Vietnam war era and my time as an Air Force Intelligence Officer … I was once charged with writing highly classified war briefs for B-52 pilots armed with nuclear weapons in case things got worse … glad they did not … my directions to the pilot headed for Hanoi was to drop his bombs in the Gulf of Tonkin and turn around … fortunately no one read our highly classified briefings for the pilots … I wrote Senator Gore (Senior) and thanked him for getting me out of the Air Force early and expressing my deep distrust and disappointment with the USA … he responded with a short note encouraging me to not give up hope for better times … I am now on the brink of giving up …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdWGp3HQVjU

I do not think I can do anything to make things better and it seems pointless to take Tolstoy’s advice related in a bable in Confessions … see his recounting a fable in chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/confessions-tolstoy.pdf … I know … too many sidetracks …  that is life … a series of accidental sidetracks … “little we see in nature that is ours” … https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45564/the-world-is-too-much-with-us ... Stop it already … I keep revisiting things I read long ago … quite by happenstance and not as assignments … I avoided assignments … life is essentially discovery  learning …

I do listen to upbeat songs such as Judy Collins’ Simple Gifts - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnpwiMTVkxI

But then Birmingham Sunday creeps in knowing my older brother left home to join the bus boycotts … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ0y-vO9QLE … my brother had more courage than me … I miss him …

And I sometimes read … not learning technology texts but random things like this – “I am Waiting” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42869/i-am-waiting-56d22183d718a ... STILL WAITING …

“I grow old … I shall wear my trousers rolled” … see “The Love Song …” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42869/i-am-waiting-56d22183d718a

What do I know? What can I teach others? …. At a loss for words … Mike Spector

Passover 5784

 Growing up, Passover was a favorite holiday in our home. We got new candy … kosher for Pesach .. and often had visits from or visited our relatives who lived in Baltimore … that is to say, happy days, no school … I am nobody’s fool … we also had a chance to find the Afikomen and win a reward although usually our siblings and cousins were also rewarded but the competition was fun … as were the four cups of wine rarely withheld from children … we were supposed to be celebrating our freedom … I was celebrating the lack of sobriety … yes, my father was a Rabbi, as was his father and his grandfather who had travelled to Israel and the Sinai and even Egypt … Jews are inherently wanderers … and I am a wonderer as well … I wonder why there is so much religious violence around the world and here in the land of the brave and craven … I have a recording my gather’s reading of the Haggadah and will listen to it tonight or tomorrow night … he recorded it for me when I was becoming a steely eyed defender of democracy at the Air Force Academy … my eyesight is now quite weak as is my resolve.

I recall a large Passover seder at our house in Oak Ridge. Tennessee with many Baltimore cousins present when my older and wiser brother and I got in a fight and were banished from the Passover table … I had made a bad joke about our mother and my brother attacked me … I lost the fight of course but we were both punished … justice served … we missed two cups of wine … a significant punishment that evening.

I miss my parents … my father’s wisdom … my mother’s directness … harsh tongue that is … I do not miss the 4 cups of wine which in my case was usually 5 as I often stole the cup of wine left for Elijah … a shame to waste that cup of wine … as Elijah never showed up except once at a Seder at my brother’s home in Jacksonville, Alabama when he hired a friend to play the role of Elijah … my brother had a great sense of humor which I lack. He kept a picture of kitchen in his wallet condiments which he called his “pride and joy” … pictures of bottles of Pride and Joy … he suckered in many with that joke.

Growing old is strange … I cannot remember what happened yesterday but have so many memories of my early life. How is that possible? I remember a time when a child would never say a harsh word to a parent. It was not the fear of a spanking as my parents did not spank although my father once slapped me for saying something unkind about my mother … that was the only physical punishment I or any of my siblings ever got. I never spoke ill of my mother again. Lesson learned.

Back to growing old. I dream of finding a woman who is independently wealthy … I mean independent and healthy … my fingers slipped … perhaps a nurse skilled in care for the elderly who is dumb enough to move to Texas … she should be Jewish, of course, although none of my three wives were Jewish … call me a dreamer.

When I grow up, if that ever happens,  I want to be younger.

Freedom and joy to a laughless world,

mike

What makes good instruction good?

 

I have wondered about this question for years and wandered around various answers during that time. I have asked distinguished colleagues such as Bob Gagné and Dave Merrill and Joost Lowyck and Oets Kolk Bouwsma and others … their consensus was that they did not really know. I do not know. But others claim to know. Some might say things like the following:

1.      Most students got high grades;

2.      Most students took a follow-on course;

3.      Most students rated the course highly;

And other such answers …

But none of the answers had anything to do with sustained knowledge or performance.

So many of those involved in higher education pretend to know but have no clue.

First, lets clarify what instruction is. According to Gagné, instruction is that which supports learning and performance.

I choose to focus on learning next. Again according to  Gagné, learning is demonstrated by stable and sustained changes in what a person knows or can do. That means that in order to establish that learning has occurred, one must determine what changes took place. The change cannot be not having taken the course before … the change should be linked to knowledge and performance. Without premeasures, one cannot establish a change. Moreover, without long after the course finished, one cannot establish a significant and sustained change. Therefore, most instructors are NOT in a position to claim that learning has occurred. Nor are the students. I took many advance math courses but am unable to recall or do very much that could do to earn As in those courses. I learned NOTHING but got good grades.

Now we have true believers who claim that having measurable objectives and relevant activities and practice that one can ensure that learning occurs. Most of those true believers do not have doctoral degrees nor have done research on learning. Yet they so willingly browbeat others … especially the elders who have had decades of experience.

So the show goes on. To get ahead, many people just go along. A few decide to go alone. I moving closer to the few. I am convinced I have wasted my life in higher education. “I should have been a pair of ragged claws, scuttling across the floors of silent seas.” Look it up or ask someone else for the reference. Looking might get you to thinking. After all, learning is about searching … not about telling or listening.

Mike Spector, Aka, an embittered professor

Footprtints or mudprints

Is DJT leaving behind footprints in the sands of time (https://poets.org/poem/psalm-life) or mud prints in the fog of mind ... you know to whom I refer ... I simply cannot understand how so many still support that criminal ... I am weak of mind ... I admit ... but some things are quite clear to me ... namely that I should have moved to Bali ... or stayed in Bergen ... mike

"late and soon, getting spending ... we lay waste our powers"

 (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45564/the-world-is-too-much-with-us) ... 

Hillel: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?" 

Socrates: :”True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.”:

 ...See also:

"Ozymandias" - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46565/ozymandias 

:Abou Ben Adhem: - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44433/abou-ben-adhem 

Why do those things that I never studied come so easily to mind? I wonder ???

Mike Spector

Lost, as usual 

It seems strange to me …

 

While driving from Round Rock to Denton this morning, I listening to Texas A&M radio host discuss the war in Israel. By and large, those radio hosts blamed Biden and Israel for Hamas killing probably more than 1,000 Israelis  who were celebrating  Simchat Torah which marks the end of the annual readings from the Torah ending with Devarim (Deuteronomy)  and starting anew with Bereshit (Genesis)… a renewal festival … while Hamas attacked party goers and  launched more than a 1,000 rockets into Israeli suburbs … mass murder amid a religious celebration … and Texas news casters were busy blaming Biden and not saying much about Hamas … perhaps funded by Iran … perhaps … but perhaps all those innocent persons killed while celebrating a religious holiday were really planning a secret attack on Gaza … unlikely …

I am sickened by what happened and have sent funds to the IDF … Israeli Defense Forces … but I am more sickened by those Texas newscasters and fellow Texans who blame Biden for the deaths of those 1.000+ innocent Israelis … I am so sick of American stupidity … I am ashamed to be an American … If could, I would escape to Bali …

Why is there so much hate and killing among so-called civilized people in this lost planet? Hate and self-promotion … hate and greed … hate and violence … so much hate … and now I am hating those stupid people … what can be done to bring more peace and a little more harmony into such an evil place as these dystopian states???

I have no clue … I bury my thoughts in words read long ago but not totally forgotten:

“The desert is not remote in Southern tropics, The desert is not only around the corner,
The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you” … echoes from The Rock (T. S. Eliot)

And Shelley had the rock (named Ozymandias) speak: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away”

And as usual I turn to Bob Dylan for insight:

From All Along the Watchtower: “There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief “There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth None of them along the line know what any of it is worth”

From Frankie Lee: when you see your neighbor carrying somethin' Help him with his load
And don't go mistaking Paradise “”For that home across the road”

 

I want to climb on every rung of that ladder but I fell off and landed on my face …

Lost

Mike Spector

October 2023

Growing old gracefully

 

I first thought I would title this “growing old with dignity” as that seemed somewhat lacking in my own professional life with the exception of a few people including a Harvard profession, a college chair, and perhaps a few others. In any case, when I think of growing old gracefully, I think of my grandmother when she was in her 90s in a hospital room on IVs and oxygen who took the opportunity when no hospital personnel were around to unhook herself and try to walk several miles to her farm in LA … lower Alabama. When my aunt found her, the decision was to not keep her in the hospital and my aunt cared for her for a while, which was a burden. 

I then volunteered to take her to UA … upper Alabama … as I was the only one of my cousins whom my grandmother called by the correct name. So we traveled North to my home and took care of her there. We managed that for a few months but it was a serious burden for my wife so we took her back to LA. While that does not sound so graceful, she actually was. My aging grandmother wanted to take care of herself and not be a burden to others. She had strong opinions and could still curse up a storm in her 90s. Why I was the only one of my cousins whose name she remembered is beyond me. Maybe it was because my mother was supposed to give birth to a girl and have  no more children but I was not a girl although my mother did give birth to two girls after me. Because my grandmother was expecting me to be a girl, she had made several baby dresses for me which I wore the first year or two of my life. I have not been a cross-dresser since those early days, though. Just to keep the record straight.

But as I am growing older, I am discovering differences that I had not noticed when I was younger. Professionally, I see people seeking out younger colleagues and overlooking the older folks as if their knowledge and experience is no longer relevant. Perhaps I was like that when I was younger although at present my professional colleagues whom I most respect are all retired and most are older than me. Why do I keep working is a question my kids sometimes ask me. My answer is that I do not know what else to do. I have no real hobbies and I do like teaching students … some of them … some of the time.

 Many of my students apparently think I am too old to know anything useful, which might well be true. Anyway, I admit to having old fashioned ideas and thinking that the scholars I most admire are long gone … I mean Socrates, Plato, Maimonides, Hillel, Gagné, and so many others … and there are still a few around who still inspire me such as Dave Merrill and Paal Davidsen. What have I learned in all these years? Two things: (1) I do not know very much, and (2) Most others think they know more than they actually know. So it goes. Humility is a lost art. Hubris is the theme of the times. Meanwhile, I shall adopt the ways of J. Alfred and wear my trousers rolled and long for those days as a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas. Forgive the lack of quotations … look up the reference. Libraries and books are still useful. No one is too old to learn, it seems.

Mike Spector

September, 2023

One Commandment

 

One Commandment

I once had a professor who argued that one could conceive of a religion in terms of just one commandment and he said that for Christians that commandment was “thou shalt love” whereas for Jews it was “thou shalt obey.” I politely disagreed as I knew he was indirectly attacking my religion, and I thought it was a gross oversimplification. I still think it is a gross oversimplification, but I also recall my father, Rabbi Spector, teaching me that the fundamental lesson I should learn was “thou shalt question.” So I have come to think that one might ask a person which of the following is most important to guide one’s life in order to gain an understanding of that person:

1.      Thou shalt love.

2.      Thou shalt obey.

3.      Thou shalt question.

4.      Thou shalt inquire.

5.      Thou shalt listen.

6.      Thou shalt not hate.

7.      Thou shalt not despise.

8.      Thou shalt not belittle.

9.      Thou shalt not discriminate.

10.  Thou shalt not marginalize.

You could add other choices. What choices would you add? Which choice would you make? I tend to follow my father’s advice … at least I try to follow that advice.

Jonathan Michael Spector

 

The news is so disturbing these days

I did not watch the first Republican debate but did see much of it replayed and then analyzed by various pundits. Most said Nikki Haley was the standout performer although she voted with the majority to acquit Trump if he was found guilty of any of the four indictments against him. The two dissenters to that vote were Christie and Hutchinson … not Haley. My impression is that Christie and Haley were the most serious, consistent and persuasive but it is unlike that either will be the nominee. Haley may become a running mate for a nominee to go against Trump though.

Anyway, that was quite disturbing to see the candidates flail and talk nonsense and be so venomous for so long against each other and Trump and Biden and democrats … what a mess this nation is in. We are afraid to condemn those who organized those who invaded the Congress, suffering from continuing gun violence, unable to limit the sale of automatic weapons of death, seeing hate-filled attacks on those with whom someone disagrees, lack of respect or tolerance for different views on basic things like free speech and healthcare, unable to admit the dark history of this country’s founders, keeping students away from selected books including classics in literature … even in Plato’s Symposium there is an undercurrent of homosexuality which would lead some to ban that classic work … where are we headed and what can be done to put us on a more humane course ??? 

I have no answer and am struggling to retain a sense of pride in being an American, a distinguished graduate from a military academy, and a university scholar.

I am so depressed. As the donkey said in a Shrek movie, I think I need a hug.

Mike Spector

late August, 2023

Learning Facilators

 

Learning Facilators (remarks by J. Michael Spector in 2023 and many times previously)

 What do many research reports show that contributes to learning and performance? Here are three of the recurrent and often cited factors:

 1.     Prior performance and learning. Those who have done well in the past are likely to keep doing well. However, we cannot control who comes to our course and what prior experiences they have.

2.     Time on task tends to result in improved performance. So, how can instructors get students to spend more time on learning tasks? Motivation seems a likely answer, along with compelling real world tasks.

3.     Timely, informative and supportive feedback. Of course, but now there is a frequent tension between institutions increasing class size which tends to limit how much and what quality of timely and informative and supportive feedback an instructor can provide.

 If these learning facilitators are known to support and promote desired learning outcomes, then the nearly ubiquitous fascination with new technologies should be related to those known learning facilitators, IMLTHO.

 We have to take and support learners regardless of their backgrounds or prior experience in the subject area of with technology. Those with strong backgrounds and significant prior experience perhaps need reminders of how little they understand about some aspects of learning and could perhaps benefit from being challenged to step outside their typical belief boundaries. Those with limited knowledge and experience need and deserve our continuing support.

 If motivation results in more time on task and that can then result in improved learning, then perhaps some new technologies and innovative instructional techniques can be motivating to some learners.

Less we forget, learners, all learners, need time, informative and supportive feedback … especially weaker learners and even high performing learners.

 These reminders amount to emphasizing the learning in the vast domain of learning technologies rather than the technologies themselves. It is about learning. It is about using technology to support learning. It is about putting learners and learning first and using technologies that work as a supportive issue.

 But this is just an old man’s opinion based on lessons learned haphazardly and by coincidence. Technologies will not revolutionalize learning. What is likely to revolutionalize learning is for society to place high value on learning for all consistently and for sustained periods of time. Rather than place one’s faith in a specific learning technology, one might consider placing one’s path in a specially dedicated teacher, trainer, or educator. A question of consciousness … does our society genuinely value and support learning for all its citizens? I am inclined to believe we can do better … much better.

 New technologies have a kind of seductive aura that draws in many … but what about that lonely voice that asks: what do you want to learn, why do you want to learn that, how will you know you have made progress, what do you not know or understand, what are you doing about those deficits? If not now, then when? Get on with the learning and be surprised at what you do not know or understand. It is not about the technology … it is about learning. It is not about the technology … it is about using technology to support learning. It is about learning.

 References

Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M.C., Norman. M.K. (2010). How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

National Research Council (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/9853

Shute, V. J. (2008). Focus on formative feedback. Review of Educational Research, 78(1), 153-189. doi: 10.2307/40071124

 By the way, IMLTHO – in my less than humble opinion … I lack humility … among other deficits