Books, AI and electronics

The book “Why Learn History When It Is Already On Your Phone ?” by Sam Wineburg was published by the University of Chicago in 2018, eight years ago.  The title suggests the educational implications of being able to read documents on a cellphone in your pocket.

To me, this is a subject that teachers should think about in connection with their work. Much of American life encourages each person to think independently about whatever interests that person.  Young people, especially in the US, are encouraged to “think for themselves”.  When a young person is interested in having sufficient funds, finding and keeping friends of both sexes and developing a picture of a “successful” life for themselves, they rather naturally come to question required activities such as school and its demands.  

It makes sense to have at hand the best answer to Wineburg’s question, not only about the history that is on my phone, but the art, zoology and all other branches of knowledge on my phone, tablet, and computer.

I tolerate you

Most anything can be looked up in Google these days.  I have a cartoon titled “I tolerate you” instead of “I love you”.  I looked up the phrase “I tolerate you”.  I was informed that the phrase means “I am willing to tolerate your presence”.  I admire that wording and I do hope you are willing and able to tolerate mine.

What did you expect?

There was a hullabaloo recently over grades at Harvard University.  Well, found a university long ago, make its name synonymous with knowledge and intelligence and run it for several hundred years. Let all the faculty members there strive to be efficient, successful teachers, let all the students be the sharpest, most achieving students.  Then grade them.  Oh, no!  Nearly all of them have earned the highest grades!  Whatever should we do?

Nutrition

I have been eating all my life but I haven’t much knowledge about food.  I was on the wrestling team in both high school and college and had to “make weight” before each match.  That means a referee watches as I step on a scale so that he can see that my weight is within the required limit for my weight class.  I was never too heavy to qualify for a match, but I naturally thought about what I ate.  My first research paper in college was about nutrition and I did learn from writing it.

My basic understanding divides foods into three main categories: carbs (“starches”), vegetables, especially greens, such as spinach and kale, and proteins like meat and beans.  To get a bit deeper in the subject, most foods are not just in one of the three classes but are mostly one of the classes or outstanding examples.

I think any food or drink can be overdone and so moderation is key.  In August of 2023, I posted about what happened to me when I neglected another important nutrient: water.  After I fell on my face from the effects of poor hydration, I was told to drink more water.  Since then, I have and I suspect it is contributing to my longevity;

Great-grandparents not included

A great-granddaughter formally graduated from high school last night.  She has been a successful soccer midfielder, drummer and singer.  She has very high marks.  She is a model person in many ways.

The public town high school includes appropriately aged students from several nearby communities.  The graduation ceremony was available on television and we saw her accept her diploma. My wife and I are great-grandparents and are not sufficiently central to the graduate’s family to have a ticket into the ceremony itself. There are too few seats for graduates to have more than 5 guests.  Parents, siblings and close relatives alone can easily come to more than 5.

Adult reading

My most fun course was Personal Reading for Professional Development.  It was a grad course and the only assignment was to make a list of title and author of every book the student had ever read.  I had no way of verifying that a student’s list was complete.   Many experienced teachers read a large number of books as students, to keep up with the subjects they teach and for fun and out of curiosity.  

My all-older male reading group consists of retired academics and professionals only.  We have had a practice of alternating a common book each month, with a fiction choice alternating with non-fiction.  Non-fiction possibilities dominate with fiction choices being difficult to even get suggested, much less chosen.

Many readers are reluctant to re-read a book they have read, even though they often don’t remember much of the book. But it can be very pleasant to even just hear the title of a book they read way back when.

Car crash friendship

One day in the 1970’s, my wife and three other teachers were driving home from a town north of here.  The entrance to the highway at that point was being repaired.  The final bit of the repair was a bit lower than the roadbed and when the driver tried to leave the entrance ramp, she had to wrench the steering wheel  to overcome the slightly raised edge.  The motion carried the car into the far lane in time to be hit head-on.  

The resulting crash killed the driver on impact.  There were no seat belts in the car but the three passengers survived.  One of the passengers and my wife have had points of contact several times since and have developed a friendship that matters to them both.

It's time!!

I was born itchy and excited for the moment, any moment.  Time to go!  Time to leave!  Time to watch!  (I did have trouble with naps but I have overcome that handicap.)

Being excited for THE moment, whatever it is about, leads to antsy-ness and the problem of being too early, when others aren’t ready.

It was the end

The man I wrote about yesterday did die after some hours of “agonal breathing”, deep intense breathing for hours.  He was a resident in a home for memory care.

Might be the end

Our younger daughter suffered from mental illness.  She was hospitalized in her 40’s.  We visited her there and found her unconscious but breathing hard and rapidly.  The nurse said that she would die soon, that her body had begun breathing at a pace and depth that no body could sustain.  

Lynn’s brother has been in hospice care for a while.  Today, when Lynn went to visit him, she saw that same deep, gasping breathing we had seen in our daughter.