Mouse Soup and other Tales

I said goodbye to my first graders today. The semester ends tomorrow and I expect to move away over the summer. So it was a bit sad for me. They remember me now. Know what to call me. But I’ve been doing this for several years and realize that in two or three years some of them won’t remember me at all.

But for now, I have a sack full of thank you notes.

What did they remember? Some just said thanks for reading to us. One remembered that I was willing to listen to her Knock Knock Joke. A couple of kids liked seeing the picture of my grandson – which tied the number of kids who remembered the time I wore elf (or Vulcan) ears. Three (all boys) mentioned the Yu-gi-oh type cards I used last semester to show them that Yu-gi-oh is a math game. Four liked the riddles (usually spelled "rills"). Five remembered the popcorn I served when reading The Popcorn Book. And eleven mentioned a book called Mouse Soup.

I’m intrigued. Mouse Soup wasn’t the last book I read them. Perhaps someone mentioned it to get them started remembering and that mention got multiple play in the thank you writing process? Or is Mouse Soup just that much more memorable? Why not Tales of Amanda Pig or Little Bear or my personal favorite, No Good in Art?

HOT stories . . . well kinda warm ones.

I’ll change the names to protect myself, but here are two real life stories.

During a weekend ladies’ retreat one of the speakers commented that at some point you’re going to have a mid-life crisis and "you’re going to want a red Corvette driven by a 25 year old hunk."

One of the attendees turned to her octagenarian mother-in-law and said, "Did that happen to you, Mimi?"

Her reply? "Twice!"

&

The second is about a fellow who was self-employed and living in Natchez, Mississippi where it gets to 102 in the summer with 99 percent humidity. Our hero knew the IRS was coming to audit him so he took all the records and dumped them in the middle of the floor of the garage where he kept them. He took the IRS people out there when they arrived and invited them to help themselves, then went on about his business. Word is that it only took them about 15 minutes to decide that "everything looked fine."

To Teach (or NOT)

While grading college papers, I decided that students don’t have to agree with the teacher. But they do have to demonstrate that they understand what the teacher said. The teacher’s task is to help each student learn to think.

As a concerned mother plans meals that provide essential nutrients and serves up those meals in ways that encourage her children to eat; so the teacher is true to the text and delivers the material in an attractive package. I try to make learning fun. Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues continue to show us that it’s easier to learn when we enjoy the process.

As a student I thought the educational process called for me to stuff in the facts and retain them long enough to regurgitate them onto exams. I have reevaluated the process. Facts continue to be important but they are only building blocks for attitudes and ideas. This presents a challenge to both teacher and student. The easiest tests to prepare for and grade are based on facts. But if life is a Jacobean wrestling match, facts are no longer the be all and end all.

In working with Dr. Bill Spady (author of Total Leaders) I had to adjust my thinking even further. Spady calls attention to the inability of grades to adequately portray what a student has learned. He came to this understanding from studies showing that the valedictorians at Harvard were failing to adjust to life outside academia. He suggests that a portfolio of some sort would be a better indication of a student’s mastery of the material than a letter grade. One of Spady’s tenets is that all students can learn. This does not mean that all students learn at the same rate but – given time and inclination – any student can master specific material. I agree.

Frank Bettger, author of How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling, tells about a businessman watching a game show on television. Over the course of several tapings, one of the contestants had won a huge amount of money. The businessman volunteered that he’d be willing to hire the fellow but he wouldn’t pay him any more than the cost of a good almanac. And that was for a lifetime of service. Like that businessman I believe that true value comes from the ability to use information.

The most important learning usually takes place outside of the classroom. I’m not talking about study or "persuasion taking place in the absence of the persuader." The most important lessons in college are often learned in the dormitories. Living with another person is a tremendous learning experience. In middle school and high school extracurricular activities shape students in emotional as well as physical ways.

Thus I suggest that students are to be held accountable for classroom learning and they are to be supported in learning how to live outside the classroom. It is this combination of learning – inside and outside the classroom – that best prepares students for life and leadership.

Post-retreat

Try

looking

cross-eyed.

It will

change

how you

see the

world.

The Bull pen on Business

Ever heard of the Mendoza Line? It comes from baseball and represents the lowest acceptable batting average for major leaguers (.200). Actually, the lowest acceptable batting average "for nonpitchers." Why make an exception for pitchers?

Pitchers are paid to pitch. That doesn’t mean that none of them can hit. Babe Ruth began his career as a pitcher (minor league Baltimore Orioles) and tossed 29 scoreless innings in World Series play. But the Sultan of Swat was not your average player.

As in baseball, so it is in the world of business. Based on studies by the Gallup organization, Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton contend that: "Excellent performers were rarely well rounded. On the contrary, they were sharp." Meaning, "You will excel only by maximizing your strengths, never by fixing your weaknesses." p. 26, Now Discover Your Strengths.

In his influential book, Good to Great, Jim Collins says: "much of what we’re doing is at best a waste of energy . . . People are squandering their resources on the wrong things." p. 205 & p. 211, Good to Great.

According to Richard Koch, "The 80/20 Principle suggests that . . . you should turn your company upside down and concentrate your efforts on multiplying [the small part that provides the most money]." p. 82, The 80/20 Principle.

What?

The numbers tell us that the world is tilted so the relationship between effort and results is out of whack. Generally, 80% of our efforts account for only 20% of our production. Or, the smallest portion (20%) of our efforts results in the largest portion (80%) of our pay.

Frank Bettger’s 1949 book, How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling, contains this illustration:

The records showed that 70 per cent of my sales were made on the first interview, 23 per cent on the second, and 7 per cent on the third and after. But listen to this: 50 per cent of my time was spent going after the 7 per cent. ‘So why bother with the 7 per cent’ I thought. 'Why not put all my time on first and second interviews?' That decision alone increased the value of each call [by over 50 per cent]. p. 15

Bettger’s statistics validate another principle – the 50/5 Principle tells us that 50% of a company’s efforts add less than 5% to revenues and profits. He was wasting half of his time going after 7%. It didn’t make sense. So he shifted his efforts to the categories of appointments that yielded better returns.

How would this work in your business?

You might want to consult the books I’ve mentioned:
How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling by Frank Bettger
Now Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham & Donald Clifton
Good to Great by Jim Collins
The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch

Or you might prefer some help.

A visit to the new temple

As the guest of a friend I made a trip to San Antonio today to tour the new Mormon temple. The setting is beautiful, as is the building. The structure sits on a high point north of the city. With powerful lighting it will indeed be a lovely nighttime sight. The view from the hilltop is lovely.

I enjoyed trying to guess which visitors were Mormon. I’m pretty sure that the folks in front of me weren’t. They discussed the cost of the structure and the number of poor folks who could have been helped with that money. My host acknowledged that the structure probably cost about $3 or 4 million. I wouldn’t be surprised if it cost more than that. Apparently the LDS (Latter Day Saints Organization) is building about 3 such temples per year. Add to that the 400 or so new local meetinghouses and you’d arrive at a huge annual investment in property.

But their costs for personnel are almost nonexistent. Almost all of their ministry is done by members. And there were members in abundance at the temple today. As we walked to the entrance there was a "brother" or "sister" posted every three feet or so. At the entrance there were groups of younger kids who placed surgical booties over our shoes to protect the carpet inside. Since at least one of the carpets was creamy white, the booties were a great idea. The same kiddoes were there to accept the booties back at the conclusion of our tour.

The building itself is a collection of rooms. In the entryway a desk guards the passages that lead into the holier places beyond. Once the building is sanctified, only "worthy" members will be allowed to enter the structure. To be "worthy" one must be practicing the more strenuous points of doctrine (mostly diet and lifestyle issues), tithing, attending and serving regularly. There are special rooms for folks to dry off and dress after baptisms. Church members wear white whenever they enter the temple.

Baptisms for dead ancestors take place in a beautiful and roomy area. The baptistry brings to mind the laver outside the Jewish tabernacle and temple. The pool itself sits on the backs of twelve statues of bulls. I was surprised to learn that this pool is only for "vicarious" baptism, otherwise known as "baptism by proxy." This is a main reason for the Mormon interest in genealogy. Family is central to Mormon teaching, but the genealogical search allows members to do for ancestors what those people didn’t do for themselves. At judgment the recipient of baptism by proxy will be able to accept or reject it. A member’s own baptism takes place back in their normal meetinghouse.

There were also three rooms to symbolize the progression in knowledge leading to the celestial presence of our Heavenly Father. The first room for instruction was smaller and furnished with a screen for audiovisual materials. The second room was larger with wider seats and an "airier" feel. The third room was the celestial room where everyone was silent to allow the peace of the place to enfold us. The celestial room signifies the presence of the Father to which all believers aspire.

The other significant room was the "sealing" room. It is here that Mormon couples will be joined for this life AND eternity. The sealing also allows families to be joined for eternity based on Christ’s promise to Peter that whatever he bound on earth would also be bound in heaven. There was space for several other rooms but our tour was limited to the ones mentioned.

I had heard that Mormons believe that before being born souls meet with the Heavenly Father to hear about their specific future. Each spirit being is then allowed to choose or reject human existence. Apparently that isn’t quite right. The more orthodox belief says that "premortal" spirits are warned that human life has various perils (not the specific ones they will encounter) and then given the opportunity to take on an earthly body without knowing which body it will be.

The literature provided at the conclusion of the tour says: "Church membership in Texas since 1977 has soared from 50,000 to more than 245,000.

Stationed along the roads to offsite parking were several individuals offering literature to counter the temple experience. Several groups are listed as contributing to these newspapers: Calvary of South Austin, Mormonism Research Ministry and the Watchman Fellowship. It is curious to compare the soft sell materials presented in the temple experience to the more "in your face" approach of the opposition’s literature.

Hmm. This is intended to be a travelogue rather than an endorsement of Mormon doctrine. But I am impressed with the moral rectitude of most of those folks. I would remind the reader that Mormons use familiar Christian terms with meanings very different from traditional usage. "Heavenly Father" for instance may not mean the same thing to a Mormon than it does to others. Probably the most important difference will be in the understanding of Jesus, the Christ. The Christ of the Mormon is NOT the Christ of Scripture. Whenever common words are used in uncommon ways confusion is bound to occur. One has to wonder about the motive for such confusion.

Allow me to close this entry with a plug for a book about a Mormon figure who’s been mostly expunged from their literature. The book comes from an LDS author. It contains too many footnotes but the story itself is amazing. Consider it: Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess by Richard S. Van Wagoner.

The Divine Boot – a ruff draght.

According to the bumper stickers: "S*** Happens."
What a stink.
What a mess.
And of course, Why Me?

And while the "what" may not really matter, for me it was the sudden loss of a job. Words really don't help much. Virgil Fry offers a list of comments that mourners would rather not hear. I'm compiling a list of similar statements for the unemployed. [Comments like: "Things will turn out really good, you'll see." Or, "I'm sure God has something really good planned for you." Perhaps you'd like to offer some as comments to this post.] I've never been sure if they are intended to comfort the one hurting or the one doing the comforting.

Now that I've had some time to process, I'm finding a technique called reframing helpful. Reframing is the term psychologists use for looking at things from a different point of view. Here's the perspective I'm working with now. I call it THE DIVINE BOOT. *

Several speakers tell a story of eagle parents teaching their young to fly. Apparently the youngsters are often bigger homebodies than many human teens. At first the parents will hover near the nest flapping their own wings. Often the babies will mimic the behavior. But not all the kids are ready to leave the nest. Mom and dad have several methods available. One is to quit bringing food. The babies raise a ruckus every time mom or dad flies by. But the folks stick to the plan. If necessary food can be provided but not enough to assuage the hunger. Another approach is to make the nest less comfortable. The soft downy feathers lining the nest are removed until the old home place is all sticks and just isn't comfortable at all. This continues until Junior decides he'd better try his own hand at hunting and begins to fly.

At night I have to use a similar method to get the cat into his special room. I say "Okay, time for bed." The cat just lies there waiting for me to offer some reward for movement. I walk around behind him, take my foot and push his little behind until he starts moving. I guess there are some who work a little harder and offer more of a boot than a nudge.

In the earliest scenes in the biblical book of Acts, the Divine Instructions foretell the spread of the Good News from Jerusalem to Judea and then on to the utmost parts of the world. Seven chapters later the group is still huddled together. That changes when Stephen is martyred and the authorities begin to persecute followers of The Way. I'd call that a Divine Boot, wouldn't you? Facing imprisonment and persecution, Christians leave town and finally head out into the world.

This image of a Divine Boot allows me to reframe the job situation into a focus on the future instead of an autopsy of the past. This phase is over. Where do we go from here?

Say, you wouldn't happen to know of any good jobs would ya?
___________________________
* I need to credit Stephen Farrell for the term, The Divine Boot.

Observing (from the dark side) the observers of Venus .

According to the Gallup Organization's Now, Discover Your Strengths, I prefer different perspectives. The strength is identified as: IDEATION. I'm hoping to learn how to pronounce that. Is it Id-eation or Eyedee-ation?

All of England to choose from and you photographed that?

Is that a smile???

This tree lives in the gardens of Oxford, England. This helps me realize that J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis had a bit of help from creation as they crafted their amazing works.