Someone with something worth saying

I was looking for a friend's phone number on the Internet and put their name in the Google search. Imagine my surprise to see their name come up with a blog. Who knew! I went to the site and was dismayed that this person - someone whose opinion I respect and whose blog I would really want to read - had posted nothing. The blog was established a couple of years ago and I suspect like many of us, this person's life just overtook the idea of sharing thoughts about a topic that was of importance to him. There are so many blogs out there filling the ether with meaningless rants (or worse) that the loss of this persons thoughts, really hit home.

I hope he finds the time/energy/whatever to come back to this. We would be better off for reading his words...

Why We Eat The Way We Do

Although I haven't fully gotten my arms around the issue, it more and more seems to me that when we began the agricultural revolution after WWII that incorporated chemical fertilizers and the use of all things corn in our food products (the beginning of raising food that was not so labor intensive and thus "expensive") we started down the road to cheap food. Cheap by the world's standards - Americans spend less of their income on food than those in other countries. At the same time we started down the road to cheap food of another definition - food that was less nutritious and as we've come to see, made with ingredients that have caused us to become a fat nation.

At the same time we lost the connection to the seasons and the understanding of where food comes from we also stopped cooking, relying on fast food or prepared food for many if not all meals. Yes, I know not everyone does this, but so many do...a majority I think. We've lost the ability to say "no" to things that occupy time and steal it from cooking the way I remember growing up. I still cook that way - mostly. But so many don't.

And we've assumed that we don't need to plan for the future - even next week. We decide what we want to eat on the way home rather than thinking through menus, working with leftovers and sometimes, eating what we have, rather than what we want. Of course I'm talking here about the people who can afford to do this. They don't eat so well. Neither do those who can't afford fresh food and have to rely on fast food or lots of carbos and sugar.

So we are a country where those who have the money to eat healthy don't (in theory) have the time, and where those who don't have the money to eat healthy, probably don't have the time either. And then there are all those who don't even know that they aren't eating well.

Sad state of affairs...

A broken fan belt?

Although I hoped it wasn't true, recently it occurred to me that at least some people receiving my e-newsletter, A New Perspective, wondered why they got it - if they thought about it all before hitting the delete button. I say this because so much of what comes into my inbox falls into that category. Am I that much different than others?

And it occurred to me that I've felt constrained by attempting to tightly link what I wrote in A New Perspective to building my business. This was a self-imposed requirement to use the newsletter to build paying work for myself. Guess what; it hasn't worked. Hmmm....

Finally I was rarely satisfied with what I wrote for the newsletter. When I was, you seem to have been too, judging by the comments that came to me within hours of publication. And when that happened I found myself walking my own talk; my "work" had moved beyond simply checking off a task to be done and slipped into the realm of  the "hard fun" that I espouse.  

So I had my own broken fan belt. I needed to re-imagine A New Perspective or drop it. I concluded that A New Perspective will morph into a blog and it will:

• Consider events, ideas and environments
• Give voice to connections I see among them and questions that surface. This won't always fit a purely business-driven purpose. 

I will write when I have something to say, not on an arbitrary schedule. 

You control when (or if) you check in.

I will label posts so that you can sort through posts quickly. 

And you, dear reader, can let me know if you see something that resonates with you. 

So with a new fan belt in place, the journey resumes...

(Thanks to my friend and colleague, Paul Richardson, graphic facilitator, for the image at the top of this post. See his work at: http://www.abbeyparkart.co.uk )

Earning Learning

I have been around undergraduate adult learners in a university setting for the past six years on a pretty regular basis. They come to the program having started and never finished college or perhaps having never gone and deciding to get their degree for job-related or personal reasons later in life. I came to the program with what I've learned is a very non-traditional approach. In my classes, the emphasis is on learning rather than teaching. Learning is an active process that puts the onus on the student to take responsibility and sometimes wrestle with content to gain understanding. I do not spoonfeed information to be repeated. I focus on facilitating and guiding to enable "aha!" moments when students see things from a different perspective or when blurry concepts come into view and make sense.

I admit to having great expectations and high standards. Some of these have had the edges knocked off a bit over the years because I also know most adult learners have full time jobs, families, other goals, pressures, interests and limits. And whether or not I like it, not everyone chooses a class because they are interested in the subject matter. Some are there because they are about to graduate and need a class, any class; and some are there because they are only free on Wednesday night this quarter and there are probably other reasons as well.

With that as preface, let me tell you a story.

In a recent class, everyone read a common text, and subgroups read other topic-specific readings. Students worked in groups throughout the class. The plan was that they would support each others' learning about the common text and cross polinate and learn at another level about the topic specific readings certain members were doing.

In a conversation, it came out that several people didn’t understand a particular topic-specific reading. They’d tried they said, but decided it wasn't clear or was too difficult to grasp and chose to omit it and simply rely on the other text for their final paper. The next day I emailed that group to explain that the specific book was assigned for two reasons: first, it explained in more detail information that was important to being successful in the class and second, students in prior classes who had used it as a resource strongly suggested that it be required. I said it was expected that something out of it would inform the final paper and offered to answer questions online or in a phone call between then and when papers were due. There were no takers.

I've seen this type of behavior in every class. There are more than a few students in college classes who are unable or unwilling to take control of their own learning and do the necessary "wrestling" with the content. If it doesn't come easily, they become intimidated or discouraged and disengage. Conversely, this can manifest in the assumption that taking control of their learning means that anything they do is ok ("I don't understand so I'll leave this book out...") so they deserve an A. While not operative in this case, often there is also the assumption that using the words from the class also deserves an A regardless of whether it is in the form of a cogent discussion or analysis or is simply mental Memorex.

The sorry moral of the story: rather than valuing the process of learning our culture values ease and speed. Unfortunately, looking for easy answers quickly generated has created many of the complex messy problems we face in workplaces and society. And more of the same isn't going to solve them.