The deadline is tomorrow. Details here.

I first encountered the name Howard Gardner using a university library search system looking for reference material for this paper. Within the online system there were a number of abstracts on his book “The Unschooled Mind”. And, of course, given the topic I wanted to write about, the title caught my attention. The abstracts consistently gave a relatively low opinion of the theories presented in the book. However, one of the abstracts briefly described the background/problem which lead to the theories. The theories had no relevance to the paper (I made no mention of them in the paper) but the problem was relevant. I could not find the book in the university library so I bought a copy online.

I have never actually read all of the book. I’d guess that I’ve read about half of it. The problem I believe that Gardner was trying to solve was the following:

…that in nearly every student there is a five year old ‘unschooled’ mind struggling to get out and express itself.

What I believe he was saying was that however long a person spends in school, there remains within them the learner who learned without curriculum and external control. For example, the learner who learned how to walk; the one that learns to ride a bike, roller blade, skateboard, etc. Gardner used studies to back his argument. One of those studies compared the working (practical) knowledge of basic physics of recent MIT engineering degree graduates with school students. Both groups were asked the questions in a way that was not consistent with test or exam questions. An example of the type of knowledge they were evaluating is if I throw a ball, after it leaves my hand, in addition to friction with the air, what other forces are acting on its motion. The MIT graduates only did marginally better than elementary students. The majority of both groups did not know the correct answer (gravity).

The studies that he quoted would suggest that for most people all the years in school and all the ‘learning’ in school have little impact on their perception of how the world works. In other words, most high school graduates have many of the same misconceptions about how the world works the most 5 year olds do despite the fact that the high school graduates’ ‘education’ corrected many of those misconceptions.

At this point you may be wondering where this train of thought came from. TBH, it’s partly (but only partly) Carlotta‘s fault. I left her the following comment last night on this post:

I have his book ‘The Unschooled Mind’. Whether or not you or I agree with his theories on intelligence(s), the book is a worthwhile read in that it directs you to thinking about what the current education system lacks and seemingly prevents children from learning.

What lead me to thinking about writing this post started with the conversation going on in the comments here (also last night). Last night when I was going to sleep, I was thinking of the difference between process and product. An example that I thought of was those craft times where a group of kids ‘make’ a craft. The teacher/leader prepares for the craft making session by cutting all the pieces, making all the shapes, writing step by step instructions to aid in keeping everyone together, etc. In many cases, the only thing left for the child to do is apply glue a few times. What I realized in thinking about that example was that it was an instance of the product being more important than the process. That the end result be more or less the desired product is more important than the child make something on their own.

And then it hit me. That is the problem Gardner is trying to solve. What school delivers to a child is a product. School is not about the process of learning. It is about absorbing a predetermined range of knowledge which is planned down to the minutest detail. It’s no wonder education is considered a commodity. But the contrasting thing is that until a child enters school, the child’s learning is primarily about process. A child doesn’t learn to walk because it’s coming up later on a test or they need a license to walk or it’s going to help them get a job when they are an adult. They learn to walk because they want to walk. They learn to talk because they want to talk. And Gardner’s unschooled mind is one that learns because it wants to.

Even though I had no intention of offering comment on Gardner’s theories themselves, I’ve changed my mind. You can come up with whatever theories you want about the way our intelligence works. In the long run, if they are attended to at all they will be used in hopes of fine tuning the step by step instructions of mass producing a product. Theories about intelligence(s) can tell you nothing about what an individual child will want to learn.

How was my weekend? Very good thanks

My clowns (you know the drill about clicking on an image):

Me and my lawn (I’ve discovered that the best time to rake leaves is in the rain.):

This weekend a round robin conversation went on while I was away (from the internet). It all started with kim and her knitting technique (what’s with the phone ). Knitting is something that I’ve not had time to do in a long time. But, I can knit. Kim has probably given you an idea of my knitting ability. Yes, I drop stitches and do the wrong stitch or stich in the wrong direction on a regular basis, too. And I suck at keeping a consistent tension.

In JoVE’s response, she said:

We live in a society which values that which can be bought and sold. Commodities. If it does not produce a commodity, it seems that our work is worthless. Crazy, even.

While this is a total tangent from the knitting thread (coincidental pun), the ceramic tiles I installed both last and this weekend came to mind when reading Process vs. product. If you watch home reno shows (which we do) you will often see ceramic tiles being part of the reno. And even if it is only a 2 second blip most of the time you get to see a tile cutter. In this pic where ever you see a piece of blue tape is where I cut a tile:

A join without tape:

The tile cutter (with the aid of a carpentry square):

If you have watched those reno shows you will have noted that my tile cutter is a little different from the reno show ones. The ones on the reno shows are machines designed specifically for cutting tile while mine is my glass cutter I use for stained glass. In our case, I don’t know that getting a mechanical tile cutter would have saved us any time. I don’t think that it would have saved the hour that it would have taken to pick it up and return it to the rental place. But that’s not really the point. The tile cutter is all about getting the job done. I enjoyed cutting the tiles. I enjoyed the challenge of trying for a perfect match between the 2 pieces of tile so that if you stop to look at it you can see that the seam is there but at a passing glance you don’t. While our aim in all the renovations we are doing is to make the house attractive in the market, we should enjoy the process. Things aren’t always going to work out like a carefully oiled clock. But that’s not the point in life. At least I don’t think it is.

So, a perfect third party in the conversation is Paradise Found:

I have always said that if my kids grow up to be happy and can provide for themselves, then they will indeed be successful, regardless of whether or not the rest of the world would classify them as such.

I’ve never gotten involved in a discussion of money in this blog (and rarely do outside of it). But there was a period in my career where I made substantially more money than I do now. It was then that I came hard against it that money is not everything and was forced to evaluate what our society considers success. I think what our society views to be success is severely warped.

Over the years what I’ve done (and continue to do) without really intending to has been to show my kids that work is not an evil thing. They see me working at things all the time. Sometimes it’s things like stained glass. Some people would call me a workaholic but I’m not. I’m not working compulsively or because I can’t stand not working. I’m working because I enjoy it.

If at some point I choose to judge my children’s success it will be based on whether they enjoy the work that they do. I’ll be far more likely to judge my success as a parent this way.

Before I get into this post:

Tonight I took down the calendar and counted the weeks I’ve been working over here – 36. In the post of Andrea’s that I link to below she talks about a tentative deadline we have set for ourselves. I’m down to a theoretical 6 weekends. So, what I talk about below may be pressing primarily on me in light of that deadline.

Andrea has been regaling you with the trials and successes of our renovations. It may seem as of late that we are under trial. It had not escaped my attention that this minor setback occurred both within 24 hours of my writing about problem solving and on Friday the 13th. Now, I’m not particularly superstitious and since this is the first intersection of that day and something significant going awry in my life, I’m not about to dig out the aliminum foil hat.

If I were to conclude that the setback was somehow connected to my life in general, I would expect it to relate back to what I had been writing about the night before. Because I’ve found life is often like that. And what I said was:

The key to problem solving is identifying the problem.

Andrea eloquently described the symptom of the problem as follows:

I heard the toilet flush.

And then water started squirting out of the hole where the doorbell wiring is.

Andrea also mentioned that she was somewhat upset by the latest development. And that’s quite reasonable given we have been working on the kitchen for a few weeks and we were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on the second key room in improving the prospects of a short time on the market when the time comes.

And for me, given the ongoing time away from home and the small windows of time which I have to divide between work on something like this and spending time with them while I’m home, this is one of those times when the rubber meets the road. It’s where theory meets reality. It’s the deciding point where in idea, philosophy or ideal becomes wisdom or platitude.

At the time Andrea told me, I had had a few minutes on the couch after the 3 hour drive home. So, unless it was critical that something be fixed right away, I wouldn’t have done anything about it that night. In this instance I didn’t even go look at it. Instead I mentally collected up all the things I knew about it:

1. The waste pipe in question is a cast pipe.
2. The toilet in question is the only fixture connected to the cast pipe above the basement.
3. Including fittings, there is roughly 30 feet of cast pipe above the basement.
4. Cast pipe is heavy. (I’ve since come up with a ball park estimate of about 5-600 lbs above the basement.)
5. Because of the weight most of the cast pipe I’ve seen installed in houses relied primarily on gravity to keep it in place. Our house is no exception.
6. The hole where the water came out is a relatively small in the wall.
7. Until the cast pipe gets to the attic all of it is inside walls or in the ceiling/under floors.
8. The toilet is not above the cavity where the cast pipe goes from the second floor to the basement.
9. In addition to the cast pipe, there are 3 other unused water pipes (from the original heating system) that use the same cavity to get to the second floor.
10. When I had the bathroom floor off a couple months ago I noticed that there was a block of wood wedged between the one side of the cavity and one of those unused pipes which might have been near the height of the hole for the doorbell..

Some initial conclusions that I drew were:

1. It was not a small leak.
2. Whether there had been a small leak before something had changed on Friday.
3. The block of wood was likely partially responsible for the leak showing up in the kitchen.
4. Removing the cast pipe or sections of it was going to be alot of work.
5. The only way to determine how much work I was in for was to cut a hole in the wall.

And this is what I found:

If you look at the pipe in the picture you can see that it had been repaired before. The piece that is missing is a section of the flange that joined the elbow to the Tee. Given the layers of floor that I removed from the bathroom and what I had to cut through in the kitchen wall, my guess is that the last repair was on or before 1970. When our house was built 100 years ago, most things were made to last. I believe that the cast pipe is original to the house. The short of it would be that of the problems that I thought were likely this one is the best one of all of them to have to solve.

Andrea already posted this photo:

I love this photo. I think it captures alot of the essence of what we are and have been doing for our children. They get to be around us and see us doing real stuff. And most of the time, we let them try it out too

A couple months ago, Meaghen mentioned that she would like to have hens again. What came to mind almost immediately was Meaghan at about the same age (as Emma above) running across the yard with a hen tucked under her arm. We had always taken care to be gentle and calm around the hens. They didn’t mind being picked up and carried in your arms like a kitten. And one time to be a bit funny I picked one up and tucked her under my arm.

I still chuckle over seeing that out the window.

Helen excerpts the HEM-Networking list.

to the story in the previous post. I don’t know if you have heard the cliche of a dog chasing its tail or not. When I was growing up, we had a dog that liked to do that. He would run in a circle and succeed every once in a while at getting his teeth clamped onto his tail. But, because he had been running, he needed to pant and it was all for naught. Once he caught a breath or 2 he would start at it again.

This morning I had yet another email which immediately reminded me of the dog. I was polite but brief in explaining the circle we seemed to be running around. And that seems to have worked.

Today was a wierd sort of day. I got lots accomplished but threading through it was a bizarre email conversation that lasted most of the day. I don’t really want to regale you with the conversation. Instead, I thought I might talk about 2 things that the conversation reminded me of. Every once in a while someone says something, often in an offhand sort of way, that is really profound. One of the reasons I think of these things as profound is that once framed as statement of some kind they become obvious. But often the issue they address is never approached.

Now the first of the two was a comment by one of my instructors in a class at college. This instructor walked into 3 hour classes with a single sheet of loose leaf, wrote a list of 5 or 6 words on the board, sat the sheet on the corner of the desk and then proceed to teach for 3 hours on subjects like processor architecture. One day I caught a glimpse of what was on the paper. It was the list of words that he wrote on the board. Once (and only once) in my second year he paused part way through class and apologized that he was going to have to look at his piece of paper. It was this instructor and a somewhat offhand comment that has been central to most of the work I do day in day out. What he said was:

The key to problem solving is identifying the problem.

I would expect that most would see the irrefutable nature of the statement once the statement is made. It’s so simple and yet I find that our society often does not apply this in trying to solve problems. For example there are all sorts of initiatives in places that attempt to deal with pollution and other environmental issues. I’m not dis’ing those ihose initiatives. Why do we have a pollution problem? Because we are a consumption based society. While environmentally friendly products may alleviate the issue, they will never be the solution because they don’t address the problem.

To try to relate this to the usual subject of this blog. In the same way, the education systems that exist today do not attempt to solve learning problems. Insteading of trying to ascertain why a child is not learning they attempt to ascertain why the child is not learning in the environment and by the methods the institution provides. And that might give you an idea of what I think the prospects are of the educational systems finding a solution to the problem.

After I had been out of college a few months I went to a weeklong series of seminars related to the equipment I was supporting. The first seminar is really the only one I remember anything about. And if I were to see the person who conducted it, I would remember where I had seen him instantly. At the time, he was one of the leading experts in optimizing the use of the equipment I supported. He traveled across Canada charging more for a day than I was making in 2 weeks. (He quoted a range of figures based on an inquiry from the audience and he wasn’t permitted to give an exact figure.) And what he said was,

The real world is a special case.

He went on to explain that he could not give us a list of technical facts/rules to follow that was guaranteed to work on our own systems. But, what this really translates into is that having a head full of knowledge is not really of much use to you when you get to a situation where the knowledge would be used unless you are prepared to think. It is through thinking that expertise in some area can be applied in a useful way.

Back to this blog again: What I set out to do as a parent and while I was an instructor was cultivate the ability to think and apply the knowledge that they have at their disposal. Knowledge has never been easier to attain. The ability to use the knowledge available has never seemed to be in such short supply. I guess it comes back to what problem are we trying to solve. I will leave how this relates to my day to your imagination

Below is my post of the have you ever… meme. The complete list is here. Andrea also posted hers here. In reading hers I realized we had done a fair amount of the list since we met. So, here is the list of the ones we have both done, many of them together and at the same time:

07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
14. Seen the Northern Lights
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
22. Watched a meteor shower
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
30. Had a snowball fight
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
42. Had amazing friends
44. Watched wild whales
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
59. Lounged around in bed all day
62. Kissed in the rain
64. Played in the rain
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
72. Gotten married
77. Made cookies from scratch
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
86. Recorded music
88. Kissed on the first date
90. Bought a house
96. Raised children – still raising!
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care (indirectly)
143. Built your own PC from parts

If you have done the have you ever one, this one might be an interesting addition to it

First seen at carrie‘s:

(bold is the ones I’ve done)

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game (and survived the crush afterwards)
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children – still raising!
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad – and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language (thought about it)
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. (helped) Save someone’s life

Let me know if you do it!