Letters to my kids

Developing a child's talent? Encourage child to act out the talent in a way that gives value to others. #parenting #fatherhood

Adversity is a terrible thing to waste.

My oldest son, discussing his goals in pursuing a military career, said he wanted to make sure there was a human between the decision to push "the button" and the actual pushing of that button.

“People always asked "Why do you pay so much money for your kid to do sports”? Well I have a confession to make; I don't pay for my kid to “to do sports” Personally, I couldn't care less about what sport she does So, if I am not paying for sports what am I paying for? - I pay for those moments when my kid becomes so tired she wants to quit but doesn’t - I pay for those days when my kid comes home from school and is “too tired" to go to her training but she goes anyway. - I pay for my kid to learn to be disciplined, focused and dedicated - I pay for my kid to learn to take care of her body and learn how to correctly fuel her body for success. - I pay for my kid to learn to work with others and to be a good team mate, gracious in defeat and humble in success - I pay for my kid to learn to deal with disappointment, when they don’t get that placing or title they'd hoped for, but still they go back week after week giving it their best shot. - I pay for my kid to learn to make and accomplish goals - I pay for my kid to respect, not only themselves, but others, officials, judges and coaches - I pay for my kid to learn that it takes hours and hours, years and years of hard work and practice to create a champion and that success does not happen overnight - I pay for my kid to be proud of small achievements, and to work towards long term goals - I pay for the opportunity my child has and will have to make life-long friendships, create lifelong memories, to be as proud of her achievements as I am - I pay so that my child can be in the gym instead of in front of a screen - I pay for those rides home where we make precious memories talking about practice, both good and bad -I pay so that my child can learn the importance of time management and balancing what is important like school and keeping grades up I could go on but, to be short, I don't pay for sports I pay for the opportunities that sports provides my kid with to develop attributes that will serve her well throughout her life and give her the opportunity to bless the lives of others. From what I have seen I think it is a great investment!” - Softball Parent Need Help? Just ask @SRUSA_Official

Every educator needs to keep this Flannery O'Connor gem in a back pocket for the next time a student complains about the relevance or boringness of an older book... “And if the student finds that this is not to his taste? Well, that is regrettable. Most regrettable. His taste should not be consulted; it is being formed.”

"Age exposes what was performative." "Aging is when the marrow speaks louder than the skin." "There is no faking endurance at 20 below zero." #age #ageing youtube.com/watch?v=sDy4JY…

It’s also why historically it was considered the sine qua non of a Western education to learn to argue both sides of every question. The fact that the purpose of a university education is now the opposite is the sign we have entered an age of spiritual darkness

I'm starting to wonder if teaching conceptual math heavily is making it harder for a lot of kids - hear me out. They looked at students who were gifted in math & went "huh, they think conceptually. We should teach everyone conceptually" My youngest is gifted in math. She just "gets it" It's absolutely conceptual to her - and easy. But my oldest, nope. And no amount of me explaining the concept ever helped her. You know what did? Procedural practice ... over & over & over. Then, something kinda like magic happened. She looked at me this week and said "oh, I get it!" and she then explained to me the concept I'd tried to teach her a year ago. Don't get me wrong. Conceptual math for prek-2nd grade is great. But I'm not convinced it's the best path long-term. Conceptual learners - already "get it." The strugglers.... might just need a LOT more practice before that light bulb goes off. Thoughts?

I sat down with neurophysiologist Louisa Nicola and she said something I didn’t expect. Lifting heavy weights does a lot more than just affectt your body - it changes your brain. When you train at around 80% of your max, your muscles release chemicals that cross into your brain and trigger growth in the hippocampus - the part responsible for memory. Here's the moment she explained it 👇🏾

My favorite line (so far) in this great, very important book: “Strong offline skills transfer easily to the digital realm, but the reverse is almost never true.” - Dr Jared Cooney Horvath, page 155

Life tip: Tell people what you need/want them for in the first message. Don't start off with a single message like: "Hey, are you busy this Saturday?" Or "Could you do me a favor"

The problem facing knowledge work in our current moment is not that we’re lacking sufficiently powerful technologies. It’s instead that we’re already distracted by so many digital tools that there’s no time left to really open the throttle on our brains. — Cal Newport

@epistemic13 @larissaphillip I remember teaching there in late 80's. You had to be on DEFCON 3 alert all the time, on guard against curious, growing teens wanting to explore more than languages and ideas.

@larissaphillip Concordia Language Villages has been putting trans self-id'd female minors in male cabins, and employing trans-id'd counselors since at least 2019. It starts with making a "kind" exception for one "vanishingly rare" case, and then it grows...

How do summer camps deal with the gender movement? Are there trans-identified boys working as counselors in girls’ cabins? This seems like an impossible conundrum.

This teacher-turned-cognitive scientist shared a disturbing reality that left the room stunned. “Our kids are LESS cognitively capable than we were at their age.” Every previous generation outperformed its parents since we began recording in the late 1800s. So, what happened? Screens. Dr. Jared Horvath explained: “Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to underperform us on basically every cognitive measure we have, from basic attention to memory, to literacy, to numeracy, to executive functioning, to EVEN GENERAL IQ, even though they go to more school than we did.” “So why? … The answer appears to be the tools we are using within schools to drive that learning (screens).” “If you look at the data, once countries adopt digital technology widely in schools, performance goes down significantly, to the point where kids who use computers about five hours per day in school for learning purposes will score over two-thirds of a standard deviation LESS than kids who rarely or never touch tech at school. And that’s across 80 countries.” But screens aren’t just decimating learning and making new generations less intelligent than the ones before them. They’re doing something far worse. And when you take a closer look, it isn’t pretty. 🧵

The 10 Commandments of Logging bit.ly/XR0E0z ."When writing your log entries messages, always anticipate that there are emergency situations where the only thing you have is the log file..." Store in English, use ASCII, and more reasons... #programming #php #rpgle #ibmi

Still blows me away that memorization somehow became taboo in so many classrooms. Memory is a precondition for thought, and thought is the precondition for learning.

One of the strongest arguments for teaching classic literature is simply this: If students are never asked to inhabit minds from other times and cultures, they will confuse their own narrow historical moment with universal truth. The canon is an antidote to chronological snobbery.

Children need practice with small losses like bad grades, getting benched at the game, or simply being told “no.” Take that away, and the first actual setback they experience will feel so much worse than if they had grown up with more challenge. Being overly gentle doesn’t result in unharmed children.

New Years Eve, Hell Canyon, Black Hills (Loki needed to stretch his tires.)