Tomato Time and Our Local National Park

It's the time of year for salsa.  This is one of our Beefsteak tomatoes.  So big they are splitting the stalk apart.     The frustration sometimes is these newer versions of plants grow better than the heirlooms.  Just have to keep trying. The salsa is great no matter which tomato is used.

Recently I visited Sequoia National Park. We have a son working there for the summer.  I rode the local shuttle up and then after a hike with him we drove down for his days off. The shuttle was like most bus rides,though the scenery was better than I'm used to on a baseball trip.  What surprised me was how the park has changed.  I'll admit that it's been years and decades since I last visited SNP, but it was a very nice experience.  I forgot how really tall and big the Sequoia Gigantea is.  The air was clearer than most times, so the view from Moro Rock was spectacular.  Saw no bears, but two deer and numerous squirrels and chipmunks.  Great trip and one that will be repeated this summer.

Speaking of wildlife.  The exercise/dogwalk up the local hill has been a fun way to start the day.  Maureen has seen a mother fox and two kits.  Yesterday we saw a mother hog and two offspring running down the hill and into the orange groves.  Actually Gunnar the Malanois cross saw them first and it took us a while before spotting them.

Books and a Few Thoughts

I recently finished Quiet by Susan Cain.  It's about introverts, extroverts and people in general.  It has changed how I think of students and myself. I think every teacher needs to read this book, because Cain gives substance to those unsettling moments I have when I have questioned something I'm doing in the classroom, or a "new" program or trend is presented to help students.

She makes a good case that much of what has been discovered and is helpful for mankind has been hashed out by a person quietly working by themselves, not in a group.  Much of our business and educational models of open work areas and group projects probably aren't the most beneficial to people and to producing a worthwhile end product.  This has me rethinking how I will teach.

As much as Cain has made me think of my profession, she has me thinking about myself also. I guess I am more of an introvert than I thought.  The family joke of me in the corner reading a magazine now makes sense. The overload of 6 people talking simultaneously is too much. But it also explains how I can deal with a noisy classroom.

I just started a book that dovetails with Quiet, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. This is his first book, though it is the third of his that I have read.  Outliers and Blink are the two other Gladwell books I've read and each has made me rethink the world around me.  So it should be of no surprise that The Tipping Point makes me examine also.  What it does also is categorize people and just like Quiet spurs us to rethink our first impressions of people and how events unfold, and for what reason.

Years ago I read an excerpt of Tipping Point and the explanation of the Broken Window Theory.  The Broken Window Theory states that if there is a broken window in a building and it doesn't get fixed, then it must mean people don't care.  This opens the door to more broken windows, then graffiti, and that escalates to more violent crimes. It made sense to me and still does.  Gladwell goes into more detail and calls into question our governmental choices on how to combat crime.  His point is that small changes make for bigger impacts.  We don't have to go after murderers with a vengeance to drop the murder rate; we can clean up graffiti and make people pay their subway fare. That will make the murder rate drop at a faster rate.

For me the combination of these books has made me view my world much differently, and certainly I try not to jump to the easy cause of a problem.  Sometimes what is less apparent is the key to turning the issue around.  And as Gladwell has done  before, he lays his ideas out in a straight forward and interesting manner.      With Outliers we learned of successful people and the Rule of 10,000 hours.  In Blink we learned about how we make snap decisions about people and events.  Tipping Point explains how seemingly small, insignificant pieces really make the most difference.

Which leads me to think about this next school year.  We have a new superintendent, will have new counselor/deans in 2 of the 4 positions including the vice principal, and two of our most popular teachers retired.  With that much upheaval in the "leadership" there seems to be a chance for a great change.  After reading these books though, I think the most significant change may be the retirement of the attendance keeper.  She has been the glue that has held the front office together through other changes. She, of the office staff, has been one of the longest at the school and knows the wheres and wherefores the most.  And she keeps on top of students and parents and gets kids to school.  She may be our outlying tipping point.

Dr. Seuss or Peace Sign

One of our discussions over time has been how to increase our food production.  For awhile I have been eyeing the Curly Willow in the front yard.  Decades ago that side of the front was the first patch that the grass was pulled from and replanted with plants. At the time they were ornamental, and they gave the front entrance a pleasant feel. The original Birch died and was replace with this fast growing Willow because we wanted shade.  And shade it gave.  It is a weed.   It was a constant battle to keep it pruned, and cleaned up. 

The other side of the front eventually lost its grass and now has a planter for various vegetables through the year.  Having exhausted most of the rest of the prime growing space in the lot, we turned to this tree and the hope for more space.  The above picture is the latest cut and shows a limb hanging off to the left.  The picture is squashed and distorted looking, but clearly there is a V for victory or a Peace sign or we are creating our own Dr. Seuss tree.  Take your pick.  But the results show below.

These two pictures show how much sunlight the limb was blocking.  Great for ornamental plants, but not so great for the tomatoes that are going in today.

Delving Into a Place I need to Learn More About

I just read a longish economic article from the New York Review of Books by Paul Krugman.  I'm no economist, but I slogged my way through this and learned a bit and have a few questions.  The premise hinges on the question of Should you spend your way out of a Depression,or seek austerity and  not spend.  You can read the article and draw your own conclusions.

My questions include the idea that Greece could have helped itself more if they had spent more borrowed money, and why have the elite (wealthy) done well while the median income has fallen.  Who have "our" policies helped?

I leave you with a quote from the end of the article: "It’s a terrible story, mainly because of the immense suffering that has resulted from these policy errors. It’s also deeply worrying for those who like to believe that knowledge can make a positive difference in the world. To the extent that policymakers and elite opinion in general have made use of economic analysis at all, they have, as the saying goes, done so the way a drunkard uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination. "