Category: Non-fiction


“That Used to Be Us: Part III”–back to our staff recommended reading

Filed under: Controversial Issue/Debate, Environmental Issues, Non-fiction by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
April 12, 2012

Part I

Part II

That Used to Be Us—Part III: The War on Math and Physics

Part III of That Used to Be Us starts with more bad news. Part I tells us that we underestimated the impact of globalization and the IT revolution. Part II says we failed to respond to the above by improving our educational system. Part III? Ditto for the deficit and energy and climate challenges.

“When the flattening of the world created not only two billion more competitors but two billion more consumers, . . . just when all the rising energy demand from all these new consumers was affecting the climate and food prices and creating the need for cheap, clean, renewable energy, and just when China recognized all this and began investing heavily in wind, solar, battery, and nuclear power, America dithered, delayed, and underinvested in energy and in the wider foundations of its economic growth.”

The section on ‘the war on math’ discusses debt and borrowing power (and shows that a company/country can have great debt and great borrowing power as well as long as it has the assets to pay the debt if suddenly called.) The authors argue that when the international monetary system known as “Bretton Woods” (dollar tied to price of gold/fixed international exchange rates) was collapsed—Nixon didn’t want the country to go through a recession to pay for spending on the Vietnam War—ballooning deficits had to follow, but it took time.

But it did happen, and deficits ballooned under Reagan. The authors take Dick Cheney to task over his comment, “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.” They show that Reagan worried about deficits and called taxes ‘revenue enhancements’ in order to create them. Though deficits were reined in under Clinton, Alan Blinder, Princeton economist and former vice chairman if the Federal Reserve, is quoted from a Wall Street Journal essay as saying that “’The nation took leave of its fiscal senses, and simply stopped paying for anything during President Bush 43’s eight years.’” Under Obama, that deficit blew up.

The Republican Party takes a hit for a few pages, and then the authors turn on the Democrats—both are chastised for their willingness to enact policies that hurt the fiscal health of the country but that bolster their political careers and allies.

The authors believe that reductions in Social Security and Medicare are inevitable. We are not going to be able to spend so much for end-of-life care that doesn’t do anything but prolong the period of wasting away into death; we are going to have to take more responsibility for our health and not be so fat.

Across the board cuts to entitlements are required including in the defense budget.

Taxes must be raised, not just on the rich, but on the middle class as well. Tax loopholes must be closed.

The section on the ‘war on physics’ is about climate change. The authors indicate that climate change is a fact, and we need to stop pretending that it’s still a big question mark. They give examples and documentation from reports and scientists. There’s also a discussion of “low-probability, high-impact” events. (A phrase based on Dick Cheney’s discussion of Pakistani scientist and a 1% chance that they are helping Al Qaeda develop nuclear weapons. Here, it is turned around and used to discuss climate change. In general, Dick Cheney doesn’t come off very well with the authors.)

There are some examples of ways to make changes—one of the most interesting to me was that having the military use renewable power not only is environmentally sound, but can save many service men and women’s lives by avoiding roadside bombs to vehicles trucking fuel around.

The authors are telling us that the country needs oil-addiction rehab, but has refused to have an intervention because “The Democrats were cowardly and the Republicans were crazy. . . . The Democrats understood the world they were living in but didn’t want to pay the political price—alone—for adapting to it. The Republicans simply denied the reality of this world.”

Climate change will create an unstable world with a larger and larger population requiring greater global food production at the same time that global natural resources are stressed and water demand soars. California is commended for some sensible environmental policies that the country should adopt.

Part IV coming soon.  Eventually, the positive stuff arrives.

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“That Used to Be Us: Part II: The Education Challenge”

Filed under: Controversial Issue/Debate, Non-fiction by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
March 14, 2012

Part II: The Education Challenge

Teachers who are overwhelmed should try to make time to read, at the very least, this section of the book.

The global market and the IT revolution discussed in Part I means big changes for education. In the global marketplace, we’re familiar with low wage, low skill workers. What we need to contend with now is low wage, high skill workers. America’s past success was “based on real innovation, real education, real research, real industries, real markets, and real growth—but the playing field was also tilted in our direction. Now we have to try to sustain all those good things without all those structural advantages.” (This is the idea behind The World is Flat, by the way.) If you don’t believe this, read this book for lots of flat world examples—examples, in fact, of how much has changed since The World is Flat was published. Even top level researchers and Ph.D.s can work for a US company from their home countries halfway across the world.

The IT revolution means that our students are going to have to be very diverse thinkers. The authors suggest that they will have to combine “the skills of MIT, MTV, and Madison Avenue.” Certainly, they will have to have a solid base of knowledge in several areas and will need to be creative thinkers and imaginers as well. (Note: one of the best books I’ve read which shows that those coming into adulthood are entering a world of work that is utterly different from that experienced by their parents is A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. It was recommended to me by a colleague at COHS. I reviewed it here. It warns that what parents and teachers are telling kids about the world of work (“Be an accountant! A lawyer! A computer programmer!”) is probably wrong.)

The IT revolution also means that ‘people skills’ are also going to matter more than ever. With technology available to everyone, the ‘human touch’ is what will set people apart.

To show that traditional, low skill or manufacturing jobs will not return, Friedman and Mandelbaum site examples, showing that after recessions, workers laid off are not all rehired because firms restructure their operations. More and more, the labor market will reward those with college degrees, a trend called ‘employment polarization.’ The IT revolution makes well-educated people more productive in a global market; it also makes less-educated people “less employable.”

There are four types of jobs in today’s labor market:

Creative creators: people doing “nonroutine work in a . . .nonroutine way.”

Routine creators: people doing nonroutine work in a routine way

Creative servers: nonroutine low-skilled workers doing work in an inspired way

Routine servers: people who do routine serving work in a routine way

No matter what their skill level or educational background, workers who do things in a routine way are in trouble. Employers say that they are looking for ‘presence’ in their employees (engaged and paying attention). The authors point to their interviews with major employers/industry leaders as proof. Even the lowliest job will require a critical thinker, but critical thinking will be only the most basic skill. Employees must be able to innovate as well as collaborate well with others—others who may be located far away. Lots of work will migrate to a wiki format: “up-to-date, self-correcting, adaptable in real time.” New jobs like ‘chief innovation officer’ are on the way. (Again, I recommend Daniel Pink for more on this idea.)

Despite the ability to move jobs overseas, America will need to keep some manufacturing in the country or risk losing touch with a source of innovation, “working directly with a product and figuring out how to improve it.” In this discussion, the authors coin ‘Carlson’s Law’: “Innovation that happens from the top down tends to be orderly but dumb. Innovation that happens from the bottom up tends to be chaotic but smart.”

The authors move into a discussion of how the country should treat education. They quote Michelle Rhee (former chancellor Washington, D.C. school system, controversial in educational circles): “We treat education as a social issue. And I’ll tell you what happens with social issues: When the budget crunch comes, they get swept under the rug, they get pushed aside. We have to start treating education as an economic issue.”

I think this is the point in the book where the educator’s heart starts palpitating. Basically, this discussion can be summed up in the authors’ insistence that “maintaining the American dream will require learning, working, producing, relearning, and innovating twice as hard, twice as fast, twice as often, and twice as much.”

The argument shifts to whether our students really are competitive in a worldwide workplace. The authors say they aren’t, that our top students and schools are not as good as those in other countries, and that poverty is not the issue. They point to a study entitled “The Myths and Realities about International Comparisons” as evidence. (I’ve read of studies that show that poverty is the real issue, and that our top students do quite well on a world platform. I will provide some links in the next installment of this review along with links on the direction education is moving. However, I will note now that even within this argument, the authors do a few twists. They say that studies from other countries that do well are not from a small part of the population, and then go on later to mention that China’s scores are derived entirely from Shanghai. Can’t be both, boys.)

Another educational area that needs work is our system of vocational training as some future jobs will require a high-level vocational education.

Folks both inside and outside of education must be willing to sacrifice in order for education to have what it needs: “better teachers and principals; parents who are more involved in and demanding of their children’s education; politicians who push to raise educational standards . . .; neighbors who are ready to invest in schools even though their children do not attend them; business leaders committed to raising educational standards in their communities; and . . .students who come to school prepared to learn, not to text.”

A part of this argument that will interest all teachers is that the authors assert that in the US, we don’t do much to develop or reward excellent teaching. We should, and to this end, the authors recommend 50% of teacher and principal evaluation be based on student growth. They give examples of helping teachers improve by using newer technology—say videoing the top teachers in the state, tagging their lessons by specific standards and then allowing others to see how great teachers meet those standards.

Communities need to celebrate teachers and back their efforts—and not just with gift cards from the PTA, but with performance bonuses through which the top fliers collect some serious cash. The community should recognize that good schools are foundations for good neighborhoods.

Parenting is discussed here, and the controversial Amy Chua (author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, a book she says is about Chinese-style parenting) is quoted. I found her statements at odds with what the authors had said earlier in the book about the needs for creativity and imagining. (Chua never allowed her kids to have play dates, go to a sleepover, play computer games, choose an extracurricular activity—the list goes on. Not quoted here, but in the book is Chua’s admission that she shamed and insulted her kids publicly in her quest to make them the envy of other parents in the neighborhood. Some readers look at the book as more of a cautionary tale about to what ends a parent will go to twist a child into the mold s/he desires. However, her kids did end up as models, excelling in everything that she allowed them to try.) At any rate, the authors eventually make the point that results, rather than effort, pay off.

Although this is mentioned in the section on parenting, it warmed my librarian’s heart: Kids need books to succeed. Having more books in the home is as great an advantage to a child as having university-educated parents. (What That Used to Be Us doesn’t mention is that research also shows that a well-stocked, well-staffed school library can make up the difference for kids that don’t have books at home. OK, off my soap box.)

In concluding this discussion, the authors mention that getting an education should be about more than getting a job and that we want kids to become good citizens. They finish by giving a little slap to the movie Race to Nowhere.

The next discussion on educating kids revisits earlier themes in the book, reinforcing the idea that people must be able to communicate well in order to collaborate, and if they can’t collaborate, they will be less creative. Successful creators are, first, self-confident. (While I believe collaboration is very important, I want to play the devil’s advocate here on one aspect of collaboration. A recent study suggests that brainstorming in groups can be a waste of time and that the ideas generated won’t be as good as the best ideas that the best people will have alone. It suggests that to work well together, people must be grouped with others of similar abilities. This wasn’t in an educational setting, but if it is true, it’s a vote for tracking in education.)

Interestingly enough, in this section on creativity, Steve Jobs and Tony Wagner are quoted and the theme is that the problem with schools is that they don’t “respect play, passion, and purpose—and [isolate] those who won’t conform.” We need to teach the kind of risk-taking that develops self-confidence (God forbid we use the term self-esteem, with all its current negative connotations.) The reason these activities and qualities aren’t valued is that they can’t be tested. While I agree with the authors, I find this section at odds with the earlier hailing of ‘tiger mothering’ and Amy Chua. Even in That Used to Be Us, which is overwhelmingly a cogent argument, here, the authors have the same mixed messages for educators that we’ve been getting for years.

The whole of Part II ends with a section called “I Kill Jobs” and indicates that the only people who can’t be eliminated (in the job market—not murdered!) are the creative ones.

Yes—this is long, but so is Part II. It is also the most vital section of the book for educators. In my next post on That Used to Be Us, rather than looking at Part III, I will put up some links and titles that may be of interest as we grapple with the future of public education and what our jobs will look like in a few years. Then I’ll get to Part III.

Happy teaching! :)

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“That Used to Be Us”

Filed under: Controversial Issue/Debate, Environmental Issues, Non-fiction by Ms. Waddle — 1 Comment
March 5, 2012

“This is a book of exceptional importance, written on a sweeping scale with remarkable clarity by two of our most gifted thinkers. . . . It should be read by policymakers and every American concerned about our country’s future.” Library Journal

When I first saw That Used to be Us, I didn’t want to pick it up because I have approximately 70 books (but who’s counting? :) ) at home on my shelves, on my Kindle, or on my iPad that I haven’t gotten to. In addition, I’ve already read Friedman’s other two books on the subject—The World is Flat and Hot, Flat and Crowded. (Click here for review.) But I started finding the kind of recommendation quoted above. And then our principal recommended it so, I figured I’d go ahead.

That Used to be Us is a very worthwhile read. I want to try a bit of an unusual review of it here for two reasons. First, some teachers are looking for serious non-fiction for students and have mentioned The World is Flat. However, that book is seven years old, and already a bit dated. (No, the US intervention in the Middle East didn’t pan out the way Friedman predicted.) If teachers are going to recommend this type of non-fiction outside reading as students all enroll in ERWC courses, it would be better to start with the newest version.

Second, I know that all the teachers don’t have the time to read the book, but it would be nice to at least have an overview of it. So—this is a detailed review with links to other documents related to topics within That Used to be Us that might interest you.

First, if you happened to have read The World is Flat, and you want to cherry pick sections of this book that weren’t covered there, Read Sections II (The Educational Challenge) and III (The War on Math and Physics). If you read Hot, Flat and Crowded, you could skip Section III, as it is the ‘hot’ (global climate change) part; however, That Used to Be Us is up-to-date and more scary.

Four copies of That Used to Be Us are available at the Ontario City Library, so it can easily be picked up at COHS.

OK—here’s a look at Part I:

Part I: The Diagnosis:

While we are sleepwalking, China is using ideas we came up with to overtake our place as a world leader. We’ve gotten used to living in an entirely dysfunctional state while China gets things done. Many anecdotal examples of this are given, including incidents from one of the author’s visit to China. The authors quote plenty of folks to drive home the frustration. (“We are nearly complete in our evolution from Lewis and Clark into Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam.”) A big part of the problem is that Americans don’t understand how urgent the situation is (and other sections of the book detail proofs that it is urgent), so that urgency must be created before it’s too late. Americans used the next generation’s money to fight terrorism while “indulging ourselves with tax cuts and cheap credit.”

The solution is not to become more like China, but to “become more like ourselves.” By this, the authors mean that unlike China, which lacks freedom, has widespread corruption, horrible pollution and an educational system that inhibits creativity, we need to make our democratic system work with “focus, moral authority, seriousness, collective action, and stick-to-itiveness.”

A second problem, ironically, is that the U.S. no longer has the Soviet Union as a Cold War enemy. The death of communism in many countries has enabled a much greater percentage of the world’s population to reach for the American dream—and so, all these people are new competitors in a global market. We all compete with them for jobs. Our children need to be educated to compete with them for jobs.

There are four core challenges to America in the post-Cold War era: adapt to globalization, adjust to the technology revolution, cope with soaring budget deficits (growing demands on government), and manage rising energy consumption and climate threats. If we can’t do this, it will not only affect Americans but could be disastrous for the whole world as there is no country capable of stepping in as the world’s leader. This is the crux of the book. If the authors can make you understand this, you will pay attention to their solutions.

The solution depends on five pillars that are a partnership between the public and private sectors and will promote economic growth: provide public education for more Americans; build and modernize infrastructure; keep doors open to immigration; provide government support for basic research and development; and regulate private economic activity.

The authors detail successful public-private partnerships over the history of the United States. Examples are given from both ends of the political spectrum. They assert that the two camps no longer pay attention to our history, and this may be the death of our future. “Liberals blame all of America’s problems on Wall Street and big business while advocating a more equal distribution of an ever shrinking economic pie. Conservatives assert that the key to our economic future is simple: close our eyes, click our heels three times, and say ‘tax cuts,’ and the pie will miraculously grow.” Yes, there’s something here to offend everyone—which is good, because it challenges the status quo, as it hopes to.

Next up: Part II—the section on education—the largest and, according to the authors, the most important section of the book.

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Let’s Shop! Book Fair February 27-March 2

Filed under: Adventure Stories, Fable/Fairy Tale/Fantasy, Family Problems, Fiction, Graphic Novel, Hi-Low/Quick Read, Historical Fiction/Historical Element, Horror/Mystery/Suspense, Movie Tie-In, Multicultural, Non-fiction, Read 180, Romance, Sci-Fi/Futuristic, Sports, Supernatural, Young Adult Literature by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
February 16, 2012

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The library will be having its Scholastic Book Fair again this year during the week of February 27 to March 2 from 8 AM to 3 PM.

We’ll be open Wednesday evening February 29 until 7 PM so that parents can shop as well.

 We’ll have lots of Hunger Games items—The Hunger Games trilogy books, ‘mockingjay’ jewelry, posters and more—as well as many popular titles.

Please help us by shopping for books, posters, bookmarks, journals, pencils, pens. Proceeds from the book fair earn new books for our library.

We need your support!

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“The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie and a World Transformed”

Filed under: Biography/Memoir, Controversial Issue/Debate, Human Rights Issues, Non-fiction by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
February 7, 2012

This week–February 8, 9, 10, and 11–the Colony High School Theater Arts Department is producing the play The Laramie Project. After seeing this powerful production, students who want to learn more about Matthew Shepard should consider reading The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie and a World Transformed. It’s available in our library.

“The mother of Matthew Shepard shares her story about her son’s death and the choice she made to become an international gay rights activist. Today, the name Matthew Shepard is synonymous with gay rights, but before his grisly murder in 1998, Matthew was simply her son. For the first time in book form, Judy Shepard speaks about her loss, sharing memories of Matthew, their life as a typical American family, and the pivotal event that changed everything. The book follows the Shepard family in the days after the crime, when their incapacitated son was on life support; how they learned of the response from strangers all across America who held candlelit vigils and memorial services for their child; and finally, how they struggled to navigate the legal system as Matthew’s murderers were on trial. It not only captures the historical significance and civil rights issues, but it also chronicles one ordinary woman’s struggle to cope with the unthinkable.”–From publisher description.

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“Bossypants”

Filed under: Biography/Memoir, Non-fiction by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
February 7, 2012

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Bossypants is the most fun biography I’ve read. As you probably know, Fey was a writer and then an actor on Saturday Night Live. She produces and stars in the TV comedy 30 Rock and has won numerous awards, including Emmys. In her autobiography, she takes a wacky look at her life. One of the best things about her is that she doesn’t take herself too seriously. She treats others kindly in her telling of growing up (well, mostly—beware if you were a girl who stole her boyfriend). Based on her own upbringing by older, loving, yet stern parents, Fey gives advice on raising “an achievement-oriented, obedient, drug-free, virgin adult.” Her love interests and honeymoon are hilarious, and her work with male comedy writers is enlightening. (OK, maybe they are a little gross.)

I asked my husband to read this book, and while he liked it, he didn’t enjoy it as much as I did because, as he said, its audience is women and girls. I think that’s true. This is really a feminist book, couched in comedic riffs on gender-based issues and raising children. Fey has a lot of great advice for girls who will soon go to college or enter the workplace. Granted, she doles it out with some off-color language and some bawdy stories, but her points are well-taken. I think one of the most important is this: male coworkers will always question what you do and tell you they don’t like what you do. If the man is your boss, you have to figure out how to get through that. But if the man who questions you or your motives is just another coworker, you just need to tell him that you don’t care what he thinks about what you do or say. That’s advice I wish I’d had as a young woman, new in the working world.

Some teachers have asked students to read a biography by a famous American. Unfortunately, students can usually only think of two famous Americans and everyone tries to get the same two books. So, when you get this assignment, think about Bossypants. It’s a lot if fun and Fey’s advice is pretty solid.

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Holocaust Survivor to speak

Filed under: Biography/Memoir, Historical Fiction/Historical Element, Non-fiction by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
January 27, 2012

Titans,

Last year we had Holocaust survivor Stephen Nasser speak at Colony High. He is the author of the book My Brother’s Voice, which I reviewed here. He gave a great presentation and students gave him a standing ovation.

At that time, we couldn’t work out a schedule for him to come to Chaffey High. Fortunately, we are able to have him at the Gardner Springs Auditorium on the Chaffey High campus after school on Monday. Since the presentation begins at 3 PM, I’m hoping you can attend.

World War II ended in 1945, so survivors of the war and the Holocaust are becoming fewer as they reach their mid-80s and older. This is a great opportunity for you and your family members to hear firsthand about one of the most tragic events in history.

Gardner Springs Auditorium

on the Chaffey High campus

Monday, January 30, 2012

3:00 PM

If you are interested in buying Nasser’s book, he will be selling and signing copies. (Paperback copies are $15.00, cash or check only.)

I hope to see you there!

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“Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock”

Filed under: Biography/Memoir, Controversial Issue/Debate, Human Rights Issues, Non-fiction by Ms. Waddle — 1 Comment
January 23, 2012

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Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock by David Margolick

When young and learning about desegregation in the South, for me, one photograph stood as the example of the deep southern racial divide. It portrays all the hatred of the Southern whites for the Blacks who were trying to get equal access to a good education. It is one of the most powerful images I’ve ever seen.

That image—a photograph of a white student at Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas screaming obscenities at Elizabeth Eckford—one of the Little Rock Nine who were chosen to integrate Central High—has stood as the iconic image of racism for more than fifty years.

And for many years now, whenever I see the picture posted on display for a celebration of the Civil Rights Movement, I’ve wondered: Who is that screaming white girl? How did she have that much hate at that age? Times have changed and she must be an old woman now. What does she think today?

One thing always bothered me more than anything else. What the girl did was truly awful, but she just happened to be captured at what was probably the worse moment of her life and given out to the world as a demon-child. She was fifteen. What would it be like to become the face of racism, permanently, in every textbook and display for fifty years? What would it be like to have your entire life judged on something you did at fifteen?

Finally, Elizabeth and Hazel is the book with my answer. The girl is Hazel Bryan, and her story is told along with that of Elizabeth Eckford’s. The book gives the reader background to the date of the photograph (the Brown v. The Board of Education decision three years earlier, how the Little Rock Nine were chosen, etc.)

On September 4, 1957, the first day of the school year for Little Rock Central High and its first day of court-ordered desegregation, eight of the Little Rock Nine met and went to school together as a safety measure. Elizabeth didn’t get the message (her family had no phone) and, after being barred from entering the school by the National Guard, she had to walk a gauntlet of screaming whites to go back to a bus stop and wait to go home. (While she waited, people continued to harangue her. When a white woman who was a Communist tried to shame the crowd, people accused the Little Rock Nine of being in cahoots with the Communists.) During this walk, Will Counts, a young local reporter, snapped the iconic photo.

“When it comes down to it, Count’s famous photograph of Elizabeth is really more of Hazel Bryan; it is on Hazel that the eyes land, and linger. Despite the tricky lighting, her face is perfectly exposed: the early September sun shines on her like a spotlight. It hits her from the side, painting her face in a stark chiaroscuro that makes it look more demonic still. She’s caught mid-vowel, with her mouth gapingly, ferociously open. At that instant, and in perpetuity, Hazel Bryan, always the performer, has the stage completely to herself. Others played their own small parts in the picture, but ‘the mouth,’ she later said, ‘was mine.’”

Elizabeth is also an icon of the Civil Rights Movement because of her dignity in that frightening, lonely walk. She continued at Little Rock High for the year although a group of students was always slamming her into lockers, pushing her, spitting on her. However, Hazel was not one of those students. Her parents took her out of the school after seeing her in the newspaper photo. She never attended school with Elizabeth. In fact, Elizabeth didn’t like to look at the photo, and didn’t know about Hazel.

The photograph took on a life of its own. A white farmer paid to have it republished in a newspaper with the heading, “Study This Picture and Know Shame.” Some of the kids at Central High felt the same. They were all being judged for the bad behavior of a small group of vicious students. News men were interviewing them, trying to trip them up, the ASB president thought.

Hazel married and had children very young. Also young, she began to question her upbringing and her life. She did things that would have been considered very odd at the time. In pregnancy, she took Lamaze classes. She practiced yoga and learned to belly dance. But most important, she realized how bad her behavior was on September 4, 1957.

“When she was around twenty years old, Hazel found herself lying awake, thinking about Elizabeth, and about her won legacy. She wanted to be for her sons the role model on racial tolerance she’d never has herself. To put it more brutally, she didn’t want either of them to become the bigot she had been.”

She tracked down Elizabeth so that she could apologize. Afterward, she did a lot of volunteer work with underprivileged youth. She was “disfellowshipped” from her church for her rebellious attitudes. She didn’t fit in.

Elizabeth has had a difficult life although she has met presidents and received many awards, including the Congressional Gold Medal. She appears to have suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome before it was recognized. Her mother was mentally ill as was her son, and she appears to have suffered from depression herself throughout her life.

That these two women could become friends seems too good to be true. And maybe it was because they couldn’t maintain their friendship for more than a few years. But how their lives converge is an interesting story. Elizabeth and Hazel is a very readable book, and a wonderful look at important moments in U.S. history.

And, after all these years, I can finally look at that haunting photograph and have some answers.

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More than just memoir: Deeper thinking about the Holocaust “The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness” and “Man’s Search for Meaning”

Filed under: Biography/Memoir, Controversial Issue/Debate, Faith-Based/Religious Element, Fiction, Human Rights Issues, Non-fiction, Short Stories by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
January 19, 2012

 

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The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon

You are a prisoner in a concentration camp. A dying Nazi soldier asks for your forgiveness. What would you do? Withe responses by Robert Coles, The Dalai Lama, Matthew Fox, Mary Gordon, Harold S. Kushner, Dennis Prager, Dith Pran, Desmond Tutu, Harry Wu, and forty-four others.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

Viktor Frankl survived more than one concentration/death camp, including Auschwitz, during World War II. His father, mother, brother, and wife all died in the camps. He lost everything he’d owned. Frankl was also a psychiatrist. In his classic Man’s Search for Meaning, he reflects on why some people survive in the most horrific circumstances possible. He asks –and answers—how can man find life worth living?

Those of us who’ve worked with teens for awhile know that you ask yourselves this difficult question. Just because you’re young doesn’t mean that you haven’t had a crisis, a ‘dark night of the soul.’ If you do worry about life having any meaning, reading this book is a great start toward answering your questions.

The book has two parts. The first part reviews some of Frankl’s experiences in the death camps. He looks at what causes friends to give up hope and what brings moments of happiness. In every case, the individual has to make sense out of his suffering. Frankl believes that all suffering (even that which ends in death) has meaning. Man can rise above his fate by choosing to be worthy of his suffering.

The second part covers logotherapy, Frankl’s school of psychotherapy. In this second part, the reader sees how Frankl uses his experiences to help ordinary people who feel that life isn’t worth living.

Many students ask for books by or about Holocaust survivors. This is different from others because it delves into life’s purpose as much as it does into the story of Frankl’s captivity. I found myself wanting to copy down quotations to remember.

“The majority of prisoners suffered from a kind of inferiority complex. We all had once been or had fancied ourselves to be ‘somebody.’ Now we were treated like complete nonentities. (The consciousness of one’s inner value is anchored in higher, more spiritual things, and cannot be shaken by camp life. But how many free men, let alone prisoners, possess it?)”

“I remember two cases of would-be suicide, which bore a striking similarity to each other. Both men had talked of their intentions to commit suicide. Both used the typical argument—they had nothing more to expect from life. In both cases it was a question of getting them to realize that life was still expecting something from them; something in the future was expected of them.”

“From all this we learn that there are two races of men in this world, but only two—the ‘race’ of the decent man and the ‘race’ of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people. In this sense, no group is of ‘pure’ race.”

“What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment. To put the question in general terms would be comparable to the question posed to a chess champion: ‘Tell me, Master, what is the best move in the world?’ There simply is no such thing as the best or even a good move apart from a particular situation in a game and the particular personality of one’s opponent. The same holds true for human existence. One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated.”

There’s much hope for all of us in this little book. If you’re in the middle of a tough time and looking for purpose, check it out.

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“Start Something that Matters”

Filed under: Environmental Issues, Human Rights Issues, Non-fiction by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
November 18, 2011

Start Something that Matters by Blake Mycoskie  

A perfect book for Thanksgiving.

“Many of life’s failures are people who didn’t realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

–Thomas Edison

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”

–Winston Churchill

Quotes like these dot the text of Start Something that Matters. Its author, Blake Mycoskie, is the founder (or as he calls himself, ‘chief shoe giver’) of TOMS. For every pair of shoes that TOMS sells, it gives one away to a needy person. It’s this ‘One for One’ business model that Mycoskie discusses in his book. But Start Something that Matters is about much more.

Mycoskie asks: What matters most to you? Should you focus on earning a living, pursuing your passions, or devoting yourself to the causes that inspire you? And then tells his reader that s/he doesn’t have to choose, but can do all of these things. He, of course, is a living example. And the reason I so like this book is that Mycoskie shows how important it is becoming to be a creative thinker, to be a storyteller. Because without a memorable story, no one cares about your company or your charity, or the project you are trying to get your schoolmates interested in. Stories resonate with people in a way that facts wouldn’t.

To start something that matters, you will need to move beyond story and face your fears, do the thing you didn’t think you could. You can’t wait until the time is right because it never is. You have to be frugal and imaginative. You have to allow a broad forum of ideas, give free speech to those working with you. You must have an environment of trust. With trust, even mistakes can lead to good outcomes.

Best of all, you should start early. Like now. In high school. Work on your dreams. Start that club, that service project, whatever. Check out Start Something that Matters for hints on getting it all going. Create the model by which you intend to live your life.

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