Is teaching noble...revisited!

I had the fortunate opportunity to be a guest columnist for the Dallas Morning News' "Community Voices" from November 2009 through October of 2010 and my first article, presented below, offers up a reminder of what is happening, here in Texas, because we've removed the emphasis of being well-educated and well-trained out of the hands of those that care and put it in the hands of those that don't!  Texas is laying off teachers, the trainers of the next generation, as if educating our children is the least of our concerns and worries.  Does this undertaking send chills down the spine of anyone else?

     My great-grandfather, Eugene Dix was born into slavery in 1855.  Some years later he attended Tuskegee Institute and studied under Booker T. Washington.  Impressed by the man, my great-grandfather endeavored to have that same positive impact on subsequent generations as an educator, himself.   He met his bride, my great-grandmother Catherine, while working for the Census Bureau in Alabama.  They began their family and Eugene chose teaching as his profession.  Several years and five children later, Catherine told Eugene that he would have to choose another profession as being a teacher was not allowing him to earn enough money to support the family.  A relative in Texas suggested that sharecropping was a viable option so Eugene and Catherine moved the family to Bryan, Texas.  Eugene anticipated returning to his career as a teacher once he was able to earn enough supplemental income as a sharecropper.  His dream of being a teacher was put on hold.  He became a successful farmer and landowner accumulating over 130 acres of land that he cultivated and leased out to other sharecroppers. 

     Definitions listed for the word noble included virtuous; morally good, superior in character and exalted.  Do you remember when that was how teachers were regularly described?  There was nobility assigned to being entrusted with guiding the next generation of adults in obtaining the knowledge needed to become productive, law-abiding citizens able to contribute to this great nation.  Remember, that was why so many opted to become teachers.  Sorrowfully, it is a calling that many have answered only to be unpleasantly surprised to learn that their noble contribution is not so highly valued.  As such, how many great teachers do you think decided to abandon the profession because we don’t compensate them like we appreciate their efforts?

     Why don’t we reward these noble guardians of the minds of our youth?  Why don’t we place them on that pedestal and pay them for doing this great service for the continued prosperity of our country?  Why don’t we pay them a salary commiserate to the daunting task that we expect them to accomplish?  We continually read and hear about the latest statistics that place us well below other industrialized nations in preparing our youth to compete in the world market.  There is a disconnect in the cause and effect of our dismissal of the importance of education and how it manifests itself in the chasm between the skilled and unskilled labor forces in the United States.

     In his book, Anti-intellectualism in American Life, Richard Hofstadter said, “The teacher is, or can be, the first more or less full-time, professional representative of the life of the mind who enters into the experience of most children. The feelings the child entertains toward the teacher are focal points in the formation of his early, rudimentary notions about learning.  The teacher is not merely an instructor but a potential personal model and a living clue to the attitudes that prevail in the adult world.”  In his book, Hofstadter also noted that detractors to the argument of the importance of teachers suggested that characteristically, as Myron Lieberman remarks, teachers are recruited “from the top of the lower half of the population.”  He said, “The upper and upper-middle class persons almost universally reject teaching as a profession.”  This seems the prevailing attitude, still, for almost the past 60 years.  American teachers earned a per capita income far below that of teachers in European democracies.   Teachers’ salaries, also, compare less favorably among professions in the United States.  Truthfully, shouldn’t we want to generously compensate our educators considering the kind of influence they can have on our children? 

     Obviously, the disparity in behavior and performance expectations versus monetary compensation for teachers has been a bone of contention for generations.  There is little doubt that teaching is a noble profession.  However, for far too long the rate of compensation being paid to teachers has been ignoble!  Thankfully, monetary compensation is not the driving force behind the choice to be a teacher. 

     Although my great-grandfather never got to fulfill his dream and return to being a teacher, he did leave a lasting legacy of educators who do fulfill that dream.  He had a son that was a teacher, a granddaughter who married a teacher, a great-granddaughter who is a teacher and a great-great-granddaughter who is a teacher.  Teaching is still noble and it will be so, forever more!

Mid-life Crisis...only if you let it be!

I took advantage of an opportunity to have a sincere discussion about mid-life crisis with two dear friends of mine and while we had different ways of expressing various baseline common denominators for each of our opinions on the subject, I think that what we all were trying to say can be woven into the same blanket of thought regarding aging. 

A point of view reflecting on the passage of time, and evidently, activity, presented as an explanation for behavior labeled as mid-life critical suggested that a crisis has occurred if the individual, having reached a later time in his adult life, believes that the important years of his youth have been wasted spent living for others and that that mindset must now be exorcised by some exercise of practicality; i.e., undoing or correcting behaviors that manifest those years perceived as being misspent.  With time seemingly running out, a, sort-of, panic ensues and an ‘Undertaking’ is initiated; a total makeover that will remedy the crisis and set the course for a new path for a new person.  The behavior always seems strange to everyone not inside the mind of the individual experiencing the mid-life critical moment and that’s why it, at least, seems like, to everybody who knows him, he’s having a crisis!

Another point of view that, again, reflects on the passage of time but from a more pragmatic point of view, suggests that, if, at a certain stage in your career as a money-making, bring-home-the-bacon, provider of creature comforts and sustenance for yourself and/or family, you become disenchanted with your path; your level of success or lack of same and resort to extreme chance or choice to change your fortune, it is probably safe to assume that you have been living, working and playing in an arena that you do not like and you’ve been doing something that you don’t have a comfortable command over.  Not to mention, you feel you’re earning way too little in the area of monetary compensation for your effort!  Now, the question you have to contemplate is do you have enough time to steer onto another path and realize satisfaction on all levels such that you feel fulfilled!  That internal struggle that you will wage within yourself may be viewed, by those on the outside looking in, as a crisis of a sort! 

Then, the point of view that was least discussed but, I think, most contemplated when assessed from a realistic, matter-of-fact, point of view was the ‘What if…’ point of view.  What if, just what if…your path is your path and you’ve just not finished walking it?  What if…all that you have lived and experienced; all that you have done and not done is not to be reviewed and assigned as successes or failures but more simply, just your life, lived.  What if…you are who and where you are with the experiences that you’ve lived and didn’t live and have yet to live; the money that you’ve earned and didn’t earn and have yet to earn; the places that you’ve been and not been; will and won’t visit.  What if…you are the things that you’ve done and not done but will do!  It’s true, that’s who you are!  If viewed in the proper perspective, reaching a particular time in your life, any stage in your career, any point in your development, should be easy to accept and celebrate, as what you’ve yet to do, is something you still get to do…if that is what you want to do!  And, all that you missed and won’t ever be able to do because the subject of the doing is dead or gone isn’t a loss.  It just wasn’t your path to take or experience to have!  As it stands, you are the sum total of the days, one after the other, that YOU experienced as they happened, up to this exact moment!  At most any age after the age of realization, the only crisis one experiences is thinking that between your birth and death, a certainty is assigned to your life and, for some reason, it’s not happening with any certainty!  So then…let the people say!       



Salad...The Savior from Leftovers

I can’t recall, growing up, an instance when there were any leftovers from the evening’s meal as I shared a dinner table with 11 other people up until I was 10 years old, and of course after that, anything left over, my little brother and I disposed of before it could ever earn that title.  Raising my sons; cooking for them, I don’t recall there ever being much food left over, either.  They were healthy eaters and if you know them, you know that!  Later, when I found myself living alone and then, with my wife, I started to see a lot of leftover food in my/our refrigerator and it bothered me.  Having been raised with enough but never any great surplus, I had a difficult time seeing food not consumed in a timely manner; like right now. It got to the point where my woman/wife (we lived together before we were married) and I were throwing away more food than we were eating, due to the ’Leftover’ syndrome that had invaded our world.  I wanted to determine what caused the consistent pattern of having leftovers that went to waste and then it hit me…I was cooking for two but preparing enough for more because it was ingrained in me from that time when I was young and, again, when I cooked for my kids.  I’d never adapted any of my habits or recipes to accommodate a changing time and new stage of my life when I didn’t have to cook so much.  Early on, I thought that I’d be able to manage and just learn to eat lots of leftovers; save time from cooking, daily and proactively have a delicious, nutritious meal waiting for me and my wife.  Alas, she’s not keen on leftovers, too often, and only certain things like spaghetti, pot roast or, maybe, pizza, at that!  I make spaghetti about once a month, pot roast maybe about once every two months and she’s the one that makes the pizza.  We don’t have that stuff often enough to get tired of it after one day so the second day isn’t that bad.  The basic evening meals are the ones that I have to be careful where portions are concerned as food prepared the basic way is hard to have to eat, twice in a row!  Stuff like fish and chips, macaroni and cheese and meatloaf, green beans, potatoes and pork chops, beans and weenies, rice, mixed veggies and chicken; those quick, easy, evening-meal-specials that are efficient and sufficient but dull if indulged in, twice in a row.  We tried to vary the combinations but once you get a knack for certain foods going with others, it’s hard to switch stuff around and even then, there are still only so many combos that can be done before you’re completely fagged out by any configuration of them.

…AND THEN…along came the rebirth of salad and the million things that you can do with it!   

I used to think that salad was just a side-dish but not anymore.  There are enough vegetables that you can even eat raw, as to make a different meal everyday!  Do you know how many different kinds of lettuce there are?  I can’t even name them all!  Iceberg and Romaine lettuce and Spinach are my favorites but there are twice as many more that I so seldom use, that I can’t name them, off the top of my head.  Add to the leafy greens, all of the red, green, orange, yellow, purple, white and brown, raw vegetables in the joint and you got meals by the thousands. Consider the produce area in your neighborhood grocery store as your own personal laboratory and you will discover that a new meal, every day, is easy to accomplish if you let raw or cooked vegetables be the focal point of your meal.  I used to think that meat had to be the central point of your dinner but now I know; it’s the Produce that produces!  So then…let the people say!  What are your favorite meals and how do you incorporate produce into the mix?  Tonight we’re having Wok-fried Chicken Salad and the only thing that’s cooked is the chicken!

Is this absurdity or what…?

I read in the newspaper, the other day, that a large segment of the companies hiring new employees is using whether or not the potential hires smoke (a nasty habit to this former smoker) as a part of the interview process and deeming ‘smokers’ as unqualified for the positions being filled.  So then, even knowing that the reasons for not hiring ‘smokers’ to positions that are being filled are plausibly sound ones (less health-risk employees, less time missed, not as much production lost from sneaky smoke breaks) for not hiring an individual that smokes, doesn’t that put that segment of companies, which have adopted said hiring guidelines, in direct opposition to another segment of American industry that supports Tobacco-growing and cigarette-manufacturing and other agricultural industries; the farmers, agriculture machinery production, marketing agencies and the federal and state agencies that govern and oversee that aspect of our country’s domestic production?  Wait, isn’t this one of the industries that is keeping the Insurance business in business?  You know, that business and industry that has raised the premium prices for healthcare coverage for people who have been slaves to the cigarette-craving that the tobacco manufacturers have chemically created with their production, since they began manufacturing them; and, who are having a difficult time finding a job, anyway.  Why don’t we just outlaw tobacco production and sales, subsidize the former tobacco growers while they transition to another, more useful and healthy, product and not use a legal but unhealthy habit as a weapon against folks trying to find a job?   So then, what do the people have to say?  

Outstanding Necessary Steps

Mark Lombard is my next door neighbor and he does some really cool stuff throughout the neighborhood, city, county and North Texas area, as his civic duty!  He undertook a project of a rather significant scope as he endeavored to enrich folks’ lives.  Upon presenting me with a rough draft of an essay he asked me to write, I would like to offer up the story I told on his behalf, for your perusal and comment on the subject(s).  

Outstanding Necessary Steps

As is the case with all efforts, acts and accomplishments, the impetus for each is that first necessary step!  An infant will eventually learn to walk and that first, necessary step will be documented and celebrated; recalled with excitement and the joyous sense of accomplishment that is associated with successful development.  The ‘For Love and Art’ project is an effort born from an idea that Mark Lombard had while dedicating some of his time, talent and love working as a hospice volunteer, here in the North Texas area.

According to the latest US Census report, there are between 8 million and 9.5 million people who are currently unable to travel outside of their assisted healthcare and/or assisted living facilities due to medical constraints and/or physical disabilities.  The vast majority of these individuals live in institutions, hospitals or hospices which, while functional and efficient, offer minimal physical beauty or appeal other than that of the other patients, the staff and the frequent or ill-frequent visitor.  Oftentimes, that is not enough uplifting visual stimulation to offset the mental or emotional depression associated with realizing one’s limited modality or mortality.

Mark met Miss Billie in a local Assisted Care/Retirement facility near Dallas, Texas and immediately nurtured a dynamic friendship with her as they shared a love for classical works of art, a love of artistic expression and the joy of visiting art museums. During visits with Miss Billie, they would spend hours discussing compelling works of art, as well as, their favorite painters. You see, Miss Billie loved art!  She said, “I like to draw things; pretty things, pretty clothes.  I love trees and flowers and things that a lot of people don’t think about or pay much attention to.  Art has always been a hobby of mine.”  However, 92 year-old Miss Billie had succumbed to her years and was unable to move about.  Now, with limited mobility, the world of art had been almost lost to her and, as such, so had the beauty and joy that art provided.  Miss Billie figured that she had not been to a museum in about 20 years.  Likewise, Mark loved art!  He had longed to be a docent at an art museum and provide insight and expert commentary to visiting museum patrons.  Alas, unfortunately, Mark’s professional path did not include a career as an employee of any museum.

Given that Miss Billie had, over the years, lost strength in her legs, Mark hoped to use her love of art as motivation for her to exercise and regain some of her strength and mobility so that one day they would be able to visit some of the local art museums, allowing her to once again surround herself with the physical manifestations of that which she so dearly enjoyed; the magical mystical works of art in which she so willingly loved to immerse herself.  “Come on, Miss Billie.  Try it, just one more time.  I know you can do it!  Don’t fret, I’m right here and I won’t let you fall.  We need to get those legs strong and working again so that we can visit the art museum together like we’ve been day-dreaming about.”  Mark lovingly prodded Miss Billie to take one more step.  They were working every day so that they could, possibly, visit the art museums they often talked about.  Eventually, it became the accepted reality that Miss Billie wasn’t going to regain enough strength in her legs to make the sojourn to the art museums, thus the need for and birth of Mark’s project, ‘For Love and Art’.

Mark had an idea that since Miss Billie couldn’t be taken to the museum, he would bring the museum to her!  His initial effort, his first step, was to collect souvenir post cards depicting classic works of art from the various museums that he visited and take them with him when he visited Miss Billie.  The joy on her face as they lovingly viewed the post cards compelled Mark to somehow, some way, take another step.  Mark recalled, “The look on Miss Billie’s face as we perused the post cards seemed to transport her back to a time when she was not confined by her current condition; a time when she was young and care-free and filled with joy!”  Her joy became his joy and their love and appreciation for one another deepened.

The souvenir post cards soon became an accepted expense as they became one of the focal points of Mark’s visits and his relationship with Miss Billie.  Her expectation of seeing new, different art depictions on the post cards created the need for another step; the step of fine-tuning his idea of bringing museum art to the residents of the various care facilities who had limited mobility.  Mark visited the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in neighboring Fort Worth.  There, he engaged Katherine Moloney, the Teaching Resources Coordinator and asked for her advice regarding how best to bring the museum’s works of art to patrons who were not mobile enough to visit.  During Mark’s conversation with Ms. Moloney, the concept of putting the museum’s digital images of the world’s masterpieces on a digital photo album and taking them out to those with limited or no mobility was conceived. “They’re easy to use, portable, have a large screen and a huge memory capacity for uploading a large number of images.  They look just like a photo album and we have existing programs for patrons with Alzheimer’s disease and syndrome, as well as, other cognitive disabilities.  However, we’ve never used them in any capacity, outside the museum.” She said.  Further, Ms. Moloney stated, “People shouldn’t be denied the opportunity to enjoy works of art simply because of their physical state in life.”

Mark realized that he might be on to something profound so, with his next step, he proceeded to contact museums in and around the DFW area and the country!  Mark collected the digital images of the various museums’ masterpieces and loaded them onto a digital photo album that he, himself, purchased and the ‘For Love and Art’ project was created.  In the next 60 days, Mark secured permission from nine of the top museums in the country to use their digital artwork images for his project.  Thus far, the list of museums that so generously provided the digital images of their masterpieces for use in Mark’s project includes:

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art

The Art Institute of Chicago

The Dallas Museum of Art

The J. Paul Getty Museum

The Kimbell Art Museum

The Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The National Gallery of Art

The Phillips Collection

Each of the previously listed museums understood the value of this endeavor and graciously agreed to share their images for the ‘For Love and Art’ project and Mark is grateful!

The next step in Mark’s development of the ‘For Love and Art’ project was marrying it to the Touching Our World Foundation, a non-profit organization that sponsors Community Service projects, led by Executive Director, Paula Reed.  Ms. Reed immediately recognized Mark’s passion and commitment to service and this commitment fit ideally with the vision of the Touching Our World Foundation.  Mark’s project was officially adopted and this provided the project with resources and its 503 (c) (3) status, allowing for tax-deductible donation eligibility.

Mark continued visiting Miss Billie at the Assisted Care/Retirement facility, sharing his love, time and postcard art with her.  He would occasionally whisper in her ear that he had a surprise for her, teasing her and elevating her level of excitement about his special effort on her behalf.  They both looked forward to his surprise as he worked toward the fruition of his project.

Mark’s next step was reaching out to Judith Pickering, the Hospice Volunteer Coordinator for the Community Hospice of Texas.  He shared his vision for the ‘For Love and Art’ project with her and asked for her assistance.  Ms. Pickering said, “I see the digital art book as a means to reach out to patients of myriad circumstances to whom we provide assistance.  It can serve as a life review; a therapeutic means to get our patients to talk about their life, share memories and come to closure with their eventual final chapter.  In addition, the visual stimulation gives them joy in the immediate moment.”  Inspired by the vision of the project, Ms. Pickering brought together a group of hospice volunteer coordinators to participate in the project.

The day arrived that Mark divulged his surprise to Miss Billie.  Together, they viewed the bright, clear, digital images of some of the world’s masterpiece artworks on the electronic photo album.  Miss Billie’s eyes lit up and a beautiful smile became the focal point of her facial expression as she viewed William Merritt Chase’s ‘Idle Hours’, the painting depicting women lounging on the shores of Long Island during a picnic.  In that moment, Miss Billie was no longer an elderly woman of 92 years but a young woman, again.  Yes, in that instant Miss Billie was back in Georgia, having a picnic on the shores of a lake with her siblings.  And, in that moment, any thoughts about the temerity of his efforts left Mark.  This was an undertaking worth all of his time, his efforts and his love!

During the last week of October, 2010, the ‘For Love and Art’ project was introduced to the public.  The event was sponsored and held at the Dallas Museum of Art and Miss Billie was present, up front and center stage for the entirety of the presentation.  She listened intently as Mark provided an overview of the project and how it came to be.  She listened as he dedicated the project to her allowing that she was his inspiration.  Miss Billie was touched by the love shown to her from everyone who attended the ceremony, including the Keynote speakers, Zig Ziglar and his daughter, Julie.  Later, that same day, 12 local hospices were given their own digital art books to share with their patients. 

The passion for helping others and a love of art intersected when Mark Lombard and Miss Billie met and we all will be better for it.  If only for a few minutes in the life of a hospice patient; if only for a moment in the fleeting life of any of us, our hearts can be filled with joy at recounting a time when we were young and if perusing the digital images uploaded onto just one of these electronic devices positively impacts the emotional disposition of just one person, we should tip our cap to Mark Lombard for this beautiful undertaking!

It is estimated that just one of these digital art books will be viewed by 1200 individuals during its lifetime.  Thus far, 12 of them have been created and distributed so 14,440 lives will be positively impacted and given the estimation that the population of persons with limited or no mobility will double in the next two decades, there will be a need for many more.  Currently, because of the positive emotional impact of the day when the ‘For Love and Art’ project made its public debut, a large group of powerful people in Dallas have committed to taking Mark’s project to the next level.  As our population of baby boomers, the largest segment of our population that are patrons of the arts, begin to reach retirement age of 65, the demand for these digital art books will increase, dramatically. ‘For Love and Art’ endeavors that any- and everyone with limited mobility be allowed the chance to share the experience of viewing all of the world’s art masterpieces, should they so choose.

Miss Billie got her chance to visit the art museum when ‘For Love and Art’ made its public debut and we salute Mark for making that desire her reality, as well.  This project was necessary and from the first necessary step to this place, this project walks, no, runs because of him.  I coin a phrase when I suggest to Mark that he has taken some necessary steps that have been ‘Outstanding’!

Time for some changes!

We gnash our teeth, wring our hands and worry ourselves bald when we have to make those difficult decisions that require our replacing household and personal items that have grown near and dear to us…but sometimes, we just have to address some stuff!!!

When the votive ‘candle’ is nothing but a scorched container holding a black wick attached to a small tin disc, unless your profession is candle-maker…its gone; let it go!

When your toothbrush can be used as a feather duster it’s time to get another toothbrush!

When your washcloth can be mistaken for your shoeshine rag, it’s your shoeshine rag!

When your favorite shirt is sized L and the last time your wife bought you a shirt it was size XXL, that Large can’t be your favorite, no mo’…ever!

If the expiration date on the Vick’s vapor rub is 19 anything, you got to let it go!

If your aerosol spray deodorant is nothing more than an armpit hair dryer, damn it, go buy some more deodorant; that can is empty!

If a guest in your home mistakes your hair brush for a lint brush, it’s time…to change your shampoo, your hair brush and, possibly, your hygiene habits!

If you have accumulated several containers of dental floss from your dentist, you are NOT following instructions; use the floss, for goodness sake!

When your dog walks over to the pillow you lay on to watch TV, sniffs it and then whines, wash it; it stinks.  If he growls, toss it; he thinks there’s another dog in the house!

And finally, that pair of 10-year-old dress shoes that you love so much and swear you will wear regardless of the fact that they were out of style when you bought them from the DAV Discount Store six years ago:  If the only response you get from the man at the Black-owned shoe repair, the Chinese-owned shoe repair AND the Mexican-owned shoe repair is raised eyebrows, it’s about to cost you, friend!  Let ‘em go!