No, not like the ones all you super hot triathletes have nightmares about, sandy feet into cycling shoes and all that, but trying to go from cycling all summer to being ready to qualify for Boston in my first marathon.
Let me first describe my feelings about the marathon as a race: This is likely one of the most absurd things that people do, and this is coming from someone that loves the steeplechase and cross country and races with big hills, bike rides like the highlander (death before dismount) and uphill time trials. But as I’ve been training for the marathon with a couple buddies, the utter stupidity of this race and training for it has been the subject of much musing.
When you are an hour and fifty minutes deep into a run and just getting ready to start some intervals, that really strikes me as stupid. As I headed out the door to start a three hour run (the idea being just to simulate being on my feet that long, practice feeding myself, etc.) I thought to myself that this was a particularly idiotic thing to be doing on a Saturday morning.
Don’t get me wrong, I am vaguely excited about the idea and particularly to run with my brother at Boston assuming he qualifies. He is the whole reason I am even considering running this thing, but I like him so I can’t be too negative about the whole endeavor.
I actually wanted to write this because I have either convinced myself that compression socks and tights and half-tights are the greatest thing around, or perhaps they actually are the greatest things around. I have been toying with the idea of them for a while, wearing the socks sometimes, wearing the full tights other times, but as I’ve started doing these absurd runs, 16, 18, 20+ miles, I have been more and more intrigued by them.
I’ve worn the R+R socks and the half-tights pretty frequently, half tights because I have huge fat legs that chafe like mad if I am not careful, and the socks because I have huge fat calves that appreciate being squeezed into something perhaps slightly more pleasing to the eye. And after the runs I have pulled on the compression leg sleeves or the tights depending on whether I am in a place where I can hide while changing.
And I swear they make a difference. I have put up with ridicule (mostly in my head ridiculing myself for looking totally ridiculous in long socks and half tights) and desperate shame from heading out the door looking like that, but I am beginning to be, as I said before, completely convinced of the benefits of this stuff.
So for all you folks that love marathon-ing… I pity you almost as much as I pity myself these days. But while you are at it, I would suggest the compression stuff. Sure you might look ridiculous, and all the benefits could be in your head, but isn’t the marathon all about using your brain to convince your body that what you are doing isn’t totally idiotic?
Monday, September 27, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Wanna-Be
Did you ever get into your blog dashboard (if you are primitive like me) and get distracted from the task of writing something only to read someone else's blog leading only to further distraction and in the end a helpless feeling of inferiority that makes you seriously consider never writing anything again?
I feel like that all the time.
But press on I will. Just like Andy Schleck who must have known that he couldn't quite beat Alberto pistol-grip Contador in the time trial today but absolutely destroyed himself trying. Just like Floyd Landis who decided after years and years of lying and covering up what actually happened that he would just come out and tell all of it. ALL of it basically making sure that he will never be on a cycling team or have a friend in the pro-cycling world ever again. But apparently it does make him feel better, which is a good thing in my book.
I watched a movie yesterday and today that was quite intellectual, a big surprise actually from what I thought it was going to be about. If you know some of my movie preferences, you might be able to easily guess which one this was, but how about a modern movie with pretty big stars in it basically examining the idea of using scripture as either a weapon or a panacea. It had some fun twists to it as well, one that I didn't see coming that was really fabulous. Although I do have to wonder if that particular version of that particular book wouldn't have been significantly larger than the one in the movie...
Two last semi-random notes...
1. One of Liz's co-workers asked me yesterday if I agreed with Jonathan Kozol. Then he asked what I thought about affirmative action programs in public universities. Pretty interesting stuff. I kept thinking back to what Joel Salatin brought up, the idea that by making civil rights and other things laws you may have actually hindered their progress. I'd never considered that as an option before, but it does make for a more interesting debate, that's for sure.
2. The folks at the Sudbury Valley School argue that children will learn to read on their own when the time is right. They point out the fact that they've never taught a child to read since their opening in 1967 and everyone who has attended the school has learned to read. They also claim an incredibly low (almost zero) incidence of reading disorders, their theory being that most of them are caused when adults tell a child that they are behind and then forcing them to learn to read before they are ready. I tend to buy into this theory but I have so little practical experience in any part of that process that it is a somewhat tenuous position for me.
I don't remember learning to read. I haven't had a child learn to read and so far our three year old mutt hasn't picked it up. I haven't taught children to read. I haven't even really been around a child learning to read for any significant part of the process. But it sure seems right. I wonder what the reading specialists at school would say about it. Maybe someday I will ask them.
I feel like that all the time.
But press on I will. Just like Andy Schleck who must have known that he couldn't quite beat Alberto pistol-grip Contador in the time trial today but absolutely destroyed himself trying. Just like Floyd Landis who decided after years and years of lying and covering up what actually happened that he would just come out and tell all of it. ALL of it basically making sure that he will never be on a cycling team or have a friend in the pro-cycling world ever again. But apparently it does make him feel better, which is a good thing in my book.
I watched a movie yesterday and today that was quite intellectual, a big surprise actually from what I thought it was going to be about. If you know some of my movie preferences, you might be able to easily guess which one this was, but how about a modern movie with pretty big stars in it basically examining the idea of using scripture as either a weapon or a panacea. It had some fun twists to it as well, one that I didn't see coming that was really fabulous. Although I do have to wonder if that particular version of that particular book wouldn't have been significantly larger than the one in the movie...
Two last semi-random notes...
1. One of Liz's co-workers asked me yesterday if I agreed with Jonathan Kozol. Then he asked what I thought about affirmative action programs in public universities. Pretty interesting stuff. I kept thinking back to what Joel Salatin brought up, the idea that by making civil rights and other things laws you may have actually hindered their progress. I'd never considered that as an option before, but it does make for a more interesting debate, that's for sure.
2. The folks at the Sudbury Valley School argue that children will learn to read on their own when the time is right. They point out the fact that they've never taught a child to read since their opening in 1967 and everyone who has attended the school has learned to read. They also claim an incredibly low (almost zero) incidence of reading disorders, their theory being that most of them are caused when adults tell a child that they are behind and then forcing them to learn to read before they are ready. I tend to buy into this theory but I have so little practical experience in any part of that process that it is a somewhat tenuous position for me.
 |
| Really, this is a school? I think I'd take that one over the 100+ million dollar building we are moving into in a month or so. Then again, we have a pool... |
I don't remember learning to read. I haven't had a child learn to read and so far our three year old mutt hasn't picked it up. I haven't taught children to read. I haven't even really been around a child learning to read for any significant part of the process. But it sure seems right. I wonder what the reading specialists at school would say about it. Maybe someday I will ask them.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Why Copenhagen makes sense
Thanks to El Presidente, I took a gander at this video detailing some of the reactions of American bicycle infrastructure folks to their visit to Copenhagen. To be perfectly honest, the video made me want to cry a little bit.
Can you imagine a place where mothers would feel comfortable riding a bicycle with their kids attached in all kinds of different ways, perhaps this one:
I honestly can't do it. We are about to add a player to be named later to our organization and I literally cannot imagine a place where I wouldn't worry about it, maybe Narberth... But especially riding right next to major streets in the city? No way. But of course when you have low speed limits that are enforced, huge penalties for people stupid enough to hit someone on a bike, and a culture that actually celebrates cycling as a valid, viable, even wonderful part of life, everything changes. You almost lose the need for various infrastructure changes because drivers are trained to ride around bicycles. So too cyclists are taught in school and expected to demonstrate certain levels of competency. Amazing.
I also wanted to mention that I've become a rather huge fan of Chris Horner after this year's tour. He just rode himself into the top ten with a HUGE ride on the Tourmalet, bypassing his more absurd teammate Levi Leipheimer who was too busy sucking wheels and then blowing up to ride up the way Chris did, but of course Horner downplays his great achievement. He writes a great blog about each day's stage here. Did I mention that he is 38? I still can't elevate him about Jens, but here's to Mr. Horner! Chapeau!
This is Mr. Horner after winning the Basque Tour this year and got to wear the awesomely silly hat and spray the crowd with champagne. Must be fun.
Here's to hoping that Andy Schleck knows something nobody else does about his TT in a couple days.
Can you imagine a place where mothers would feel comfortable riding a bicycle with their kids attached in all kinds of different ways, perhaps this one:
I also wanted to mention that I've become a rather huge fan of Chris Horner after this year's tour. He just rode himself into the top ten with a HUGE ride on the Tourmalet, bypassing his more absurd teammate Levi Leipheimer who was too busy sucking wheels and then blowing up to ride up the way Chris did, but of course Horner downplays his great achievement. He writes a great blog about each day's stage here. Did I mention that he is 38? I still can't elevate him about Jens, but here's to Mr. Horner! Chapeau!
Here's to hoping that Andy Schleck knows something nobody else does about his TT in a couple days.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Suspension of Disbelief
I've had a bit more time on my hands recently, thanks to the fact that I don't have to go to work every day. So sometimes, when I need a break from pretending I know how to do anything about fixing up or cleaning up our house... I've watched a few things on hulu when the tour hasn't been on and I came across the pilot episode of "Covert Affairs" recently after hearing a review of it on NPR. I can't say that I shared the same rather effusive feeling about the show but I was entertained. I think it is pretty interesting to find that Adidas has paid for all the athletic product placement.
What I struggle with is the typical willingness of shows to just ignore the laws of physics and engineering in the simplest of ways, ways that are maddening to me. Just like watching Goose die in Top Gun in a way that is as unlikely as me winning the lottery and the fact that they couldn't take the time to learn that Migs are always odd-numbered, the car chase in the pilot was unbelievably ridiculous. Literally.
The young female agent in her first week on the job finds herself being chased by a black BMW after leaving work. She manages to evade the Beamer with some fancy moves, decides to counter chase for a bit, then ends up stuck when her car kind of craps out.
Now, here's the good part. She drives what looks very much like a 2003-04 Volkswagen Golf, a few years before but very similar to this baby:
This hot little ride will do 0-60 in about 8.5-9.5 seconds depending on the model, but hers was certainly not the R32 so we are looking at no faster than 8.5. Quarter mile in about 16.7 seconds in case you were wondering. Of course, it is a well-engineered German automobile and so it handles pretty well and it's a stick, which was a nice touch.
The opponent in all this fun on the roads? Another German car, a BMW no less. Looked like a very late model 5-series, but missing the tell-tales of an M. So it doesn't look faster or anything:
Of course it also doesn't drive faster. Because that would make the chase academic wouldn't it. The fact that the BMW does 0-60 in just about 5.3 seconds. Even if the driver is a bit slow, let's give them 6.0 seconds. That will still cover the quarter mile in just about 14 seconds. So if the chase lasts more than a mile or two, she would have needed a rather large lead in order to get away from this puppy. Given the greater mass of the BMW and its far superior handling, etc., the chase should have been over just about the time it began.
As I said, I was entertained, but I do get tired of the idiotic nature of so many car-chase/stunt/war scenes and find it irresistible on those rare occasions when the director or whoever controls this sort of thing gets it right.
What I struggle with is the typical willingness of shows to just ignore the laws of physics and engineering in the simplest of ways, ways that are maddening to me. Just like watching Goose die in Top Gun in a way that is as unlikely as me winning the lottery and the fact that they couldn't take the time to learn that Migs are always odd-numbered, the car chase in the pilot was unbelievably ridiculous. Literally.
The young female agent in her first week on the job finds herself being chased by a black BMW after leaving work. She manages to evade the Beamer with some fancy moves, decides to counter chase for a bit, then ends up stuck when her car kind of craps out.
Now, here's the good part. She drives what looks very much like a 2003-04 Volkswagen Golf, a few years before but very similar to this baby:
The opponent in all this fun on the roads? Another German car, a BMW no less. Looked like a very late model 5-series, but missing the tell-tales of an M. So it doesn't look faster or anything:
As I said, I was entertained, but I do get tired of the idiotic nature of so many car-chase/stunt/war scenes and find it irresistible on those rare occasions when the director or whoever controls this sort of thing gets it right.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The beginning
So today I ran for the first time in a while, perhaps jog would be a more appropriate word. Pretty simply I just want to be in good enough shape to run 3:10 in the marathon something this fall so I can run with my brother at Boston if he qualifies.
Right now I am very out of shape, I've been racing on the bike sure, but I don't know why I just can't keep the weight off cycling so I have some work to do.
I've also actually started thinking about what on earth I am going to try and do better in the classroom this year, I'd love to do everything better, but I've tried that before and it usually fails. I wanted to try and articulate very simply my goals for the year and I figured I might be able to start with these. The idea is for us as a class (since I think this is an effort made as a group) to
1. Value (and hopefully enjoy) reading more as an important and useful part of our lives
2. See writing as a useful part of our lives and find ways to practice it in a way meaningful to us.
They are probably still not quite simple enough because they will get exponentially more complicated when you add in all the things that are mandated by the school, grades, assessments of various kinds, the things that must be in common with all the other freshman teachers, the books we are assigned to teach, and the list goes on and on. But I am hoping this might not be a bad place to start.
As for the running, I was trying to think of when I've started in a worse place and I think I'd have to go all the way back to my early high school career to be in as terrible starting condition as I am now. I have more experience sure, but I am also getting older, recovering more slowly, etc., so I've got a long way to go!
Right now I am very out of shape, I've been racing on the bike sure, but I don't know why I just can't keep the weight off cycling so I have some work to do.
I've also actually started thinking about what on earth I am going to try and do better in the classroom this year, I'd love to do everything better, but I've tried that before and it usually fails. I wanted to try and articulate very simply my goals for the year and I figured I might be able to start with these. The idea is for us as a class (since I think this is an effort made as a group) to
1. Value (and hopefully enjoy) reading more as an important and useful part of our lives
2. See writing as a useful part of our lives and find ways to practice it in a way meaningful to us.
They are probably still not quite simple enough because they will get exponentially more complicated when you add in all the things that are mandated by the school, grades, assessments of various kinds, the things that must be in common with all the other freshman teachers, the books we are assigned to teach, and the list goes on and on. But I am hoping this might not be a bad place to start.
As for the running, I was trying to think of when I've started in a worse place and I think I'd have to go all the way back to my early high school career to be in as terrible starting condition as I am now. I have more experience sure, but I am also getting older, recovering more slowly, etc., so I've got a long way to go!
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
So I've been thinking...
Which is never really good for anyone, least of all me. But I am going to list a few thoughts for your perusal.
1. If you haven't read BikeSnob's blog today, I suggest you do. It is way, way, WAY better than mine. I am really impressed with his ability, his style, and his consistency. I can't even average a post a week yet.
2. Working in education can be incredibly frustrating. I am constantly finding new sources of frustration, not the least of which is the inability to talk about what happens in our school publicly as it would lead to me getting fired. There are many jobs like this, the CIA, the FBI, various other branches of law enforcement and secrecy things, but I wonder why it has to be this way at a public school. Shouldn't the things happening in public schools be public? Shouldn't the public, who are paying for the school, get to know what is happening? Of course I am not talking about sharing private information about kids or things like that, just policies and guiding philosophies and general trends, that sort of thing. But I will stop, lest I end up with my foot in my mouth and a pink slip in my mailbox.
3. I won some money this past week riding my bike, which was fun. Picked up 30 bucks for a 10 mile time trial and then 50 bucks for the Philly Amateur TT on West River Drive. Of course I took a picture to commemorate the occasion:
I must still be a few thousand dollars in the hole, since I also paid to enter those races, but I am going to go ahead and call myself a professional. Not in the sense that I do it for the money, but that money sometimes comes my way because I do it.
The race was fun, there was a guy in front of me in a very nice USA kit for the Maccabiah Games in Israel. He asked me not to catch him, or said something like "you better not catch me." I said that I would be trying my hardest but that he ought to not let himself get caught. I made sure to catch him before the turnaround. But his kit was REALLY nice so I was still a little bit jealous.
4. We are starting to work on getting more sponsors for our club for next year. It is really fun to see that people are sometimes willing to help out and that we are also meeting a need for these folks. Of course it is probably more exciting to think about possible discounts or free gear of any kind because, let's face it, cycling gear is cool and getting it inexpensively or free is even cooler.
You could see me on one of these next year right? I actually have a very sweet TT bike so I don't need a new one but if they are handing them out...
And I could throw my sweet new Easton super deep rims on there.
5. Speaking of the Eastons, it has been a lot of fun learning to glue tubulars. I am hoping I don't screw it up too badly, but I think I actually am getting a pretty good idea of how it should work, and they don't make it too hard. And you feel pretty cool with this very involved process instead of just throwing a new tube in your clinchers.
6. Get together at Main Line Cycles on Thursday night at 6pm. Pizza and hanging out with the Velo Aces, what could be better!?!
1. If you haven't read BikeSnob's blog today, I suggest you do. It is way, way, WAY better than mine. I am really impressed with his ability, his style, and his consistency. I can't even average a post a week yet.
2. Working in education can be incredibly frustrating. I am constantly finding new sources of frustration, not the least of which is the inability to talk about what happens in our school publicly as it would lead to me getting fired. There are many jobs like this, the CIA, the FBI, various other branches of law enforcement and secrecy things, but I wonder why it has to be this way at a public school. Shouldn't the things happening in public schools be public? Shouldn't the public, who are paying for the school, get to know what is happening? Of course I am not talking about sharing private information about kids or things like that, just policies and guiding philosophies and general trends, that sort of thing. But I will stop, lest I end up with my foot in my mouth and a pink slip in my mailbox.
3. I won some money this past week riding my bike, which was fun. Picked up 30 bucks for a 10 mile time trial and then 50 bucks for the Philly Amateur TT on West River Drive. Of course I took a picture to commemorate the occasion:
I must still be a few thousand dollars in the hole, since I also paid to enter those races, but I am going to go ahead and call myself a professional. Not in the sense that I do it for the money, but that money sometimes comes my way because I do it.
The race was fun, there was a guy in front of me in a very nice USA kit for the Maccabiah Games in Israel. He asked me not to catch him, or said something like "you better not catch me." I said that I would be trying my hardest but that he ought to not let himself get caught. I made sure to catch him before the turnaround. But his kit was REALLY nice so I was still a little bit jealous.
4. We are starting to work on getting more sponsors for our club for next year. It is really fun to see that people are sometimes willing to help out and that we are also meeting a need for these folks. Of course it is probably more exciting to think about possible discounts or free gear of any kind because, let's face it, cycling gear is cool and getting it inexpensively or free is even cooler.
And I could throw my sweet new Easton super deep rims on there.
5. Speaking of the Eastons, it has been a lot of fun learning to glue tubulars. I am hoping I don't screw it up too badly, but I think I actually am getting a pretty good idea of how it should work, and they don't make it too hard. And you feel pretty cool with this very involved process instead of just throwing a new tube in your clinchers.
6. Get together at Main Line Cycles on Thursday night at 6pm. Pizza and hanging out with the Velo Aces, what could be better!?!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Double, maybe triple standard?
Why is it that when Brian Cushing, the Houston Texans' star linebacker gets suspended for four games after getting caught using performance enhancing drugs (something that takes quite a bit of stupidity given the NFL's incredibly lax and easy to get around policy), no one mentions the possibility of taking away his Defensive Rookie of the Year award? Yet Floyd Landis can come out and send out a bunch of rather crazy emails after destroying much of his credibility and a Federal investigation is triggered and people everywhere start jumping to conclusions and accusing the sport of being full of cheaters.
Now, let's get one thing straight, I think cycling is full of people that are using PEDs, micro-dosing EPO and doing anything they can to keep their jobs and perform at the highest level. The incentives for good performance and the demands on their bodies continue to encourage these practices, often more so for the guys trying to make it than for those with the freakish talents at the top. I do think the sport is cleaner than it has been, I think Lance was as dirty as most of his rivals during his reign at the top, but the guy was in the middle of the best run and most well thought out doping program in sport at the time. He was also in the middle of an era in cycling when there was no test for EPO. So why wouldn't you do it if you knew that your rivals were doing it and you couldn't compete with them if you didn't?
But back to the point.
Cycling likely does more than any other sport to catch dopers. The blood passport program is leaps and bounds ahead of the testing program in Track and Field, arguably the next toughest on doping. The MLB, the NFL, the NBA, all of them lag far behind, yet when a star gets caught, no one really seems to get too upset and the story quickly blows over. Remember when another rookie of the year was suspended for steroids? That Shawne Merriman guy who hasn't ever seemed to recapture that incredible form? Why doesn't anyone question that? Why don't we talk about whether or not that amazing season was the result of the fact that he was jacked up on steroids?
Eric Allen's take on the suspension?
And Eric Allen, very successful NFL athlete doesn't understand how a professional athlete in "this day and age" could take steroids when there are so many consequences? What are the consequences besides accolades, rookie of the year awards, a bigger contract and likely a better career? The testing program really isn't that stringent and clearly there is a huge incentive to recovering faster, getting stronger and faster, and so why would it be so hard to understand why a pro athlete would use PEDs? So why is it so hard for Eric Allen to understand why this happens?
Given the recent suspensions of Roethlisberger and other incidents like that of Donte Stallworth's killing of a man while driving his Bentley drunk and serving only 30 days in jail, what are the consequences? Why wouldn't players be using drugs or abusing alcohol when the consequences for them are nearly nothing. This side of drug abuse isn't really that different from "recreational" drug use in cycling, but cyclists aren't really famous for killing people in their cars, getting caught with guns and knives and bazookas, or incredibly boorish behavior while drunk or sober.
Tom Boonen, arguably the biggest star of the classics and pretty good elsewhere too, and certainly the biggest cycling star in Belgium was busted for testing positive for cocaine. It wasn't his first time, and he got a slap on the wrist but was allowed to keep racing. This is because cycling has very clear rules about what is performance enhancing and what isn't. This isn't quite the case in other sports as athletes can be suspended for marijuana use, or cocaine and other narcotics.
So why the dismissal, in other sports, of the drugs that do actually affect the game? Why is it that rookies of the year who play linebacker can use steroids and get caught and the media will quickly paper over the incident as soon as the player has served their suspension. No one questions the sport at large for being incredibly brutal and unconcerned with the health of its players and the long term consequences of the drug use they choose as the only way to make it through a season.
I don't get it.
Now, let's get one thing straight, I think cycling is full of people that are using PEDs, micro-dosing EPO and doing anything they can to keep their jobs and perform at the highest level. The incentives for good performance and the demands on their bodies continue to encourage these practices, often more so for the guys trying to make it than for those with the freakish talents at the top. I do think the sport is cleaner than it has been, I think Lance was as dirty as most of his rivals during his reign at the top, but the guy was in the middle of the best run and most well thought out doping program in sport at the time. He was also in the middle of an era in cycling when there was no test for EPO. So why wouldn't you do it if you knew that your rivals were doing it and you couldn't compete with them if you didn't?
But back to the point.
Cycling likely does more than any other sport to catch dopers. The blood passport program is leaps and bounds ahead of the testing program in Track and Field, arguably the next toughest on doping. The MLB, the NFL, the NBA, all of them lag far behind, yet when a star gets caught, no one really seems to get too upset and the story quickly blows over. Remember when another rookie of the year was suspended for steroids? That Shawne Merriman guy who hasn't ever seemed to recapture that incredible form? Why doesn't anyone question that? Why don't we talk about whether or not that amazing season was the result of the fact that he was jacked up on steroids?
Eric Allen's take on the suspension?
I don't understand how a professional athlete in this day and age could take steroids when there are so many consequences. Sure, I understand the great deal of money that is to be made if you're able to get away with it. But is it worth what he's now going to go through? This is a kid who presumably wanted to one day be mentioned in the same breath as luminaries like Mike Singletary, Dick Butkus, Ray Lewis and Lawrence Taylor. Now he stands a much better chance of being mentioned in the same breath as Brian Bosworth and Tony Mandarich.What is it that he had to go through? He is still getting paid millions and millions of dollars, and though he has struggled now that he isn't quite as jacked up as before, still plays well and will likely have a nice career. He won't be Lawrence Taylor, but without the drugs, he never was. And was Lawrence Taylor using PED's? Well, he certainly wasn't concerned about using a lot of drugs.
And Eric Allen, very successful NFL athlete doesn't understand how a professional athlete in "this day and age" could take steroids when there are so many consequences? What are the consequences besides accolades, rookie of the year awards, a bigger contract and likely a better career? The testing program really isn't that stringent and clearly there is a huge incentive to recovering faster, getting stronger and faster, and so why would it be so hard to understand why a pro athlete would use PEDs? So why is it so hard for Eric Allen to understand why this happens?
Given the recent suspensions of Roethlisberger and other incidents like that of Donte Stallworth's killing of a man while driving his Bentley drunk and serving only 30 days in jail, what are the consequences? Why wouldn't players be using drugs or abusing alcohol when the consequences for them are nearly nothing. This side of drug abuse isn't really that different from "recreational" drug use in cycling, but cyclists aren't really famous for killing people in their cars, getting caught with guns and knives and bazookas, or incredibly boorish behavior while drunk or sober.
Tom Boonen, arguably the biggest star of the classics and pretty good elsewhere too, and certainly the biggest cycling star in Belgium was busted for testing positive for cocaine. It wasn't his first time, and he got a slap on the wrist but was allowed to keep racing. This is because cycling has very clear rules about what is performance enhancing and what isn't. This isn't quite the case in other sports as athletes can be suspended for marijuana use, or cocaine and other narcotics.
So why the dismissal, in other sports, of the drugs that do actually affect the game? Why is it that rookies of the year who play linebacker can use steroids and get caught and the media will quickly paper over the incident as soon as the player has served their suspension. No one questions the sport at large for being incredibly brutal and unconcerned with the health of its players and the long term consequences of the drug use they choose as the only way to make it through a season.
I don't get it.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
The Shangri La of Bike Rides?
Having just had a conversation with a friend about all the nastiness floating around in the "Vino Velo" group, I am reminded of a vision, or maybe it was just a dream that I had recently. If you've ever ridden your bike in Philadelphia with a group of folks concerned mainly with looking good, hating anyone that might actually be stronger than them, and being very sure to maintain a certain distasteful distance from any new guy for at least five years or until they somehow ingratiate themselves into your crowd somehow... Well, how about I just tell you about the dream?
Ok. So I wake up (in the dream) pretty darn early, so it's not impossible that this isn't a nightmare start. I force myself to eat as much as I can, try to pet the dog and tell her how much I will miss her all morning (but she quickly decides I'm worthless once it is clear I am not taking her for a run and heads upstairs and back to bed) and slather on some sunscreen and make sure I am not forgetting something important, and hop on my bike and head to a parking lot. This parking lot is close to my house and I get there in the very quiet stillness of a weekend morning without even a hint of traffic or the nastiness that usually accompanies most intersections of traffic and bike riding.
Was this parking lot Nirvana? I doubt that, but even though I recognized it perfectly in my dream, I am hesitant to share the location because there is a small chance it was real. There is a small chance that all of what I am about to relate to you happened and what if I told everyone about it and Vino Velo showed up to ruin everything? Well, that wouldn't do so I will just keep the location to myself. Let's just say it is near a big-box home furnishing store, a grocery store, someplace that sells bagels, and yeah, so just about a million locations near Philadelphia.
I roll into the lot and am greeted by someone. I can't quite believe they know who I am, because in the dream I know I just met them once on a ride perhaps a few weeks prior. I know that group riding folk do not remember names, even if you ride with them on multiple occasions, not here in Philly. If you aren't one of the Guys, you aren't one of the guys. But these guys remembered me, asked how I was doing, and generally appeared excited that I had joined them for this morning's festivities.
After some ball busting and chatter, we headed right out, a route had been decided on, we just worried about pedaling, and catching up and getting to know each other. There were some new guys I hadn't met before, strangely enough, they introduced each other all around, made sure to say hello on the ride, checked to see if we had any common acquaintances, it was rather friendly. Check that, they were really friendly. One big clue that this must have been a dream.
As we rolled out into deeper suburbs and beyond, we went hard up some hills, people made "attacks" but were happy to sit up and wait for folks to catch back on. After all, we were riding together, this wasn't about showing off or showing someone else up. Everyone did some work, everyone had a nice time, and before you know it, we reached the 40 mile point and some guys headed home as they had kids and other obligations. A few of us added on another 20 miles or so.
In this dream, after 150 miles in three days (a lot for me, not for some) I actually got back to my house after saying goodbye and chatting with the guys for a few minutes, and I felt great. I was tired, sure, but I had enjoyed riding with these guys, looked forward to joining them again, something I'd rarely experienced in past rides in the Philly area. The mental energy one usually expends dealing with the shenanigans of the riders as they get in over their heads, curse each other out, yell at you for going too hard (and putting them in the hurt locker) and basically make nuisances of themselves was still in reserve...
And I was home at 10:00 am with 60 miles under my belt. Was it really just a dream?
Ok. So I wake up (in the dream) pretty darn early, so it's not impossible that this isn't a nightmare start. I force myself to eat as much as I can, try to pet the dog and tell her how much I will miss her all morning (but she quickly decides I'm worthless once it is clear I am not taking her for a run and heads upstairs and back to bed) and slather on some sunscreen and make sure I am not forgetting something important, and hop on my bike and head to a parking lot. This parking lot is close to my house and I get there in the very quiet stillness of a weekend morning without even a hint of traffic or the nastiness that usually accompanies most intersections of traffic and bike riding.
Was this parking lot Nirvana? I doubt that, but even though I recognized it perfectly in my dream, I am hesitant to share the location because there is a small chance it was real. There is a small chance that all of what I am about to relate to you happened and what if I told everyone about it and Vino Velo showed up to ruin everything? Well, that wouldn't do so I will just keep the location to myself. Let's just say it is near a big-box home furnishing store, a grocery store, someplace that sells bagels, and yeah, so just about a million locations near Philadelphia.
I roll into the lot and am greeted by someone. I can't quite believe they know who I am, because in the dream I know I just met them once on a ride perhaps a few weeks prior. I know that group riding folk do not remember names, even if you ride with them on multiple occasions, not here in Philly. If you aren't one of the Guys, you aren't one of the guys. But these guys remembered me, asked how I was doing, and generally appeared excited that I had joined them for this morning's festivities.
After some ball busting and chatter, we headed right out, a route had been decided on, we just worried about pedaling, and catching up and getting to know each other. There were some new guys I hadn't met before, strangely enough, they introduced each other all around, made sure to say hello on the ride, checked to see if we had any common acquaintances, it was rather friendly. Check that, they were really friendly. One big clue that this must have been a dream.
As we rolled out into deeper suburbs and beyond, we went hard up some hills, people made "attacks" but were happy to sit up and wait for folks to catch back on. After all, we were riding together, this wasn't about showing off or showing someone else up. Everyone did some work, everyone had a nice time, and before you know it, we reached the 40 mile point and some guys headed home as they had kids and other obligations. A few of us added on another 20 miles or so.
In this dream, after 150 miles in three days (a lot for me, not for some) I actually got back to my house after saying goodbye and chatting with the guys for a few minutes, and I felt great. I was tired, sure, but I had enjoyed riding with these guys, looked forward to joining them again, something I'd rarely experienced in past rides in the Philly area. The mental energy one usually expends dealing with the shenanigans of the riders as they get in over their heads, curse each other out, yell at you for going too hard (and putting them in the hurt locker) and basically make nuisances of themselves was still in reserve...
And I was home at 10:00 am with 60 miles under my belt. Was it really just a dream?
Monday, April 26, 2010
So who is right?
We took a look at a couple speeches and interviews today and discussed the rhetoric in them, particularly looking closely at the idea of logical fallacies. The interview with William Black was brought to my attention thanks to Mr. Walsh McGuire, financial genius, and Obama's speech was brought to my attention perhaps thanks to the relative ease with which you can pick out logical fallacies. It also served as somewhat of the opposite viewpoint to Mr. Black's. So we can start with Obama's:
(my first question isn't important, but what does the bit about "if the neighbor sleep in his bed." Of course it looks like a mistake, but is there some kind of reference there I am missing?)
I have quite a few other questions, but the places we looked at closely were the first major logical fallacy that people are angry and frustrated because "Wall Street's mistakes have put their tax dollars at risk." Of course those tax dollars are only at risk because Wall Street is holding the President and all of his advisers hostage so that they will funnel money through various institutions and measures to those very same banks. They don't have to, but the constantly repeated line is that, if they don't, the world will collapse. So I would just like it if the speech writers in the future would make sure to connect the dots for us rather than leaving out the rather important and somewhat disgusting middle few dots for us to have to find on our own. Clearly, that takes too much work!
Mr. Black's interview is not a direct response to Mr. Obama's speech, or anyone else's for that matter, though you can look at his testimony to the congressional panel here. Note that even the folks there don't want to hear it as they start banging the gavel long before he is done roasting everyone you've ever heard of. I have to admit, perhaps the only reason I like his answer so much is that at no time does he say anything along the lines of "we didn't see this coming" or "I don't know how this happened" or even "we are really, really sorry for all this" all the while sitting on VERY fat wallet.
It should of course be noted that the Real News Network's interviewer at this point is obviously holding hands with Mr. Black. We contrasted this technique of interviewing with one of the more famous BBC interviews of all time in which the interviewer actually asks the same question ten times or more in a vain attempt to get the interviewee to answer it, check it out here. (It is worth eight minutes of your time to get the whole set up.)
But on to his interview (I've only included the first part, feel free to watch the rest on your own)
So there are other rhetorical issues with Mr. Black's interview, and we didn't get a chance to work on them today but hopefully will in the future because it is only fair that we pick on everyone, not just the people we think are really good looking or those that don't have incredible facial hair.
Obviously I'd love to hear how people feel about this guy's testimony, lots of people out there know more about what he is talking about than I do, so feel free to tear him apart, you may get yourself referenced in a future lesson if you aren't careful!
But I must add one more comment, if you didn't watch the testimony Mr. Black gives to the oversight committee, you miss one of the greatest lines to come out of this whole crisis. He is pointing out the fact that central banks have often forced CEOs out of their positions and in particular he is mentioning the way that the Bank of England does it. Apparently they have a luncheon, and he says:
"The board of directors are invited. They don't say no." Then gives a little grin suggesting perhaps that the oversight committee is a bunch of sissies compared to the Bank of England since they deal with refusals to appear and re-schedule with some frequency. Maybe that is why they start banging the gavel in the middle of his speech.
(my first question isn't important, but what does the bit about "if the neighbor sleep in his bed." Of course it looks like a mistake, but is there some kind of reference there I am missing?)
I have quite a few other questions, but the places we looked at closely were the first major logical fallacy that people are angry and frustrated because "Wall Street's mistakes have put their tax dollars at risk." Of course those tax dollars are only at risk because Wall Street is holding the President and all of his advisers hostage so that they will funnel money through various institutions and measures to those very same banks. They don't have to, but the constantly repeated line is that, if they don't, the world will collapse. So I would just like it if the speech writers in the future would make sure to connect the dots for us rather than leaving out the rather important and somewhat disgusting middle few dots for us to have to find on our own. Clearly, that takes too much work!
Mr. Black's interview is not a direct response to Mr. Obama's speech, or anyone else's for that matter, though you can look at his testimony to the congressional panel here. Note that even the folks there don't want to hear it as they start banging the gavel long before he is done roasting everyone you've ever heard of. I have to admit, perhaps the only reason I like his answer so much is that at no time does he say anything along the lines of "we didn't see this coming" or "I don't know how this happened" or even "we are really, really sorry for all this" all the while sitting on VERY fat wallet.
It should of course be noted that the Real News Network's interviewer at this point is obviously holding hands with Mr. Black. We contrasted this technique of interviewing with one of the more famous BBC interviews of all time in which the interviewer actually asks the same question ten times or more in a vain attempt to get the interviewee to answer it, check it out here. (It is worth eight minutes of your time to get the whole set up.)
But on to his interview (I've only included the first part, feel free to watch the rest on your own)
So there are other rhetorical issues with Mr. Black's interview, and we didn't get a chance to work on them today but hopefully will in the future because it is only fair that we pick on everyone, not just the people we think are really good looking or those that don't have incredible facial hair.
Obviously I'd love to hear how people feel about this guy's testimony, lots of people out there know more about what he is talking about than I do, so feel free to tear him apart, you may get yourself referenced in a future lesson if you aren't careful!
But I must add one more comment, if you didn't watch the testimony Mr. Black gives to the oversight committee, you miss one of the greatest lines to come out of this whole crisis. He is pointing out the fact that central banks have often forced CEOs out of their positions and in particular he is mentioning the way that the Bank of England does it. Apparently they have a luncheon, and he says:
"The board of directors are invited. They don't say no." Then gives a little grin suggesting perhaps that the oversight committee is a bunch of sissies compared to the Bank of England since they deal with refusals to appear and re-schedule with some frequency. Maybe that is why they start banging the gavel in the middle of his speech.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Self Promotion Take #1
I just found a picture from the race I won a few weeks ago in Mt. Joy PA. It was my first win on a bicycle as I didn't really count winning the Cat. 5 section of the climb in Shippensburg a couple years ago. But it was fun to open the season with a little win, especially as it was a win from the front. I got a little bored (and actually just needed to warm up after sitting on the starting line for fifteen minutes) and took off a mile into the race. Once it was clear that no one was trying to come along, I just settled in and tried to maintain a pretty good rythm around the course. Won by 3:43 and felt pretty good. I just hope I can convince the powers that be that I can move up a category in time for the Killington Stage Race...
Now, if only we could figure out how to get Sugoi to make a few of their fancy jerseys, I could be wearing one instead of the random skinsuit I picked up on ebay last year.
Now, if only we could figure out how to get Sugoi to make a few of their fancy jerseys, I could be wearing one instead of the random skinsuit I picked up on ebay last year.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
I fought the car
and I won this time. I haven't posted in a while, sorry to my loyal readership, but this deserves a little airtime I suppose.
I was traveling down Wynnewood road, having just left the house and going nice and easy. Perhaps because I haven't taken the time to change my 11-23 cassette out since the race two weekends ago, or perhaps just because it is a long slight downhill that starts to get steep towards the end, I was just turning the pedals over but was likely traveling close to 28-30 mph. The nice thing about these mornings is that it is starting to get light again around 6AM so it was already starting to lighten up. Of course I still had my handy lights flashing and was wearing ridiculously flashy clothing.
A car appeared on Belmont Avenue waiting to turn left. I was less than 75m away, and I saw the car, I am quite sure the driver saw me, so I assumed the driver had a brain and would wait until I passed.
Soon I would find out that perhaps a cross section of this fine man's head would reveal something else.
As I continued to approach the intersection at a rather rapid clip (for me, of course I was still going 5mph under the speed limit) this fine man decided to start pulling out into the road. I was dumbfounded. I was aghast. I began turning to the left to avoid him, but I didn't have much time. I felt like we even made eye contact at this point. But instead of stopping, he continue out into the intersection and began his sweep to the left.
At this point, I had very few options as I was going far to quickly to stop and couldn't really get around the car. So, as I was braking as hard as I could without going over the front end, I removed my shoe from the clip on my left pedal.
I then placed my foot out in front of me as best I could while I careened towards the car, hoping to help stop myself without going over the front of the bike or using something less able to absorb shock than my leg.
Thankfully, his fender was relatively soft and absorbed a great deal of the shock. Sadly, it also emerged from the incident with a rather serious scratch and dent combo, who knew SPD-SL's could cause so much damage! I got a bruise on my right leg from the handlebar swinging around and an out of alignment front wheel that was easily adjusted back so I could continue riding.
To the guy's very small credit, he did take the time to get out of the car and make sure I was ok, pointed out where he lived in case I needed to talk to him about further problems, and expressed some regret at it happening. To his shame, he did not apologize for making decisions that could lead to a cyclist's serious injury because he was unwilling to wait for one to pass at 6AM on an empty road.
Super.
I was traveling down Wynnewood road, having just left the house and going nice and easy. Perhaps because I haven't taken the time to change my 11-23 cassette out since the race two weekends ago, or perhaps just because it is a long slight downhill that starts to get steep towards the end, I was just turning the pedals over but was likely traveling close to 28-30 mph. The nice thing about these mornings is that it is starting to get light again around 6AM so it was already starting to lighten up. Of course I still had my handy lights flashing and was wearing ridiculously flashy clothing.
A car appeared on Belmont Avenue waiting to turn left. I was less than 75m away, and I saw the car, I am quite sure the driver saw me, so I assumed the driver had a brain and would wait until I passed.
As I continued to approach the intersection at a rather rapid clip (for me, of course I was still going 5mph under the speed limit) this fine man decided to start pulling out into the road. I was dumbfounded. I was aghast. I began turning to the left to avoid him, but I didn't have much time. I felt like we even made eye contact at this point. But instead of stopping, he continue out into the intersection and began his sweep to the left.
At this point, I had very few options as I was going far to quickly to stop and couldn't really get around the car. So, as I was braking as hard as I could without going over the front end, I removed my shoe from the clip on my left pedal.
I then placed my foot out in front of me as best I could while I careened towards the car, hoping to help stop myself without going over the front of the bike or using something less able to absorb shock than my leg.
Thankfully, his fender was relatively soft and absorbed a great deal of the shock. Sadly, it also emerged from the incident with a rather serious scratch and dent combo, who knew SPD-SL's could cause so much damage! I got a bruise on my right leg from the handlebar swinging around and an out of alignment front wheel that was easily adjusted back so I could continue riding.
To the guy's very small credit, he did take the time to get out of the car and make sure I was ok, pointed out where he lived in case I needed to talk to him about further problems, and expressed some regret at it happening. To his shame, he did not apologize for making decisions that could lead to a cyclist's serious injury because he was unwilling to wait for one to pass at 6AM on an empty road.
Super.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Two wonderful posts all smashed up together
Hip and VERY NOT HIP
Alright, so none of us are actually cool hipsters, and not one of us rides a fixie. We have a couple single-speeds in the group but they are wimpy with conversion kits, front and rear brakes, etc. But hip we are not. Though Mohsen is very cool and has some nifty stuff, not sure that he qualifies as hip.
But since this place is run by a friend of a friend, I think it is worth posting because these are some of the coolest things I've seen. I have mountain bike pedals on my lame single speed so I couldn't even use these but man, I sure would be much cooler if I could...
They have loads of other awesome stuff at REload and if you have the bones to drop on custom bags or even not totally custom stuff, they look like a great company to support.
A good person not to support and perhaps even a good company not to support would be Tony Kornheiser and ESPN. The former for expressing the appropriateness of hitting cyclists while in your car because they don't really deserve to be on the road and are infuriating because they aren't going fast enough. The latter for paying the former for doing so.
Wait, don't believe that a public figure could actually publicly support assault on other human beings? I know that is a dumb question but just listen in:
So send a note to espn and tell them that they are not being very good human beings by paying this man money, click here and give them a piece of your mind.
100 Miles to Nowhere
This is a very intriguing event, at least to me. Check out the details here and then consider whether you are in fact a sane, rational person. If you are, this likely isn't for you. May is the time nice weather rolls around and you want to be outside. I can't imagine anyplace around here where we could do this outside, unless we set up trainers outside. In fact, to me, it appears that doing it inside is really the strongest thing to do. If I were to do it outside, I would feel like I cheated. Of course, I am not sure I could even do it.
If you did it around your cul-de-sac, the GPS map of the ride might look something like this:
But it is intriguing is it not? There is a rather wonderful video of someone who documented doing the event themselves in their own apartment available here. I don't know if we would actually be able to pull this together, but if we don't this year, I think I am going to have to make this happen at some point. (Of course this is me, Haglund, not the all-agreeing voice of the Velo Aces. The rest of this bunch may have more sense than me.)
Anybody with me?
Alright, so none of us are actually cool hipsters, and not one of us rides a fixie. We have a couple single-speeds in the group but they are wimpy with conversion kits, front and rear brakes, etc. But hip we are not. Though Mohsen is very cool and has some nifty stuff, not sure that he qualifies as hip.
But since this place is run by a friend of a friend, I think it is worth posting because these are some of the coolest things I've seen. I have mountain bike pedals on my lame single speed so I couldn't even use these but man, I sure would be much cooler if I could...
They have loads of other awesome stuff at REload and if you have the bones to drop on custom bags or even not totally custom stuff, they look like a great company to support.
A good person not to support and perhaps even a good company not to support would be Tony Kornheiser and ESPN. The former for expressing the appropriateness of hitting cyclists while in your car because they don't really deserve to be on the road and are infuriating because they aren't going fast enough. The latter for paying the former for doing so.
Wait, don't believe that a public figure could actually publicly support assault on other human beings? I know that is a dumb question but just listen in:
So send a note to espn and tell them that they are not being very good human beings by paying this man money, click here and give them a piece of your mind.
100 Miles to Nowhere
This is a very intriguing event, at least to me. Check out the details here and then consider whether you are in fact a sane, rational person. If you are, this likely isn't for you. May is the time nice weather rolls around and you want to be outside. I can't imagine anyplace around here where we could do this outside, unless we set up trainers outside. In fact, to me, it appears that doing it inside is really the strongest thing to do. If I were to do it outside, I would feel like I cheated. Of course, I am not sure I could even do it.
If you did it around your cul-de-sac, the GPS map of the ride might look something like this:
But it is intriguing is it not? There is a rather wonderful video of someone who documented doing the event themselves in their own apartment available here. I don't know if we would actually be able to pull this together, but if we don't this year, I think I am going to have to make this happen at some point. (Of course this is me, Haglund, not the all-agreeing voice of the Velo Aces. The rest of this bunch may have more sense than me.)
Anybody with me?
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Commuting = Death
Ok, so this one is a long shot, but I was considering it while I was on a walk this morning. I'd arrived at work only to find the stores in my filing cabinet had run out and a trip to the general store to replenish them was necessary. My general store is most often shaped like a
but on occasion has resembled a Whole (budget) Foods or a Super Fresh, home of the broccoli bag that contains only broccoli stems. As I walked to and from the general store, I had another opportunity to contemplate many folks during their commute to work.
Particularly since I started riding my bike, I have begun to hate commuting with a rather irrational and intense hatred, particularly since my commute is only 1.28 miles. I've never even had a real commute, so everything I say must be taken with a grain of salt, perhaps one about the size of Lot's wife after she looked back, which brings up the too oft forgotten bit of racing wisdom: don't ever look back! Also, don't celebrate until after you cross the line or else TOMMY WILL GET YOU!!!
Poor Dan!
But moving on, commuting really does equal death. Here is why:
Sitting in a car driving the same route each day is not healthy. It encourages the consumption of bad for you foods, it encourages familiarity which breeds contempt (or so I've heard) and that can prompt you to think so little of your commute that you will get out your cell phone, text, perhaps even surf the web while you are driving. This can quickly equal death not only for you but for unsuspecting motorists and cyclists alike.
Sitting in a car and driving the same route each day is not good for your brain or your soul. Have you ever noticed yourself racing? Racing to a place you don't necessarily even want to be? I don't really care for folks that are racing home either, but at least there I can assign it some kind of value like racing home to see your kids, racing home to eat a tasty snack, etc. Of course many people might very well be racing home to see the latest episode of some horrific TV show that involves someone named "the situation." Racing to work can sometimes be understandable, but let's break it down a little bit:
When you decide that you need to slam on the gas to race around the slow guy to get to the stop light first when a four-lane highway with loads of room to pass beckons not 100m away, you have lost your mind. When you decide that you need to honk at the guy in front of you waiting for an old lady to cross the road, you have lost your mind. When you find yourself angry because the school bus is putting out its stop sign so that little children can cross a deadly street safely to get on the bus, you have lost your mind and your soul. When you decide that you are so angry that you need to try to punish someone on a bike for breaking a rule you are less able to break (I can only guess that was why) you are, in a friend of mine's words "your own worst punishment." Congratulations, you get to be a terrible person all day, hopefully you can get over it with a good night's sleep.
But commuting really does bring out the worst in people and with the help of my irrefutable and indefatigable logic, you now see that commuting does in fact equal death. It may not always be sudden death, it may be slow death like waiting for Godot or waiting for the shuttle to the long term parking lot at the Philadelphia airport which never comes when you need it. Ever.
Particularly since I started riding my bike, I have begun to hate commuting with a rather irrational and intense hatred, particularly since my commute is only 1.28 miles. I've never even had a real commute, so everything I say must be taken with a grain of salt, perhaps one about the size of Lot's wife after she looked back, which brings up the too oft forgotten bit of racing wisdom: don't ever look back! Also, don't celebrate until after you cross the line or else TOMMY WILL GET YOU!!!
But moving on, commuting really does equal death. Here is why:
Sitting in a car driving the same route each day is not healthy. It encourages the consumption of bad for you foods, it encourages familiarity which breeds contempt (or so I've heard) and that can prompt you to think so little of your commute that you will get out your cell phone, text, perhaps even surf the web while you are driving. This can quickly equal death not only for you but for unsuspecting motorists and cyclists alike.
Sitting in a car and driving the same route each day is not good for your brain or your soul. Have you ever noticed yourself racing? Racing to a place you don't necessarily even want to be? I don't really care for folks that are racing home either, but at least there I can assign it some kind of value like racing home to see your kids, racing home to eat a tasty snack, etc. Of course many people might very well be racing home to see the latest episode of some horrific TV show that involves someone named "the situation." Racing to work can sometimes be understandable, but let's break it down a little bit:
When you decide that you need to slam on the gas to race around the slow guy to get to the stop light first when a four-lane highway with loads of room to pass beckons not 100m away, you have lost your mind. When you decide that you need to honk at the guy in front of you waiting for an old lady to cross the road, you have lost your mind. When you find yourself angry because the school bus is putting out its stop sign so that little children can cross a deadly street safely to get on the bus, you have lost your mind and your soul. When you decide that you are so angry that you need to try to punish someone on a bike for breaking a rule you are less able to break (I can only guess that was why) you are, in a friend of mine's words "your own worst punishment." Congratulations, you get to be a terrible person all day, hopefully you can get over it with a good night's sleep.
But commuting really does bring out the worst in people and with the help of my irrefutable and indefatigable logic, you now see that commuting does in fact equal death. It may not always be sudden death, it may be slow death like waiting for Godot or waiting for the shuttle to the long term parking lot at the Philadelphia airport which never comes when you need it. Ever.
Broccoli
There are a number of things I am itching to write about when I get a little bit more time, the President's blueprint to improve education and revise NCLB, a sweet ride yesterday in the pouring cold rain, and the fact that I've accomplished the impossible and started a completely sustainable cold-fusion reaction in my attic.
But right now I am stuck on broccoli.
That's right. Broccoli.
Last night, while enjoying a wonderful dinner, I scooped a random helping of broccoli out of the dish in which it was resting, then looked at my plate. I noticed that there were very few of the florets that we normally think of when we think of broccoli, and a rather large number of stem pieces. I had no idea that dinner would lead to this amazing discovery but it has.
Apparently all the pieces of stem that get lopped off the bottom of your broccoli when you buy it fresh in the store get chopped up and put into American's Choice broccoli. In our very unscientific count, the pieces of stem outnumbered florets (think actual broccoli) by a ratio of 18:1. This is pretty impressive, considering the picture on the front of the bag of frozen broccoli (which I searched for online but will now have to upload when I go home and can take a picture of it myself) represents an entirely different picture.
.jpg)
I just felt a little sad for the floret, all by itself amidst the crowd of stem pieces. It must feel left out, like an outlier, like a loner searching for a little acceptance but unable to find it since it looks a little different and tastes a little different. I wonder if it was tricked a little bit by the image on the front of the bag as well, depicting a mix consisting mainly of broccoli florets, it hopped in for the ride and only noticed as it was flash frozen that everywhere it looked it saw only stem. STEMS AGGHHHHH!!! and then it was frozen.
I will say that I happily ate my broccoli stems, and I don't even have very strong objections to them as vegetable matter. I am under the impression that the florets have a few more vitamins and minerals in them, but I will happily eat the stems. I just wish I had purchased a bag of stems and known what to get. I fear I will go about my day slightly depressed now thinking of the lonely broccoli floret longing for a friend to die with as I dined.
edit: if you'd like to know all the standards for quick frozen broccoli, peruse this document here. Interesting stuff:
But right now I am stuck on broccoli.
Last night, while enjoying a wonderful dinner, I scooped a random helping of broccoli out of the dish in which it was resting, then looked at my plate. I noticed that there were very few of the florets that we normally think of when we think of broccoli, and a rather large number of stem pieces. I had no idea that dinner would lead to this amazing discovery but it has.
Apparently all the pieces of stem that get lopped off the bottom of your broccoli when you buy it fresh in the store get chopped up and put into American's Choice broccoli. In our very unscientific count, the pieces of stem outnumbered florets (think actual broccoli) by a ratio of 18:1. This is pretty impressive, considering the picture on the front of the bag of frozen broccoli (which I searched for online but will now have to upload when I go home and can take a picture of it myself) represents an entirely different picture.
.jpg)
I will say that I happily ate my broccoli stems, and I don't even have very strong objections to them as vegetable matter. I am under the impression that the florets have a few more vitamins and minerals in them, but I will happily eat the stems. I just wish I had purchased a bag of stems and known what to get. I fear I will go about my day slightly depressed now thinking of the lonely broccoli floret longing for a friend to die with as I dined.
edit: if you'd like to know all the standards for quick frozen broccoli, peruse this document here. Interesting stuff:
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Sharing the Road
This morning I had a very fun ride to work. I did one of my usual loops and then rode towards the city to see if I could catch up with Moe and ride in with him to work. I dropped down to the bottom of Bryn Mawr Avenue and noticed a really pretty silver Audi S4 shoot by me on the left. Audi S4s are pretty sweet automobiles.
This guy's auto was not tricked out like this one with the extra fancy rims and whatnot, but it was still nice. I looked over it again as I passed him on the right at the intersection at the bottom of the hill where it crosses Hagys Ford road.
As I went through the intersection, the driver of said automobile honked at me and made some rather pointed pointing motions at me. As I started up the hill, he managed to pass me, which is understandable given that his car engine is capable of producing nearly 400 times the horsepower I have in my little baby-baby legs. He pulled alongside me and screamed at me that I have to obey the signals. I said "yes sir, have a nice morning" because I certainly didn't need to argue with him at that point. He then decided that it would be a good idea to use his automobile to threaten me.
This is where everything changes for me. Lets just say that I didn't obey the signal. Fine. I am an irrsponsible person, etc. and took my own life into my hands by rolling through an empty intersection at 6:30 in the morning on a road with a 25 mph speed limit. Ok, I am perfectly happy to accept responsibility for that decision, maybe it is the libertarian in me deciding that I can be responsible for my own safety.
But Mr. I want to be a Vigilante at 6:30 a.m. on my way to work has a different problem entirely. You've made your feelings clear with the honking and the pointed pointing gestures, and then you made it even more clearly with your yelling through your window at me.
Then you went way, way over the line. You are driving a huge deadly weapon and you decided that you would point it at me and wave it around a little bit. As you squeezed towards the shoulder and the curb as I struggled up the hill in the only gear I had, I moved to the outer portion of the lane to give myself some room and not be squeezed into the tree there. You decided that you would move back to the outside there, making sure that I could not pass you on this pretty steep hill while I am struggling to turn over my 42x16 and you are going ten miles an hour in your super hot shot car.
And you are weaving back and forth trying to show me who is boss.
Ok, not the fun and exciting TV show, but really, in real life, who is the boss.
Guess what, I know who the boss is. You clearly make more money than me, since you drive a car I know I can never afford. You are clearly the bigger, stronger man, not just because you are driving a huge car while I am on a cheap little aluminum bike. You just must be since you are the one that gets to decide the consequences for breaking the rules.
So I hope I see you again and can actually tell the cops your license plate number. Since they are the authorities and get to decide the penalties for obeying the signals as well as the penalties for waiving a deadly weapon in someone's face.
I also hope that you somehow find a way to feel better. If you are angry enough at 6:30 in the morning to threaten a cyclist with your really fancy car that has to be enjoyable to drive, you are obviously in possession of some pretty serious problems. I would not want to be you for a whole lot of money and as many S4s as I could handle.
So here's to you Mr. Boss man:
I didn't get the chance to respond to your ranking of me as #1 this morning so I wanted to make sure you knew that no, you are number one. You are the man. Even this little kid knows it. So congratulations on being a horrible person and leading a terrible life. I can only hope that someday you manage to sneak your way out from under the terribleness.
I'll give you one suggestion: Ride your bike to work. You'd be surprised at how liberating it is. Even with people like you on the road.
As I went through the intersection, the driver of said automobile honked at me and made some rather pointed pointing motions at me. As I started up the hill, he managed to pass me, which is understandable given that his car engine is capable of producing nearly 400 times the horsepower I have in my little baby-baby legs. He pulled alongside me and screamed at me that I have to obey the signals. I said "yes sir, have a nice morning" because I certainly didn't need to argue with him at that point. He then decided that it would be a good idea to use his automobile to threaten me.
This is where everything changes for me. Lets just say that I didn't obey the signal. Fine. I am an irrsponsible person, etc. and took my own life into my hands by rolling through an empty intersection at 6:30 in the morning on a road with a 25 mph speed limit. Ok, I am perfectly happy to accept responsibility for that decision, maybe it is the libertarian in me deciding that I can be responsible for my own safety.
But Mr. I want to be a Vigilante at 6:30 a.m. on my way to work has a different problem entirely. You've made your feelings clear with the honking and the pointed pointing gestures, and then you made it even more clearly with your yelling through your window at me.
Then you went way, way over the line. You are driving a huge deadly weapon and you decided that you would point it at me and wave it around a little bit. As you squeezed towards the shoulder and the curb as I struggled up the hill in the only gear I had, I moved to the outer portion of the lane to give myself some room and not be squeezed into the tree there. You decided that you would move back to the outside there, making sure that I could not pass you on this pretty steep hill while I am struggling to turn over my 42x16 and you are going ten miles an hour in your super hot shot car.
And you are weaving back and forth trying to show me who is boss.
Ok, not the fun and exciting TV show, but really, in real life, who is the boss.
Guess what, I know who the boss is. You clearly make more money than me, since you drive a car I know I can never afford. You are clearly the bigger, stronger man, not just because you are driving a huge car while I am on a cheap little aluminum bike. You just must be since you are the one that gets to decide the consequences for breaking the rules.
So I hope I see you again and can actually tell the cops your license plate number. Since they are the authorities and get to decide the penalties for obeying the signals as well as the penalties for waiving a deadly weapon in someone's face.
I also hope that you somehow find a way to feel better. If you are angry enough at 6:30 in the morning to threaten a cyclist with your really fancy car that has to be enjoyable to drive, you are obviously in possession of some pretty serious problems. I would not want to be you for a whole lot of money and as many S4s as I could handle.
So here's to you Mr. Boss man:
I didn't get the chance to respond to your ranking of me as #1 this morning so I wanted to make sure you knew that no, you are number one. You are the man. Even this little kid knows it. So congratulations on being a horrible person and leading a terrible life. I can only hope that someday you manage to sneak your way out from under the terribleness.
I'll give you one suggestion: Ride your bike to work. You'd be surprised at how liberating it is. Even with people like you on the road.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
"Building a Better Teacher"
Another of my students sent me this article from the NYT (and I have to point out here the wonderful thing about having a bunch of students every year. I have, generally, at least one hundred new people to learn from every single year and sometimes they keep teaching me things after they've left my classroom. Reason number 37 that it is great to be a teacher) and I found it intriguing for a variety of reasons.
The first is a common theme, at least for me, and that is the enormous disappointment I feel that no one is looking beyond test scores to measure teacher performance. Ms. Green writes at length about the other things, but it always comes back to the test scores. She concludes with the wisdom of Thomas Kane, an economist who studies education (clearly he won't have a very particular outlook on what education should look like or how it should be measured) who says that if we could just improve the teachers we have "we could close the gap between the United States and Japan on those international tests within two years."
Forgive me if you've heard this one before, but why do we want to close those test score gaps again? Are Japanese citizens happier by and large than Americans? Are they healthier? Are these the results of them scoring higher on standardized tests? What are some of the consequences of the drive to score better on those tests?
While I lived in Korea, one of the things that struck me was the amazing pressure that student are under to perform on the final test they take as high schoolers. Kids go to school year round every day, often spending at least 16-20 hours away from home either at school, at after-school study facilities, and then at late-night study rooms which they rent for the year. If they don't perform as well as they'd hoped, they will often take another year just to study for the exam.
According to my relatively limited understanding, the tests in Japan are even more insane, and the response among students is similar. They use incredible amounts of time and energy spent to study for them and are often crushed when they don't rank as highly as they hope.
In an article written in 2007, Leila Madge describes some of the incredible focus placed on these tests by parents and students alike:
In the last year of middle school and high school Japanese
students go through what they call “examination hell.”
In February and March they take highly competitive
exams. How well they do determines not only the next
school they will attend but also what kind of job, spouse,
social status and lifestyle they will enjoy in the future.
The importance of the exam in the current Japanese
educational system started in the Meiji period (1868-
1912). Before that time, government positions had been
filled by samurai. With the end of that system, and the
end of the caste system, education began to be used to
decide who would have what kind of jobs. Since the end
of World War II, education has been a means for upward
mobility, especially for the middle-class who have no
business or land to will to their sons.
Economic growth, the democratization of Japanese
society and new job opportunities in the post-war years
meant competition for higher education increased along
with the pressures of exams. This period of “examination
hell” is not unique to Japan but characterizes much of
East Asia (Korea and China) which share a heritage of
Confucian respect for scholarly endeavors and family
obligation. China and Korea also currently understand
exams as a way to get ahead in society.
What is school and home life like for students and
parents during examinations? As the time for exams
draws near all non-academic activities such as music and
sports clubs are put on hold. All classroom learning is
geared towards memorizing factual information. After
school, children attend cram schools (juku in Japanese
and hakwon in Korean) or study with tutors, and
vacations are spent attending special study camps.
Many students of more ambitious families have been
participating in these activities since kindergarten. Some
students barely eat, sleep or even bathe. A common
expression in both Japan and Korea is “Pass with four
(hours of sleep), fail with five.” Parents have felt the stress
of this time since their children started school. Fathers
feel they must earn enough to provide the money for
tutors and tuition at cram schools. Mothers strive from
the time their kids start kindergarten to provide them
with a home life to reinforce school lessons, fulfill the
child’s physical needs and work with teachers to make
sure their kids get lots of attention at school. Mothers
are often praised or criticized by family members, and
in newspaper or television shows, for their children’s
school successes.
Parents, students, business leaders and government
officials like the exam system, even if it is hellish.
Ironically, just as American corporate leaders, politicians
and educators are looking to imitate the Japanese
exam system with standardized exams, the Japanese
are thinking of changing their own system. During
“examination hell,” suicide, violence at school and home,
and dropout rates increase. Since the 1990s, with an
economic downturn in Japan, the rewards of the system
aren’t so great any more. In addition, many business
leaders and government officials are blaming Japan’s
economic woes on workers’ inability to creatively compete
in a 21st century global economy. For this, they blame the
education system. Many wonder if the pressure of exams
is worth it and educational reform is now a hot topic in
Japan. Reformers often look to the United States and call
for more flexible curricula, fewer school days, abolishing
uniforms — all to encourage more student creativity and
engagement with the real world.
So, if educational leaders in Japan are trying to make their system more like ours, and we are trying to make ours more like theirs, couldn't we try to communicate with them to learn the pitfalls of the increased emphasis on testing? Shouldn't we spend some time looking at the developments in their society over the last 100 years with this incredible emphasis on these tests and on the standardization of students' experience? If they are thinking seriously about less time in school, more flexible curricula, abolishing uniforms, etc., perhaps there are values to those things within our current system? Perhaps more time in school, more tests, more nationally mandated curricula are not the answer?
So back to the problem at hand and the one addressed by the article. Despite a stated focus on things other than tests when it comes to "good teachers," it turns out to be the single determining factor in this article as well as so many other recent publications about "good" teachers including the recent article in the Atlantic about "What Makes a Great Teacher." (On a personal note, I have to admit that I don't really think great teachers would fill one ear on their head (of only two that they have) with a bluetooth headset, but that is just a personal opinion.)
I will do my best to point out some of the very good things about the article, but I have to finish this post with just one more glaring omission. The article assumes, as most do, that teachers are actually able to decide what they want to do in their classroom and how they want to go about doing it. The fact of the matter is that even in most of the "best" schools in the country, teachers are completely and totally bound by the decisions of the administration. They are told what to teach, what to test for, when to teach it, and often how to teach it. So if you want to hold people accountable, a great place to start is with administrators since they are the only real "principals" making decisions in most school situations. Teachers are agents only of the school, the district, and the state and as such cannot be held accountable because they don't get to decide for themselves what their students really need, etc.
While I am happy that so many intelligent people are thinking hard about how to fix education, it is disheartening to find so many of the basic assumptions avoiding real questioning. I do not claim to have the solution, so perhaps I cannot be the one pointing out all the faults, but I do know that perhaps a better place to start would be asking questions like "What are students learning from preparing for and taking so many high-stakes tests?" "Has education improved since we made it compulsory in the United States?" "What things have improved since education was made compulsory and have they improved at a faster rate since we started focusing on standardization?" "Is it possible to standardize human experience in any healthy way?"
In fact, I will end with my personal favorite. Can someone define for me in a meaningful way what the term "student achievement" means? We spend lots of time and money focusing on it, and Ms. Green's article focuses on finding teachers that are good at or helping teachers improve their students ability to "achieve" on these standardized tests. What are they achieving exactly?
The first is a common theme, at least for me, and that is the enormous disappointment I feel that no one is looking beyond test scores to measure teacher performance. Ms. Green writes at length about the other things, but it always comes back to the test scores. She concludes with the wisdom of Thomas Kane, an economist who studies education (clearly he won't have a very particular outlook on what education should look like or how it should be measured) who says that if we could just improve the teachers we have "we could close the gap between the United States and Japan on those international tests within two years."
Forgive me if you've heard this one before, but why do we want to close those test score gaps again? Are Japanese citizens happier by and large than Americans? Are they healthier? Are these the results of them scoring higher on standardized tests? What are some of the consequences of the drive to score better on those tests?
While I lived in Korea, one of the things that struck me was the amazing pressure that student are under to perform on the final test they take as high schoolers. Kids go to school year round every day, often spending at least 16-20 hours away from home either at school, at after-school study facilities, and then at late-night study rooms which they rent for the year. If they don't perform as well as they'd hoped, they will often take another year just to study for the exam.
According to my relatively limited understanding, the tests in Japan are even more insane, and the response among students is similar. They use incredible amounts of time and energy spent to study for them and are often crushed when they don't rank as highly as they hope.
In an article written in 2007, Leila Madge describes some of the incredible focus placed on these tests by parents and students alike:
In the last year of middle school and high school Japanese
students go through what they call “examination hell.”
In February and March they take highly competitive
exams. How well they do determines not only the next
school they will attend but also what kind of job, spouse,
social status and lifestyle they will enjoy in the future.
The importance of the exam in the current Japanese
educational system started in the Meiji period (1868-
1912). Before that time, government positions had been
filled by samurai. With the end of that system, and the
end of the caste system, education began to be used to
decide who would have what kind of jobs. Since the end
of World War II, education has been a means for upward
mobility, especially for the middle-class who have no
business or land to will to their sons.
Economic growth, the democratization of Japanese
society and new job opportunities in the post-war years
meant competition for higher education increased along
with the pressures of exams. This period of “examination
hell” is not unique to Japan but characterizes much of
East Asia (Korea and China) which share a heritage of
Confucian respect for scholarly endeavors and family
obligation. China and Korea also currently understand
exams as a way to get ahead in society.
What is school and home life like for students and
parents during examinations? As the time for exams
draws near all non-academic activities such as music and
sports clubs are put on hold. All classroom learning is
geared towards memorizing factual information. After
school, children attend cram schools (juku in Japanese
and hakwon in Korean) or study with tutors, and
vacations are spent attending special study camps.
Many students of more ambitious families have been
participating in these activities since kindergarten. Some
students barely eat, sleep or even bathe. A common
expression in both Japan and Korea is “Pass with four
(hours of sleep), fail with five.” Parents have felt the stress
of this time since their children started school. Fathers
feel they must earn enough to provide the money for
tutors and tuition at cram schools. Mothers strive from
the time their kids start kindergarten to provide them
with a home life to reinforce school lessons, fulfill the
child’s physical needs and work with teachers to make
sure their kids get lots of attention at school. Mothers
are often praised or criticized by family members, and
in newspaper or television shows, for their children’s
school successes.
Parents, students, business leaders and government
officials like the exam system, even if it is hellish.
Ironically, just as American corporate leaders, politicians
and educators are looking to imitate the Japanese
exam system with standardized exams, the Japanese
are thinking of changing their own system. During
“examination hell,” suicide, violence at school and home,
and dropout rates increase. Since the 1990s, with an
economic downturn in Japan, the rewards of the system
aren’t so great any more. In addition, many business
leaders and government officials are blaming Japan’s
economic woes on workers’ inability to creatively compete
in a 21st century global economy. For this, they blame the
education system. Many wonder if the pressure of exams
is worth it and educational reform is now a hot topic in
Japan. Reformers often look to the United States and call
for more flexible curricula, fewer school days, abolishing
uniforms — all to encourage more student creativity and
engagement with the real world.
So, if educational leaders in Japan are trying to make their system more like ours, and we are trying to make ours more like theirs, couldn't we try to communicate with them to learn the pitfalls of the increased emphasis on testing? Shouldn't we spend some time looking at the developments in their society over the last 100 years with this incredible emphasis on these tests and on the standardization of students' experience? If they are thinking seriously about less time in school, more flexible curricula, abolishing uniforms, etc., perhaps there are values to those things within our current system? Perhaps more time in school, more tests, more nationally mandated curricula are not the answer?
So back to the problem at hand and the one addressed by the article. Despite a stated focus on things other than tests when it comes to "good teachers," it turns out to be the single determining factor in this article as well as so many other recent publications about "good" teachers including the recent article in the Atlantic about "What Makes a Great Teacher." (On a personal note, I have to admit that I don't really think great teachers would fill one ear on their head (of only two that they have) with a bluetooth headset, but that is just a personal opinion.)
I will do my best to point out some of the very good things about the article, but I have to finish this post with just one more glaring omission. The article assumes, as most do, that teachers are actually able to decide what they want to do in their classroom and how they want to go about doing it. The fact of the matter is that even in most of the "best" schools in the country, teachers are completely and totally bound by the decisions of the administration. They are told what to teach, what to test for, when to teach it, and often how to teach it. So if you want to hold people accountable, a great place to start is with administrators since they are the only real "principals" making decisions in most school situations. Teachers are agents only of the school, the district, and the state and as such cannot be held accountable because they don't get to decide for themselves what their students really need, etc.
While I am happy that so many intelligent people are thinking hard about how to fix education, it is disheartening to find so many of the basic assumptions avoiding real questioning. I do not claim to have the solution, so perhaps I cannot be the one pointing out all the faults, but I do know that perhaps a better place to start would be asking questions like "What are students learning from preparing for and taking so many high-stakes tests?" "Has education improved since we made it compulsory in the United States?" "What things have improved since education was made compulsory and have they improved at a faster rate since we started focusing on standardization?" "Is it possible to standardize human experience in any healthy way?"
In fact, I will end with my personal favorite. Can someone define for me in a meaningful way what the term "student achievement" means? We spend lots of time and money focusing on it, and Ms. Green's article focuses on finding teachers that are good at or helping teachers improve their students ability to "achieve" on these standardized tests. What are they achieving exactly?
Monday, March 08, 2010
Mad props
Go again to Keith Williams of Williams Cycling who rejected our inquiry about sponsorship for the Velo Aces but actually found my email in his spam folder and still responded. Perhaps this is ridiculous, but I am becoming more and more confident that this guy and his company do fantastic work. I can't wait until the 85mm wheels come out. It looks like I might be able to borrow a front wheel from a pal of mine and if I can throw one of those on the back... Should be super. And then when I am rich and famous I will have a disc wheel just for the incredibly cool thunking sound it makes when you shift. I definitely am more enamored of the noise than I am of potential performance gains.
Also, in case anyone else is reading this and actually curious about the Velo Aces, jerseys should actually be available at Main Line Cycles within 8 weeks. They are only going to stock a limited number so you will have to get there to make sure you get them. They also put up a video from the group ride this weekend, Laubach is making it big!
Also, in case anyone else is reading this and actually curious about the Velo Aces, jerseys should actually be available at Main Line Cycles within 8 weeks. They are only going to stock a limited number so you will have to get there to make sure you get them. They also put up a video from the group ride this weekend, Laubach is making it big!
Kohlberg and the University of Chicago
A former student sent me an email containing a link to W.C. Crain's 7th chapter of Theories of Development in which he discusses Kohlberg's stages of development. In the opening paragraphs, Crain discusses the life of Lawrence Kohlberg and at one point he mentions that "in 1948, he enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he scored so high on admissions tests that he had to take only a few courses to earn his bachelor’s degree." It struck me that his entrance to college along with the experience he had as a working man (apparently he was the second Engineer on a freighter helping transport Jews from Europe to Israel for several year after high school) would certainly give him the impetus to try to get his bachelor's degree so he could move on. But I wonder if someone would have a similar option today. (I emailed the dean of students at UofC to find out, hopefully I will have a definitive answer soon)
We have come to expect nearly everyone to go to college and obtain some type of degree, but I think at the same time it has become next to impossible to be granted that degree without taking a certain number of courses, regardless of the level of personal expertise or understanding of the field in which the degree is to be granted. Perhaps I have grown too cynical of late, but I tend to think a great deal of that is tied to the economics of the issue. If you were just granting degrees without forcing students to take a large amount of coursework first, your degree might not be seen as worth the fifty thousand dollars a year you are charging students to go there. This would be a disaster for any school that is chasing rankings and the prestige and money that go with them. It would also be the nail in the coffin for US News and World Report whose only profitable issue is the one in which they rank schools so everyone will know where to go, or try and go, in the fall.
Follow this backward to the instutionalization of the Carnegie Unit, the so called standard that was called for when someone decided that student experience in any one place had to be somehow comparable to student experience in another. (An interesting discussion of the history of the Carnegie Unit can be found here) Apparently it wasn't enough to have examinations designed by professors and other leaders in various fields, a seat-time component had to be introduced so that US News and World Report could make a profit on their magazine.
In watching a few students here and there, it is apparent that the seat-time system of comparison is at least as flawed as was the original one based on various examinations. The fact of the matter is that students learning varies according to so many variables that pretending that they are going to have, or need, the same experience to master a certain subject or concept is rather absurd. To me anyway.
So if we are going to continue to require degrees for various jobs, despite the fact that it is acknowledged on a wider and wider scale that degrees are not significant indicators of ability or sometimes even a similar background knowledge of skills, why shouldn't we go back to a system that would allow someone with a great deal of experience or knowledge in a certain subject to be granted a degree in their field if they pass certain examinations or demonstrate their mastery in some way? If an accomplished writer decides after skipping college to return later in life to take some courses, will you force them to take Freshman Composition?
Please don't get me wrong, I am all for Freshman Composition, but only for the folks that need it. (In point of fact, I am really only for it for the folks that want it, if a brilliant scientist finds out later in life that writing is more necessary than they imagined, and they likely will, they will either learn to write effectively enough or pay someone else to do it. This creates jobs for English majors, something I am always in favor of and eliminates more extremely unwilling and miserable Freshman Comp. students thereby making the class more fun and perhaps even more valuable for us English majors. If I were John Hodgman I would ask you to say thank you since I just solved that one nicely!)
Some school systems have created exams that allow students to test out of certain classes. There is even some talk that the soon to be released Keystone Exams will allow that in Pennsylvania, but right now information is extremely hard to come by and relatively contradictory. But if we must continue to place value in standardized tests and will continue to force children everywhere to take them, we ought to seriously consider using them to allow students to test out of some of the seat-time requirements which would create a real reward for doing well on standardized tests if they could then take more electives or perhaps have half the school day off to go and get a job and buy more ipods or iphones or isecondlives or whatever they want.
We have come to expect nearly everyone to go to college and obtain some type of degree, but I think at the same time it has become next to impossible to be granted that degree without taking a certain number of courses, regardless of the level of personal expertise or understanding of the field in which the degree is to be granted. Perhaps I have grown too cynical of late, but I tend to think a great deal of that is tied to the economics of the issue. If you were just granting degrees without forcing students to take a large amount of coursework first, your degree might not be seen as worth the fifty thousand dollars a year you are charging students to go there. This would be a disaster for any school that is chasing rankings and the prestige and money that go with them. It would also be the nail in the coffin for US News and World Report whose only profitable issue is the one in which they rank schools so everyone will know where to go, or try and go, in the fall.
Follow this backward to the instutionalization of the Carnegie Unit, the so called standard that was called for when someone decided that student experience in any one place had to be somehow comparable to student experience in another. (An interesting discussion of the history of the Carnegie Unit can be found here) Apparently it wasn't enough to have examinations designed by professors and other leaders in various fields, a seat-time component had to be introduced so that US News and World Report could make a profit on their magazine.
In watching a few students here and there, it is apparent that the seat-time system of comparison is at least as flawed as was the original one based on various examinations. The fact of the matter is that students learning varies according to so many variables that pretending that they are going to have, or need, the same experience to master a certain subject or concept is rather absurd. To me anyway.
So if we are going to continue to require degrees for various jobs, despite the fact that it is acknowledged on a wider and wider scale that degrees are not significant indicators of ability or sometimes even a similar background knowledge of skills, why shouldn't we go back to a system that would allow someone with a great deal of experience or knowledge in a certain subject to be granted a degree in their field if they pass certain examinations or demonstrate their mastery in some way? If an accomplished writer decides after skipping college to return later in life to take some courses, will you force them to take Freshman Composition?
Please don't get me wrong, I am all for Freshman Composition, but only for the folks that need it. (In point of fact, I am really only for it for the folks that want it, if a brilliant scientist finds out later in life that writing is more necessary than they imagined, and they likely will, they will either learn to write effectively enough or pay someone else to do it. This creates jobs for English majors, something I am always in favor of and eliminates more extremely unwilling and miserable Freshman Comp. students thereby making the class more fun and perhaps even more valuable for us English majors. If I were John Hodgman I would ask you to say thank you since I just solved that one nicely!)
Some school systems have created exams that allow students to test out of certain classes. There is even some talk that the soon to be released Keystone Exams will allow that in Pennsylvania, but right now information is extremely hard to come by and relatively contradictory. But if we must continue to place value in standardized tests and will continue to force children everywhere to take them, we ought to seriously consider using them to allow students to test out of some of the seat-time requirements which would create a real reward for doing well on standardized tests if they could then take more electives or perhaps have half the school day off to go and get a job and buy more ipods or iphones or isecondlives or whatever they want.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
George Will's article in the Washington Post
Yesterday, Mr. Will wrote an interesting article about the way to ruin a child. He brings up some things that some of us who see high school kids every day think are common sense, but it is great to see him bringing them up as people tend to believe commentators with political clout more than your average high school teacher!
Go ahead and read the article here but pay particularly close attention to the part about why we start high school when we do and the various physical and psychological effects. As a teacher, I find ways to deal with the fact that my students are still generally asleep at 7:30 and just starting to come around an hour or sometimes two hours later. Obviously I can't change the starting time of my school or anybody else's school, but I could add reams of anecdotal evidence to support what Will points out, namely that putting kids in high school is good for some people, but certainly not for the kids!
I have a friend who attended the same high school I teach in many years ago, a few friends actually. Back then, they went from 9 or 9:30 to 3:00. These friends have widely varying careers, from welding to engineering nuclear power plants. They don't appear to be any less intelligent or have dealt with any less complicated issues or questions than the students I have today. So why must we have them in school at hours that are unhealthy for them?
And please don't think that I would mind being at school from 7:30 to 3:00, generally I am there from 6:30 until at least 4:30 already, but that includes coaching and some time for me to exercise. If I had the 90 minutes from 7:00 until 9:30 to plan or grade or do whatever I needed to do, I can guarantee that every lesson would be better, feedback would get back sooner, and if my students got out at 3:00, I would be happy to bet that their test scores or many other measures of "student achievement" would certainly not go down and likely would climb. An extra hour of sleep would change the entire landscape of most of my students' lives. There is absolutely nothing I or any other teacher could do that would have anything like that positive effect.
But if we were really trying to do what is best for our students and our kids, starting later would be one in a flurry of changes that would quickly revolutionize the way we approach education in this country. So I don't want to pretend that it is the only thing to fix either, but it is one that seems obvious enough even for the educational establishment not to be able to ignore much longer. I hope.
Go ahead and read the article here but pay particularly close attention to the part about why we start high school when we do and the various physical and psychological effects. As a teacher, I find ways to deal with the fact that my students are still generally asleep at 7:30 and just starting to come around an hour or sometimes two hours later. Obviously I can't change the starting time of my school or anybody else's school, but I could add reams of anecdotal evidence to support what Will points out, namely that putting kids in high school is good for some people, but certainly not for the kids!
I have a friend who attended the same high school I teach in many years ago, a few friends actually. Back then, they went from 9 or 9:30 to 3:00. These friends have widely varying careers, from welding to engineering nuclear power plants. They don't appear to be any less intelligent or have dealt with any less complicated issues or questions than the students I have today. So why must we have them in school at hours that are unhealthy for them?
And please don't think that I would mind being at school from 7:30 to 3:00, generally I am there from 6:30 until at least 4:30 already, but that includes coaching and some time for me to exercise. If I had the 90 minutes from 7:00 until 9:30 to plan or grade or do whatever I needed to do, I can guarantee that every lesson would be better, feedback would get back sooner, and if my students got out at 3:00, I would be happy to bet that their test scores or many other measures of "student achievement" would certainly not go down and likely would climb. An extra hour of sleep would change the entire landscape of most of my students' lives. There is absolutely nothing I or any other teacher could do that would have anything like that positive effect.
But if we were really trying to do what is best for our students and our kids, starting later would be one in a flurry of changes that would quickly revolutionize the way we approach education in this country. So I don't want to pretend that it is the only thing to fix either, but it is one that seems obvious enough even for the educational establishment not to be able to ignore much longer. I hope.
Get out of his bike lane!
Sweet pictures of all kinds of fun bike lane violations. I thought of it this morning when I saw that the maximum fine for driving in a bike lane was 50 bucks, at least for the bike lane on Bryn Mawr Ave heading away from the city.
Bike Lane Violations
(there are some other great ones at the related blog, I just liked this one the most)
The other great part of the morning was when a woman dropping her high school age daugther off at the bus stop almost killed me so she could swing into the road just ahead of the bus, block both lanes and just about crush me in the process. Good times, good times.
Like a lot of folks I am reading lately, riding a bike more just makes you hate cars more. It makes you happier, healthier, wiser (at least in my own mind) and fills you frequently with a bitter, bitter kind of rage for the way that cars not only make people incredibly stupid and reckless, but also incredibly dangerous at the same time. Hoooray for cars!
(disclaimer: I own a car and I really like driving it. Zoom Zoom and all that. So I am a hypocrite. Just wanted to put that out there)
Bike Lane Violations
(there are some other great ones at the related blog, I just liked this one the most)
The other great part of the morning was when a woman dropping her high school age daugther off at the bus stop almost killed me so she could swing into the road just ahead of the bus, block both lanes and just about crush me in the process. Good times, good times.
Like a lot of folks I am reading lately, riding a bike more just makes you hate cars more. It makes you happier, healthier, wiser (at least in my own mind) and fills you frequently with a bitter, bitter kind of rage for the way that cars not only make people incredibly stupid and reckless, but also incredibly dangerous at the same time. Hoooray for cars!
(disclaimer: I own a car and I really like driving it. Zoom Zoom and all that. So I am a hypocrite. Just wanted to put that out there)
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