Did You Get Your Latex-Free Gloves? Back-to-school Supplies

My son has a rotating eight day schedule annotated in as many colors. A suggestion is noted in bold on his shopping list:  "Please try to have students color-coordinate their class supplies with their class colors (ex. Yellow Binder for Yellow Math class)." 

This begs the question of course, just what is Yellow Math and is it different from Blue Math? My son has Red Math so should he be alarmed? 

My son and I discussed his schedule hues: royal blue vs. purple and yellow, orange, and tan.  Staples ran out of plastic folders and they had 15 cent paper folders in numerous colors, but we didn't find tan. Brown might work and he subbed black for orange. Pink and green were for specials like art and music, and gray was the only color which made sense.

Gray was reserved for whatever: assemblies, workshops, health class. Dubious, changing, the combination of black and white, gray was a color that merited its name. The color scheme is designed to help students remember which class they have and what they need.

Staples "Better Binder" which starts at $9.99

Two boys settled onto desk chairs by Staples' entrance, Sit 'n Spin skills in full force. I lost track of time and my daughter didn’t need or appreciate my input on her supply list. So when the spinners’ mother collected them at the door, I swooped into the seat to watch the chaos.

It was the day before school starts.

My children finished and we joined the line which extended to the back wall, scurrying enough to beat four families. We counted ten buyers ahead of us and three cashiers.  We got to the head of the line in ten minutes.

The manager directed customers to open cashiers.  I told him this was quite a line, I appreciated the pink duct tape on the floor directing us where to stand, but most importantly, I’m sure he liked hearing my final comment.  “You beat the post office.  It took me 26 minutes for 9 people and your line took one customer per minute.”  (See Going Postal - Miss Trunchbull & the Chokey to appreciate government tax dollars at work). 

He smiled and said, “Oh, we’re not the post office, but funny you say that.  We’re putting in a post office here.”

Would this improve service or slow down service time? That depends on whether the government will be involved. 

The supplies for this visit costs upwards of $90 and this was the third visit. The cost for everything is outrageous. There’s a school in India we support for a $1 a day and the teacher holds class beneath a tree. I’m not sure about the quality of instruction but I receive well written letters from the teachers.   

Let me share something else which might be useful.

Did you get your box of latex-free gloves? 

They're on the end of the far right aisle at Staples and they come in four varieties:  latex-free, powder free, nitrile, and textured. If I saw ribbed for her pleasure, I would refuse to be part of this. 

Latex Powder Free AND Textured

The words "exam gloves" were on each box and the association with the doctor's office made me cringe. The item seemed innocent enough on the supply list.  Nitrile, if you are curious, is defined as nitrile rubber which is preferred because it's synthetic.  Students with latex allergies despair not! 

Two of my children are in middle school and their supply lists consist of one typed page. Here's a relief: it includes all classes. This is a product of Kaizen at work in the schools, parents driving quality improvement year over year.

We stand on the shoulders of giants.

Yet I wonder.  Did the parents of yesteryear need exam gloves too? or Post-it notes, hand sanitizer, and a 16 gigabyte flash drive? 

And now that we have color coded supplies and latex-free gloves, are the results any better?

(Read letters:  Politically Correct Fractions and Literary Analysis or Amateur Psychology?)

 

 

Elegant Sentences, Express Ideas and Make an Impact

I am not a grammarian but I love words, their arrangement and sound, the infinite combinations and uses, their impact.

Words are responsible for founding our country, We the people; for ending a war, Tear down this wall; for perhaps the most intimate and familiar of all, the vows uniting two into one, I do.




President Ronald Reagan speaking at the Brandenburg Gate (White House Photo)

There is a force or person behind words which when spoken change a message's tone and meaning.  But words are what we hear, what we read, and when the moment is gone, all that remains are the words. 

As you return to work, to school, to the routine and the daily grind, consider improving your writing for it can be one of the most powerful tools in your toolbox.  Sharpening the axe (Back to school parable link) in the Age of Information has a lot to do with writing, because many and maybe even most of our interactions with people in our career and life will be through written communication. 

WARNING.  If you get queasy at the thought of grammar, do not fear; this is not a grammar lesson.  If you do NOT wish to improve your writing, then stop here.  However, if you seek personal improvement and wish to write effective and elegant sentences, then read on.

Professor Brooks Landon from the notable writing institution University of Iowa has taught some 30 years and teaches a popular writing course, Building Great Sentences.  One can write short sentences and learning to do so, is simply that, by doing.  Jane ran.  Birds Fly. Short sentences are powerful and compelling: Jesus wept.

Building great sentences, "master sentences" as Landon calls them, is more involved. And it is this course which I found more valuable and immediately impactful than any writing class, program, or book.

Understanding these concepts help you sharpen your writer's axe.

The Difference Between Grammar and Rhetoric

Grammar                                           Rhetoric
Machinery of a sentence                     How sentences work, their motive and impact

 

Landon said, “Effectiveness and elegance in writing are both rhetorical issues and grammar alone can lead us to neither.”  Grammar is how a sentence operates, but the rhetoric is how we express ideas and how they make an impact. 

I will share this again, “Effectiveness and elegance in writing are both rhetorical issues and grammar alone can lead us to neither.” 

 A Sentence Reflects Three Choices

Sentences are the building block of all writing, if you master the sentence then your writing improves.  So it's important to understand that a sentence reflects three choices. 

1. What we want to say/accomplish   (propositions)
2. Which words to use                       (vocabulary)
3. What order to put them in              (syntax)

Example:

“Invisible God created the visible world.”  Port Royal Grammar 1660

There are 3 underlying mental realities to this sentence.  The words on the page are only what we physically see.  Propositions are basic elementary statements that can’t be broken into constituent parts. 

1)      God is invisible

2)      The world is visible

3)      God created the world

These three propositions are made using six words.  The words used are precise and the syntax or order is artful and balanced. 

Gertrude Stein said, “Why should a sequence of words be anything but a pleasure?”  If we change the order or the words, this question is not as elegant or effective.  Think of a few of the many, many different ways she might have written this sentence:

Why should a sequence of words not be a pleasure?
 

Shouldn’t a sequence of words always give pleasure?

Words in sequence should always give pleasure.

We should always find pleasure in a sequence of words.

And so on.  Stein advances a number of propositions, but these alternatives are not as effective or elegant. 

Consider this sentence from Mark Twain's The Prince and Pauper.

Mark Twain:    “Kings cannot ennoble thee, thou good, great soul, for One who is higher than kings hath done that for thee; but a king can confirm thy nobility to men.” (Prince & Pauper, p. 175, ch 28 “The Sacrifice”)

What is Twain saying?  Here are the propositions of this sentence.

1) King can’t honor thee (refers to Miles )      

2) Miles has a good soul                     

3) Miles has a great soul

4) One (or God) is higher than kings

5) God has honored thee

6) King can honor Miles to men (on earth)

Word choice is precise.  What other vocabulary or substitution would be as powerful to support these propositions?

Order:  Proposition #1, 2, & 3  lead to 4&5, ultimately 6.    

***  This sentence is effective AND elegant.  ***

The Sacrifice: Miles Hendon takes the prince's lashes

Now Sharpen Your Axe

When reading, look at sentences, especially of writing you like.  If something resonates with you in particular, whether it made you laugh, cringe, or think, ask yourself what the writer is saying in that sentence, why those words, and the specific order she used them.  

When you write your next letter, note, or report, consider first what it is you wish to say, second what are the best words to use, and third what order to use.  

After completing Landon's course, for the first time I understand why a sentence is good, great, or even masterful. Doing so makes me a better reader and writer.

 

The Woodcutter's Tale, a Back-to-School Parable

 Once upon a time, there lived a woodcutter who went into the forest to chop down wood.  He felled 18 trees that day and brought them to the timber merchant.
 
"You are the best woodcutter around," the merchant said and gave him his pay.
 
The second day, the woodcutter went into the woods to begin his work, but by midday had only taken down 8 trees.  He worked through lunch and his breaks.  But all told, he had only 15 trees to sell to the merchant.
 
"Well, you are still a strong axeman and here is your pay."
 
The woodcutter told his wife about this and they agreed he would eat early and get going before sunrise. 

The third day he began chopping at first light, continued through lunch and into dusk.  He cut down only 12 trees.  He was worried the merchant might not be pleased.
 
"You disappoint me, but I know what you can do."

Now the woodcutter began to worry as he looked over his pay, less than he made just two days before and for more work. He and his wife decided he needed go to sleep earlier and eat more for his strength, so they scraped together extra food for him and packed a larger meal for lunch.  The woodcutter felt strong that morning.

On the fourth day even with the extra food and long hours, he had chopped down just 9 trees.  He hung his head, exhausted.  "I must be losing my strength," he said, "and I fear the merchant will fire me."

It was so late he did not make it to the merchant until the next day.

"I'm sorry, but I must ask for my axe back," said the timber merchant.  "I have others who want to work and will provide more trees."

It was as the woodcutter feared.  He gave him his axe.

One look at the axe and the merchant said, "Is this what you have been using?  When was the last time you sharpened your axe?"


"I never sharpened the axe," said the woodcutter. "I put all my time into chopping down trees."

Whiteboard in our "Treehouse" of an axe as a reminder to keep it sharp

I tell this story to my children each year at the beginning of school.  Sharpening the axe as students includes things like better planning and learning how to learn. My children discovered putting in more time helps, but not always.

Thinking. 

Stopping to think is the easiest and most overlooked skill.  During their year of homeschool, they met once a week to "Sharpen the axe" and discuss what each was working on and ideas for improvement and change.

Abraham Lincoln grew up with an axe in his hand; early in life he helped build his own home as well as many rail fences.  Though he did not say it, this quote is often attributed to him for his work ethic and leadership.

"Give me six hours to cut down a tree and I will spend my first four sharpening the axe."

Lincoln portrayed with his ax in an early 20th century painting by F.A. Schneider.