The longer I taught in the public school system, the more I came to think that schools were concerned with everything but teaching. Teaching was the last priority, something you were supposed to do after you collected the milk money, put up the bulletin boards, straightened the shades and desks, filled out forms in triplicate, punched the cards, charted all the reading levels so they could be shipped downtown to the Board of Education. Everybody was test crazy. It seemed as thought the administrators only wanted to probe IQs and rank test scores. It didn't matter whether the children learned anything at all. Nothing was important except their performance on standardized tests. Teachers were supposed to teach skills specifically for those tests. Marva Collins, The Marva Collins' Way, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1982.

Very interesting discussion: Can B-Schools Teach Entrepreneurship? http://bit.ly/4sjUrN\

What has been your experience?

John E Wren died 30 years ago today.


His hospital bed surrounded by family and friends, Pop did not pass quietly. If not a rage it was certainly a struggle there in Denver's Porters Hospital.


This morning, it suddenly dawned on my why the struggle. Pop must have finally realized it was time to go, as the hospice ladies were encouraging us to tell him, and with that realization he must have decided to get off the stage quickly. He played his part well right to the end of this life.

His last words to my mother had come earlier, that day or the day before if I understand correctly: "Don't worry honey, we'll whip this."

Pop always had whipped back adversity, right up until this final stuggle when it suddenly became clear that it was time to go. So he did.

He'd married my mom, Jane Edwards, a year or two behind him, a cheerleader and the most popular girl at Amarillo High School (I know she was and is because I got to see how they treat her at the 50th high school reunion). Mom a couple of years out of school, dad on a leave from the Navy, March 16, 1944 they eloped. I was born in 1947, they moved to Colorado in 1949, and had two more sons as they built a successful business which they sold in 1969 when I graduated from DU.


Dad was a Christian, but he never could find a church that met his standards. He left one when he offered to pay for Sunday school teachers who did more than just babysit, and they wouldn't do it. 

His deep faith and regular attendance from church to church seemed to help him be a high achiever, but it didn't appear to be a real comfort to him at the end. His then current pastor left his room with tears in his eyes and told me, "You dad just said a very profound thing. 'It's hard to fight two battles.'"


Pop we still miss you. Your 55 summers were not enough. Facing 30 winters without you has been hard for us all.

But this morning I take comfort in the prayer of a poem you recited so often:

As going through life,
Whatever be your goal,
Keep your eye upon the donut,
And not upon the hole.

I'm grateful Pop, for all the good lessons and the time we did get with you. And don't worry, Mom, we'll whip this. 

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. George Bernard Shaw

My old economics professor at the University of Denver used to tell us there is no such thing as unemployment. "If you don't believe me," he'd say, "anyone who considers them self unemployed can come with me this afternoon, I'll put you to work pulling weeds in my yard."


The problem is the economists pie chart. There is no pie. We are not so much in a ocean liner as a canoe; we each have to paddle our own canoe.


Yes, there is a need for temporary charity and a safety net. But the objective is to recover. In football, players are taught to hit and recover, to get back up into a good hitting position. If you need help getting back up in a good hitting position, if you're not sure what you are going to do Monday morning, join us any Friday afternoon for the Denver IDEA Cafe.

"Even the labor of humility is rest."
Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

Want to turn your inspiration into effective action? Whether you are part of the 10% unemployed, or the 90% who have a job, if you are starting a new career, a new project or campaign, or a new business, join us this afternoon or any Friday afternoon for the Denver IDEA Cafe. We meet from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Panera Bread, 13th & Grant, here in Denver Colorado. Contact me if you want more information.

"What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn't come every day."

"I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no "brief candle" for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."

George Bernard Shaw, who died on this date in 1950 at 94.

In response to my previous post here:

Here's a podcast of me talking about how to find a good job fast:
http://blipcasts.com/

I just got this email from the Dean of my alma mater:

John,

That was a great podcast! Thank you for sharing. I have passed 

it along to folks within Daniels. I hope you are doing well!

All the best,

Chris

--------------------------------------

Christine M. Riordan, Ph.D.

Dean

Professor of Management

Daniels College of Business

University of Denver

2101 South University Boulevard, Suite 664

Denver, CO 80208

Phone:  303-871-4324

http://www.daniels.du.edu

Here's a podcast of me talking about how to find a good job fast:
http://blipcasts.com/

It was on this day that Martin Luther (books by this author) published his 95 Theses in 1517, an event that led to the Protestant Reformation. He was protesting corruption within the Roman Catholic Church, and he was particularly upset by the selling of indulgences, which the Church was doing to raise funds for restoration work on St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Luther's initial goal was not schism nor even confrontation; he was operating more in the mode of muckraking (a tradition that would become popular centuries later). Luther was hoping that his statements would shame the Church into mending its ways.

In Thesis # 86, Martin Luther posited: "Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?" But the selling of indulgences was the iceberg tip of a deeper theological issue: a debate over the doctrine of Justification, and its role in salvation. The Roman Catholic Church's position was that man could not be saved by faith alone; good works must accompany the faith. And at the time, buying indulgences to save one's soul and help achieve salvation in the afterlife counted as something somewhere between good works and spiritual insurance.

Luther insisted that this was wrong, theologically so, because only God could grant salvation. The pope could not, Luther said, and the practice of selling and buying indulgences was harmful to Christianity because the false assurance misled people from being faithful Christians. His language grew stronger over time, and he wrote: "All those who consider themselves secure in their salvation through letters of indulgence will be eternally damned, and so will their teachers."

There were attempts at mediation and counseling by the Vatican, but slowly a virulent confrontation between Luther and the pope developed. Luther was called to Rome and asked by the pope to recant 41 of the sentences from his writings, including some from the 95 Theses, or else he would be excommunicated. He refused and grew increasingly outspoken. He proclaimed: "The Roman Church, once the holiest of all, has become the most licentious den of thieves, the most shameless of brothels, the kingdom of sin." He was excommunicated, declared a heretic and an outlaw. He was a hero of many German townspeople.

And it was on this day just 10 years ago — in 1999 --- that Lutheran and Roman Catholic clerics signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. It's an 8,000-word document that aims to explain misunderstandings and resolve differences over the very doctrine that was at the heart of the of the Protestant Reformation. The document's preamble states that the two churches, Lutheran and Catholic, "are now able to articulate a common understanding of our justification by God's grace through faith in Christ." The document is not all encompassing when it comes clearing up issues about Justification, it disclaims, but does say that no one will be excommunicated over the issue of Justification anymore.

From: The Writer's Almanac