Expectations

Marvin Marshall had this in his newletter I received today. 



Rainier Scholars is a project for low-income students in
Seattle, Washington that recruits 5th graders and has them
attend full-time summer school plus weekend classes. The
goal is to see them through college graduation.

Drego Little, one of the teachers, visualizes his young
students as future doctors, city councilmen, and other
responsible, successful grownups. He says, "I treat them as
if they were going to be consequential people--and work back
from there. If you treat them as if they actually have a
future, they tend to have one." He wants to give his
students expectations early in their lives.

David McCullough in his masterful book, "JOHN ADAMS,"
reports that the second president of the United States used
the same technique when he was teaching school. "I can
discover all the geniuses, all the surprising actions and
revolutions of the great world in miniature. I have several
renowned generals but three feet high, and several
deep-projecting politicians in petticoats. I have others
catching and dissecting flies, accumulating remarkable
pebbles, cockleshells, etc. with as ardent curiosity as any
virtuoso as in the Royal Academy...." (page 38)

Perhaps Johann Wolfgang von Goethe stated it best, "If you
treat someone as he is, he will stay as he is. But if you
treat him as if he were what he could and ought to be, he
will become what he could and ought to be."

If you ask someone the key to success in real estate, you
will hear the following response: location, location,
location. With education, a critical approach of the
superior teacher is expectation, expectation, expectation.

Notice, however, that  expectations starts with a person's
own expectations.

Why History?

David McCullough gives us important reminders as to why studying history is important. 

 

Author David McCullough: The pursuit of happiness is the pursuit of greater knowledge

By Benjamin Wood , Deseret News

Published: Monday, Sept. 17 2012 10:29 p.m. MDT

David McCullough speaks at a press conference as Utah Valley University hosts a ribbon-cutting and grand opening of the Center for Constitutional Studies Monday, Sept. 17, 2012, in Orem, Utah. (Tom Smart, Deseret News)

OREM — Renowned author and scholar David McCullough said the genius passed down by the Founding Fathers should not be disregarded. But neither should the current government become frozen by the Constitution, the nation's measure of good governance.
"Washington called it a guide and we should remember that," McCullough said, speaking at Utah Valley University on Monday.
McCullough's comments were part of a Constitution Day program at the UCCO Center, which coincided with the ribbon-cutting of the university's new Center for Constitutional Studies. Thousands of students and community members attended the keynote address, in which McCullough said there was a need for improvement in the teaching of history, particularly in regard to the founding of the United States.
"History is human" he said, emphasizing that the Founding Fathers were not gods, as they are sometimes portrayed, but instead were human beings of flesh and blood.

David McCullough speaks at a press conference as Utah Valley University hosts a ribbon-cutting and grand opening of the Center for Constitutional Studies in connection with the university's Constitution Week events Monday, Sept. 17, 2012, in Orem, Utah. (Tom Smart, Deseret News)

"The fact that they did what they did, despite their own personal failures, despite adversity, despite little or no seeming chance of success is one of the greatest stories in all of history," he said, "and it is true."
McCullough the author of "1776" and "John Adams," and recipient of a Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, offered an indictment of the current state of student knowledge in history, even as he praised UVU's new center and the need for more at other institutions of higher learning.
He described the current generation of students as "historically illiterate," saying that overall, Americans possess a sketchy, thin level of understanding of the nation's founding and the constitutional framework of society.
"I think we're swindling students with the illusion that they're educated and they're not," he said. "I know students. I know what they know and I know what they don't know."

David McCullough speaks as Utah Valley University hosts a ribbon-cutting and grand opening of the Center for Constitutional Studies Monday, Sept. 17, 2012, in Orem, Utah. (Tom Smart, Deseret News)

Later on, speaking before the audience in the UCCO Center, McCullough said that compared to our ancestors, who studied literature, law, politics, art and agriculture while living shorter lives without modern comfort, we are "softies."
"We have been coddled," he said. "We have been comforted and made to feel secure in ways they never knew."
McCullough also pointed out the responsibility and accountability the founders took upon themselves by signing the Declaration of Independence – an act of treason against the British crown. He said there is a similar need for accountability and engagement among society today for what goes on in government. He called the pursuit of happiness the pursuit of greater knowledge.
"We are accountable for what happens in the government and the direction of our country and we are accountable for the education of our children and grandchildren," he said. "They didn't mean vacations. They didn't mean more stuff. They meant the life of the mind, the love of learning."

UVU President Matthew S. Holland speaks as Utah Valley University hosts a ribbon-cutting and grand opening of the Center for Constitutional Studies in connection with the university's Constitution Week events Monday, Sept. 17, 2012, in Orem, Utah. (Tom Smart, Deseret News)

While introducing McCullough, Rick Griffin, the founding director of the Center for Constitutional Studies, described him as a historical "tour guide." He said McCullough, through his writing, places a reader among Washington's army or in Independence Hall during the constitutional debates.
Near the end of his remarks, McCullough acknowledged the personal nature of his research and writing. He said parents should take their children to historical sites such as Independence Hall or the Capitol. He said teachers – who he said do the most important and influential work in the country – need to encourage the "adventure of learning" by having students write and read more than they are currently required to.
"I've had the great privilege of getting to know these people well," McCullough said of the Founding Fathers. "In many ways, I know them better than people in my own real life."

Utah Valley University hosts a ribbon-cutting and grand opening of the Center for Constitutional Studies in connection with the university's Constitution Week events Monday, Sept. 17, 2012, in Orem, Utah. (Tom Smart, Deseret News)

During the center's ribbon cutting, UVU President Matthew Holland emphasized that in addition to the honor of having McCullough participate in the university program, the true purpose of the event and the new center was an academic focus on the U.S. Constitution.
"It's what we will study," he said. "It's what we will reflect on. It's what we will try to defend."
In conjunction with his participation at the center's ribbon-cutting, McCullough was given the center's Inaugural Honorary Fellow Award.
The Center for Constitutional Studies is hosting a number of events in celebration of Constitution Day. On Thursday, George Washington University professor and writer Jon Turley will give a free address to the public at 11 a.m.

E-mail: benwood@desnews.com

Copyright 2012, Deseret News Publishing Company

Stories Nourish the Soul

Something else I loved about the book The Greater Journey by David McCullough was the stories--stories of real people. The stories interwoven with real events helped to make everything more authentic. This is why using biographies when teaching history (and any other subject for that matter!) makes the subject that much more interesting.

People's stories are fascinating and intriguing with many beautiful lessons. That's why we want to do whatever we can at Esperanza to encourage students, families, educators, community members, etc. to share their individual and unique stories so we can all be enriched.

Dr. Patricia Gándara also talks about another way stories are important. She has shared in her books that many Hispanic families often share stories--even if they are fictional-- with their children about ancestors who were noble and great to inspire their children about their legacy. They do this no matter what the circumstances of the family may be in the present moment.

No matter how we choose to use stories at Esperanza they can help nourish the soul of our scholars and those who teach them.

The Greater Journey

This morning I finished reading David McCullough's newest book The Greater Journey. It is about Americans who went to Paris from 1830-1900 to learn. Not only was the book extremely fascinating--one that I wanted to read again as soon as I read the last page--but I also learned some valuable lessons.

The Americans in the book went to Paris to learn from another culture that had been in existence a much longer time than their own American culture. What they learned they brought home to enrich Americans. America is still a relatively new culture so it would still be wise for us to be humble and learn from cultures that have existed longer, some even for thousands of years. How we can learn from these cultures:

• Travel


• Read--fiction, nonfiction, biographies, poetry, art


• Cultivate friendships with people from different cultures


• Documentaries


• Attend cultural events


• Visit cultural restaurants and other cultural business establishments


• Learn another language


• Have pen pals


• Listen to music from different cultures and learn about the instruments

We as the educators at Esperanza need to set the example. Then we need to intentionally provide opportunities for our scholars to learn from other cultures. Even though our Hispanic scholars may share a common language--Spanish--they will probably come from different countries...and even those who come from Mexico may come from different parts of Mexico.

This cultural learning journey can be one of those most intriguing things we ever do.

Awakening a Love for History

Abigail Adams, writing one of her many letters to her husband, John, who was off in Philadelphia working to put the Declaration of Independence through Congress, wrote, "Posterity who are to reap the blessings, will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors."

We are the ones reaping the blessings of those who paved the way for us. We have so much to learn from these courageous souls who didn't know how things were going to turn out. They were living in their present, just as we do. Reading biographies, autobiographies, historical fiction, trade books about events, etc. will give us a much richer understanding of historical times than memorizing dates and events.

David McCullough who has a great passion and love for history and has written a number of books about history told BYU students at a forum assembly on the 27th of September 2005, "...pursue it [history] avidly, with diligence, with attention. I hope you do this not just because it will make you a better citizen, and it will; not just because you learn a great deal about human nature and about cause and effect in your own lives, as well as the life of the nation, which you will; but as a source of strength, as an example of how to conduct yourself in difficult times...But I hope you also will find history to be a source of pleasure."

We owe it to our Esperanza scholars to awaken in them a love for history.