…with Gary Moss

Archive for October, 2009

Some people believe that there is something that underlies the little mistakes and misspeaks that we initiate. Is that true? This morning I took pause when a friend who plays scrabble at Club #350 admonished me for misrepresenting the ‘High Game’ played last evening. He told me that this is not the first time that such an event occurred. How could that be? Am I not flawless?

I bet that I am aware of only a fraction of the typos and errors that I produce. There is no ill will, on my part, for having my recklessness highlighted. It causes me a bit of inner angst but it also makes me even more determined to not have that reoccur.

One area that will most likely be solved by the next generation of word processor programmers is how to weed out those unwanted words, in bodies of works, when they are submitted to spellcheck. Now-a-days only the non-words are highlighted for elimination. When I type some word twice twice and it is spelled correctly, my spell check ignores it.

When I miss an appointment, does that mean something more than I was just forgetful?

Actually, I can’t remember the last time I missed an appointment. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t missed appointment. I’m probably so hostile in regard to that person that I can’t even remember that I forgot.

I am never late! ! ! If you know me, than you know that I am always 15+ minutes early. One time I was an entire week early to a wedding. They were painting the benches in the garden, readying the place for the following week. I took off my suit and helped with the painting. I do become offended when others make me wait, and that seems to be way too often. I’ve use to have dear friends who were habitually late. If I wanted to meet them at 8PM, I’d always tell them that we will meet at 7PM. Even with that I may have had to wait an extra 5 minutes. My experience is that women are almost always late. While growing up, my mom, my auntie Annie, and my aunt Jean were never late. I find tardiness a sign of disrespect and a statement that I’m not worthy of your timeliness.

I had an aunt who was always sticking her foot into her mouth. In 1963 there were very few divorces, compared to today. It was something that people didn’t talk about in the open; they whispered. One of our friends had been married, and divorce, and was marrying for a second try. A shower for the bride was being held. The room was packed with women toting gifts. Aunt Min did not know the bride to be. Upon arriving at the party, she leaned to over to one of the strangers in the room and whispered, “Who’s the divorcee?” The woman answered, “Me.”

Ooops. Pardon meeeeeee.

Some people are so frightened about making mistakes that they rarely reach beyond their comfort zone. They are frozen in time, in geography, in personal growth, and in the way they perceive things.

There are most likely psychological explanations for why those people are the way that they are. It is my observation that most people have a touch of that kind of behavior: morning routines after getting out of bed; the stagnant drive to work; menus; TV preferences; the way in which they acknowledge or ignore others; and the list goes on.

I’ve heard that there are many people who live in Manhattan, who were born there, and have never left the island. For me that’s hard to imagine. I’m by no means a world traveler, but in today’s world, in the USA, I’d expect almost everyone to have at least visited a neighboring State (but I guess that New Jersey doesn’t exactly have an intoxicating attraction).

Newbies don’t want to look bad or foolish. They stick with that which they know for certain. That precludes them from playing 95% of the words in the dictionary. Even after we first learn things we are usually apprehensive about our new knowledge until we have used it a time or two, to gain some confidence. That’s why, after learning new words, I believe that we should go out of our way to play them. Playing words helps cement them into our memory. If we error and play a phoney, we may be caught by a challenge and lose a turn, but that’s part of the game. And whether we played the word correctly or not, it is part of the learning experience.

I’ll admit it here. I’ve made my share of mistakes in my lifetime. And those experiences have taught me lessons. But if you look at the long, long list of people who have made mistakes on life’s journey toward knowing and greatness, I’m in very good company.

Be willing to make a Mistake today . . . then learn from it.

There’s a joke of sorts among educators who are too, too aware of the hectic calendar adopted by most public school programs across the country. It explains quite clearly why we continually hear, in the media, that the ranking of US students among students from other countries is dismal.

We all know for certain that children are very excitable and have many things on their minds. ((Half or more of all school children come from broken homes; many kids come home from school to an empty home (their parents are working).) They are always thinking ahead, planning all those fun, after school activities and weekend plans. The NEA tells us, “That accounts for the reason that Mondays and Fridays are commonly referred to as ‘The Dead Days’ in teacher circles.” On Mondays, after returning from the weekend, students are consumed by sharing stories with friends about their weekend adventures. Similarly, on Fridays, the frenzy of anticipation clouds students’ minds and makes them pretty much useless and unable to absorb even the simplest math, science, or language arts concept. Some teachers have had limited, minor breakthroughs for periods of about 5 minutes when they used the entertainment sections from the LA Times in lieu of textbooks, on Fridays. The TGIF attitude that pervades the general public has infiltrated and indoctrinated our youth.

If that was the worst of it, it wouldn’t be so bad. However school, like the work place, is subject to the schedules and celebrations of the greater community. Every month has one or more holidays that demand recognition and attention in the form of day assemblies, and days off (this is especially good training for those who will go on to Union jobs and government service.)

Presidents, from the time of JFK, have expressed the importance of physical fitness of our youth. And even though many PE programs have vanished due to necessary budget cuts, two strategic recess periods are the general rules today in most schools across the land. Unfortunately, most of this time is spent by student hanging out and playing handheld video devices.

Most schools today have a computer class once or twice a week for students. It is the norm that most kids finish their typing assignment in 2-5 minutes and spend the other 25+ minutes surfing the web and showing friends how to access Facebook and/or porn sites.

But fret not. There is a day that comes once each year when there are few, if any, distraction. That day is on the second Tuesday in March. The best teachers know this and and are prepared with ‘The Mother Of All Lessons.’

And hopefully you child is not home sick on that day.

(The same thing applies to most scrabble players when it come to making time to study.

Playing frequently is not the same as studying.

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