Lessons for Life in Three Stories

 

Lessons for Life in Three Stories

By Jeffrey M. Bowen 

 As a school administrator, I spent years attending workshops and conferences trying to glean lessons I could apply to my work.  Often I would return uninspired and frustrated because I could not see relevance in what I had learned.  In retrospect, I have discovered the real messages from those workshops came from life stories. Data may deaden the mind, and generalizations may weary us, but the stories still remain vital and memorable.   

 Therefore, I would like to introduce several characters whose experiences were described in workshops that taught me the most.    

 My first character is Jim Hayhurst who, in 1988, attempted to scale Mt. Everest.  His ordeal was harrowing.  Ultimately it failed, and more than one of his mountain climber colleagues died from altitude sickness.  Yet his year-long ordeal ultimately produced a self-revealing book titled “The Right Mountain”.  Every chapter contains a metaphor about success in life.  Factors like preparation, teamwork, shared expertise, slowing down to take one step at a time, and maintaining a balanced perspective come into play as Hayhurst and his companions face life-threatening encounters while they struggle toward the 30,000-foot summit. 

 The book title takes its lesson from the tragic death of an expert climber who joined the expedition and misjudged conditions because he tried to repeat the same strategies he used on another mountain.  Each mountain, each situation, Hayhurst tells us, involves a vital combination of factors.  You must know just who you are, your core values, the skills you can offer, how you like to operate, and your ability to compare what you can offer with the challenges you face.

 A very different cast of characters is described by Dr. Spencer Johnson in the short book titled “Who Moved My Cheese?”  They are imaginary mice, actually four of them.  Two are named Sniff and Scurry, and two others, Hem and Haw, are mice-like, but called “littlepeople” – beings who are as small as mice but who look and act much like people today.  The idea of the book is that these beings experience the challenges of life as they run through a maze looking for cheesy nourishment and happiness.

 Sniff and Scurry are said to possess only rodent brains, so their search for cheese is instinctive.  Hem and Haw, on the other hand, are looking for “a different kind of cheese” associated with happiness and success.   All four discover a huge cache of cheese in one of the corridors.   Soon Hem and Haw arrogantly regard the cheese pile as theirs, not noticing the pile has been dwindling.  Sniff and Scurry quickly and instinctively head off to find another supply, but the two littlepeople sit tight and grow angry and frustrated.

 Righteous indignation sums up their reaction.  After all, the cheese pile had been their material source of security, and the reason they felt like the “the big cheese”.  Ultimately, Hem clings to the same spot based on excuses like being comfortable, getting too old to move, and fear of failure.  Haw reluctantly leaves his friend behind, trusting the unknown and painting a positive picture of success in his mind.  Warnings include the dangers of fear becoming a habit and failing to notice small changes before the big ones happen.  In the end, Hem rejoins Haw.  The lessons of the book for us are that change is inevitable.  One should anticipate and monitor it, and adapt quickly to new circumstances.

 A third story is about Fred the mailman.  Author Mark Sanborn uses “The Fred Factor” to highlight how passion in one’s work and life can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.  Fred is described as “a gold-plated example of what personalized service looks like.” Based on a true story, this mail carrier is a living parable of principles that confirm everyone makes a difference; success is built on relationships; it costs you nothing to create value for others; and reinventing your work will renew your perspective.

 The essential point about Fred is how changing the way you look at your job helps you to transform it, even if nothing in the nature of the work changes.  At the same time, focusing on service yields terrific rewards for everyone who is involved.   The people we remember most are those whose inspiration, commitment, and inclination to view us as friends make all the difference.

 Every day I find new ways to use the key ideas found in the three books I have described here.  I think you might too.  The challenges are these: to assess situations in terms of your personal values and the skills you can bring; to break through habits of fear and the arrogance of comfort; and to view work as way to affirm service and the value of others. All of these are top qualities of administrative leadership.  Better yet, they provide marvelous lessons for life.      

 

The English Language Is Endlessly Fascinating

 

The English Language is Endlessly Fascinating

By Jeffrey M. Bowen

 

Recently I spotted a shabby old Merriam-Webster pocket dictionary in my bookcase.  Held together with masking tape, the binding reminded me of the countless times I riffled through it on my mission to become a dedicated wordsmith. 

 

I have loved words my entire life, starting with mimicking nursery rhymes my grandmother read to me as a three-year-old, through several professional careers that constantly depended on words of analysis and inspiration.  In fact, when I retired a few years ago, my school district colleagues gifted me with a plaque that reads, “Words are the voice of the heart.” Most likely they meant I use way too many words to explain things.

 

I have had plenty to choose from over the years since the English language has millions of words.  They have bubbled up in our dictionaries from an ancient British melting pot of origins beginning with Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, and Old Norse (think Viking), followed in the last millenium by French and Latin.  More or less, our words reflect about 29 percent Latin, 29 percent French, 26 percent German, six percent Greek, and 10 percent “other”.  American English adds a distinctive twist due to the historical assimilation of Mexican Spanish, including terms that name our geography, weather, cowboy life, and even ballroom dancing.   

 

English is endlessly fascinating.  Digging for its roots can be revealing and entertaining.  I am sorry I did not take Latin in school because so many medical, technical, and legal words spring from this so-called dead language. Instead, I learned to speak poor French, though it does offer an amazing variety of terms to describe everything from meats and cooking to money and denim.  We borrow many French words without bothering to change them.      

 

Pronunciation varies tremendously. We violate rules of grammar at every turn.  Because our language derives from so many sources, there are thousands of ways to say essentially the same thing, so a thesaurus outweighs any dictionary.  What is more, jargon and special expressions may overwhelm English language learners.  As for spelling, I heard an English teacher recently describe it as something invented by a seven-year-old who had eaten too much sugar candy. 

 

Despite these challenges, English has become the international “lingua franca” -- that is, a bridge for worldwide communication.  This is partly because of our wandering commercial ways, but earlier because the British managed to colonize most of the world.

 

 Another reason for my passion comes from having spent a year teaching English in Vietnam.  While stationed there, my charge was to teach military cadets enough conversational English so they could be sent stateside to learn the technical side of aircraft.  I remain unsure of the logic here, but the military’s language learning method of modeling terms and sentences worked wonders.  My students proved to be quick learners.  

 

Remember that old pocket dictionary I mentioned?  It became my bible in Vietnam.  During our free time there was little to do, so I decided to memorize any words I did not know in the dictionary.  Of course, context was missing, but it never stopped me from excelling at Scrabble or frustrating editors of my future articles.  On balance, I concluded that one can find more unhappy than happy words in our language.

 

Different types of knowledge call for different types of learning and vocabulary. One can make a convincing case that each word we learn is like a signal flag, below which are planted whole networks of meaning. Our vocabulary is strongly correlated with intelligence, ability to comprehend new information, and even one’s level of wealth.  When children are not exposed to a rich vocabulary at home (reading aloud to them is key) especially in their pre-school years, they struggle to catch up in school.

 

One of the reasons why schools shy away from explicit vocabulary instruction is that there are so many words.  It is said that the number of printed school English words is around 85,000.  Rest assured, there are effective ways to teach ourselves vocabulary.  We can make these work for us anytime.

 

Here is how.  First, expose yourself to new words in different contexts an ample number of times – reportedly at least six.  Then use the word at every opportunity (even if you bore your friends).  Associate your new words with memorable images.  Direct vocabulary instruction definitely does work, particularly when the words are critically important to new content.  A teacher is not always necessary, but it does help immeasurably to be curious and to read anything and everything whenever possible.  Finally, when you run onto a word you don’t know, stop to look it up on your cell phone or in your dusty dictionary.