I Decided To Go and I Did - The Vietnam Memorial

As with my WWII post if you need a refresher on what I'm talking about revisit the May 25th post.

I'm going to do this post in three parts, kind of like the trilogy written by my favorite author J.R.R. Tolkien because the events that happened to me during my visit to the Vietnam Memorial have ran the gamut of emotions.  Before I get started a reminder that my plan was to visit the WWII Memorial to see an engraving on a wall regarding the Battle of the Bulge.  My second objective was to visit the statue to the nurses that served in Vietnam.  As you see below I met my objective.

The Nurses

I chose to show this close up rather than the entire statue as this picture really shows the importance of the nurses who served in Vietnam.  This nurse is attending to a soldier with a gun shot wound to the chest.  It's hard to see but she is holding an object that looks like a towel over a hole in the chest to stop the bleeding. For those of you in today's healthcare field notice the lack of latex gloves, face shield or protective goggles. When you a cradling a soldier who is dying there is no time to think about your personal safety.  Shortly after taking this picture a group of high school girls arrived at the statue.  They decided to mimic that statue by posing as live participants right to the point of one of them playing the role of the dying soldier to include his proper head placement.  As I stood there watching this I got close to walking up to them and saying something but I thought better of it as I'm certain I'd have said something really bad in front of a lot of people.  When I mentioned walking up to them to Mary, she looked at me and said if you do just say to them that this soldier lost his life so that you can have the freedom to do what you are doing right now.  I chose to turn my back and walk away.

Smithsonian Museum of American History - America's Battle for Freedom Exhibit. 

This exhibit covered every war our country ever fought in going back it's beginnings in 1776.  I spent a lot of time at the WWII Exhibit as there was a segment on the Battle of the Bulge.  Next was the Korean War and when I was looking at a map of the cities that were prominent in the war I had thoughts of the old television series M.A.S.H.  Next came the Vietnam War and immediately I was disappointed.  There is front of me was a bank of televisions all showing news clips of the Vietnam War.  You could watch President Nixon and Secretary of State Kissinger talk about "Peace with Honor", there was footage of all the antiwar protesters, the Kent State shootings, My Lai and the dead civilians, the naked young girl that got caught in a napalm attack, and the South Vietnamese soldier with his gun to the head of a Viet Cong soldier.  After enduring all this two GI's showed up on the television screens.  The first spoke about his uncertainty as to why we were in Vietnam.  What was our objective? Why are we here?  The second spoke about his being a short timer. He said I just need to hold on, just stay alive for a few more days and then I can go home.  The two soldiers who spoke said what thousands of other GI's said during their tour including me.  Why are we here and just stay safe until I can go home.  After watching all of the old news clips about everything negative about Vietnam I was close to leaving.  Fortunately I didn't.  In fact I'm glad I didn't because the next display really touched my heart.

Right there is front of my was a Huey helicopter.  Not a replica but the real thing.  The only thing missing was the M-60 machine gun that normally sat in the doorway.  It was replaced by a large television screen.  In front of the helicopter was a plaque telling the story of this helicopter.  I was authentic and flew numerous missions in Vietnam.  I was finally retired in 2002.  Before going into retirement the helicopter flew one last mission, it flew low of the Vietnam Memorial then landed and was taken to the Smithsonian.  Right in front of the television screen was a panel with five buttons on it.  Each button when pushed showed a short clip of a Vietnam veteran talking about his experiences.  I watched three of the short videos.

1. The first speaker was a Native American.  He talked about his experiences in Vietnam but what really struck me was how he was treated when he can home.  His tribe held a welcoming home celebration. He said it was a huge gathering of everyone in the tribe because they were welcoming home their hero.  He then said that as a Native American Vietnam veteran he was treated as a hero but any other Vietnam veteran was treated completely different. He said they were not hero's in the eyes of their people.
2. The second speaker was a Medal of Honor recipient.  He was an African American who served as a combat medic.  His unit was sent out on a mission to check an area for enemy activity.  He said he did this a number of times with little activity but not on this day.  When the helicopters landed they immediately came under intense fire.  He receive a minor gun shot wound to his leg as he jump off the helicopter looking for cover.  All around him were wounded soldiers, his guys as he called them. While trying to get to his guys he was hit two more times but continued on actually crawling to help the wounded.  For his efforts on that day he was awarded the Medal of Honor.  As he spoke he said he struggled for a real long time before coming to terms with being a hero and Medal of Honor recipient. He said a number of times he didn't do anything to deserve this medal.  All he kept saying was I just did my job.  My guys we dead, dying or wounded and it was my job to help them and that was all that I was doing.  I was just doing my job.
3. The last speaker was the one that made my day.  Sadly I don't remember too much about his experiences in Vietnam except for what he said at the end of his talk.  He said that the Vietnam veterans served their country just like the soldiers of every other war.  Many fought and died, many were wounded but all did their job.  These men and women should be recognized for their efforts just like the men and women of all the previous wars.  They should have been treated as hero's when they came home because they fought heroically in this war just like others in the previous wars.

When the last speaker finished I just stood there silently thinking.  This man, this Vietnam veteran just summed up what the hundreds of thousands who served in Vietnam were.  They were hero's.  I would have loved to be able to pick up this entire display and take it to the front of the exhibit and remove all the negative news footage of Vietnam to the back of the display or some where completely out of sight.

That Man Over There Is A Hero, Go Show Him Some Love

I had just purchased at a Rolling Thunder souvenir shop a stick pin for the 23rd Infantry (Americal) Division and Mary was helping me stick it on my hat when I heard a voice behind me.  "See that man over there, he is a hero so go and show him some love."  When I turned around to see who had spoken a man walked up to me and said I know it's been over forty years but welcome home and thanks for serving our country.  He then shook my hand and I said thank you.  He then pointed to my right and as I turned I saw approximately twenty five high school students from Seattle, Washington.  One at a time they walked up to me and said thank you for your service to our country and shook my hand.

This is one of those life moments for me and I'm so glad Mary had the camera.  On this day I was told thank you for serving our country more times than I have in the past forty three years.  That was special.

I decided and I'm going to go and I did.  It was a great trip and I'll have to do it again some day.  Thanks for reading my blog.

I Decided To Go and I Did - World War II Memorial

It may help you a little if you refer to my post entitled "I've Decided and I'm Going To Go" dated May 25th so you know what is going on.  For those of you with good memories you can proceed to the next paragraph.

Well I went.  Technically I'm still there sitting in my hotel room typing.  I'm at the Hotel Baron just off Dupont Circle.  It's a nice place with a great bar with many, many, many beer choices. Which so many beer options it makes you wonder why anyone would order Bud Light.  I also like the neighborhood we are in as there are lots of places to eat and great people watching opportunities.  It reminds me a little of New York City as it has a pretty international flavor.

My objective was met on day one.  We left the hotel early and rode our bikes into the museum and monument area.  By the way the decision to take our bikes was great.  We visited a lot of locations in a very short time on very hot days.  The World War II Memorial was my first priority and I have to say it was quite impressive.  The memorial was in two sections, the Atlantic front and the Pacific front and I turned to the Atlantic side to search for what I was looking for.  It took a couple minutes until I saw it and walked over and sat on that granite wall with the words Battle of the Bulge right next to me.  As you can see I now can do pictures thanks to my wife, Mary.

It was an emotional moment for me sitting there next to an inscription from a WWII battle that may Dad participated in.  Right after taking this picture I stood up and saw a bunch of people wearing read shirts on the opposite of the memorial.  I said to Mary we got here just in time as the tour groups are starting to arrived.  As we made our way to the Pacific side of the memorial I realized who those people were in the red shirts.  They were WWII veterans and their families.  This was an Honor Flight tour of WWII veterans from Kansas.  There were at least thirty veterans with the majority of them being pushed around in chairs with wheels as I suspect all were in their nineties and not very mobile.  I stopped and parked my bike and told Mary that I wanted to thank these men.  I then proceed to shake hands and say thanks to the WWII veterans who are know today as America's greatest generation.  This was one of those moments in life that I'll remember for a long time.  The only thing that could have made this a perfect trip was if I was walking along with my Dad.  I'm going to stop now as it is a little hard seeing the screen with tears on my eyes.

A Little Alice Cooper - School's Out For The Summer

Whew!  I made it through the school year.  I barely made it but I made it.  I now have about six weeks to regenerate.  That's right, just six weeks.  The next school year starts on August 4th.

I learned a lot this school year about teachers, special education teachers, scholars with emotional disabilities, behavioral therapists and behavioral specialists, in-school suspension personnel, how making someone smile or laugh when they are struggling is so important, how to have some great conversations with someone who is less than half your age, and finally how to write a blog.

Teachers - a dedicated group of people and I feel good because I know all of them at this school.  So the next time you hear someone barking about teachers in the media and elsewhere ignore most of what they are saying.  I you want some first hand knowledge of the quality of teachers on your neighborhood do what I did, volunteer!  Spend a day in a classroom with a view from the back of the room and you'll soon discover that we don't have a teacher problem.  Before I move on I have to recognize two teachers:  BaseG who just competed his fourteenth year as a teacher and my friend Debby who has been a special education for a few more than fourteen years.  I could have used the actual number for Debby but I'm trying to avoid age issues. Ha!

Scholars - especially those in special education rooms.  Remember this no matter how crazy you read it can get in my classroom.  It's not their fault.  I don't know why they are like they are.  It may have been alcohol related, a chemical dependency, tobacco or maybe just the way God wanted it to be.  I just don't know. Here is what I do know.  When you see a special education scholar don't stare at them, point fingers at them or talk about them.  Just give them a hug and say a pray that God guides them onto the right path in life. With the ending of the school year below is the status of each  of the scholars.

1. CorP and Floss - both passed ISTEP math. Both failed ISTEP reading and I believe by one question. Although I'm not certain I believe both of them will be promoted to 5th grade.
2. Straw -  great when on his medication.  Very disruptive when he is not.   He failed both ISTEP math and reading.  Knowing this I'm not sure if he will be promoted to the fifth grade. 
3. The Collector - like Straw great when on his medication and horrible when he is not.  He failed IREAD3 by a lot and in theory should not be promoted to the fourth grade.  A little speculation on my part, I'm thinking I'll  see The Collector next year at the same grade.  By the way, I like The Collector. When he messes up I call him by his sister's name.  His usual response is to call me Mary.
4. Yo! - another scholar who failed IREAD3 by a lot.  He also struggles with math and hates to read.  I'm thinking I'll see Yo! next year at the same grade.
5. EM - can't read a lick and he is in the second grade.  He has maybe thirty words he can see and recognize when he is reading.  On the other hand he really increased his maths skills.  Given his very low reading level I'm pretty sure I'll see him again in August. 

Behavioral Therapists and Behavioral Specialists -  what a group of people.  They spend the entire day working with special education scholars.  That has to be a grind.  Their goal is to work on behavioral issues so that scholars can transition to a general education classroom.  I believe I have this part correct.  If I don't maybe PhD?Sparty who I bet is lurking in the background can correct me.  They have essentially six years (the grade school level) to accomplish this.  Why?  There are no self contained special education classrooms starting in the seventh grade.  Scholars like the ones I work with have to survive in a general education classroom.  If they don't, dropping out will mostly be the end result.

My final thoughts on this school year and this blog.  I started this on a whim.  When I'd tell my family and my Wednesday wine drinking friends at Vino Villa about my experiences in the classroom they would encouraged me to write them down.  I procrastinated for a long time before I started.  On March 19th I posted my first blog comment and since that point I have been amazed at what has happened.  To date I have had 1,269 individual page views.  I also had page views from these countries: Russia, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Ukraine, Lithuania, Brazil, Honduras, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela.  All the different countries is what truly amazes me.  I often wonder who are you people.  Maybe on day one of you will post something in the comment section and then I'll know.  I have a few more blog drafts started but completing them in a timely manner will be a little slow as I'm taking a break.  If you wish, check the blog every week or so for an update about My View From the Back Of the Room.

From my heart, thank you for taking the time to read as my daughter original posted a long time ago on Facebook the musings of a wise old man.  It has meant a lot and has been a humbling experience knowing so many people came back on a regular basis.

Allan

The Twenty Seven Days Are Up and PhD?Sparty Has Departed

On Thursday June 12th we said our goodbye's.  Actually I didn't say goodbye.  I handed her a Post It note with my email address on it and asked that she email me her wedding pictures.  I also said when you return to Indianapolis to visit your Dad contact me and maybe we can get together for lunch or dinner at Shoefly.  I then said I'd order the meatless meatloaf.  God, I can't believe I said that.

For the better part of the two years that I've sat in the back of the room she at some point would enter the room.  As a Behavioral Therapist she was there to observe the scholars and when necessary correct inappropriate behavior.  On Wednesday's she was there to hold group sessions with the scholars with the purpose of improving their social skills and to get them to work together as a team.  BaseG and I really liked group Wednesday.  It started at 2:00pm and lasted until 3:00pm and we both new that once PhD?Sparty started group our day was over.  

Ok, here comes the hard part.  How do I explain what was going in the back of the room on those days when she was in the room and was either standing or seated next to me.  Some how it went from her observing scholar activity to the two of us having a conversation.  Technically not a conversation but multiple conversations on a wide range of subjects.  I think what I'll do is share with you some of  conversations that took place over the past two school years.  Maybe after reading them you'll see how special she was to me.

1. This is the oldest recollection.  I can't recall the specifics but I know how it ended.  It believe it was during group and two of the scholars got very animated and may have been close to starting a fight.  I saw what was happening and was moving towards the two scholars but didn't quite get there in time. She had gotten in between them to try and deescalate the situation.  She had one of the scholars and I had the other.  I moved mine away from the incident and when I  turned around she had ended up on the floor trying to control the scholar.  When I looked back she asked me to help with this scholar because she was wearing a dress. After assisting and she was upright she said I have to remember not to wear a dress during group.  Take note not wearing a dress on Wednesday's is a key comment as you will see later.
2. The sports rivalry.  She is green and I'm BLUE.  I guess I better give a hint, it's a state of Michigan thing.  I used the white board at the front of the room to do my boasting.  If BLUE won I posted the score in really big letters on the white board.  She chose to be very brutal and placed a stuffed university mascot of a man wearing a skirt on my desk following a green victory in football.  That was actually quite funny especially for the scholars as they figured out the rivalry.   
3. The gentleman caller.  He kind of slowly entered into our conversations.  I didn't think much about it at first because it was none of my business.  After he entered into our conversations a couple more times I thought to myself she has a serious gentleman caller.  I know his real name but gentleman caller just sounds so much better.  I actually go to meet him and he is a real nice man with one exception, he was wearing green and white.
4. Introducing to the scholars and to me her intern, IvyL.  That was a great addition to the team and opened the door for a whole lot of different conversations.  
5. Dad.  Her's not mine.  He came up a lot in our conversations and the more he came up the more it liked him.  He golfs and so do I.  He knows about Tigers, Lions, Red Wings and Pistons and so do I. He knows Detroit which I suspect a lot of you cringed when you read the word but he knows the old Detroit and so do I.  Best  of all  he found on YouTube an old Faygo Red Pop commercial and sent it to his daughter who then played it on her iPhone in the back of the room.  Oh, the memories that brought back.
6. The engagement ring. Very nice, very exciting.
7. The family talent competition in Georgia where the gentleman caller and his family.  I'm not participating.  Yah! Right!
8. Planning the wedding.  This one we talked about a lot and it was fun.  There were times I felt like a wedding planner.
9. Working out and crossfit competitions.  A gym regular.  Just before departing she showed me on her iPhone a short video of her doing squats with 145 pounds of free weights resting on her shoulders.
10. She ran the 100m and 300m hurdles in high school.
11. Meatless meatloaf.  Yes, such a thing exists and it is right here in Indianapolis on 22nd Street between Pennsylvania and Talbot.  I've been there a number of times.  If you are in Indianapolis you need to go.  It's called Shoefly.
12. The one time she opened up a little about her work with other scholars in the school.  With just BaseG and me in the room she said that there was one scholar that she could never get to open up and talk. You could tell by the look on her face that this really bothered her.
13. The push up competition.  It was supposed to take place in the classroom in front of the scholars.  Just the two of us for major bragging rights.  Sadly on the day of the competition (a Wednesday) she showed up in a dress.  Sorry, no excuses.  I win by default. 
14. I have three more and I'm changing the order because the last two are particularly important to me.  I once told her when I knew she was leaving to be careful what you say when you are around me as I might right it down and use it in the blog.  Here is the last note I made.  "It sounded like a wet one".  I'll let you us your imagination to determine what she was talking about.
15. Probably my favorite PhD?Sparty comment. "I have a conference with a scholar but I'm waiting for him to find me".  That still makes me laugh.
16. This is the last one and it is special because it saved me when I was at my lowest point in the two years I spent in the classroom.  It is one I'll never forget.  "It's not stupid.  It's a human error".

On Thursday June 12th my school lost the services of a very special person.  The last time she left the classroom she was carrying a large plastic tub as there was packing to do.  BaseG and I were sitting alone in the room when he said the following.  There goes a a young woman with composure well beyond her young age.  That was a perfect ending to our time with PhD?Sparty.

One last comment.  On Thursday June 12th a very special friend walked out of the classroom for the last time.  I'm really going to miss her.

Dear Text Book Company don't you have anything else to do?

This has been building up inside me for a while and today I coming out with guns blazing.

The annual revenue for these companies is in the multi-billion dollars a year and they get it solely from ripping off schools, taxpayers and scholars through a process called planned obsolence. That is a business term that basically means you build something but make it last for only a short period of time so the purchaser needs to buy another one every few years thus maximizing profits.  Who are these companies? They are the textbook manufactures and they have the biggest marketing scam since car makers started calling station wagons SUV's.  When it comes to text books especially math and handwriting there is not much you can change but when you are in the business of selling textbooks you have to get creative so you can convince schools and teachers that they need to upgrade their textbooks frequently.  How do they do that?  It's simple hire a bunch of pointy headed intellectuals with PhD's and creative minds.

Math vocabulary challenge.  I'll give you the definition you tell me the word.  A mathematical operation on a sum (total) and an addend, which can be called the difference.  Feel free to post you answer in the comment section at the bottom of the page.

Before I put forth some examples let me tell you a little be about textbooks.  As a reminder I work with scholars in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade so we are talking about the basics.  If you are like me you have to be thinking that not much has changed with handwriting, addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication but you are so wrong.  I have in my hands a third grade math book.  It's the hardback teachers addition and I'll review with you the number of people it took to write this book.  There are six program authors (3 with PhD's), two contributors (1 with a PhD), five historians/scholars (4 with PhD's), one Indiana consultant, four Indiana reviewers, and sixteen editorial advisory board members (2 with PhD's).  That is a total of thirty four people of which ten have PhD's.  Ridiculous right?  But when you have to maximize your profits and you are working with simple math you need a lot of people to put their heads together to come up with a way to make the current book obsolete.  How to do you do that?  You change the terminology.  Y'all ready for this?  By the way those are song lyrics from the theme song for the movie Space Jam.

HOW TO EARN TEN MILLION DOLLARS.  You change the word "number" to "integer" in the glossary of a third grade math book.

HOW TO MAKE IT TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS.  You no longer "borrow" when subtracting.  You now "ungroup".

HOW TO MAKE IT THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS.  You no longer have "synonyms, antonyms, and homonyms".  You have "synonyms, antonyms, and homophones".  Actually you have homophones and homographs.  By the way be careful how you pronounce homophones as it does not sound like it looks.

HOW TO MAKE IT FORTY MILLION DOLLARS and my personal favorite.  You change the way you make the upper case cursive Q.  That's right it no longer looks like the number two.

Math vocabulary challenge number two.  Here is the definition you tell me the word.  To open up 1 in a given place to make 10 of the next smaller place value in order to subtract.

HOW TO BUY A HUGE HOUSE ON MULTIPLE ACRES, TIME SHARES, LUXURY CARS, AND CONDOMINIUMS ON PRIVATE ISLANDS..  When adding fractions with different denominators you no long find the "least common denominator".  You now find the "least common multiple".

The sad part of all of this comes down to one simple item, the parental unit who is now tasked with helping their scholar at home with home work.  As I mentioned previously eighty nine percent of our scholars are eligible for free or reduced price meals at school.  This means that an equal number of parental units fall in the low social-economic category called the working poor and in all likelihood barely made it through high school.  How do you think they are going to react when they try and help their third grade scholar with homework when the see "ungrouping", "integer", "addend", "least common multiple", and homophones? Probably the same as I did when I first encountered these words, confused.  And here is what scares me.  I work with six scholars who have serious anger control issues and I've met their parental units who I know first hand can get very vocal to the point of angry.  So what risk is a scholar at when his parental unit erupts because they don't know what an integer is?  Probably pretty high and who is at risk for the harm?  The scholar who is only trying to get his homework complete.

I've worked for thirty four years for a for profit management services company so I'm not opposed to a company maximizing profits.  However, I am opposed to a multi-billion dollar a year company making vasts sums of money by changing text book terms that had stood for years.  Some may call these changes academic progress but I call it academic bullshit.  Sorry Sister, I'll say a couple Our Father's and a few Hail Mary's at mass on Sunday.

Ladies It's A Dead Stick

In order to tell this story we need to go back in time to the beginning of the school year.  In order to do that I'm trying to track down Mr. Peabody and Sherman to see if their WABAC is still operable.  For pronunciation purposes the first "a" in WABAC is a long "a".  Still uncertain about the pronunciation I suggest you go down to your sub basement and retrieve your third grade grammar book.

For the youthful readers I'll clue you in.  It's the 1960's and Rocky and Bullwinkle had their own television show.  Rocky is a flying squirrel and Bullwinkle is a moose.  Making regular appearances on their show was Mr. Peabody and Sherman.  Mr. Peabody is a talking dog who is the smartest dog in the world.  Sherman is an orphaned infant that is adopted by Mr. Peabody.  I'll pass on explaining Boris and Natasha so as to not confuse the youthful readers.  The WABAC is a time machine that was invented by Mr. Peabody.  No it does not use a flux capacitor.  That is an invention of Dr. Brown's that came to fruition in 1955.  I'm stepping into the WABAC now and setting September 2013 as my destination.

Mr. Schultz would you have any tree pruners?  What?  We (the two sixth grade teachers) need a branch from a tree but we don't have any tree pruners.  I have tree pruners but the are home.  Good, will you cut us a branch from a tree and bring it to school?  What are you going to do with a tree branch?  We need it to make a poetry.  What?  We need it to make a poet tree to hang poems on. As a reminder the names in this blog are fictitious but the events including this one are fact.  Ok, I said and now I've committed myself to finding a poet tree.

Immediately I have a problem as the only trees in my yard are conifers and I need deciduous.  Dang now I have to ask my neighbor if I can cut a branch off one of his trees and I'm sure he's going to think I'm a nut case.  I've committed myself to the teachers so off I go.  Hey neighbor do you mind if I cut off a small branch from one of your trees I need it for a school project.  You don't need to cut one down I have several already cut down by my fence line.  Help yourself.   Great and I search through the pile for one the right size and carry it back into my yard and lean it up against my storage barn.  I start eyeballing it and realize it's way too tall.  The wife is observing and asks me what I doing and I tell her.  She says have a nice time I'm going in the house.  A car pulls in the driveway and I catch a huge break as my daughter has decided to pay a visit to the suburbs.  She has an excellent eye for detail and I ask her if she wants to help.  She agrees but states wouldn't it be easier for you if you just cut a branch off a tree on the school grounds.  I wanted to say something but chose to pass on it although several of you probably have a good idea on what I was thinking.

It's now a Monday morning and the nicely shaped tree branch is in the trunk of my car and I'm heading to school.  As I round the corner on the second floor of the school the two sixth grade teachers see me with the tree branch and I can't believe how excited they are.  Mr. Schultz that looks perfect.

Fast forward now to May.  The tree branch has been sitting in a large vase in the hallway for nine months and it is definitely dead.  I'll have to give credit to the two teachers as the tree branch was used on numerous occasions throughout the school year and it was fun to stop and see the scholars writings and other works of art work hanging on the branches.

I eat lunch with these two teachers daily and as I walk into the staff lounge I hear Mr. Schultz we need to talk to you about the tree branch.  I'm thinking here comes the coup de grace for the tree branch as I ask would you like me to remove it to the dumpster?  Heavens no we want you to find a place in the school to store it over the summer so we can use it next year.  Ladies it's a dead tree stick.  We know that but it has a real nice shape so we want you to find not only a place to store it but a way to preserve it so it doesn't disintegrate.  What?  Are you serious?  Yes we are.

So far I've done nothing as I think they are joking.  There are seven school days left so I guess I'll just wait and see what happens.