Tonkin to You!

Before you read another word of this blog, know that I'm guilty.  I do it too.  I sometimes post things on social media or via text that I later regret.  I let my emotions get the best of me and I take the bait to respond to someone's ill-informed or rude posting, only to find that my temper flares and my words get the best of me.  Even more than politics, I think the general inability of much of the population to effectively discern between "your" and "you're" is probably my biggest hot button.  I'm in favor of a constitutional amendment requiring basic grammar literacy training prior to online political debate, but I digress..... There is a permanence to just about anything we decide to post online.  Facebook's delete account option, for example, really is a temporary deactivation feature; you can still reactivate your page for 30 days.  More problematic is that posts that you assumed had been deleted may still show up on search engines.  For t...

 "He's not concerned with yesterday He knows constant change is here today He's noble enough to know what's right But weak enough not to choose it He's wise enough to win the world But fool enough to lose it" So go the lyrics to Canadian power trio Rush's 1982 single "New World Man."  Drummer and lyricist Neil Peart passed away from cancer this past January, casting a shadow on the hearts of many music fans (including this author).  His great drumming, and, just as importantly, poetic musings on the human condition, remain as a soundtrack to our lives.  Neil's prediction that "constant change is here today" could also have ended with the phrase "to stay."  The COVID-19 pandemic thrust nearly every working person and student on the planet into a churning snow-globe of both complications and possibilities.  Concepts once considered experimental or theoretical (i.e. an entire population working from home) materialized in fron...

  There are lots of different titles for students who enter college without a major.  Undecided.  Undeclared.  Exploratory.  Open major.  These are all attempts to put some kind of qualifier in front of a student and to give the faculty context as we try to guide our charges into picking an academic path. We are humans, after all...and we crave order and labels. This past fall, I was honored to have been chosen to guide a class through a one-credit, low stakes course called "Exploratory 101: Finding YOU."  Though I found the title a little overwhelming (at 47, I'm still "finding me"), I really enjoyed where the university was headed with the concept.  The title didn't include "finding a job" or "picking a vocation," but conveyed that the person should come first. When I say the course was "low stakes," that term did not equal "unimporant."  Instead, the class was meant to NOT put additional burdens onto students regard...

...isn't all bad. As a business instructor at a small, private university, I enjoy a unique vantage point to see life from a lot of different perspectives.  I've got to keep up with what's happening within my chosen disciplines (human resources, information systems, and management) while interacting with young people every day.  These developing adults are great sources of feedback; without a doubt, they will share their feelings and their "filters" are not as developed as their older peers.  This honesty is something for which instructors should be grateful; our students, in essence, are telling us what to teach them..   In many ways, it's our job as teachers to consume the news of the world around us and to transform it into a form that our students will integrate, evaluate, and dissect.  It's wild to look back in January and see just how much has actually taken place since the "before" time ended.  As a matter of practice, I begin most of my c...

One of my favorite words in the English language is "and."  You can be a student "and" an athlete.  A banker "and" a painter.  Even a college professor "and" a bass player.  "And" makes it possible for us to have a "calico" career and lifestyle:  All of the "colors" in our lives can run in different directions and shades while still creating a useful "coat" for our career and hobby body and soul.  However, just as the cat above is running out of white space to fit another endeavor, we can run out of time, energy, or overall space for that next endeavor.  We can't (or don't want to) give up our existing patches, but we also feel the need to make a place for the new creative output.   At this point, we seem to have three choices:  A. Give up on the new project (not desirable).  B. Give up something existing to make room for the new colors (could be desirable, depending how attached we are to the exist...

 As a man of a "certain age" (47), I clearly remember the 2000 presidential election.  Despite the uncertainty that lingered for weeks as multiple vote recounts commenced and we waited to see if Bush or Gore would be number 43, people kind of just "got on" with their lives.  Yes, individuals were very insistent that their candidate should get the coveted spot, but I don't remember knock down, drag-em-out arguments.  The situation was fodder for a lot of discussion and even humor; I remember a skit on SNL when Bush and Gore decided to "both be president."  It was a riff on "the Odd Couple" and people from both major parties actually laughed about it. In reality, when the recounts were done, one candidate admitted defeat and got on with his life.  The other became president.  The process was civil and dignified, albeit LONG.  At some level, most people accepted that their team lost and things got back to normal. There were some rough spots betw...

 It's been a few weeks since my last blog post, and for good reason.  Accomplishing ANYTHING is simply harder during a global pandemic (imagine nodding your head in agreement to THAT sentence a year ago).  Our energy is tapped, our attention split, and our sources of anxiety have multiplied like, well, a VIRUS! As an in-person teacher, it's very easy for me to get caught up in all of my extra duties and concerns.  The classroom is no longer just a physical space but a construct; some students are there in person while others appear via Zoom video (or request recordings to view at their convenience at a later time).  The very idea of simultaneous existence in proximity to one another was stretched to its boundaries a few weeks back when I had to implement a new class rule: No attending class while driving.  Students were literally Zooming in behind the wheel.  Amidst this chaos and new responsibilities, we leaders can sometimes forget that something big...