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Bits and Pieces, Part II

I began the previous post, entitled Bits and Pieces, Part I, by addressing the specific question of how do I proceed when I face the dilemma of not being able to think of the right word or not being able to put together my thoughts on a particular topic? The simple answer was I used the bits and pieces that I did have until I had enough information to be able to put together the whole puzzle. I tried to rely heavily on my own memory and thought processes before enlisting outside resources like the internet.

Let me try to explicate the process further, by giving you a second example. This example occurred several months ago. I was trying to write an essay on different views and definitions of liberal arts.

Because I had been working on this essay for a number of months, I had the ideas generally formulated. What I wanted to do was introduce the topic by referring to a scenario that occurred many times in ancient Greece when two protagonists had differing ideas. They aired those ideas in a public setting. This is where I was lost. I couldn’t think of the word to describe that public setting.

So with this information, I went to a friend to ask him what word was I looking for. He gave me a word. Unfortunately, it was not the word I wanted. The word he gave me was forum. It was a good word, and perfectly described the process that I was trying to describe. Why wasn’t it the right word? Unfortunately, this word is Latin and not Greek.  But now I had enough information to go to a second source who knew right away the word for which I was searching. The word was agora. In Greek, it means “market place.” In each city in ancient Greece, there was an open area where merchants came to sell their wares. This area was the same place where orators would come to try to get people to buy their thoughts. So now I had two words that I could use, one Latin and one Greek, depending upon whether I wanted to reference ancient Greece or ancient Rome.

What was my process in this example? As soon as I had a general idea of what I wanted to express, I took those thoughts to a friend to ask for help in finding the best way to express my thoughts.

In the terminology of a popular television show, in both cases, I used a lifeline. The difference was when I employed that lifeline. The first big lesson that I have learned from this whole experience is that eventually everyone will need a lifeline. The second big lesson is that when you need a lifeline, use it!

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What Can Faculty Learn From A Broadway Musical?

An article that first appeared in the July 4, 2010 e-edition of the Technology Section of The Chronicle of Higher Education was repeated in the July 9, 2010 e-edition of Academe Today. The article was entitled “Linked In With: A Writer Who Questions the Wisdom of Teaching with Technology.”  Because I was familiar with Carr’s writings, this article caught my attention and I had to read it, even though I was confident of what I was going to find. The author of the article, Marc Parry, was talking about and interviewing Nicholas Carr, the author of a book entitled, “The Shallows,” and many articles, including “IT Doesn’t Matter” and “Is Google Making Us Stupid?“As usual, Carr was questioning the efficacy of technology in assisting in the teaching and learning process. This article was vintage Carr.

I believe education is meeting students where they are and helping them to get to where they want and ought to be. If where they want to be is not where they ought to be, then our first job in education is to help them see where they ought to be. I believe every prospective teacher should watch the musical, “My Fair Lady.” Can teachers learn anything from a Broadway musical? I think they can if they are paying attention, especially if they are asked to reflect on one particular scene. The scene takes place in the Professor’s study, when he and the Colonel are celebrating Eliza’s triumphant debut at the gala. Colonel Pickering keeps saying, “You said that you could do it, and you did it.” Professor Higgins replies:”Yes I did it.” But did you see Eliza in the corner of the room crying and sobbing, “What have you done? “ They replied:”We made you a lady.” Eliza responded, “I never asked to be a lady. All I wanted was to be able to speak well enough to sell flowers at the corner shop. Now that I am a lady, there is nothing left for me to do, but to sell myself and marry a gentleman.” The Professor and the Colonel used good pedagogy and “taught her well”, but they didn’t listen to what she wanted, and they definitely didn’t help her understand what it was to be a lady and why that was important.

The following exchange between Perry and  Carr reminded me of that scene from “My Fair Lady:”Perry asked Carr: “If the Internet is making us so distracted, how did you manage to write a 224-page book and read all the dense academic studies that much of it is based on?” Carr responded, “It was hard. The reason I started writing it was because I noticed in myself this increasing inability to pay attention to stuff, whether it was reading or anything else. When I started to write the book, I found it very difficult to sit and write for a couple of hours on end or to sit down with a dense academic paper.” I have found that most of our students today don’t know how to sit down for a couple of hours to read or write. They mentally and physically can’t sit for a couple of hours to read or write. They definitely don’t know how to sit down and read a dense paper. They also don’t know why that should be important. It is not enough for us to tell them just to do it, because it is important and it is good for them. How often to our question of why, do we accept the answer, “Because I told you so; besides it is good for you; or you ought to do it.” At one point in the article after renouncing the use of the internet, Carr says, “my abilities to concentrate did seem to strengthen again. I felt in a weird way intellectually or mentally calmer. And I could sit down and write or read with a great deal of attentiveness for quite a long time.” Our students don’t know why that is important for them unless we help them learn that. Just telling that it is good and that it works for us is not enough. If we want to reach these students, we need to meet them where they are and help them see the benefits of the reflective pursuit of knowledge and truth for them. If we don’t do that, these students might well be like Eliza, sitting in the corner crying that we didn’t listen to them, and we haven’t. The other more likely possibility is they will give up, walk away and never engage in the reflective pursuit of knowledge.

My next question may sound like heresy coming from someone within the academy, “Is the reflective pursuit of knowledge the only way to obtain knowledge? The ancient Greeks allowed and even encouraged at least three different ways of knowing, theoria, poiesis and praxis. Theoria is the word from which we get our words theory and theoretical. In ancient Greece, it meant contemplation or seeing by observation. It developed into the idea of the theoretical pursuit of knowledge and truth through contemplation or reflection. Poiesis is the word from which we get our word poetry. It meant to make or produce. It developed into the idea of creating something of value. Praxis is the word from which we get our words practice or practical. It meant action. It developed into the idea of knowledge applied to one’s actions. The goal of theoria  was truth. The goal of poiesis was a product. The goal of praxis was action.

I challenge those of us in the academy, are we open to different ways of knowing and learning? Are we willing to meet our students where they are, listen to where they want to be, and help them see where they could and ought to be? Are we willing to help them get there, even if it means using multiple ways of knowing and learning that may not at first seem comfortable to us?

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Dueling Light Sabers

Two weeks after my week in the clinic, my wife and I went to an Epilepsy Advocate Take Charge Tour Event that was held near us. Epilepsy Advocates are doing a national tour providing local communities the opportunity to learn from and interact with local medical professionals and Epilepsy Advocates. These events are a great opportunity to gain epilespy support and knowledge, but the best part of the evening for my wife and me was meeting others who have epilepsy and their care givers. I can’t recommend these events more highly. To find a meeting near you check out the epilepsy advocate web site at

www.epilepsyadvocate.com/epilepsy-community/attend-event.aspx.

If there are no meetings near you, the website offers the opportunity to experience a meeting via a web cast. You know the old saying,”There more than one way to skin a cat.” If you’re a cat lover or are in any way offended by the above idiom, remember that there is always more than one way to do something.

Driving to and from the meeting, the bright-colored lights from brake lights and traffic signals started emanating these long straight colored light rays. These light rays remained in my vision after the source was gone. They reminded me of the light sabers from Star Wars. After a couple of minutes, the lights rays turned into light sabers which started dueling each other, although I never saw anyone holding the sabers. They were just dueling ach other in mid-air.

Te next morning when I woke up, the first thing I saw was a white crocheted wall hanging that my wife had mounted inside a gold frame. When I looked away from the wall hanging. I started seeing copies of the circular Microsoft processing cursor that were light yellow and bright gold. I saw these spinning figure for about 30 minutes until I ate breakfast.

After breakfast, even without bright-colored lights to trigger the images, the dueling light sabers came back until I had to work on my wife’s computer, which I had to restart to finalize an update. When her machine first boots up, the word Compaq appears diagonally across her screen. The Q is a bold block capital letter. It reminds me of the old, old screen saver which looked like PVC pipes that would grow until they filled the screen. When I looked away from my wife’s computer screen, I could still see the Q, but then it started growing by adding 90 degree joints and sections of pipes until it filled my field of vision, just like the old screen saver would do. I could see through the pipes and the openings. I saw the PVC pipes and gold spinning rings off and on all afternoon, until we had to go to a church meeting and dinner. On the drive to and from church the bright-colored lights of traffic and brake lights brought back the vision of the dueling light sabers. When a duel began it would last about 15 minutes.

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The First Week at Home After My Week in the Clinic

The First Week at Home After the Week

Of Observation in the Neuroscience Clinic;

My Auras Spread from Visual to My Other Senses

In my first week at home after the week in epilepsy clinic, I had no experiences that I would label as major seizures. There were a few minor episodes. These consisted of a few instances of confusion or momentary absences. Also after looking at a bright light, I would see the fuzzy yellow donuts that I mentioned I saw during my stay in the clinic. After a little research I discovered that many people see these donuts. They even have a name. They are called Weiss Rings. On occasion during this week, the Weiss Rings would start acting like the round Microsoft cursors, with the rings spinning that indicate the computer is processing something.

At other times during the week, I saw things that looked like the Honey Bun sweet rolls that you can buy at convenience stores. Every time I would see the Honey Buns, I was hungry. Here is a “Chicken or egg question.” Did my hunger trigger the images or did the images make me hungry?

Another day after lunch as I settled down to take an afternoon nap on a full stomach, the multi-color whirlpools that spiraled down to their center came back, changing colors as they spiraled. I think I may have just solved my “chicken or egg dilemma.” The whirlpools lasted about fifteen minutes and then they started to fade away. However, they didn’t fade away completely, they transformed into multi-colored conch shells with their distinctive spirals visible beneath the main body of the shells. It would appear that hunger helped induce the aura of a food item.

Oops–back to the drawing board on that one. Two mornings in a row I woke up to food-related auras, and I was not particularly hungry or thirsty for the items in my auras. One morning I woke up smelling hot dogs with chili, mustard and onions. You know that smell that tells everyone what you bought as you walk away from the sidewalk hot dog vendor with a steaming dog loaded with chili, mustard and onions. The second morning, the first thing I saw as I awoke was the lights on my CPAP machine. As I looked at those lights, they reminded me of the shape of a Styrofoam cup. When I took off my CPAP mask, and started swallowing to get the dry sensation out of my throat, I tasted strawberry-lemonade. Neither of those items, a loaded hot dog or strawberry-lemonade, would come anywhere close to my idea of a good breakfast. I may have been thirsty and hungry, but not for those items at that time.

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Living with Aphasia: Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks

For Me, Aphasia Is Like Solving Jig Saw Puzzles with Missing Pieces

When asked what it’s like living with aphasia and trying to speak or write, I describe it by saying that it is like putting together jig saw puzzles with pieces missing. One trouble with both writing and jig saw puzzles is that you usually don’t know pieces are missing until you get pretty far into the process of writing or solving the puzzle. Like most people, I do jig saw puzzles section by section. After I work on a section for a while, sometimes, I get to a particular place and I find a puzzle piece is missing. I can’t find it. It is just not there. I have hundreds of puzzle pieces spread out in front of me. With writing I get to a particular place and I can’t come up with the right word. I have thousands of words running through my mind. Whether with jig saw puzzles or writing, I am shuffling through all those pieces and words, but the right one that perfectly fits in that one place, is not there. What do you do with jig saw puzzles in this situation?
Most people would usually start looking at another part of the puzzle and try to find puzzle pieces that fit into that new part of the puzzle. If I do that enough for a puzzle, I will use up all the pieces that were in the box, and then I would know for certain that a piece or two are missing. After searching the house for the missing pieces, I might get out the other puzzles and see if the pieces got mixed up in those puzzle boxes. After all that, I really only have three choices: 1) pick up the puzzle pieces and put them back in the box and mark the box to indicate that a piece or two is missing; 2) go to one of those websites that advertize that they can replace missing puzzle pieces and purchase new pieces; or 3) pick up the unfinished puzzle and throw it away.
With my writing, I operate similarly. When I find myself stuck on a word, I will finish the remainder of the essay and then come back to the part with the missing word. Sometimes by then I will have found the word. Sometimes I haven’t. At that point of time, I will start searching in earnest through the word helpers like a cross-word dictionary or a thesaurus to try to find the right word or words. If that doesn’t work, I will set the essay aside and come back to it later. If I can’t find the right word or words then, I know at that point it is time to ask someone for help to find the appropriate word or words. That is like going to the puzzle websites to buy missing pieces. If that doesn’t work, I can either put the project aside and wait for a long time before I come back to it, or I trash it and forget about it.
Right now I have five or six projects on my computer that I have started but are in various stages of incompleteness. For the ones that are almost complete, I have sent copies to friends and former colleagues and asked them to review the projects and make suggestions. For the ones that I think still have possibilities but are in a much rougher state, I have set them aside, and I will come back to them off and on, at much later dates. Over the past months, I have looked at several essays that I have started and have decided that they are beyond repair or restoration. I have trashed them. I keep a file of ideas for essays, just the ideas, but not the real rough starts. Perhaps, I will come back to these ideas with a totally different approach at a much later date. This is a whole new way for me to operate, but it permits me to write and still cope with my mild case of aphasia.
If someone else has used the analogy of living with aphasia to missing jig saw puzzle pieces, I apologize for appropriating it. As an academic I have been trained to give credit for ideas to where credit is due. I did what I thought was a fairly exhaustive internet search on this topic and came up with nothing that was similar to the approach that I am taking in this essay. There were references to many exercises in aphasia therapy in which the individual with aphasia is asked to fill in a missing word in a simple sentence or to name a missing object in a simple picture. However, none of them compared the exercise to missing pieces of a jig saw puzzle. There were many references to autism as living with missing puzzle pieces, but none to aphasia that I could find. In dealing with autistic individuals or individuals with aphasia, I would in no way suggest throwing them away. Here is the place for a therapist or a care giver to provide the right degree of challenge and support to help the individual. An essay or a piece of work is far different from and far less valuable than the individual, although, for many of us, we find it difficult to separate ourselves from our work. It is a lesson from which we could all benefit.

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According to the Duck Test, Higher Education is a Business

According to the DUCK TEST,

Higher Education is a Business

By Baylis

I grew up next to a farm where I would play with the farmer’s two kids several times a week in their barn, the farm-yard or their pastures. One day while we were playing in the farm yard, the farmer came trudging in from his corn fields muttering to himself. When he saw us playing he growled, “According to the Duck Test, that tractor of mine is a piece of junk.” We all knew what had happened. The tractor had broken down out in the field like it usually did every other week. However, I guess I had a puzzled look on my face and I muttered, “Oh.”

The farmer looked at me and said, “Son, do you know the Duck Test?” I hesitated a little and finally said sheepishly, “No Sir, I don’t.” The farmer, with a condescending glance said, “Well you really should, so let me tell you. When I see an animal in the farm-yard that looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, quacks like a duck, swims like a duck, and flies like a duck, I am very confident that animal is a duck.” I have never forgotten that explanation. It has come in handy a number of times since that day in the farm-yard.

The mantra within higher education for many years has been that education is not a business. For a well-reasoned argument showing how businesses must be businesses, I would refer you to the article by Milton Greenberg in the March/April 2004 issue of the EDUCASUSE Review, entitled “A University is not a Business (and Other Fantasies).” You may find it using the following link:
http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume39/
AUniversityIsNotaBusinessandOt/157887.

Relying on the duck test, my argument is the following: Institutions of higher education must be incorporated by the state. They own property, pay taxes or users fees, have employees, who many times will form or threaten to form a union for bargaining power against an entrenched management known as the administration. These employees expect fringe benefits such as medical insurance and retirement plans. Institutions of higher education are required to pay FICA for all employees, including faculty. If the institutions didn’t pay FICA for faculty, the faculty would be required to pay FICA as self-employed individuals, making them businesses. Universities sell or collect money for products or services, called credit hours,  rendered to individuals, compete for students (just like businesses compete for customers) and are definitely susceptible to market forces in recruiting faculty and students, . Just like a business, the expenses of a given institution of higher education can only exceed its revenue for a limited period of time. It doesn’t matter if the colleges are not-for-profit or for-profit, if their expenses exceed their revenue for too long, they can be forced to declare bankruptcy and close down. Institutions of higher education are required to undergo annual audits of finances including balance sheets and cash flow sheets. Institutions of higher education look, act and speak like businesses, so according to the duck test, I am very confident institutions of higher education are businesses.