page contents Google

OREGON DROPOUT TOO HIGH? KGW SAYS YES

  Oregon students drop out of high school more than any other state? Education statistics work to show progress, decline, indifference. You’ve seen those graphs. Chances are good these aren’t dropouts analyzing the data. They are smart people working the numbers. Depending on the point being made, the numbers are the name of the game. […]

BABY BOOMER LIFE QUIZ FOR NOSY MILLENNIALS

Ask your parents about these life quiz situations   Life Quiz 1 Ever made to sit at the childhood dinner table until you finished everything on your plate…or fell asleep in shame? If a millennial asks their parents, and mom and dad say, “No, of course not. We weren’t raised in a gulag,” do a […]

LEARNING FROM WHERE YOU LIVE, PT2: BABY BOOMER ERA

  The baby boomer era state of mind.   What is there to learn from the baby boomer era? Every passing year the nostalgia grows stronger, but that doesn’t change history. Consider the boomer time line from 1946-1964. The oldest boomers were twenty year olds in 1966. The youngest were twenty in 1984. My cohort […]

THE BOOMER END OF THE SPEEDO CHALLENGE

    Any challenge but the Speedo Challenge?   Even without a dashing, single-ski dock start, or the dive team Speedo, the man carried a lethal air. He looked like he could fight death and fear, and win. It made him an icon. Leaping off a houseboat deck rail into thin air with one foot […]

PERSONAL PRIDE vs MIND YOUR OWN DAMN BUSINESS

Go ahead and be selfish just this once, keep your personal pride personal.   Who among us admits personal pride? Raise a hand. All up? Good. Pride for you and yours is a cornerstone of civilization, something to build on. You can tell personal pride people when you see them in full blossom. They wear […]

COACHES CHANGE PEOPLE, PLAYERS CHANGE COACHES

    Sports works best when coaches change people for the better. A coach new to youth football talks about fun. “Football is fun, but more fun when you win,” he says. The new coach played high school football on a championship team. He knew winning. Coaches change people from ordinary to extraordinary in the […]

POWELL JOBS, XQ, AND FOOD EDUCATION

Connecting dots for Powell Jobs and America, one post at a time. When stars align, you see things. Big dippers, little dippers, archers, crabs, lions, the whole scope of imagination is out there in the stars. Closer to home the stars look like Powell Jobs and her commitment to better education, better schools. Her husband, […]

BOOMER IN AWESOMEVILLE

Ode to a departed man of the world, a Boomer in Awesomeville.   Some people you save for the long haul, guys you know will be around, you’ll catch up with them later with they pass through town.   They never change, you can count on that, from their Romeo slippers to their old ball […]

LOVE AFFAIRS OR LEARNING AFFAIRS

Do past love affairs affect the future? What happens between two people ought to be like Las Vegas: what happens there stays there. Except it never happens that way between two people, three or four people, or a whole team of people. No judgements, just call it a social agreement between adults who know how […]

NEW PRINCIPAL AT FIRST ASSEMBLY

How a MAN communicates to children. Good morning students, great to see everyone rested and ready to learn. I’m the new principal. This is going to be a challenging year, this year, believe me, for both of us, you and me both. It won’t be like last year, I’m telling you. Last year you can […]