Our little first grader has done incredibly well since we switched schools a few weeks back. This has me thinking. According to Paul Graham it doesn’t matter much where someone went to college, at least when it comes to predicting software startup success. This was a surprise for the Yale graduate. I tend to agree with him at the college level. But when kids are younger does the school matter more?Do they need a better environment when they’re just getting started with formal education?

Why do so many people consider the main benefit of public schools to be learning how to deal with a “real social environment”? I took that quote from a comment on this article:

Online schooling gives kids, parents new options for education

Every time I see an article or hear a conversation about alternative schools or schooling methods the issue of socialization is raised. Certainly it can’t be the only “real” environment where a kid can learn the proper way to interact with others? It seems rather contrived to me. Instead of dealing with real issues like learning, growing, and enjoying life, too many kids instead become acquainted with popularity contests, bullies, teasing, crude language, and isolation.

Beyond all of that how many of us sit around all day listening to someone else tell us what to do and think and then raise our hands and wait to be called on before we’re allowed to get a drink or even answer a question. I’m all for organization, I just don’t get why we think that is what constitutes a “real” social environment.

Does anyone have any insight to dealing successfully with all of these public school issues?

It’s been clear for quite sometime that our politicians don’t understand the meaning of middle class. Sure today we use it to identify the group between the wealthy and the working class, but the original meaning is much more useful.

Here’s the original meaning from Wikipedia:

“The term “middle class” has a long history and has had many, sometimes contradictory, meanings. It was once defined by exception as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry of Europe. While the nobility owned the countryside, and the peasantry worked the countryside, a new bourgeoisie (literally “town-dwellers”) arose around mercantile functions in the city. This had the result that the middle class were often the most wealthy stratum of society (whereas today many take the term to refer by definition to the only-moderately wealthy).”

What we’ve been seeing is that incentive to work hard dwindling steadily since ever more of the result is taken to be used by wasteful government programs. The common explanation is that the money is needed to lend a hand or to invest in our future through technology and innovation, or protect us from corrupt corporations. Raise your hand if you believe the government is better at charity, technology, job creation or pretty much any other thing that our taxes support.

What happens when the invisible hand becomes too weak to lift us up again?

In the 1930s Will Rogers humorously suggested: “There’s a simple solution to this traffic problem. We’ll have business build the roads and government build the cars.”

We’re there with the cars:

With Sale of Its Good Assets, G.M. Tries for a Fresh Start

We’ve been privatizing road building for some time now:

Private Roads, Public Costs

Any way you look at it things in transportation are changing.

We took the young men backpacking around Escalante this month. We had a great time exploring around Death Hallow, Sand Creek, and of course lower and upper Calf Creek falls. At the upper falls we were jumping off a short cliff into the quite cold water when a group of young couples from Provo showed up. They all jumped off too except for one of the guys; he just wouldn’t do it. The youngest scout in our group, who had just barely turned 12, started jawing this guy for not getting in. The spectator responded that he didn’t want to end up shivering like the scouts were. To this his friend replied: “yeah he’s shivering, but his smile is a lot bigger than yours”.

Life can’t really be lived as a spectator can it?

On the same trip we listened to a talk by Scott Simmons titled: “You only live once, but if you live right once is enough”. I highly recommend it. That’s a mantra to live by.

Our combined youth activity this month, planned by the beehives, was find your way to the temple. We first had to try and get there by rolling a die at each intersection to determine our course. After trying that for awhile we were given a map to follow. We then visited the temple grounds and had some leaders share thoughts on the temple and then we had some time to reflect and write goals for getting to the temple. It was a really good activity.  It was also a perfect evening, unfortunately I didn’t have a decent camera in tow.

At Stake Conference last week there was a lot of focus on the temple as well; mostly examples of how temple attendance has helped people in various situations. What a great time to live with temples being built like never before.

When Paul Graham says

“The first essay of his that I read was so electrifying that I remember exactly where I was at the time. It was High Technology Innovation: Free Markets or Government Subsidies?“

well I have to pay attention. I wasn’t disappointed and I don’t think you will be either.  One of the most insightful and best laid out speeches I’ve read; especially on a political topic, even if it is from 1993.

“None Were with Him”

Last weekend I attended Stake Youth Conference at Aspen Grove. To be honest I wasn’t too excited to go. It was at the end of one of the longest weeks we’ve ever had. I had been gone to Salt Lake helping with our annual sales training event for several long days while Holli was at home dealing with the flu. However it turned out to be a really great experience.

Friday night was a fireside with Max Hall followed by a two Stake combined dance. Then on Saturday there was a 3 hour morning workshop on “I will go”, “I will do”, and “I will be”, followed by cross country skiing and a closing testimony meeting in the afternoon. For the workshop there were 3 different sessions. One was a returned missionary panel that turned out to be the high point for me (followed very closely by the Chambers excellent talks). They had 6 or 7 recently returned missionaries from our Stake, including one from our ward who had only been home from Russia for a week, and one guy who had been back for 10 years. Listening to their experiences, thoughts, lessons learned, and struggles to find the right English words brought back all of my mission feelings. It was truly the most spiritually uplifting experience I’ve had in a long time. I sat listening with my notebook open recording one thought and insight after another; just like in the old mission conferences.

Well the one missionary who had been home for 10 years shared three points with the youth, one of which was that just like physically we are what we eat, we actually become what we think. This is such a great concept that is so important to understand. Especially considering the constant stream of media and information that is found in our modern world. This is one of the great blessing of serving a mission; the opportunity to study and ponder every morning and then go out and apply what’s learned through teaching and serving others (or else spending many long hours walking which offers more time for reflection).  I thought about this a lot and decided to make it the focus of my lesson for the priests yesterday. Below you will find my notes for the lesson, complete with a pretty tough challenge at the end.

On a side note I think the back side of Timp offers the most spectacular mountain views in all of Utah, too bad I didn’t have my camera because the weather and light made for a perfect day.

Stake Youth Conference – You Are What You Think

What do missionaries think about?

“Neither take ye thought beforehand ^awhat ye shall say; but ^btreasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be ^cgiven you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.” – D&C 84:85

A few examples:

“Behold, my ^asoul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my ^bheart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard.” – 2 Ne 4:16

“Never did any passage of ^ascripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed ^bwisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects ^cunderstood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.”  – JS History 1:12

“On the third of October, in the year nineteen hundred and eighteen, I sat in my room ^apondering over the scriptures;” D&C 138:1

What do you think about when you have nothing else to think about?

It was during President Eyring’s study of physics at the University of Utah and his father was explaining a complex mathematical problem when he stopped and said, “Hal we did the same kind of problem as this a week ago and you’re no better now than you were then at this.  Isn’t this what you think about when you don’t have anything else to think about?”  When President Eyring said “no,” a very solemn moment followed.  His father then said, “Well then, Hal, you’d better get out because you’ll be competing with people where this is their life and they’ll be as bright as you are.  You better go find something that you think about when you don’t have to think about it, when it’s just a joy to you.” – President Eyring

Why treasure up in your minds?

“Seek not to ^adeclare my word, but first seek to ^bobtain my ^cword, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my ^dSpirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the ^econvincing of men.” – D&C 11:21

You can’t teach what you don’t know. You can’t learn without study & effort.

“You can think about only what you know, so you ought to learn something;” – Arthur Schopenhauer

“It is true intelligence for a man
to take a subject that is
mysterious and great in itself,
and to unfold and simplify it so
that a child can understand it.”
– PRESIDENT JOHN TAYLOR
THE GOSPEL KINGDOM, SEL. G. HOMER DURHAM (1943), 270 – Found in Preach My Gospel

How to do it?

“But your mind has been on the things of the ^aearth more than on the things of me, your Maker, and the ministry whereunto you have been called; and you have not given heed unto my ^bSpirit, and to those who were set over you, but have been persuaded by those whom I have not commanded.  Wherefore, you are left to inquire for yourself at my hand, and ^aponder upon the things which you have received.” – D&C 30:2-3

1) Study & ponder scriptures each morning

2) Mark scriptures using multiple color system – take time

3) Think about scriptures during breaks throughout each day

4) Take quiet time to reflect each night

5) Tune out the world (tv, video games, Internet, ipods, cell phones, radio) during quiet times

What do you want to be?

“My earnest hope for each of you young men is that you will not simply go on a mission—but that you will become missionaries long before you submit your mission papers, long before you receive a call to serve, long before you are set apart by your stake president, and long before you enter the MTC.” – Elder Bednar – Becoming a Missionary

Solitude of the Savior

“And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to ^apray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.” – Matt 14:23
Challenge – 1 Week

1 hour study/ponder/reflect/journal time each day (no distractions)
No Ipods
Report on (verbal or written)  What Are You Thinking

Last week I submitted a paper for a traffic conference. This one required a key word list be included. So this gave me an excuse to try out a tag cloud generator. I ended up using TagCrowd and it worked great.