The question is the answer...

I discovered late in life that having a good question to ask is one of the keys to learning for me. Some religious people don't want their kids to question too much for fear they might question themselves out of their faith. I think if faith and testimony are correctly taught and modeled, good questions will only expand true knowledge and not threaten it, especially when there is real conversion. True religion should circumscribe all truth and not be afraid of it. I was always afraid to ask clarifying questions in class when I was in a learning situation, from grade school to college, for fear of revealing my roving mind. I know I was an ADD kind of kid, daydreaming when important things were being taught, then realizing I had missed something but too afraid to ask what I'd missed.

Some kids seem to be like sponges and soak up and memorize everything they're taught. I am one who doesn't learn well unless I have a question in mind which is answered by what I'm taught at the time. If I have a question that I'm not being given an answer to by someone at the time, I'll lose the question and never pursue it - or ask it by happenstance later perhaps. Or sometimes I have the wrong question for the right answer. To learn a curriculum, I can take a lot of notes, but they will mean little if I haven't engaged myself in the subject matter along the way and always have continuing questions in mind as I study that subject. But note taking does enhance memory and at least record important ideas.

I think my kids' learning has been like mine - not much stuck early in life, but later has become more important as their life questions occur and they seek and find answers to deeper questions on their own from the best sources. And then it is really important to connect that knowledge to other knowledge so it's not just random facts about a myriad unconnected things. But as to life's greatest mysteries? You've got to ask the right questions to get the right answers - and therein lies the greatest challenge...asking the right questions, knowing what it is you don't know and how to know it...so I read a lot, talk to others about their lives, not just for knowledge but to stimulate questions that lead to more knowledge ...now does that make sense? Or am I up in the night? See, I'm asking more questions, which I have a lot more of than answers...and some of my "Doug Daze: More Q's then A's" is all about that very phenomenon. More of that next time perhaps...

Literacy and the elephant's trunk...

After listening to NPR today and an interview with a guy named Chris Hedges, I feel the need to write, if only for my kids, to confirm my dire feelings about the loss of literacy in our land, not just reading skills but reading at all, reading the right stuff, reading to find out what's up with our world! Hedges was mesmerizing to listen to, a former newsman for the NY Times, but also an astute cultural critic! His book is new, The Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and The Triumph of Spectacle, addressing how much deterioration we have in our society because we only look at the image of things, not the depth - the outside of things but not the deep down inside, because we don't know history and its problems and are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past unless we see more than just what's on the surface of our lives. We are also doomed to be manipulated by despots and those who have no motive other than to deceive, to get power, to change things without any thought of the future or consequences.

I have long been an advocate of cultural literacy, starting with Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind, then Hirsch's laundry list of things we should all know in his Cultural Literacy. Recently I picked up a copy of something called An Incomplete Education: From Plato's Cave to Planck's Constant...Einstein to Gertrude Stein..Twelfth Night to Twelve-Tone Theory...Half-Life to the Afterlife PLUS how to tell The Iliad from the Odyssey. (Whew!) I love these kinds of books - I call them gap-fillers, because they fill in gaps in my education - and after all, a good learning process tries to connect the dots, make connections of knowledge wherever so we can see the whole, not just the pieces. Otherwise we're like those twelve blind men trying to describe a whole elephant while each is touching only a certain part of it. Sorry, I'm not interested in just the trunk...

Sorry, still basking, still basking...

Yeah, haven't posted in a few days because that 40th anniversary program our kids put on for us went so well, have had to bask for a while amid handling all the letters and emails of adulation and congrats! It was a fun program, full of surprises from the getgo, including an appearance from Colleen's two sisters Kathleen and Eileen from out of town; visits from Serge,wife Peggy, and Jan Benson( I recently had a post about the untimely death of his wife Laura) from Logan and Russ Marriott and wife Dava from SLC, the guys being dear friends that predate Colleen and go back to my teenhood in Maryland; Gordon Ridd and wife Susan from Orem, my old Mormon Melodaire singing comp in Brazil; the Bob Roses from Bountiful and DC daze; our old standbys, Taylor and Kathy Macdonald and kids; and many friends of the kids, friends from Hawaii and our LDS ward and surrounding areas! What a treat to have great Hawaii cakes made by the mother of one of Caiti's best friends, a good Samoan lady who is an artiste when it comes to guava, passion fruit and coconut pastries to go with our Aloha theme! Thanks to James "Kimo" Tucker and Darlene Hawea for their Polynesian touch with the food and cleanup too. The show was so great, such talented children we have, and has been uploaded to Conn's Facebook and will soon be on YouTube we hope. Missed a lot of our ward friends who we thought would be there, but had a nice crowd that really enjoyed it. After seeing the video of us singing one number however, we have a new motivation to start a weight loss program like no other. 41 years needs to show a marked difference in appearance and health, starting... tomorrow...

Tweet Tweet Tweet Michael...

Sorry, being facetious, don't tweet, though I may have been called a twit in my time - and the only twitter I know about is from Bambi when that wise old owl talks about everyone being twitterpated in the Spring - and I blushed even then as a kid, though wasn't sure why. But nope, sorry, not buying into all the titter about Twitter, one more online concoction I don't need - and I don't use MyFace or Spacebook or WhoTube or any of those other pathetic outlets for posting my poor self all around the universe and creating more needless drama among the people of the earth. The only tweet I know about is in that song "Rockin' Robin" by Chuck Berry that takes me back to the 50's era of absurd lyrics (You Ain't Nothing But A Hound Dog and How Much Is That Doggie In The Window and Yip Yip, Yip, Get A Job). People actually sang those words??? Not this hip cat. And speaking of Michael Jackson, and aren't we all lately, I guess The Jackson Five did have a hit on it too.."Rocks in the treetops all night long.....Rockin' Robin, tweet, tweet, tweet..." Guess that tweety bird won't be singing anymore. I liked his song though...

Freedom of books...

It's the early am morning of I-Day and all through the house, not a soul stirs for freedom 'cause we're addicted to the Wii...yes, we're almost choked by so much freedom, freedom to pollute our heads with mindless stuff - and the rest of the day we'll do celebration-like things, but how much will we be really celebrating how hard-won the freedom to do all this was for some sacrificing patriots and still is for those serving in distant, desolate or destroyed lands. Yes, there will be parades and floats here in Utah Valley, some with their tributes and some with their "royalty", a throwback to Europe and our wish to still have our own queens. There will be endless booths hawking their wares and foods and fun. There will be mind-blowing fireworks at the nationally acclaimed Stadium of Fire at BYU with the Jonas Brothers, Shedaisy and Glenn Beck- "I'll bet my firecrackers can beat up your firecrackers!" I still don't know what to wish people on this holiday! "Enjoy your freedom, it may be short lived." "Salute the flag while you're scarfing that hotdog!" "Happy holiday" just doesn't cut it. Me, I think I'll read a good book by Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson, those guys who actually founded our republic. I might even crack the D of I and read it through, that "We the people..." document that Nicolas Cage had to steal from the Library of Congress to protect it from being stolen from the bad guys who wanted the treasure map on the back...as if. But I'm so grateful for good books and for remembering the right reading glass prescription. I love this week's Newsweek that has as its focus, books we need to read now - a list of 50 of them, most of which I haven't read yet but am now committed to with a definite maybe. Hey, if anyone with any reputation gives me a list of books they think is important, I'm on it boss! Jorge Luis Borges is quoted as saying "I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library." Amen to that - I know I'm in heaven with mine! And let's use more of our freedom to read more reality, not just escape, and be good cultural critics with "eternal vigilance" and not just obsessed consumers of every good barbecue that comes down the pike. I have to have my daily news quick fix, but I need to read more relevant books too. I accumulate them and surround myself with them as if they were future friends to get to know, with every good intention of doing so. I actually even get started with a lot of them, because I know knowledge is power and can set me free! I just need to be a finisher! So Happy freedom of books...

Me And Channel 33...

Ok, it's the Disney Channel on Comcast, (he says with a blush) . I watch some grandkids at times and all they want to watch is that real cheesy, corny, fluff stuff. With my daughter Caitilin visiting from NC this week with her boys Gavin and Ryan, we were watching a Beethoven (the dog) movie amid other scintillating conversation the other night - and I started thinking, I have to admit it, I kind of like this stuff. My kids are getting worried but, yeah, I find myself laughing along with grandson Kai on Zack and Cody's Suite Life, Wizards of Waverly Place, That's So Raven and the newer Jonas - and that Hannah Montana? Not a bad little comedienne along with her majesty's pop stardom. Then there's those High School Musicals made right here in Utah - had to watch those because our good friends Boh and Charlene of Johnson Mill in Heber had a son Bart who played Zach Efron's father/coach - and we've watched him grow up over the years, so there was a lot of loyalty there too. Heck, I even get into Phineas and Ferb now and then, an actual cartoon! And now that they're putting a lot of those kid stars together on a cruise ship for an episode? Talk about your escape tv ...uh. ok, what am I saying? Is this that regression into second childhood thing they talk about happening when you enter geezerhood? Hey, I'm there. No, I'm also a news and NCIS junkie to the max just to stay well rounded. But I will turn off the PG-13 stuff and defer to Disney when the grandkids are around. Probably even helps me stay more grounded too. No really, try it sometime...hey, put away that binky, I'm sleeping just fine..with my thumb ...um ...um... zzzzzzzz...