Monday, September 16, 2019

#Nostalgia #HighSchool Dress Up and Other Fun Days

This is the best dress up day photo I have. It's from the late 1970s. Thanks to Facebook and class reunions, I've managed to reconnect with the girl holding the paper bag in the front row (she's now an MD) and several others. The "girl scout" holding the skull is a family friend.



Back in the “old days, before standards and benchmarks and Professional Learning Communities, I began teaching. I am sure that some teachers did little or no planning or revision of their courses year after year (I suspect some of you remember teachers with yellow legal-sized lined pads with their curriculum hand-written on it that they used daily in class.) However, I can honestly say I never taught a class the same way two years in succession.
In the early years, the goal was to make the class “better,” but for whom or why what we planned was “better” was not a major issue. Owen Miller and I spent the last week of each school year going of that year’s calendar, adjusting lengths of units, ordering films, and talking about new ideas. Eventually, we got to the point where we began writing ideas on the calendars as we went through the year. This brainiac idea made our planning a lot more productive since we didn’t have to keep asking each other, “Do you remember what we said we were going to do here?”
For most of my time at Monte Vista, Biology was the class I taught. I first it was Applied Arts Biology, designed for students who were not college-bound. Then, when John Burak died, I began teaching mostly College Preparatory Biology, a more rigorous alternative for those of academic inclination—or with parents who leaned that way. 

 ASIDE. Mr. Burak was my high school Biology teacher. I student taught for him as part of my credentialing program. I was hired at the high school I graduated from without interviewing at the school or school district. I suspect that was in LARGE PART, thanks to John. His death was too early.
This is what I got letting me know I needed to sign a contract. It's the third sheet in a three-sheet carbon paper form, so it's hard to read. Here's what Mr. Brady, the principal wrote. The three names on the route slip were the biology teachers at that time. The third name is hard to read. "Stan Davies" is the man who told the principal he would teach any subject if that's what it took to hire me. I'm endebted to Stan for his kindness and humble by his belief in me."Please proceed with necessary paperwork to recommend employment of Charles Downing for 1973-74 on a four-fifths contract to teach four sections of biology. At the present time, I do not have enrollment or personnel units for a fifth assignment in his field but he is too good to let get away and he is willing to accept a 4/5 contract for now."That would not happen in today's educational environment.
I'm sure I have this thanks to my mom's compulsion to save important stuff in our lives. Thanks, MOM!
Before major breaks, our classes enjoyed “Food Labs.” In these blatant attempts to circumvent “no food in the room” policies, I would put these kinds of suggestions for lab materials on the board: CO(OK)IES. These usually ended up with sugar overload for kids since they had them in almost every class those days.

Dress UP

 My mom and dad had a closet full of old clothing in their outbuilding. The family used it for Halloween costumes. For a couple of years, the box was a resident of one of the small prep rooms at the back of 1007. Once or twice a year, the Anatomy and Physiology students would have dress-up days. No rationale, Just a time to bond a little.
I participated in the dress-up days. Here I am as a snake oil salesman. NOTE the 1970s sideburns! It's from the same day the opening photo was taken. I'm in the second row on the far right.
My AP Biology classes were usually too large to do the dress-up, but we would have 2-3 “Caloric Replenishments” each semester rewarding the hard work they were doing. These were never without a theme and were quite popular. However, AP Biology's BIG event was the Bio II, All-Kazoo Marching Christmas Choir. That's a blog for the middle of December!

Coincidental Meeting at the Murph

 Another AP Biology event was the “Coincidental Meeting at the Murph.” Prior to selling the naming rights to San Diego Stadium to Qualcomm, the place was known as Jack Murphy Field. The San Diego Padres played in that stadium and four or five times a year offered 2-for-1 deals on pretty good seats. I would collect money in advance and buy the tickets. The kids planned what they wanted to eat. I told them, “I will be at Jack Murphy Stadium in parking lot section 3B on Monday at 5:30 PM. I will have enough Padre tickets for ___ students. If you happen to show up at the same place at the same time, I think that would be quite a coincidence.”
They would nod sagely, and someone would explain to the clueless what I was doing. “Coincidental Meetings at the Murph” were, for all intents and purposes, a completely unauthorized field trip. If I was still teaching, there is no way I would try that today, and do not take this as authorization to do them—or even a suggestion to think about. The 21st-century world we live in is a totally different time with a totally different set of teacher boundaries.
APBio Students enjoying the food at a "Coincidental Meeting at the Murph" in 1982.
While the main reason for these trips to the ball game was to have a good time with one another, I will not forget one time when a very special thing happened. At one game, a young lady sat by me. She was uncharacteristically quiet for her. After the first inning, I asked her if something was wrong. She looked at me with shining eyes.

“Everything is so colorful,” she gushed. “It doesn’t look anything like it does on television. This is sooo pretty.” I had not given any thought to the idea that any of these events would have been the first time a student had been to a baseball game. And I never would have thought that the beauty of the field would have made such a dramatic impact on a student.

Next: Voices and Stories - Any day in one of my classrooms 

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Tuesday, September 10, 2019

#Nostalgia Nuclear Bombs and Bomb Shelters

I offer you five dates in the past as inspiration for this blog—there are others I could have included. Each of the dates listed records the occurrence of a nuclear event.

8/5/1945  –  The Allied bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. My Veteran's Day blog relates to this event.
3/28/1979 – The Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania.
4/26/1984 – The Chernobyl accident in Ukraine.
3/11/2011 – The Fukushima, Japan, cooling system flood with a subsequent reactor shutdown and leak.
9/17/2017 - North Korea's most recent nuclear test, so powerful it moved Mt. Mantap and created a 6.3 earthquake.

I grew up as a child of the cold war between the USA and the USSR. In school, we had disaster drills. Our community had an air raid siren that was tested monthly. There were Civil Defense shelters around the county.

But, the truth was: there was very little accurate information on nuclear radiation and its effects.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki provided horrific evidence of what a blast could do. And, over time, there was data collected on the effects of nuclear radiation. However, in the Nevada desert, above-ground nuclear tests were conducted years after the end of WWII. The naiveté on the dangers of radiation is clear. KTLA Channel 5, a Los Angeles television station, actually broadcast at least one of these blasts live on television—with crews at a safe distance from the blast.

However, conclusive evidence for DNA as the genetic material was not presented until 1954. And it wasn’t until years later that any depth of understanding of the function of DNA and the damage caused by radiation was achieved.
So, for two decades, workers in any location where radiation was known wore dosimeters to measure the amount of radiation they accumulated. It was believed that ionizing radiation was safe as long as the exposure was limited to accumulation of acceptable levels—now known to be a fallacy.

Vintage Radiation Dosimeter
Dosimeters are still used today. Now used only for determining the level of leakage of nuclear material—not safe levels.

Kids growing up in this time took the threat of nuclear war very seriously. We ducked and covered during drills. We learned where the closest fallout shelter was. And, given the chance we really planned!

In 6th grade, selected members of my class—I found out later it was the Gifted group—were assembled as a team. I was included—even though I never quite made the cut on any of the tests used to measure giftedness.

The team’s task was to design a bomb/fallout shelter for the entire school. In retrospect, I cannot imagine the school’s teachers ever agreeing to spend an indefinite time, underground, with the students in their classes. However, we attacked the task with vigor.

Using a map of the school, we designed quite an underground structure. We had the expected eating and sleeping areas—with bathrooms for each sex! There were a large kitchen and dining area. Supply rooms abounded. We also included sports areas and a library. While not quite Blast from the Past quality, we were proud of our effort.

And it wasn’t just elementary school students that planned.

Poster and/or Billboard Promoting the Use of Fallout/Bomb Shelters
For those of you too young to have experienced this cold war/bomb threat phenomenon, I’ll end with one other example.

In my senior year of college, as part of my undergraduate major—Biology for Secondary Teaching—I had to take a health course on human reproduction. One of our sessions was the viewing of a Civil Defense film. I insist it was titled How to Have a Baby in a Bomb Shelter, but I’m really not certain of the actual title.

This film was part of the supplies in every fallout/bomb shelter. To say it was explicit is almost euphemistic. I spent most of the film with my head between my knees, no mean feat in theater seats, trying not to either pass out or vomit.
Aside. When my wife was pregnant with our organic son—more on that moniker in another blog—I dutifully attended childbirth classes. However, I informed my wife that I would not be present in the delivery room for the actual delivery of my child. I explained as I’ve written above about that Civil Defense movie. I continued with my explanation that I wanted the doctor to be concentrating on her and the baby and not stepping over my limp body sprawled on the floor.
My wife listened politely. She then informed me that I would be present in the delivery room.
I was.

Now we know that neither dosimeters nor bomb shelters offer protection for nuclear radiation of the type and intensity of an atomic bomb. Humanity is fortunate that only two nuclear bombs have been dropped as aggressive acts against another nation. In 2015, when we look back at the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we are tempted to point fingers of blame on those responsible for the development, production and, ultimately, the use of nuclear bombs.

I know that the pilots who dropped those bombs on Japan were convinced, and still are to this day...
...if they are still alive, that the acts saved hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides. I’ll not debate if that makes the action right or wrong. To do so 70 years after the fact is arrogance personified.

Today, our goal as humans and citizens of the world should be two-fold.

  1. That no such weapon ever be deployed again.
  2. That knowledge and understanding of those opposing us be a priority so non-lethal solutions to problems can be found.
I'm praying the cooler heads in North Korea become vocal on the idiocy of testing nuclear anything, any time, anywhere.

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Tuesday, September 3, 2019

#Nostalgia #Relationships On Pecking Orders and Life

Notice: This blog is not about bullying, although many consider what you'll read as part of that umbrella. I'm defining bullying as overt physical or verbal attacks on an individual or group. Pecking orders most often ignore those low in the order, maybe even on notch below, rather than attack those.
Penguins keeping the pecking order intact.

I’m retired. I try to eat breakfast on my patio as often as I can. Since I live in San Diego, CA, it’s almost a given that I can do that—oh… about 300 days/year.

The other morning, my wife and I refilled the bird feeder. I sat, praying and watching the feeder, with our “water feature” trickling and bubbling with an occasional splish/splash in the background.


Since birds had been checking on the food availability before we refilled the feeder, I wasn’t surprised when several sparrows and finches arrived at the restocked buffet. If you are watching such happenings with an inexperienced or unconcerned eye, what you observe appears to be random comings and goings of birds to and from the feeder.

However, as I watched I noticed that some birds always got a perch on the feeder—even if it meant chasing another bird off the perch. Following the actions of a bird who’s been chased away, I observed that they sat at a distance until the more aggressive bird left the feeder. Only then did they return to their meal.

Many/Most bird societies are like that. There exists a pecking order where each bird is placed in a sequence of decreasing dominance from #1--> however many birds are in the flock. Whenever a bird higher in the order decides to do something, those birds below that spot in the order will acquiesce to the higher-ranking bird.

Normally, this occurs with little or no resistance from the bird(s) lower in the pecking order. Sometimes a lower-ranked bird decides not to acquiesce. I don’t know why. Most commonly, that leads to some form of display behavior. Should the lower-ranked bird "out display" the higher-ranked bird, the winner moves up in the order.

When I taught this behavioral pattern in my high school and college biology classes, I told my students to think back to their days in middle school or junior high. Hormone ravaged pre-adolescents act a lot like a pecking order—but with considerably less restraint in their displays. 
This is a classic example of pecking order as I define it. The two high in the order girls on the right are ignoring the lower ranking girl in the background. 
Most schools now offer anti-bullying counseling and support. This is a good thing. But, it's still rough being the 51st chicken in a 51 bird flock.

I wonder how often we (me) as adults are guilty of perpetuating a pecking order in our job, social group, or even family. I know that some hierarchy is necessary for the functioning of nearly all groups. 

I know I’ve been guilty at times of doing things myself because I can and not allowing others to get the experience and be fulfilled. I’m better at releasing control now than I used to be, but it’s still something I need to work on. 

Bottom Line: 

It’s how we maintain our pecking orders deserves your (my) consideration.
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