Hi Warren, could be. I studied psychology, mainly
learning theory, for seven years in a past life, but
don't recall much about the true underlying "causes"
of ADD. In New Zealand some, a few, tertiary educators
say what we usually identify as Attention Deficit
Syndrome is a normal developmental phase, primarily in
boys.
Two interesting quotes:
"We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education
has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence
and freedom of thought." -- Bertrand A. Russell
"Everything that is really great and inspiring is
created by the individual who can labor in freedom."
-- Albert Einstein
We spend much money pounding our young into our
educational molds, so they can reproduce "correct"
answers, and then much money trying to re-ignite
"creativity" in them after they're educated.
I may have sent these earlier, Wisdom Prior to
Education:
I wish we could design an education system to teach
our reading, writing, arithmetic, analysis and
synthesis without destroying the creativity we are
obviously born with.
My 3 � year old daughter, Lee, enjoys playing the card
game �Battle�. She also enjoys playing with the
colourful cards, sometimes a few at a time, resulting
in partial decks here and there. Dad, adhering to the
�rules of the game�, prefers to play with a proper
deck of 52 or 54 cards with the same back design, of
which we no longer have any. When I explained this to
Lee she brought a combined deck of blue and red backs
and said, �Here, we can pretend the red ones are
blue.�
Works fine.
From today�s NZ Herald newspaper: Class assignment for
6-year-olds, complete the proverbs given the first
half.
� Don't change horses ... until they stop running.
� Strike while the ... bug is close.
� Never underestimate the power of ... termites.
� You can lead a horse to water but ... how?
� Don't bite the hand that ... looks dirty.
� No news is ... impossible.
� A miss is as good as a ... Mr.
� You can't teach an old dog new ... math.
� If you lie down with dogs, you'll ... stink in the
morning.
� Love all, trust ... me.
� The pen is mightier than the ... pigs.
� An idle mind is ... the best way to relax.
� Where there's smoke there's ... pollution.
� Happy the bride who ... gets all the presents.
� A penny saved is ... not much.
� Two's company, three's ... the Musketeers
� Don't put off till tomorrow what ... you put on to
go to bed.
� Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and
... you have to blow your nose.
� There are none so blind as ... Stevie Wonder.
� Children should be seen and not ... spanked or
grounded.
� If at first you don't succeed ... get new batteries.
� You get out of something only what you ... see in
the picture on the box.
� When the blind lead the blind ... get out of the
way.
� Better late than ... pregnant.
Colleague Floyd Webster Rudmin, Norway:
One time my 4 year old son looked at me like I was
deranged and said, "Dad, you know, Mom is not really
your mother." I said, "No, my mother is the old lady
we visit at Christmas...Grandma, she is my mother."
Then he said, "But if you don't think Mom is your
mother, then why are you living here?"
In a grocery store, I met the university librarian,
who is a dwarf. We are in the same local political
party, and started a very adult conversation about
politics, she clearly knowing more about it than I and
correcting me. My son, who was taller than her, stood
staring and staring, and was quiet for a long time.
Then in the car on the way home he said, "Oh, I know
what happened, her mother didn't give her any birthday
parties."
In Norway, teachers and students regularly bring
little kids to work, if there is no other place to
take care of them. Yesterday, there was a 6 year old
son of a colleague, walking down the corridor, with
his eyes closed. Reminded me that I have not done such
things for a long time.
My son one time said to me, "The trouble with adults
is that they never do things for no reason."
--- Warren Miller <
wmiller@beckmill.com> wrote:
> Shucks, Romie, if you were a kid in the United
> States, you wouldn't be
> diagnosed as having a "lack of focus." However, you
> could easily be
> diagnosed as having Attention Deficit Disorder
> (ADD). Stateside, that
> would mean additional federal and state funding for
> your school.
>
> Not surprisingly, that funding has resulted in a
> veritable epidemic of
> reported ADD, which has given kids artificial
> barriers to hide behind and
> early introductions to altering their behaviors
> through drugs. It's given
> their parents a whole new plethora of excuses for
> their kids' lousy
> academic performance, too. Big pharma loves it, the
> teachers love it (the
> better to fuzzy up attempts to measure their
> classroom performance), and
> the shrinks love it. What a gravy train.
>
> Nuttiness subsidized is nuttiness rewarded.
>
> I don't think you lack focus, Romie. Rather, I
> suspect you're just a
> curious person, and I think that's terrific!
>
> Warren
>
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> * * * * * * *
> *
> * Website:
http://beckmill.com
> *
> * Warren D. Miller, MBA, CPA-ABV, CMA *
> * Beckmill Research/Lexington, Va.
> *
> * Research Orientation, Results Mentality
> *
> * 540.463.6200 (v); 540.463.6208 (f)
> *
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> * * * * * * *
> *
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Automatic digest processor
> <
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> Sent by: Management Education and Development
> Discussion
> <
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> 07/31/2005 01:02 AM
> Please respond to
> Management Education and Development Discussion
> <
MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>
>
>
> To
> Recipients of MG-ED-DV digests
> <
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> cc
>
> Subject
> MG-ED-DV Digest - 29 Jul 2005 to 30 Jul 2005
> (#2005-77)
>
>
>
>
>
>
> There are 3 messages totalling 352 lines in this
> issue.
>
> Topics of the day:
>
> 1. Linear thinking: Re: Writing & Thinking (3)
>
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 09:31:08 +0100
> From: Romie Littrell <
littrellaom@yahoo.co.nz>
> Subject: Linear thinking: Re: Writing & Thinking
>
> Fred Nickols' interesting reference, " 'The Art of
> Practical Thinking' by Richard Weil, Jr., published
> in
> 1940 by Simon & Schuster" is a good treatise in
> mono-chronic, linear Western-style thinking. I do
> not
> function that way, but it gives some good ideas for
> linear documentation of processes for us
> polychronic,
> compulsive multi-tasking, large backlog of
> work-in-progress, immediately switch from a
> foreground
> task to a background w-i-p task when new useful
> information is stumbled upon people. The older I get
> the more I need to document my multi-tasking, and
> the
> more frequently I forget to.
>
> Some might call this behaviour "lack of focus";
> focus
> is overrated. It can be boring and non-productive,
> and
> happens naturally when the available data and
> process
> flow are matched. If the data isn't available, why
> focus on one problem.
>
> Regards,
> Romie
>
> --- Fred Nickols <
nickols@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
> > I like Warren Miller's linking of writing to
> > thinking and I do indeed
> > believe there is a link. I'm quite convinced that
> > someone who can't think
> > probably can't produce much of anything worth
> > reading. However, I'm not as
> > convinced that a good thinker is necessarily also
> a
> > good writer. But that's
> > a different matter.
> >
> > Romie Littrell suggested one of Stuart Chase's
> books
> > dating from 1956 and
> > I've got a "golden oldie" too.
> >
> > One of my favorite books is "The Art of Practical
> > Thinking" by Richard Weil,
> > Jr., published in 1940 by Simon & Schuster.
> > Obviously, it's out of print
> > but, just as I did, you can obtain a copy via used
> > and antiquarian book
> > dealers, in particular,
www.abebooks.com.
> >
> > I was so impressed by Weil's book that I wrote a
> > reprise of chapter six -
> > General Rules for Better Thinking - and published
> > it. You can find a copy
> > of that on my web site at the following link:
> >
> >
http://home.att.net/~discon/six_rules.pdf
> >
> > Weil, by the way, was an executive, not a
> professor.
> > He was president of
> > Bamberger's, a large, well-known New Jersey
> > department store that was later
> > acquired by Macy's (where Weil had started his
> > career in 1928).
> >
> > In any event, Weil's book is well worth reading
> and
> > as relevant today as
> > when he wrote it in 1940.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Fred Nickols
> >
www.nickols.us
> >
nickols@att.net
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Management Education and Development
> > Discussion [mailto:MG-ED-
> > >
DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU] On Behalf Of Charles
> > Wankel
> > > Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 11:54 PM
> > > To:
MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
> > > Subject: Re: It's our fault if business students
> > do not write better than
> > > students in other disciplines
> > >
> > > From: Warren Miller
> [mailto:
wmiller@beckmill.com]
> > >
> > > Valued colleagues--
> > >
> > > As one who hires, and advises clients about
> > hiring, financial
> > > professionals,
> > > and sometimes new college graduates, let me
> > respectfully suggest that
> > > arguing whether business students do or don't
> > write better than students
> > > in
> > > other disciplines is like arguing which is
> better,
> > premeditated murder or
>
=== message truncated ===
PARTICIPATE in a study of leadership & values:
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"Who dare to teach must never cease to learn."-John Cotton Dana
Romie F. Littrell, PhD, An f�na� fi�in
Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, N.Z.
http://www.romielittrellpubs.homestead.com/
http://www.crossculturalcentre.homestead.com/
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