[Oe List ...] Judy Fishel's "Straight A's are not enough"

[via OE]

The draft was for July 2; it has since been moved to this Thursday, June 25.  Some in this audience might be interested.


Straight A's are notenough
 
My wife and I joined an experiment on secular-religiousfamily ecumenical Order in Manila September 21, 1972, coincidentally andserendipitously the same day Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in thePhilippines.  In the Order was a fellowMethodist clergy family from New England. Bob wore his clerical collar with me in Church gatherings, a feat intropical heat.  Judy was assistantPrincipal at the International School in Makati where my newly landed wife fromIllinois worked at the library.
 
Bob Fishel returned to New England the following year (Iheard, to watch his flock - congregational and wild), while I stayed with theecumenical group (in order to travel, my brother says).  Judy and Bob's two young 'uns we called"Thudom and Thamora" (Anthony and Thamora) but since '74, save foroccasional news here and there, we did not maintain contact.  Thamora had since gotten her PhD fromCornell, while Anthony with dyslexia took his condition and rode it intomagnificent manageability, earning himself an MA in education and physics.
 
Then Bob retired and moved with Judy to Florida, ostensibly,to watch more birds.  Judy is one smartteacher and I had wondered when she was going to capture the wisdom of work andexperience into paper.  She finallydid.  
 
Written with a catchy title that many teachers wouldrecognize, Straight A's are not Enoughis written without the pretentious academic erudition that many tomés acquire(my bias since I cannot write that well!), readily understandable and jealouslywell-organized.
 
It is a mother lode of practical wisdom, with lots ofexperience behind it.  Essentially, shewrote a treatise on how-to guide to learning to learn.  Judy begins with her 8 Great Steps, ofimmediate appeal to my Chinese friends at Waterbear Language Studio in Shenyangas 8, ba, is the homonym for"prosperity and wellbeing". The first three are earthshaking for common sense simplicity: get enoughsleep, exercise the body, and focusthe mind.  
 
The next five are meaty: identifies four learning approaches, names five characteristicsof meaningful goals, discusses flexible ways to manage time, plumbs mindset - itsrich neuroscience and the threat of stereotypes, and develops resilient willpower.  She is just getting started on a four-Partbook.
 
Part 2 is learning skills. Part 3 brings contemporary wisdom on mental process, verbal and visualorganization, ways of thinking, and mapping the pathway to memory.  Part 4 captures the requirements of thefuture, particularly employment and the marketplace, and gets us into thediscourse on critical thinking on reading-writing-listening, utilizing numbersand words, while prancing on the challenge of problem solving.
 
I've been promising my colleagues at the Waterbear LanguageStudio that I will come around to putting down on paper a lifetime of pedagogy,three-years worth of it in language learning at Shenyang Aerospace University,but so far, have not produced anything worth the ink it is printed on.  Now we've got Judy Fishel's book and we won'teven plagiarize her work.  Why, we willjust copy the book, reprint it since our group offers all its materials free toanyone anyway.  (We do not intend to profitfrom it, but I am sure Judy would welcome taking Bob elsewhere to watch otherexotic birds!)
 
We note Judy's 8 great steps.  Perhaps, drinking out of a similar well, Ipreviously wrote that the window to our knowing begins at the sense experiencesof sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, leading to the expressions of feelings, the articulations of thoughts (with words and numbers), andthe willful projection and mapping of intentions.  
 
Knowledge, skills, and attitude are the three categoriesoften used in HR evaluations and Judy gets the field further by describing theprocess of learning, and providing practical strategies on how to attainresults without the anxieties of being properly certificated. 
 
Though the book was written to assist College students withlearning breakthroughs, the endorsement of the book goes to the starting levelat the learning gate.  Though passingtests is universally practiced these days, and American students are oftencriticized for not doing well at all, StraightA's are not Enough makes it clear that there is more to learning than thegrade on the report card.
 
Getting familiar with networking in the job market is aplus; getting clarity on content, spotting biases, gestalting data, andevaluating conclusions, are great tools to have, leading to analyticalreasoning practiced today across boardrooms and business seminars replete withgraphs and tables, qualitative and quantitative data bases, the mainstay of ourcontemporary civilization.
 
Before leaving Saipan, I asked Judy to email me thedigitized version of her book, having seen it advertized elsewhere.  After Part 1, it became clear that I had avaluable tool on my hands to be shared with colleagues I associate with so Ilined up toner cartridges to print the document.   The effort was not a waste.  My colleagues concur: Yup, Judy, Straight A's are not Enough! 


j'aime la vie


yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate! in all, celebrate!






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