While talking with some programmers this week I exclaimed, "Excelsior!" It dawned on me that my own son might not know the meaning of this expression. I used it in the fashion described in the Urban dictionary: a phrase often shouted after successfully completing a mission. According to Your Dictionary, it means higher; always upward: used as a motto (as on the New York State seal). The word comes from a Latin root that means "higher."
Common expressions are part of the social infrastructure we call American culture. I learned the term from a poem that I had read in my youth: Excelsior by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. You can read it here at the Poetry Foundation. I actually got a copy of a book of poetry for my son, A Treasury of Golden Memories by Kenneth Giniger. This book has a lot of classic poems, like Excelsior, that were taught to me when I grew up, but which have been abandoned by today's teachers. It is important to pass along our heritage, our culture, to our children. If you are like me, we are busy. It is so hard to juggle all our responsibilities and then find time to oversee our children's education. But it is important to pass on down to our children those poems that are part of our culture.
Years ago I read Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch Jr. The author recounted how his father would only need to say, "There is a tide!" to convey the need to act. The quote is Brutus speaking to Cassius in the play Julius Caesar (Act 4, scene 3) by William Shakespeare.
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
American culture is part of what has made America great. If we lose our culture, we will lose our greatness. Bombers and armies project power, but greatness lies within the heart!
Robert
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Friday, March 11, 2016
Dad, They Towed My Car!
One day I got a phone call at work: "Dad, they towed my car!" My son parked in teacher parking at his high school and thought he would get a warning if he got caught. It does not work that way. The student handbook specifically says that no warnings are issued. Put yourself in my shoes. How do I get the car back? Where is it? I call the Plano Police department and learn that the tow company working my son's school is Signature Towing, 1204 Municipal Ave, Plano, with a phone number of 972-423-4010. So I call and confirm his car is in their possession. I had to ask my son what the license plate number was because that is how they track the towed cars. He knew the license plate number, fortunately, because I did not.
Getting a car back from the towing company is tricky. Image you have given your child a card with the name, address, and phone number of the tow company. Your child's car is towed and he goes there with cash to get the car back. Well, that won't work. The car title is in your name, not your child's name and they do not take cash. The owner of the car needs to show up with proof of ID and pay with a credit card. Perhaps the tow company will release the car if your child has a car insurance card that has his name on the card along with the VIN for the vehicle, but your child still needs a credit card to pay the tow company. Be prepared to drive to the towing company to retrieve your child's car, and be warned that towing is not cheap!
I do not know if Signature Towing works all the high schools or just my son's. It seems to me a good idea to coach your child on how towing works in the schools if your child drives. The lessons are (1) there is no warning ticket, (2) you or your child must know the license plate number, (3) it is not the teachers who call the tow company, (4) the police prowl the school parking lots and call the tow company if they find a car that can be towed, and (5) the tow truck will be there very quickly. Perhaps the tow truck is even following the police! One of my daughter's friends told me she parked in teacher parking, dashed into the office to drop off paperwork, and dashed back out to find her car already towed.
Forewarned is forearmed!
Robert
PS: The staff at Signature Towing were courteous and professional. I have no complaint against the towing company.
Getting a car back from the towing company is tricky. Image you have given your child a card with the name, address, and phone number of the tow company. Your child's car is towed and he goes there with cash to get the car back. Well, that won't work. The car title is in your name, not your child's name and they do not take cash. The owner of the car needs to show up with proof of ID and pay with a credit card. Perhaps the tow company will release the car if your child has a car insurance card that has his name on the card along with the VIN for the vehicle, but your child still needs a credit card to pay the tow company. Be prepared to drive to the towing company to retrieve your child's car, and be warned that towing is not cheap!
I do not know if Signature Towing works all the high schools or just my son's. It seems to me a good idea to coach your child on how towing works in the schools if your child drives. The lessons are (1) there is no warning ticket, (2) you or your child must know the license plate number, (3) it is not the teachers who call the tow company, (4) the police prowl the school parking lots and call the tow company if they find a car that can be towed, and (5) the tow truck will be there very quickly. Perhaps the tow truck is even following the police! One of my daughter's friends told me she parked in teacher parking, dashed into the office to drop off paperwork, and dashed back out to find her car already towed.
Forewarned is forearmed!
Robert
PS: The staff at Signature Towing were courteous and professional. I have no complaint against the towing company.
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Understanding Consequences
It dawned on me one day that prisoners in jail and college students with excessive debt share something in common: they both failed to think through the consequences of their actions. A prisoner sitting in jail serving a long sentence for selling crack cocaine found no deterrence in that long sentence because he did not think about the consequences of this actions. A college graduate burdened with a horribly large college loan did not think about the consequences of borrowing so much money.
Our society is suffering because too many of our children cannot figure out the consequences of their actions. We can protect our children from serious mistakes if we can teach them to think about the consequences of their actions. We parents have to teach our children how to think through the consequences of their actions.
I look for teaching moments in life. They can be simple events. Driving down the road one day while my son was in elementary school I asked him to figure out the cost of our road trip. I walked him through the calculations with miles-per-gallon for the car, price of gas per gallon, and the miles driven. We did rounding for the numbers and he did the calculations in his head. He could do that because he had learned is math facts. Another day I pointed out to my son how another boy he knew was pushing a baby carriage down the street. The consequences for that boy of making a baby too early in life was being forced to quit college to work for child support. Our actions have consequences and we parents need to impress that lesson onto our children.
The most important lessons our children need will come from us parents, not from teachers in their schools. Thinking through the consequences of actions is a vital lesson for our children.
Robert
Our society is suffering because too many of our children cannot figure out the consequences of their actions. We can protect our children from serious mistakes if we can teach them to think about the consequences of their actions. We parents have to teach our children how to think through the consequences of their actions.
I look for teaching moments in life. They can be simple events. Driving down the road one day while my son was in elementary school I asked him to figure out the cost of our road trip. I walked him through the calculations with miles-per-gallon for the car, price of gas per gallon, and the miles driven. We did rounding for the numbers and he did the calculations in his head. He could do that because he had learned is math facts. Another day I pointed out to my son how another boy he knew was pushing a baby carriage down the street. The consequences for that boy of making a baby too early in life was being forced to quit college to work for child support. Our actions have consequences and we parents need to impress that lesson onto our children.
The most important lessons our children need will come from us parents, not from teachers in their schools. Thinking through the consequences of actions is a vital lesson for our children.
Robert
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Understanding Contracts
Our kids must understand the importance of comprehending contracts. Failure can be baked into the contract to such a degree that all your best efforts might be doomed to failure. Great success might lie more in the details of your contract than in your efforts after the contract. First, let's review one of the most famous corporate bankruptcies due to a contract. Rolls Royce signed a contract with Lockheed to deliver jet engines with price and performance goals that bankrupted Rolls Royce. I remember reading that Rolls Royce asked Lockheed for relief from their contract and Lockheed refused, which drove Rolls Royce into bankruptcy. Important lesson: if you make a mistake in your contract do not ever believe that that the other guy will cut you some slack.
I remember reading of a medical doctor who signed a contract he did not fully understand. The doctor trusted that the insurance company would not offer him a bad contract. He was wrong. They paid him less than it cost to treat those patients so the contract drove him into bankruptcy. Important lesson: do not trust the counterparty to offer a fair or reasonable contract. The best way to rob someone is through a contract; this makes the theft legal.
I remember the final walk-through on my first house. As I was signing the paperwork listing the fixes I required to close on the house, I mentioned to the construction superintendent that I was sure they would fix things I missed on the list. The superintendent choked when I said that. I suppose I was surprisingly naive. Important lesson: do not expect anything beyond what is promised in the contract.
Next, let us consider Warren Buffett's success. Think to yourself, if Buffett was the employee of his investors, then how did he become richer than them? They had the money, and he ended up with more money than any one of them. How did he do this? Is was not just good investments because his partners shared his success. His superior wealth must be due to his contract. When I first thought this through it seemed like a revelation: great wealth can depend more on a smart contract than on smart investments.
I will walk you through how Buffett got rich, but I will do that in some other post. It requires math modeling.
Robert
I remember reading of a medical doctor who signed a contract he did not fully understand. The doctor trusted that the insurance company would not offer him a bad contract. He was wrong. They paid him less than it cost to treat those patients so the contract drove him into bankruptcy. Important lesson: do not trust the counterparty to offer a fair or reasonable contract. The best way to rob someone is through a contract; this makes the theft legal.
I remember the final walk-through on my first house. As I was signing the paperwork listing the fixes I required to close on the house, I mentioned to the construction superintendent that I was sure they would fix things I missed on the list. The superintendent choked when I said that. I suppose I was surprisingly naive. Important lesson: do not expect anything beyond what is promised in the contract.
Next, let us consider Warren Buffett's success. Think to yourself, if Buffett was the employee of his investors, then how did he become richer than them? They had the money, and he ended up with more money than any one of them. How did he do this? Is was not just good investments because his partners shared his success. His superior wealth must be due to his contract. When I first thought this through it seemed like a revelation: great wealth can depend more on a smart contract than on smart investments.
I will walk you through how Buffett got rich, but I will do that in some other post. It requires math modeling.
Robert
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Suicide
As I was growing up I saw kids as young as elementary school damaging themselves with drugs. In middle school my classmates started dying in car accidents. Then in high school alcohol and cars led to more deaths. When I was a high school teacher a kid that worried me died in a car accident. This has not changed. But I did not hear of suicides among my classmates while growing up. Maybe there was a veil of silence around the suicides and I was unaware of them while I was growing up.
Now I do hear about young people committing suicide. I have to say that depression is real and needs to be addressed. I read of a successful financier, a friend of Sandy Weill of Citigroup, who suffered from depression, had the best mental care possible, had a supportive family, and still committed suicide. His wife, looking for him, found his Italian shoes placed by the door to the apartment rooftop, went up and discovered her husband had jumped to his death.
Depression is dangerous. Patrick Kennedy recently wrote a book to address the problem: A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction. It took courage to talk about his family's problems. Depression cuts across all social classes.
It is difficult sometimes to get your teenagers to talk to you, but when they do talk, we have to listen to them. And I mean really listen, not lay down the law or argue with them. Our kids are stressed in college and after graduation. We cannot relax once they have left high school or college. I cannot say what anyone should do if they are worried for their child, but it might be wise to look for help.
You have seen the increase in mass shootings in America. We have always had guns in this country. We would not be a country if our founding fathers were unarmed; we would still be a British colony. What has changed has been an increase in the pressure we feel in our lives. We are under pressure and some of us have better ways of coping with the pressure. Because the anti-gun lobby has hijacked this issue, we are not discussing the sources of the pressure we feel and how some can cope while others crumble under the pressure.
Perhaps there are more young people killing themselves. The veil of silence might be hiding an increase in suicides. Or the liberal news media might be so focused on our guns that they are ignoring an increase in suicides because that does not fit their anti-gun agenda.
I worry for our kids.
Robert
Now I do hear about young people committing suicide. I have to say that depression is real and needs to be addressed. I read of a successful financier, a friend of Sandy Weill of Citigroup, who suffered from depression, had the best mental care possible, had a supportive family, and still committed suicide. His wife, looking for him, found his Italian shoes placed by the door to the apartment rooftop, went up and discovered her husband had jumped to his death.
Depression is dangerous. Patrick Kennedy recently wrote a book to address the problem: A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction. It took courage to talk about his family's problems. Depression cuts across all social classes.
It is difficult sometimes to get your teenagers to talk to you, but when they do talk, we have to listen to them. And I mean really listen, not lay down the law or argue with them. Our kids are stressed in college and after graduation. We cannot relax once they have left high school or college. I cannot say what anyone should do if they are worried for their child, but it might be wise to look for help.
You have seen the increase in mass shootings in America. We have always had guns in this country. We would not be a country if our founding fathers were unarmed; we would still be a British colony. What has changed has been an increase in the pressure we feel in our lives. We are under pressure and some of us have better ways of coping with the pressure. Because the anti-gun lobby has hijacked this issue, we are not discussing the sources of the pressure we feel and how some can cope while others crumble under the pressure.
Perhaps there are more young people killing themselves. The veil of silence might be hiding an increase in suicides. Or the liberal news media might be so focused on our guns that they are ignoring an increase in suicides because that does not fit their anti-gun agenda.
I worry for our kids.
Robert
Debt is Dangerous
I grew up knowing the old saying, "A fool and his money are soon parted." Our children should know that saying and they need a new one as well: "Debt is dangerous." It is easy make a foolish decision with finances when circumstances are complicated and you do not fully understand the potential consequences of your actions. Now, "A fool and his money are soon parted," means you can lose all your money. If you make a foolish decision with debt, you can lose money you do not have and end up in a hole: paying back money you lost, having nothing to show for it but years of wasted labor, paying off a debt that got you nothing.
Many young people borrowed too much money to earn college degrees that could not pay off the heavy debt. Now that we are experiencing the race for the next presidency, some candidates are pandering to all the fools in the country, saying that you and I should pay their debts, that we should take money away from our children's education to give it to other people's children. Widespread foolishness is leading to covetousness and a lust for widespread theft. The inability to recognize that debt is dangerous is destabilizing our county.
Excessive debt is now a threat to our way of life; it is a threat to our liberty. According to John Locke, government's purpose is to protect life, liberty, and property. Remove one protection and they all fall.
Please do not allow your children to assume heavy debt without your guidance. If you do not steer them away from danger, no one will. Your children must understand that debt is dangerous.
Robert
Previous posts on this topic:
College Loans (Saturday, December 29, 2012) http://planoparents.blogspot.com/2012_12_01_archive.html
Teaching Our Kids About Interest and Inflation (Saturday, April 11, 2015) http://planoparents.blogspot.com/2015/04/teaching-our-kids-about-interest-and.html
Even smart people get in trouble with debt. Look at the article "Lessons From Dewey Debacle" by Sara Randazzo in the 10-20-2015 Wall Street Journal. You can see how a bunch of lawyers drove themselves into bankruptcy by borrowing money and then mismanaging it. Being smart does not help if you are not smart about money. Money has its own wisdom.
Many young people borrowed too much money to earn college degrees that could not pay off the heavy debt. Now that we are experiencing the race for the next presidency, some candidates are pandering to all the fools in the country, saying that you and I should pay their debts, that we should take money away from our children's education to give it to other people's children. Widespread foolishness is leading to covetousness and a lust for widespread theft. The inability to recognize that debt is dangerous is destabilizing our county.
Excessive debt is now a threat to our way of life; it is a threat to our liberty. According to John Locke, government's purpose is to protect life, liberty, and property. Remove one protection and they all fall.
Please do not allow your children to assume heavy debt without your guidance. If you do not steer them away from danger, no one will. Your children must understand that debt is dangerous.
Robert
Previous posts on this topic:
College Loans (Saturday, December 29, 2012) http://planoparents.blogspot.com/2012_12_01_archive.html
Teaching Our Kids About Interest and Inflation (Saturday, April 11, 2015) http://planoparents.blogspot.com/2015/04/teaching-our-kids-about-interest-and.html
Even smart people get in trouble with debt. Look at the article "Lessons From Dewey Debacle" by Sara Randazzo in the 10-20-2015 Wall Street Journal. You can see how a bunch of lawyers drove themselves into bankruptcy by borrowing money and then mismanaging it. Being smart does not help if you are not smart about money. Money has its own wisdom.
Saturday, October 10, 2015
Are There Drugs in Plano?
Asking if there are drugs in Plano is like asking if there are drugs in America. Of course there are. What that means to us parents is that we need to be vigilant, prepared, and connected. We need to keep an eye on our kids. We need to be awake when they get home after going out at night so we can observe their behavior. When we spot suspicious behavior we need to search our child's room, car, and back pack. We need to prepared with a home drug screening test. And we need to be connected to other parents who have children going to school with our children. If you are lucky, other parents might tip you off about worrisome behavior by your children.
You can buy a home drug screening test at pharmacies. You might have to ask the pharmacist for help in finding the kits. Once you buy one, check the expiration date at the start of each school year. Examine the kit before you buy it. The kits will test for different batteries of drugs, the more drugs tested, the higher the cost, but prices vary. If a test comes up positive, the company says the test is preliminary and you need to send it in for a certain answer. What is important is that you can have peace of mind if the test shows your child is clean. As a parent you need to know that you wait until the morning to do the test. You wake your child up and take the sample with the first urination in the morning, when the urine is most concentrated.
When I was a kid, almost no one did drugs. They were very rare, but I think everyone back then knew of one kid who did drugs. Drug use is more common now. Our society has us under more pressure than ever. That, the declining morality in America, and the aggressiveness of the drug sellers, means our children are at greater risk than ever.
Our children need to know that an arrest record will bar them from working for many companies. Our children need to know that some companies screen employees with drug tests and polygraph exams. Some companies will strap you into the machine and ask if you have done drugs.. In my opinion, those are some of the best companies to work for. Even if an arrest record is expunged, it is not really expunged; it hangs around forever.
On You Tube you can search for "Barack Obama I inhaled frequently That was the point"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpBzQI_7ez8
Your kids might bring this up, that the President smoked weed, but point out that he was not arrested. And if he was, he was connected. His grandmother was a bank vice-president. Obama went to the fanciest prep-school in Hawaii, Punahou School. Rich kids always get off. The middle-class and the poor get shafted. (I have a few examples at the end of this post.)
Another thing your kids need to know is that they should not take their A.D.D. medication out of the house. It is common for a kid to take his meds with him on the way to McDonald's before school. The medication on an empty stomach can lead to nausea. But the drug is a controlled substance and they can be arrested if caught with it in the car. Have a piece of bread with the medication at home before going out to eat.
If anyone in your family has a medication that says, "Do not take while operating a motor vehicle," don't do it. You can be arrested for driving while intoxicated.
I believe Satan is hunting our children, so I also recommend daily prayer for our children. We parents need to stick together to look out for our kids. I hope this might help someone. This is a topic that needs to be addressed.
Robert
Examples of the rich getting away with manslaughter.
U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy killed Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick and never saw a day in jail. A regular person would have been sentenced to 20 years for vehicular manslaughter.
Ethan Couch, killed 4 people driving drunk in Burleson, Texas, and was let go with probation. Was it just a coincidence his father was rich?
Oscar Pistorius shot his girl friend dead and spent less than a year in jail after gunning her down. His uncle is rich and Pistorius will be living in luxury with his rich uncle.
Judges know where the money is.
You can buy a home drug screening test at pharmacies. You might have to ask the pharmacist for help in finding the kits. Once you buy one, check the expiration date at the start of each school year. Examine the kit before you buy it. The kits will test for different batteries of drugs, the more drugs tested, the higher the cost, but prices vary. If a test comes up positive, the company says the test is preliminary and you need to send it in for a certain answer. What is important is that you can have peace of mind if the test shows your child is clean. As a parent you need to know that you wait until the morning to do the test. You wake your child up and take the sample with the first urination in the morning, when the urine is most concentrated.
When I was a kid, almost no one did drugs. They were very rare, but I think everyone back then knew of one kid who did drugs. Drug use is more common now. Our society has us under more pressure than ever. That, the declining morality in America, and the aggressiveness of the drug sellers, means our children are at greater risk than ever.
Our children need to know that an arrest record will bar them from working for many companies. Our children need to know that some companies screen employees with drug tests and polygraph exams. Some companies will strap you into the machine and ask if you have done drugs.. In my opinion, those are some of the best companies to work for. Even if an arrest record is expunged, it is not really expunged; it hangs around forever.
On You Tube you can search for "Barack Obama I inhaled frequently That was the point"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpBzQI_7ez8
Your kids might bring this up, that the President smoked weed, but point out that he was not arrested. And if he was, he was connected. His grandmother was a bank vice-president. Obama went to the fanciest prep-school in Hawaii, Punahou School. Rich kids always get off. The middle-class and the poor get shafted. (I have a few examples at the end of this post.)
Another thing your kids need to know is that they should not take their A.D.D. medication out of the house. It is common for a kid to take his meds with him on the way to McDonald's before school. The medication on an empty stomach can lead to nausea. But the drug is a controlled substance and they can be arrested if caught with it in the car. Have a piece of bread with the medication at home before going out to eat.
If anyone in your family has a medication that says, "Do not take while operating a motor vehicle," don't do it. You can be arrested for driving while intoxicated.
I believe Satan is hunting our children, so I also recommend daily prayer for our children. We parents need to stick together to look out for our kids. I hope this might help someone. This is a topic that needs to be addressed.
Robert
Examples of the rich getting away with manslaughter.
U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy killed Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick and never saw a day in jail. A regular person would have been sentenced to 20 years for vehicular manslaughter.
Ethan Couch, killed 4 people driving drunk in Burleson, Texas, and was let go with probation. Was it just a coincidence his father was rich?
Oscar Pistorius shot his girl friend dead and spent less than a year in jail after gunning her down. His uncle is rich and Pistorius will be living in luxury with his rich uncle.
Judges know where the money is.
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