Radio Free Spirit goes back to the 1960s

I was listening to the Cousin Brucie program on Sirius/XM when I found this little gem. If this has not been incorporated into the Mad Men soundtrack, it should. There is that wall of sound aspect to it that makes me fall in love with this song. Please also keep in mind that the lyrics whisper in ways that today's 'love' songs tend to scream. Give it a chance and let me know what you think. The school year is back in force and I wanted to post some light material for your enjoyment!



After you give this one a listen, also think about Spanky and Our Gang. I enjoyed their music going back to when I was in junior high school listening to the oldies station at night before I went to bed...

A royal pain?

The royal family in Great Britain is welcoming a new addition, and many around the world are joining them in their celebration.

Huzzah, right?

The joyful sentiment is not shared much by others who shrug and openly ask, "Who cares?" This, in my opinion, is that this is a legitimate question in light of how our modern world consists of various forms of government that involve power being handed down through means other than inheritance.

This skepticism rings especially true in the United States of America, a nation that violently broke away from its 'mother country' and has since taken pride in being a meritocracy. George Washington famously turned down being president for life and set a precedent for a new way of leading on this side of the pond. For those who are not Anglophiles in America, the spectacle of anything royal somehow triggers a gag reflex and cries of open apathy - or even antipathy.

Those who have taken to the streets to proclaim how little they care about the yet-to-be-named baby prince are sincere in their wish that we could focus on more important things. Sure, the arrival of a future king is not necessarily an event of interest to all, but what real 'news' occupied our attention in the previous days and weeks?

To be honest, the news has been a welcome distraction for me in light of racial tension, serial killers and political gridlock here in my country. The degree to which I care is no more than what other news dispatch arrives on my computer, but I do not shy away from showing some interest.

But why am I interested?

Sure, Great Britain is a constitutional monarchy that has whittled down royal power to that of a figurehead who graces national currency, but the British monarch continues to be the head of state. In that vein, royal watchers are no more annoying than those who are fascinated with our very own combination head of government and head of state. Remember when American women attempted to copy the look of Jackie Kennedy or those who stormed department stores to buy the same attire as Michelle Obama?

It's not all superficial, however. For all of the leisure and laziness that is perceived in the British royal family, let us not forget that they have a staying power that has withstood the overthrow of other monarchies. In modern times, the British royals survived two world wars, the violent overthrow of other monarchies and managed to keep healthy ties with their Commonwealth. And even as republican movements come and go, the House of Windsor maintains a reservoir of good will that other political institutions would envy.

And the media do play a role in preserving the royals' relevancy. Before the modern media, the royal family indeed lived a very cloistered existence. The public trusted in their monarchs simply through Divine Right. As other nations changed their governments, the royals needed to justify their expense to the public. King George V knew that, in light of radical movements and the overthrow of his cousins, he had to present his family as everyday citizens and to dispel the image of the debauched kings and princes like his father - King Edward VII.

The new media of motion pictures and radio gave King George V a powerful tool for public relations. The human connection of a king's voice and his ceremonial presence combined to cast strong ties within what was a Dominion of Nations. Those ties were tested during the abdication crisis of George's son, Edward VIII. Great Britain moved past the abdication and then buckled down through a war in which their King George VI and family would not abandon them.

As you can see, the history of Britain is infused with the story line of their royals' 'soap opera.' Historians still discuss the drama that pitted George VI against the Duke of Windsor and debate how the Germans may have planned to use the former king as a tool for invasion.

Hollywood even entered the fray of royal watchers with its moving 'The King's Speech.' The tale of overcoming a speech impediment exposed the private battle of a king for the entertainment of millions. The details of his struggle were given added gravity by his responsibility to his nation. A film about a man who stopped stuttering would not have meant as much without the narrative of a man who was to be the voice of his empire.

The rest of the Pandora's Box for the royals came with television. The documentary of a day in the life of Queen Elizabeth II may have been a watershed moment in how Britons viewed their royals and then, of course, there was Princess Diana.

The frenzy of attention increased with every glamorous photo-op that featured Princess Di. The royal wedding generated record ratings on television not because the television networks had nothing else to broadcast in the early morning. Public demand reached a fever pitch for those who daydreamed of a Cinderella-type possibly becoming the queen consort.

The royal soap opera rivaled fiction in the coming decade of Andrew, Fergie, Charles, Camilla, etc. This after all, was the generation of the future king. At least with Queen Elizabeth, she only had a few minor scandals from Princess Margaret. In the 1980s and 1990s, the family was publicly falling apart. It seemed to hit the bottom when Princess Diana was killed in 1997.

I guess that one important aspect of this new royal baby is that it appears to be a redemption of a family that went through divorce and strife out in the open. I am sure that there are days when the Windsors want to retreat into themselves. But, as Princess Diana's death showed us, there is always someone who is standing outside with a camera. Their shame has been public so much, it would at least be fair to broadcast their triumphs as well.

Maybe that is one reason to 'care.'

Life, Love and Lilies: The Sanctified Self - A Book Review

This is one homework assignment that I take joy from!

After a relaxing Presidents Day weekend of hosting friends from Atlanta, including a post day trip to the Nation's Oldest City, I received a very thoughtful gift.

Brenda Bunch Strickland gave me an autographed copy of her book, "Life, Love and Lilies: The Sanctified Self." Even though the weeks have passed since then, I knew that the time would finally be right for me to read Brenda's thoughts on life, love and lilies.

Thankfully, after a school year of challenges, I sat down in a quiet waterfront park here in Bath, Maine to enlighten myself with Brenda's unique perspective. I managed to breeze through but also to savor her words like the sweet summer air around me and the cooling waves of the river at my feet.

Firstly, don't let the title fool you. This book is specially created for those who believe that being 'sanctified' is about as rarified as becoming a saint or a martyr. In reality, Brenda shares her thoughts about how we can achieve our potential as spirits in the material world.

For this lifelong journalism student, Brenda skillfully breaks down the who, the what, the when, the where and the why of our very existence. With as much reason as passion, she takes me on a journey into purpose, existence and the road ahead. The usual baggage of sin, fear and guilt are set aside so we can learn to travel light.

And what a trip it is. Brenda understands that it takes universal thinking to understand the universe. She does not limit herself to one path or condescend on other beliefs to make her points. She embraces all that is good and I know that the good returns her gentle hug.

Yes, the bookstores are populated with religion, new thought, new age and all that could keep a thinker occupied for centuries. Yes, we may never grasp the answers to all of life's questions in this lifetime. Brenda, however, has a worldview that make her efforts worthy of recommending to all who want to begin somewhere.

Central to her book, in my opinion, is the Bible verse from the Book of Matthew. We are to behold the lilies of the field as they toil without worry for their sustenance. This has been misread by many to think that we can just sit there and expect good to come our way. In practical terms, Brenda explains that even the most leisurely and lovely among us have work to do as the lilies serve to hold the ground together in the face of erosion. We, too, have our work and we too can lay down our worries to make room for the best that we deserve.

I hope that you consider looking up this great book to read for yourself! To order a copy ($20 plus shipping), call 404-734-8827, email brenstrick@gmail.com, or visit www.brendastrickland.us.

Reunion and retreat. Thanks JD Peeps!

The best thing about my junior high school years is that I am here in Bath, Maine for a week.

Twenty-five years ago, I met a snarky, sweet and pretty girl in my ninth grade art class in Orange Park, Florida.

Not only did we have an art class in common, we shared an English class. We joked about substitute teachers whom we referred to as feminine hygiene products, we passed notes when our peers were discussing 'Alas, Babylon' and we rocked out to the Hoyle Dempsey morning show on the WAPE-FM.

We shared so many laughs in our freshman year. We were not typical freshmen because we were on top of the heap. The junior high school pecking order led directly up to the ninth graders who knew not very much of the coming sophomore slump.

Then, she was gone. I sorely missed my art buddy whose sense of humor made me openly wonder if we were long-long siblings. Just as she opened my eyes and ears to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, she was gone.

This was the heavy price that I paid for being a Navy brat. I knew that whatever bonds that I formed would be torn asunder by Uncle Sam's dictates that my friends' parents would be stationed to any random duty station if to point out that my socialization and friendships took a back seat to our national security.

Tenth grade for me was a letdown without her. She must have made a mark in our town because rumors came and went around our Sunshine State suburb that she was dead. Whatever the truth was about this mysterious friend, I thought fondly of the nearly 180 days that we sat in tiny desks with the kind of dialogue that now permeates the typical teen sitcom that populates American television.

Although she was gone, she was the template for all of my future friendships. When I joined my church youth group, when I started an underground newspaper, when I eventually went away to college. The ones who drew me the closest were the ones who seemed to step right out of Spy Magazine.

Or the Village Voice

Then along came MySpace.

Seeing that I halfway feared that I would have to conjure up a seance to reunite with her, I decided to search her through social networking.

It almost did not happen because I was reluctant to join MySpace. After all, what were the odds of finding people with whom I wanted to connect? Once I got on, I began making connections with folks who were unseen in years.

On a whim, I looked her up. I found her. I sent her a message.

As far from Maine as she was, she and I crossed the span of decades to reconnect. I could hardly wait to make the trip of the East coast to see her again. Thanks to Amtrak's USA Rail Pass, I embarked on a journey to rediscover myself.

Much like I thought that she had left this mortal coil, there was a younger me that I thought had surely been exterminated by adulthood and broken dreams. I saw life as a never ending trail of disillusion and failure as I did not quite measure up to what was expected of me.

The creativity, imagination and zeal that drove the freshman me became liabilities for a middle aged teacher who found himself demanding the kind of conformity and compliance of students that would have surely earned himself the 'douche' tag from a younger me.

But I digress. The train trip that I took was a shot in the dark that I was going to find a Pine State paradise. Unlike most gambles where I leave with a lighter wallet, I found my visit to be a tonic for the soul.

It was not just the salty breeze and the New England charm, it was a long lost sister whose reunion also reunited me with myself. Not only did I drink a lot of Moxie, I found my mojo again. The spirit of a fourteen-year-old boy returned to remind me that there is plenty of fun to be had in life.

As I write this entry, I am thankful for spending time with her and her family. They are the most gracious hosts and their town is a getaway. The ties that we restored have also restored me. That is why I love summering up here. I dedicate this blog entry to M.C. and her wonderful family.

As the next school year begins for this middle school teacher, I already am dreaming of my return to this Down East Shangri-La.

Common Core and World History - Are YOU ready?

Common Core is coming!

Schools across the nation are prepping for adoption of Common Core Standards to ensure that all students are learning what they need to make it in the world and the workplace.

If you teach world history (especially elementary or middle school levels), I have created a helpful resource that connects the new Common Core with social studies education. I wanted to have a ready source of activities that could be used in the world history classroom and I have made my work available for social studies teachers.

For only $29.99, you can access my materials and use them in your classroom. I did the work to save you time so you can focus on having a great school year ahead.

Please visit my page on Teachers Pay Teachers to purchase your copy today!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Making-History-Common-Core-and-Social-Studies-472542

I also have a PowerPoint presentation on cognitive complexity that will help you incorporate rigor into your social studies work. This cognitive complexity slide show is useful for social studies teachers on all grade levels from middle to high school!

Depth of Knowledge and Cognitive Complexity

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Depth-of-Knowledge-and-Cognitive-Complexity-344092

Buy my book! It will change your life :-)

Last year was my twentieth high school reunion and, although it was great to reconnect with my classmates from Orange Park High School's class of 1992, there was a reunion that I had later on that meant a lot to me.

While cleaning up around my apartment, I found an old journal of poetry that I wrote during my freshman year of college. Two decades later, I revisited the thoughts of a vulnerable 18-year-old student who was on his own for the first time in his life. At first, I was depressed because I was surrounded by a lot of uncertainty. But, as time passed, I found my voice amid a heady optimism that marked the pre-9/11 world of the 1990s.

In my journal, there are poems of sadness, separation and then joy and life. I marvel at how I took the time to express myself in a journal when I thought that nobody was watching or listening. I shared my thoughts at a random poetry reading here or there, but soon put away my poetry journal for what I deemed to be more 'grown-up' things.

In the last year, I gathered the courage to publish a selection of my poems and share them with the world. Back then, when I was editing my college newspaper, I knew that my audience was limited to the faculty and students of South Georgia College in Douglas, Georgia. I don't know how I would have reacted to today's World Wide Web, blogs and the Information Age. The title of my book is "Twenty Years Later: A Collection of Poems from a Past Life."

As my work was intended to help me through dark times, I promise to donate proceeds from my book to help with mental health services for today's young people who need to find a way through what appears to be the great unknown in their lives. Please visit the link below and purchase a copy! It is only $4.75 on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Twenty-Years-Later-Collection-Poems/dp/148113759X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372128968&sr=8-1&keywords=9781481137591

Public libraries are part of the Information Age

It is a half-baked idea to believe that our public libraries are obsolete. To believe that the Internet is making a redundancy of brick-and-mortar learning is akin to tossing out our ovens simply because our microwaves can also heat things.

The ability to boil water, however, does not immediately translate into being useful for something more elaborate, like Baked Alaska. Likewise, pointing and clicking may be great for someone who is looking up who starred in what or who sang what. This superficial ability to find fast facts, however, should not be confused for the deeper challenge of performing scholarly research.

Just because we have computers, tablets, smart phones and other devices that can access what appears to be an infinite source of knowledge, we ignore the quality of the information in favor or the quantity of what we think are facts. According to the Digital Library Federation (DLF), less than seven percent of online information meets the standard of being appropriate for educational or scholarly purposes.

Factor in to this how the DLF says that the average college undergraduate may be using search engines to conduct a comprehensive search but results in only a ‘surface’ web that consists of only .03 percent of the actual Internet. The other 99.97 percent of the Internet goes unread, including journals, periodicals and other publications that are central to research.

This global approach to fact finding actually enhances the need for local public library systems. Special collections in many libraries provide access to rare or unique media (e.g. photographs, newspapers, archives) that could not be either located through a search engine or purchased for an e-reader.

Libraries have the ability to loan these selected items to other libraries for public use or share through public databases. This is a free aspect of public libraries that would be a costly service for someone to maintain the same ties and services with the number of institutions that work with our libraries.

Public libraries have already survived their predicted demise. Bookstore chains went the ‘big box’ route with stores that became new gathering places for readers. Their coffee shops and comfortable chairs, however, may have invited a lingering customer to read a couple of magazines. I grew up at a time when it was taboo to pick up a magazine at the convenience store.

“What do you think we are? A library?” said the cashier. Then, if we wanted to read it, we had to buy it. Bookstores became libraries in that customers became used to previewing a book at the bookstore and then bought it online.

As the large bookstore chains close, with them goes the physical space that readers have for discussing books, meeting authors and sharing ideas. The public libraries were doing this all along and will continue to serve communities in this capacity – including reading to young children, organizing youth interest groups, teaching important job skills or promoting literacy.

The biggest misconception in the debate over the relevance of public libraries is that everybody has Internet access. It seems like everybody has a smart phone, a tablet or a laptop within reach. According to The New York Times, however, one-third of Americans do not subscribe to Internet services. This may account for the 26 percent of respondents in a Pew survey who visited their public library for wireless or computer services. It looks like our public libraries continue to be necessary in the lives of those who do not have the means of accessing information. This is why the free public library movement began and why it will continue to serve our community. With a Pew survey saying that over 91 percent of Americans believe that public libraries are important to their communities, the proof is in the pudding.