Category Archives: education

Jan 29 0 comments
Death, education, Horace Mann, victory

>Vintage Saturday – Be Ashamed To Die

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A vintage napkin from 10 years ago. Drawn for my daughters and put in their lunches to take to High School.
Seems a bit harsh, but there is a very real regret I know I feel when I think about what I could have done vs what I actually did do over the years.  I think there has been a victory or two, so I won’t be ashamed to die.  But, just in case anyone is inclined to tell me I shouldn’t be so hard on myself, don’t worry, I am not.  I am just saying I sometimes wish I had done more.
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Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote By Horace Mann, 1796-1859, American Education Reformer.  My daughters’ first school was named Horace Mann Elementary in San Jose, California.

Dec 20 1 comments
education, lessons, Marty Coleman, responsibility

The Difference Between Excuses and Reasons

I was going to make this Jesusmas Week but I had a realization while responding to a post by my friend Crystal Andrus about blame and this quote came out of it.

Think about it, what do you learn when you make an excuse?  You learn nothing.  Excuses are way of getting out of trouble, or explaining away deficiencies & failures.  They are ways of avoiding responsibility.  One doesn’t learn anything from those things.

Here are two different explanations of the exact same event.  One is an excuse; My alarm didn’t go off like it should have, that’s why I was late’.  The other is a reason; ‘I didn’t properly set my alarm, that is why I am late’.  One has a lessen attached; double check that you set your alarm properly.  The other has no lesson, it’s said in the hope of not having someone get mad at you.

To learn lessons from life, both think AND verbalize so you are stating a reason, not making an excuse.

More differences:

The old saying is ‘Everything happens for a reason’ not ‘Everything happens for an excuse’.  

You MAKE an excuse, but you HAVE a reason.

Nobody ever says ‘Reasons, reasons’.

When someone sneezes, they don’t say ‘reason me’.

What are some other differences?
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Drawing, commentary and quote by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Aug 28 0 comments
education, Theodore Roosevelt

>Vintage Napkin – To Educate a Man

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A vintage napkin from 2004.  I put this in the lunch of my daughter in her last year of High School.
Of course,  what morals is the question.  Morality to me is about doing those things that help you and/or others to remove unnecessary pain and suffering on one hand, and to build up love, sustenance and care on the other.  If you teach how to do those two things to people, you will have taught the basics of morality, no matter what your religion or creed is.

Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote by Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919, 26th President of the United States

Aug 20 0 comments
Back to School, education, H. Jackson Brown, Jr., James Charlton, professional

>Don't Waste Time

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Day #5 of ‘Back to School’ week at The Napkin Dad Daily
I love doing home improvement project, but one of the down sides of doing them is that I am an amateur. I don’t have 20 years experience building fences or putting up guttering or cleaning carburators on lawn mowers (all things I have done this summer).  I am learning as I go. I try to follow directions. but I can’t know all what I need to know to make the job absolutely perfect because I don’t have the education of the trade.  I might know some secrets a guy a Lowe’s tells me, but they hardly ever are where I have my problems. I have my problems in the average details of doing the work.

The same is true in non-manual labor fields.  Whether you are studying Neuroscience and have to write five papers or studying Apparel Design and have to make five garments, the knowledge of the trade comes from the doing everyday.

There is a well known quote, I think by the artist Phillip Pearlstein, that says ‘if you want to be an artist, first find a studio and paint 10 hours a day every day for 7 years, then decide if that is what you want to do.’  Exaggerated as that is, it has a kernal of truth to it.  The knowing is in the doing.

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote attributed to both James Charlton and H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Aug 19 1 comments
Albert Einstein, Back to School, curiosity, education

>It is A Miracle That Curiosity Survives Formal Education

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Day #4 of ‘Back to School’ week at The Napkin Dad Daily
Can you find the ‘mistake’ that made this drawing come to fruition? What do you think it is?
Teachers, do you say no a lot?  Parents, do you?  Double check when and why you say it just to make sure you aren’t doing it simply to make your life easier instead of making your child safer.

The ‘no’ that is quick, that is angry, that is frustrated, that is fearful…that is the ‘no’ that stomps on creativity and curiosity.

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote by Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, German/Swiss Physicist.

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