by Marty Coleman | Aug 20, 2010 | Back to School - 2010, H. Jackson Brown, Jr., James Charlton |
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.
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 19, 2010 | Albert Einstein, Back to School - 2010 |
Day #4 of ‘Back to School’ week at The Napkin Dad Daily
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| 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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by Marty Coleman | Aug 18, 2010 | Back to School - 2010, Walker Percy |
Day #3 of ‘Back to School’ week at The Napkin Dad Daily
I saw a story in the news yesterday about a single father of two young girls who was being tried on bank robbery charges. He now is serving a life sentence. His reason for robbing banks? To ‘feed’ his daughters. By ‘feed’ he meant keep them in the lifestyle to which they had grown accustom. An upper middle class lifestyle. He was a stock day trader and he made a lot of money. When the stock market and economy tanked he lost it all. He started robbing banks and did so for a year before getting caught.
When the daughters were interviewed after his arrest they called him a Robin Hood. Now, years later, after the sentencing, they were being interviewed again. The interviewer asked if they had a different take on it now that they were older. One of the daughters said yes, but added this: ‘But really, what did you expect him to do, take his upper middle class family to a homeless shelter?’.
My answer is YES, that is EXACTLY what he was suppose to do. That or move in with a brother or cousin or parent or live in a truck. He was not suppose to rob banks. He failed in the one thing he was there to do, and that wasn’t to give his daughters an upper middle class life. It was to teach his daughters how to be good and honorable humans in the world. How to pass life, not flunk it.
So, not only did he fail his own life but now he gets to watch his daughters saying to the world that he was right to rob banks so they wouldn’t have to go without stone washed jeans and a private school.
Of course they rationalize this attitude by saying it is their father really caring about them and being completely dedicated to them. But it’s not. It’s their father being a selfish, scared and shallow jerk with no moral compass.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Walker Percy, 1916-1990, American author.
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 17, 2010 | Abraham Lincoln, Back to School - 2010 |
Day #2 of ‘Back To School’ week at The Napkin Dad Daily
I think this is a very insightful opinion. What was your generation taught and how did that come into our lives years later via government philosophies and programs. What is the predominant philosophy in the schoolroom now and what will that make the government look like in 20-30 years?
Drawing and questions by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865, 16th US President
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 16, 2010 | Back to School - 2010, Henry Ford |
In honor of all the kids going back to school this month it’s ‘Back To School’ week at The Napkin Dad Daily
Then again, where can you learn that? Nowhere. But what you can teach in school and home is how to deal with the fact that life is unpredictable. Teaching young people how to adapt, think critically, and to expect and be aware of changes is a great gift you can give them.
Without that training kids become adults who will either avoid the reality of the unexpected life or freak out when they come across it. Either way it does them no favors to not train them in reality.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Henry Ford, 1863-1947, founder of Ford Motor Company.
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