How About A Mandatory Two Years of Service?

I don’t know when I first heard about the concept of every American high school graduate being required to give two years of service to Uncle Sam.  This has to go back at least to when I was a teenager as I recall being told that in some countries all 18-year olds went into their country's military for a couple of years of service.  Of course, that was back in the era of the Cold War and my guess it was some of those Iron Curtain countries that had that requirement, though South Korea, Turkey, Columbia, Israel, Brazil and a number of countries do require it today.  There have been at least a couple of times in the last thirty-plus years when various leaders in our country have mentioned it, and I don’t know why but this is something that keeps coming up in my own mind.  I have thought more so about it in the past five or six years and have started to adopt the belief that every American high school graduate should be required to give two years of service to our country.  Let me explain four reasons this makes sense.

Kids Don’t Know What They Want To Do — A large percentage of this generation of young people is graduating from high school with no idea what they want to do with their life.  Who could blame them in these rapidly changing and uncertain times!  This idea of giving service will be two years — more if they choose — when they can mature and have additional experiences that may help them identify the path they want to take.  It sure would beat throwing money away for two years of college at which time majors are changed and a somewhat out of date educational system prepares many students for careers where there really are not many jobs.  A couple of more years of maturity would clarify things for these young adults.

Get Them Away From Mom and Dad — No generation of children have been raised by such over-protective, coddling, helicopter parents that have reinforced a strong sense of entitlement in their kids.  Our kids have it easy, and we are to blame for that!  We have given them everything they want, and I question whether we have given them what they need.  They haven’t had to fend for themselves or do without.  Few kids today mow the lawn, wash windows in the spring, or do dishes.  Heck, we have kids in our own community that believe it is beneath them to work at Hardee’s or Subway!  What happens with many is that 1) they are afraid to leave the nest when they graduate from high school and hang around for far too many years, or 2) they go off to college only to drive back every weekend and eventually drop out of school.  This is common!

Pay Back For What You Have Been Given — Hey, our country has given a lot to each and everyone of us.  Many people claim that our country needs to cut back on the amount the government spends on various services.  Well many of us have been beneficiaries of some of those services, such as a public education, and it could be that by giving two years of service we could better justify the money that has been spent.  We have young people who have benefitted directly or indirectly from various support programs like food stamps, social security, and unemployment.  There is nothing wrong with having them turn around and give to others, just as others have given to them.  Whether it is tutoring or running after school programs in parts of this country where education is poor, to serving as ambassadors for this great country in a Peace Corps model, everyone has something to give.   

Contribute To The Country — Perhaps the best reason is to help out the country.  Back in the era of Franklin D. Roosevelt, thousands of young people were put to work throughout the country and we still see the results of some of those WPA and CCC efforts.  Today, our political leaders will not allocate money to maintain our National Parks or infrastructure improvements such as rebuilding roads and bridges.  Labor for those projects can be provided with our nation’s 18- to 20-year olds!  Parents who can’t afford day care so they can work a job could have a ready supply of babysitters.  We can increase the size of our military, both at home and abroad.  Heck, we could have such a large labor force that in some states we may not need to use prisoners on a chain gang to pick up trash and cut weeds along the highways!   People often complain that no one is taking care of this, or taking care of that.  Well, that can be done under this plan.

Lessen The Need For Cheap Immigrant Labor — I am not anti-immigration, nor am I one that bangs the drum about needing a wall to keep out illegals.  I am realist and know that out economy still needs cheap, unskilled labor. No, this should not be a way to deliver free workers to corporations, but it could provide a pool of workers for government funded projects.  A little hard work in the fruit and vegetable fields, or time spent landscaping might help develop an appreciation of physical labor.

In my grand plan I have a few rules that go along with this.

1. Every high school graduate has their choice of joining the military for two years or providing service to the country for the same amount of time.  
2. No 18 year-olds are exempt except for those that are incarcerated, a resident of a mental health facility, or hospitalized for a life-threatening illness.  Once these individuals are released they will serve their two years.  Those with a physical disabilities will serve in a capacity where they are not limited.  There are many jobs where a physical disability is not a limitation.
3. Students that dropout of high school will be required to report within thirty days of dropping out and will serve until they reach the age of 21.  While serving they will  receive educational support in order to be eligible to enter at least a community college upon completion of their service.
4. No cell phones except for an hour on the weekend.  They will not be needed and are not necessary.

The plan isn’t perfect, but it’s close!  There is still plenty of time for all students to go on to college and have a career of their choosing.  As it stands now we have around 3.5 million young people graduate from high school each year, and about 1.2 million dropouts.  That is a sizable workforce!  We are facing uncertain times so there is a ready supply of individuals to serve in the military as well as young people that can make a difference in the lives of others.  We have a lot of places in this country that would benefit from services that people can provide and what is lacking right now are the people and the money to do it.  Well, this plan will provide the people, and since they are not being paid, they are coming at a low cost!

The Final Five

There is no better picture of all that is good with the United States of America than the shot of the five members of the U.S. Women’s Gymnastic Team on the top of the podium at the 2016 Rio Olympics.  Young, driven women that achieved a dream through hard work, grit, and perseverance.  They captured the hearts of young and old over the course of the competition that was broadcast world wide.

Copyright 2016 Associated Press

They are the face of our nation, as you see two African-Americans, a Latina, a Caucasian  and a Jew.  It is a perfect example of the diversity that makes our country great, and when you look at the back story of the whole bunch you do not have to go back too far to see evidence of immigrant families making the choice to come to our great nation, the land of opportunity.  

They epitomize the Puritan work ethic and the stories of millions who through incredibly hard work, they reached the ultimate place — the top of the podium in the Olympics!  All of them overcame significant set backs, specifically injuries.  All of them experienced pain and questioned whether they had the internal fortitude to go forward.  That’s what Americans do!

All five of them are incredible role models and have had the good fortune to have positioned themselves to where they can capitalize in the market place because of their success.  Like  Mary Lou, Shawn, Nastia, Carly, Shannon, and many others, they have inspired young girls to follow in their footsteps.  They are women who have excelled and took yet another step toward equity that still alludes females in our country today.

We Americans love our sports heroes, and over the years young female gymnasts have carved a place for themselves in the nation’s conscience.  But what you will notice is how the sport has moved from one where only white girls from families who could afford the private coaching dominated the sport.  Back in 1996 with the group known as the Magnificent Seven, two of the girls were members of a minority.  That was a much different looking team than the one that rocked it in Rio.  There should be no limits placed on people, nor people excluded because of some trait.  The Final Five exemplify that belief!

A Refreshing Story About A Dad Doing The Right Thing

In June 2017 Keyshawn Johnson, Jr. was cited for suspicion of marijuana possession while on the football roster at the University of Nebraska.  He had moved to Lincoln from his home in California in January of his senior year in high school to start his college life and to be able to participate in spring football practice.  This summer he had been participating in off-season training as a member of the Cornhusker football team and living in the dorms.  Johnson, Jr. was a highly recruited 4-star wide receiver coming out of Calabassas High School and projects to be strong contributor in the next few years.  From all reports he is an engaging young man, very popular among his teammates, and is given credit for convincing others to join the Cornhuskers.  And yes, he is the son of one of the more famous professional football players in the last twenty years, Keyshawn Johnson, Sr.

Who knows what the young man was like before he moved to Lincoln, but my guess is he was pretty much the typical teenager, though one with a lot of attention because of his name.  He most likely avoided a lot of struggles that many other kids have because his father did well financially and continues to pursue opportunities, and he had both parents in the home.  My assumption is that he was a pretty good kid because 1) Coach Mike Riley and his staff screen their recruits very closely and there isn’t much about a prized recruit they don’t know, and 2) he has been covered extensively by the media and if there were warts, missteps, or skeletons in the closet, I have to believe journalists would have found them.  So, I would assume he was pretty much a normal teenager, one that hung out with his friends and did things that teenagers do.

What I like about this story is that he earned the trust of his parents such that they allowed him to move out of their home a semester early and go off a couple of thousand miles away to become a college student a semester earlier than most.  They gave him the opportunity to start the next stage of his life and to be more responsible for the decisions that would determine the path he would take.  And guess what . . . he made a bad choice.  He made a bad decision and it got him jammed up with the law.  I am sure that he was convinced he was mature enough to make his own decisions, and I am sure he convinced his parents that he could handle all of the exposure and publicity that comes with being a D-1 athlete and in the public eye.  And then he screwed up and dad says, “Whoa!  Not so fast!”  

Within a couple of days of the incident, Keyshawn Johnson, Sr. released a statement that his son was going to take a leave of absence from the Nebraska football team and was returning to California because he was not mature enough to live life on his own, yet.  Senior had him gather all of his things, pack them up, and Junior got on a plane and headed home.  In information released to the media, no decisions will be made as to his future, he has to grow up and figure some things out.

So what’s the point?  For one, a parent stepped in and held the child accountable.  KJ, Sr. did not make excuses.  He did not point fingers anywhere except directly at his son.  That in itself is refreshing because many other parents today would have found excuses, maybe blaming other guys living in the dorm or saying that having a little weed is no big deal.  This is also refreshing because he is a man — Keyshawn Johnson, Sr. — that is very proud.  He worked hard and succeeded.  He is proud of what he has accomplished and of his name. Junior tainted the Johnson name, and a lesson is going to be learned.  Dad knows what it is like to live life in the spotlight, and when it shows brightest is when people need to make sure they are doing the right thing.  Junior ignored that.  He wasn’t quite conscious of all of the responsibility that comes with fame.  I am sure that his dad had all kinds of conversations with him about that, but like they say, until you live it you can’t really appreciate it.  Junior’s actions showed that he hasn’t quite figured it out.

So, Keyshawn Johnson, Jr. will not be catching passes this fall wearing  the scarlet and cream of the Nebraska Cornhuskers.  He will be getting his education back in Calabasas, California, learning to be a man of character and how to get back in his father’s good graces.  As a Cornhusker fan I am hopeful that he returns when it works out for him, and that he becomes the man his father is raising him to be.

Beyond CTE and Brain Research

In the spring of 2016 I was at a meeting with Mike Eischeid, a former NFL punter and kicker that played for the Oakland Raiders and Minnesota Vikings.  Eischeid is as old school as it gets when it comes to football players and on his resume has three Super Bowl appearances, two for the Vikings and one for the Raiders.  He played in an era where some of the truly enigmatic characters were on the field, including some of the greatest Vikings of all time.  He was there in the era of the Purple People Eaters on defense, anchored by Alan Paige, Carl Eller, and Jim Marshall.  There were also some incredible offensive linemen, anchored by Hall of Fame center Mick Tingelhoff and Wally Hilgenberg.

Mr. Eischeid is not the first professional football player that I have had opportunity to know and talk to, but he is the only one who played in that era when I was an impressionable young boy that loved to watch the games on Sunday afternoons.  I was even a little bit of a Viking fan for a while and found out that if you wrote players a letter they would send you an autographed photograph.  All you had to do was ask!  I had a number of them pinned on the wall of my bedroom as a kid.  In my mind that was the Golden Era of professional football as I cheered mightily for the Miami Dolphins and my favorite players Larry Czonka and Jim Kiick.  And I was very aware the Purple People Eaters on the Vikings as I ran with buddies who were diehard fans.  

In my time in West Union I have not had opportunity to meet with Mr. Eischeid as much as I would like as we usually just see each other at meetings and a few community events, but I know people who know him well and have told me stories about his life as a professional football player.  However, on the day I reference above, what he and his wife shared with me made a strong impression.  We were making small talk prior to a meeting and I asked if he was in Minnesota when Mick Tingelhoff played.  Tingelhoff had just been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and was a Nebraska alum, as am I.  Mr. Eischeid affirmed that he had in fact played with him, and added with a chuckle that they were good friends and over the years had spent time with each other and their families.  I got a sense that after their playing days were over these old warriors remained good friends and would gather occasionally when their schedules allowed.  

In addition to Tingelhoff, Eischeid mentioned Wally Hilgenberg and a few other players and smiled at some unstated memories.  I listened intently and then mentioned how I found it sad that Tingelhoff was unable to give his own speech during the induction ceremony for the Hall of Fame.  The great Viking quarterback Fran Tarkenton spoke for him because Tingelhoff was unable to do so on his own due to memory loss.  Eischeid mentioned that it had been sad to watch some of these once strong athletes succumb to age and the battering they put their bodies through when they played the game.  He mentioned them not knowing where they were and how tough that was to see.  I am not an doctor and will not diagnose, but one could guess that Tingelhoff, the victim of hundreds if not thousands of head slaps and banging heads helmet to helmet, suffered some type of neurological damage due to his days playing football.  He started 240 consecutive regular season games at center, which ranks third all time.  That’s a lot of banging heads, and getting slaps and forearms to the side and back of the head.

Mr. Eischeid said that it had been a while since he had seen some of the old teammates and when I asked about Hilgenberg I was not aware that he had passed away in 2008 at the age 66 due to Lou Gehrig’s disease, or at least that is what was originally determined.  However, his widow and children agreed to donate his brain for examination and a different story came back.  Like many former players who died well before their time, Hilgenberg’s brain showed definitive signs of CTE.  What made him unique is that he was the third individual whose brain was studied that developed a type of motor neuron disease that masks itself as Lou Gehrig’s disease.  

Over the past few years I have paid a lot of attention to CTE and the brain research that has taken place and am very saddened by what I now see with some of my childhood heroes.  Long before this disordered came to the surface I was well aware of how these Sunday warriors of my youth had bodies that were broken and who moved like old men when they were still very much middle-aged.  Their daily routine was filled with pain and discomfort.  But what struck me after my conversation with Mr. Eischeid was that as many of us reflect on our younger days our memories are filled with all kinds of stories about people we knew and things we had done.  Oh what I would give to have a couple of hours to talk with him about his playing days and some of the characters he played with!  But just as Mr. Eischeid has such fond memories of Tingelhoff and Hilgenberg, because of the damage they received playing the game of football, they would not be able to sit around the table and share those same memories.  I find that very sad.

Can We Do a Better Job Raising Our Kids?

As you know I read a lot about teenagers, from how to teach them to become leaders to things about their social-emotional well-being and psychology.  I also read a lot about parenting as I work with parents of teens on a daily basis and I am also still a parent of a teenager.  Everyone has an opinion on parenting, and there is one indisputable truth: previous generations have a lot of advice for each succeeding generation in terms of what they need to do better!  It is kind of like how we like to say this generation of teens are worse than the one before, and they were worse than the one before that!  

I have said in a variety of settings that I do not believe that kids today are a whole lot different than the kids I had when I started teaching in 1985, or for that matter, when I started high school in 1977!  What has changed is how parents parent.  I ran across a blog written by Victoria Prooday, an occupational therapist, called Your OT.  She addresses the environmental factors that young people face in many families and the impact that they are having on kids.  There is also some good advice and things that parents can do to raise stronger, more independent, and capable kids.  Take a few minutes to read this one!

The Silent Tragedy Affecting Today’s Children

https://yourot.com/parenting-club/2017/5/24/what-are-we-doing-to-our-children

It’s More Than Racism

During the week of July 4, 2016 Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Philando Castile in St. Paul, Minnesota were shot and killed by law enforcement officers.  Unfortunately these two shootings just seemed to be two more in a long line of violent deaths of young black men at the hands of law enforcement.  While there was a lot of attention for a week or two on the news, like has happened so many times before, the nation moved on to something else.  

When the history books are written about this time in our nation’s history, it will be interesting to see if the names Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray are mentioned, and whether the use of excessive force on behalf of law enforcement is even considered an issue.  It will also be interesting to see if in those same history books whether or not the "2000-teens" will be noted for a period of racial intolerance and strife, or maybe a continuation of a civil rights movement that has been going on in our country since the 1950’s.  Or maybe we are on the front end of some other type of a movement or cultural shift in America.

From a personal perspective I have sat in the comfort of my living room in a house in a small town in a rural part of the Midwest, and I have watched these news reports, including those that reported on these shootings and the aftermath, and thought, “How is this still happening in 21st-century America?”  We recently had an African-American serve as President, and we have had women serve at high levels of government, as well as CEOs of major corporations and leaders in a number of other fields.  No, I was not under the illusion that we lived in a nation of equality, but I thought we were further down the road than this.  The level of violence we have in our country is incredible, and it seems that since the 2016 election people have become more bold, advocating taking the law into one’s own hands.  

Along these lines I have found some of the response to the Black Lives Matter movement interesting, as well as disheartening.  What I find most interesting are I guess what you would call counter-movements, specifically those who bang the drum that All Lives Matter, as well as those who show up with signs and placards that Police Lives Matter.  Maybe I am too simplistic, but duh!  Of course all lives matter!  Of course the lives of police men and women matter!  No one said that they don’t believe that!  When a minority group of people are oppressed, like African-Americans have been since they were brought to this nation, they can only hope to get action by drawing attention to their plight.  Their efforts to have change or discourse would not have much impact if they didn’t focus on their group.  Would it make a difference if their movement took on the moniker Black Lives Matter Too?

I am frustrated that people blame the media and say that they are sensationalizing it, and that a liberal bias places the focus on minority issues and do not tell the whole story.  Well, according to mappingpoliceviolence.com, police killed more than 100 unarmed black people in 2015.  That is 5 times the rate of unarmed white people killed by law enforcement.  That is not fake news, and that is not the result of biased, liberal journalism.  It is a fact, and yet there has seemed to be little concern about doing anything to bring about positive change.  The gun advocates immediately take to the airwaves and within hours after a shooting start defending the right to own guns and do not seem at all bothered by the fact that once again a human being has been killed.

As I write this we have just had three unusually hot days in a row in early June.  I am old enough to remember some of those hot summers when cities in this country burned due to racial strife.  It happened in the 60’s and again in the 90’s.  In each case there was discontent to the extent that a spark set off rioting, looting, arson, and death.  Will this be another one of those hot summers where something will happen because of the racial intolerance that still exists in our country?  At one point I thought we might be past having to worry about that, but right now I would not be surprised if it happened again.  

As a young boy I was fortunate to live in a community with a great deal of diversity for a couple of years, and then moved to one of the larger cities in Iowa where I played with kids from different ethnic backgrounds and skin colors.  There is no doubt that I have some racial bias as I think it is nearly impossible in our culture not to.  But I thank my mother in particular for teaching me respect for others and tolerance for differences.  That said I would have thought that by now our country would share that value, but we’re not there yet.

Should We Start School Later In The Day?

Some of you have perhaps read that there is evidence that says it would be better for student learning if we started school later in the morning.  It has been a topic discussed for at least 15 years, but not until recently has there been a strong piece of research that supports this notion, or a call for change from a reputable institution.  That has changed.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published a report based on data collected from the 2011-2012 school year looking at over 39,700 secondary level school students in the United States.  The results may not surprise people, though one questions whether they will have any impact.

So what did the CDC have to say?  First off, they reported that the average school start time in the United States was 8:03 a.m.  That is not much different than the start time we have at NFVHS, which is 8:15 a.m.  That said, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), high school age students need up to 9.5 hours of sleep per day.  Working backward, the would require that they go to bed somewhere around 9:30 or 10-o’clock at night.  But we know they don’t do that, and we should not be surprised because the AAP also notes that because of their natural sleep rhythms, it is very difficult for them to fall asleep before 11 p.m.  So with the fact they generally cannot go to sleep until 11:00 p.m. and have to start school around 8:00, we have a generation of teenagers that are sleep deprived, and when one considers that many of our students are up and participating in  our strength and conditioning program at 6:00 in the morning, or rehearsing for drill team, jazz band, chamber choir, or any other number of before school activities, one has to question whether this is the best schedule to use.  

Would our students be more productive and learn at a higher level if we moved our start time later in the morning?  If research says that they would, why don’t we?  Let’s got back to the chalkboard and look at the math.  With the data above, and working backwards, it would appear that the optimal time to start the school day for high school students would be 9:30 to 10:00 a.m.  I based that on 9.5 hours of sleep and students getting to sleep at 11:00 p.m.  And, I am giving them an hour to take care of their morning routine and get to school.  Then it comes down to whether we have before school activities, something that I believe we would have to do based on the wide range of opportunities that our students have.  If we started those no earlier than 8:30, then theoretically students would get around 8 to 8.5 hours of sleep, which is significantly more than the majority get now.  Otherwise, we would look at a 10:30 a.m. start and I find it hard to believe there would be any support for this.

Before we dig into the “whys” there is a little more information to consider.  Within the past 18 months the Des Moines Public Schools looked at moving their start times later, with the district’s high schools starting at 8:30 a.m.  At the writing of this article, their five high schools start their day at 7:40 and end at 2:35 in the afternoon.  That is significantly earlier than what we are accustomed to at NFVHS.  However, may metropolitan schools start earlier than 8:00 in the morning, some as early as 7:15, which contributes to the average start time in our country being 8:03 a.m.  We would also need to decide how long we want our school day to go, and thus how late we would finish up.  Would it be so bad to have school end at 4:30 or 5:00?  Isn’t 9-to-5 more in line with the average work day?  Maybe we just need a big shift.  Few kids go home after school and have chores to do outside that require daylight, so that wouldn’t be much of an issue.

There are five issues that I see that would need to be addressed.

• The first is whether a change like this would apply to elementary students too, and if not, the logistics and costs associated with transportation.  The research shows that it is the adolescent that is sleep deprived, not the younger students.  
• At the high school, a later end of the day would see significant loss of instruction time when students have to leave early for extracurricular activities.  Now, when kids have to leave for school events before the end of the day they usually miss less than thirty minutes of class.  Extending the day will be more lost class time as it is doubtful that those start times for activities will change much, or can change much.  
• The third issue applies to elementary kids, but some high school kids too.  Some parents already leave early in the morning, and drop their kids off well before the start of school.  For elementary kids that would force the expense of child care before school.  Where this becomes a problem for high school kids is that they  may be the ones that provide the child care.  They will not be getting that valuable sleep their bodies need. 
• Some people will argue that this would result in less family time at home in the evening, though I question how much there is now with family members having their collective noses stuck in their electronic device.  I am all for quality family time, and for those households where it exists, this would be a negative.  
• Finally, old people have routines and habits, and there is resistance from teachers and other adults to a change like this.  They come from the old school belief that a person needs to be out of bed and going early in the morning.  We see all kinds of examples of that at schools today, and thus, that would be a significant change.

Honestly, there has been very little conversation of moving the start time back in our district.  Nothing more than off-the-cuff comments whenever something new is said about it in the media.  Our conversations over the years has had more to do with making busing work than anything else.  We have had conversation about the early morning activities that take place before the start of the day.  Many people have questioned the 6:00 a.m. start to our strength and conditioning program, and perhaps on a handful of occasions over the past eight years there has been a complaint about early morning practices and rehearsals after a late night event.  There have probably been more complaints about Early Bird PE than other morning activities, though we have moved it to a little bit later start.  I find that interesting because it is totally an elective class option.  No student is required to take Early Bird PE!  This said, we should have more conversation if we truly want to do what is in the best interest of our students and their learning.  I for one would be in favor of a change to a later start time at the high school, and I’m an early morning guy.  I see a lot of kids come through those doors in the morning that are not ready for a day of learning.  I am very curious as to what parents and students would think, but in my opinion, this is a case where we need to put the students first.  After all, they’re the reason we do what we do.