Skip to main content

Old Dog and New Tricks - Tip O'Neill - Continual Learning and Haters

You can teach an old dog new tricks, and this old dog wants to learn.


from: Tip O'Neill   Speaker of the American House of Representatives 1977-1987

Gramma Moses didn't start painting until her 70's.  Colonel Sanders sold his first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in his 60's.  Ray Croc started McDonalds in his 50's.  Duncan Hines was 55 when he started writing cook books.  Sam Walton opened his first "Walmart" when he was in his 40's.  Laura Ingalls Wilder published her first Little House on the Prairie when she was 65.

Yesterday, some 30-something told me that one of the teachers we used to work with couldn't adapt because "she was too old."  I knew this teacher and I doubt if she could have adapted 20 years ago.  Age had nothing to do with her lack of evolution; her stubbornness and protection of ego had everything to do with it.  

What really surprised me is that the 30-something is a teacher.  A TEACHER.  And almost everyday his job is to teach "new tricks."  Weekly he experiences resistance to learning from young people.  Even with that empirical data, he falls back on a stereotype.

And he is not a hater.  He talks fondly of Obama.  He vents when people make statements about his genetic background.  He graduated from a fine university and is erudite.  He had a very international upbringing.  Unfortunately, it took me stating his speech was offensive THREE TIMES before he realized it.

DON'T LET THE HATERS STOP YOU!  Learning is hard for everyone.  Developing a skill takes time.  Be around people who support you.  Make progressing on your path a habit and keep at it.




Gratitudes:  Holidays, insect spray, and water filters.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

We shape our buildings - Winston Churchill - Be in action

We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us. from:  Winston Churchill, Painter , Political Survivor, Orator , and Nobel Prize for Literature Winner So much negativity in the world and in my thoughts.  Originally, I was looking for a quote about the benefits of having positive thoughts.  Sigh.  There are many quotes like that out there, but the ones I found where either by celebrities or self-help gurus.  Not that what they are saying is not useful, it is just I wanted elegant, powerful bon mots from a profound source. So, Churchill. I'd written down in my notes about this quote.  It was made in a speech to rebuild the House of Commons after a bombing raid.  I noted the quote because it agrees with my belief that architecture influences those who encounter it, whether for good or bad.  But in this case, I am presenting it to my gentle readers as a metaphor.  Like:  "You reap what you sow," or "You've made your ...

What can I change? - Leo Tolstoy via The Artist's Way -

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. Widely attributed to Leo Tolstoi (or Tolstoy):   Author , Activist .  Another misquote.  Sigh.  The above quote is actually from  The Artist's Way at Work : Riding the Dragon  (1999) The actual Tolstoi quote is:   There can be only one permanent revolution — a moral one; the regeneration of the inner man. How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself. Now, don't get me wrong.  I love the The Artist's Way.  I journal three pages every morning (fingers crossed).  And since Tolstoi wrote in Russian, maybe The Artist's Way translation is accurate.   Anyway.  Today's blog entry is about change.  I was writing in my journal all of the bitchi...

Don't trust a skinny cook - Vinne Vrotny - Teacher Hypocrisy

Adults want comfort, but expect students to go into [the] discomfort zone.  Are we hypocrites?  from Vinnie Vrotny - Blog post    Multi-faceted Refractions I live with the thought that I am a hypocrite.  I am a teacher almost every day I implore, cajole, push, and pull students to learn more about the immediate subject and themselves.  And yet I feel guilty when I don't do the same thing. To find today's quote, I Googled "quotes teacher hypocrisy" and got no love.  I got quotes from Don King, Malcom X, Alan Dershowitz (black pot) and others.  But no listed, no famous quotes about teachers and hypocrisy.   Then I Googled "teacher hypocrisy" and oh boy, were there hits!.   Grass roots education ;  Condor Voice ; I, Hypocrite Teache r; and today's quote were just a start.   I realized that I am not alone.   I must admit I also hate lazy teachers.  They...