Tag: democracy

Do You Care?

I am a member of Toastmasters which is an international organization designed to help members become better leaders as well as better communicators. In an effort to improve our vocabularies, at each of our weekly meetings the Wordmaster selects a Word of the Day. Each time members speak they are to use the word. When the Wordmaster introduces the word he or she tells the definition and uses it in a sentence. Today, I am playing Wordmaster and I have a Word of the Day for you. It is “care”: a simple word packed with meaning.

Definition:

Noun 1: suffering of mind, grief; 2 a: a disquieted state of mixed uncertainty, apprehension, and responsibility b: a cause for such anxiety; 3 a: painstaking or watchful attention b: maintenance <floor-care products> 4: regard coming from desire or esteem 5: charge, supervision <under a doctor’s care> 6: a person or thing that is an object of attention, anxiety, or solicitude

Intransitive verb: 1 a: to feel trouble or anxiety b: to feel interest or concern <care about freedom> 2 : to give care <care for the sick> 3 a: to have a liking, fondness, or taste <don’t care for your attitude> b: to have an inclination <would you care for some pie>

Transitive verb: 1: to be concerned about or to the extent of <don’t care what they say> <doesn’t care a damn> 2: wish <if you care to go>

Three Examples of Care:

Example 1: After church, my husband, Butch, and I went to a local restaurant for lunch. It’s one of those places where you order and then sit down. When your order is ready, they call your name and you pick it up at the counter. They were busy, however, as we waited in line, we noticed that there were lots of tables open, more than enough for the people in front of us.  We ordered, got our drinks, turned around and there were no tables at all. No tables! There was one large party–probably friends from the same church–who were using three tables pushed together. They had all finished their food and were sitting there talking. My husband slowly walked around the restaurant. No tables. The problem was that people in line behind us had gotten tables before ordering their food and one of those was another large party who had pushed tables together. Butch and I sat on the patio where it was chillier than we like for outside dining, but we persevered.

Diners, care about other diners who are coming in behind you. If you see that they don’t have a comfortable table and you’ve finished eating, get up and offer your table to them. Care about the people around you, even if they are strangers.

Example 2: I have made a decision to stop reading articles in the paper–yes, I’m old-fashioned, I read the printed paper–or on the internet regarding the sequestering, budget, and deficit battles between the Democrats and Republicans because it raises my blood pressure each time. I can feel my heart rate increasing and my breathing quicken. It is not healthy. Not only is my reaction to the stories not healthy, the fighting among our elected officials is not healthy. The Democrats pushed for sequestering because they thought that would force the Republicans into doing what they wanted and the Republicans agreed to sequestering because they thought that would force the Democrats into doing what they wanted. What happened to having a civilized conversation, maybe over a cup of tea or a frosty mug of beer or even in a smoke-filled room. No conversations, no give and take, no negotiations. Just coercion and blackmail. Is that any way to run a country? Is that any way to run a relationship with fellow Americans?

Senators, Congressman, President Obama, your lack of care is putting me in a state of anxiety and apprehension.  Do you feel any interest or concern for your fellow citizens? They elected you for the purpose of passing meaningful, negotiated legislation that demonstrates care for all citizens? Do you care more for people or ideology?

Example 3: In these weeks prior to Easter, our senior pastor, Trey Little, is leading our church in reading The Hole in Our Gospel written by Richard Stearns.  As part of that emphasis, a video was presented titled Jamaa.(Click here to view the Jamaa video.) It is based on the true story of two orphans living in Kampala, Uganda, whose parents died of AIDS. Besides excellent acting and stunning cinematography, it is a gut-wrenching story. The film asks the same question to the characters in the story as well as to the viewers.

Do you care enough to let your heart be broken by the plight of these children and hundreds, perhaps thousands, like them? Uganda is on the other side of the world from the US and yet the children represented in Jamaa have been placed in our care as much as if they lived in our very homes. As richly, even extravagantly, blessed residents of the planet Earth, we are to care for them.

How did you do with the Word of the Day? Did you learn anything new about the word “care”? It is a simple word packed with meaning. It is a word that calls thinking, feeling people into action. What do you care about? How will you care today?

Ask Your Own Questions

Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much. Francis Bacon

An interview on NPR put my thoughts into high gear. They rushed by like cars on the autobahn as I remembered times in my life when I made decisions that I didn’t question hard enough. I got into a lot of trouble in those situations. The interview was with two people who were talking about teaching students to ask questions. The idea intrigued me. Could I teach myself to ask questions? So I ordered the interviewees’ book: Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions. The authors (and interviewees) are Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana. They are the codirectors of the Right Question Institute.

The Question Formula Technique first came about when the authors were working with parents in a low-income community. The parents explained that they didn’t get involved in their children’s education or in their children’s school because they didn’t know what to ask. Therefore, Rothstein and Santana gave them some questions to ask. Soon the parents came back for more questions. This situation sent the authors on a long journey to develop a system that would teach students to figure out for themselves questions to ask in any situation.

Students asking questions didn’t seem unusual until I thought about my own classroom experience. Normally the teacher asks the questions and the students answer the questions. With the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), students learn how to come up with their own questions. Their questions can then be applied to an endless variety of uses: write a research paper, the basis for a project or the substance of a unit of study.

Not being a teacher, it sounded like a difficult thing to get students to ask questions that would be useful for further study. However, the case studies of students in actual classrooms that Rothstein and Santana presented to illustrate each step of the process revealed that asking their own questions helped students learn better. Those who questioned much learned much.

The QFT has four steps:

  1. Ask as many questions as you can.
  2. Categorize the questions as closed or open-ended questions.
  3. Prioritize the questions.
  4. What are you going to do with the questions? What are the next steps?

The most difficult part of the process is deciding on the Question Focus, or QFocus, which is  what the students ask the questions about. The QFocus has its own set of parameters:

  1. It has a clear focus. It is an issue, topic or area of concern that is brief and simply stated.
  2. It is not a question. The purpose of the QFocus is to get the students started asking their own questions.

According to the book, it takes about 45 minutes to teach the QFT to a class of students. Just for illustration purposes, let’s take a QFocus and work the technique right now.

Question Focus: Santa Claus

Step 1: Ask as many questions as you can.

Who is Santa Claus?

Where did he come from?

Does he really climb down a chimney?

What does Santa Claus do the rest of the year?

Why does Santa Claus only give toys to good little boys and girls?

What behavior is so bad that Santa Claus won’t give a child a toy?

Step 2: Categorize the questions as closed or open-ended questions. This step includes a discussion of the types of information open and closed questions will draw out and an exercise to change questions from one type to the other. For the purposes of this exercise, the questions will be marked with “c” for closed and “o” for open, but not re-worded.

c/o    Who is Santa Claus?

c        Where did he come from?

c        Does he really climb down a chimney?

o/c     What does Santa Claus do the rest of the year?

o        Why does Santa Claus only give toys to good little boys and

           girls?

c/o    What behavior is so bad that Santa Claus won’t give a child a

           toy?

Step 3: Prioritize the questions.

1. Who is Santa Claus?

2. Where did he come from?

3. Why does Santa Claus only give toys to good little boys and girls?

4. What behavior is so bad that Santa Claus won’t give a child a toy?

5. What does Santa Claus do the rest of the year?

6. Does he really climb down a chimney?

Step 4: What are you going to do with the questions? What are the next steps?

Write a research paper about Santa Claus.

Before I read this book I thought that questions usually denote confusion. However, I realize now that working the steps of the QFT transforms confused thinking into focused thinking. I hope you can see how useful this technique would be not only for students, but for adults as well. For instance, suppose you were concerned about an issue like immigration, the national debt, the mortgage foreclosure crisis, or the state of education. These are complicated issues, overwhelming issues. Develop your own QFocus and work through the QFT. Use the resulting questions to focus your research and clarify your opinion.

The last chapter of the book is titled “Questions and Education, Questions and Democracy” in which Rothstein and Santana make a strong case that the ability to ask good questions leads to better informed citizens who are more likely to participate in the democratic process. How much more vibrant and effective would our government be if the voters asked questions and informed themselves instead of relying on the media and candidates’ sound bytes for information? Our constitution gives us the right to ask questions; the Question Formulation Technique developes our ability to ask questions.

So what do you want to know about? Santa Claus, climate change, vegetarianism, a facet of economic theory? Determine your Question Focus. Work the Question Formulation Technique and write some questions. Have fun finding the answers.