Me Jane

I went out for dinner and a mai tai the other night with a girlfriend from my old neighborhood who I haven't really spent any time with in almost 30 years (yikes!). Her status update on Facebook later that night said, "Enjoyed reconnecting with my past ~ and hopefully enriching my future."

She must have stopped by the library on her way home . . . ?

Speaking of enrichment, I met up with the hubby and kids after work at B&N last night. Son #2 wanted to see Peter Brown, the author and illustrator of Chowder, who had also spoken at their school earlier in the week. Afterward, the kid was racing around desperate to buy yet another book.

Note: We have millions of books. We visit the library weekly. And we place orders with Scholastic Books through the school (which annoys me: do my kids really need to go shopping at school? answer: yes, apparently). It just never ends.

Last night, Son #2 was looking for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series that he's enamored with lately and came across a shelf with just a handful of copies of those we've already read. His face registered disappointment. A moment later, he spotted another entire shelving unit filled to the brim with the series and ran over. Upon seeing it, I said, "Whoa, there are tons of them here" to which he responded, with more sarcasm than I would have thought possible for a seven year old, "Uh, yeah, it's a BOOKSTORE."

Duh.

Stupidity

A few weeks ago, my brother sent me an article from Scientific American entitled, “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids,” which states, in a nutshell, that the key to success in school and life isn’t intelligence or ability but drive (i.e., a focus on effort and achievement).

The article goes on to say that parents actually do a disservice to their kids when they tell them that they’re smart because intelligence becomes an innate and fixed belief which “makes them see challenges, mistakes and even the need to exert effort as threats to their ego rather than as opportunities to improve. And it causes them to lose confidence and motivation when the work is no longer easy for them.” Longer term, this leads to managers/employees who discourage constructive criticism, don’t value feedback and don’t see themselves as works-in-progress
(i.e., learning and growing).

I keep thinking about these findings as I watch my kids attempt to learn how to play guitar, tie their shoes, rollerblade in the kitchen, etc. And I talk about success with them when they’re reluctant to try new things out of fear of failure. I’ve begun trying to get them to change their phraseology from “I’m not good at ice skating” to “I’m not good at ice skating – yet.” Subtle difference but I hope it gets them into a lifelong mode of striving.

Then, last weekend, I picked up a December copy of the New York Times Magazine that was headed to the recycling bin and read an article entitled, “Quitting Can Be Good for You” which cites research that “suggests that success — or more specifically, the persistence required to achieve hard-to-reach goals — may not be worth it.” Specifically, “teenage girls who are unable to disengage themselves from trying to attain hard-to-reach goals exhibited increased levels of the inflammatory molecule C-reactive protein (C.R.P.), which in adults is linked with diabetes, heart disease and early aging.”

Huh. So what’s it going to be?

As W.C. Fields is quoted as saying, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.”

Or, more vividly, as the December page from the Despair calendar that my sister gave to me (which hangs proudly next to my desk at work), depicts, “Quitters never win, winners never quit, but those who never win and never quit are idiots.”

No Estoy Estupido

During dinner the other night, Son #1 commented on how daddy is older than I am and then innocuously stated to his brother, “Yeah, that’s why he’s smarter than mama.”

Whaaaaaaaaat?

Of course, the hubby is going to town with this. His response to everything I say is now, “What was that . . . stupid?”

I'm thinking of investing in this little number to improve my self-image.

I'm a Brainiac, Brainiac

According to an article published in The Financial Times last Friday, “Mindless gossip feeds the brain.” Specifically, researchers have discovered that:

• memory and mental performance improve during a few minutes' conversation with another person
• rambling on about a soap opera seems to be as effective as a weighty conversation about social issues
• socializing is as effective in sharpening your faculties as doing a crossword

Off to the water cooler I go! Really, it's all in the line of duty.

Oh, you know her, would you look at that hair? Yeah, you know her, check out those shoes . . .

More Maps . . . for our Children

Poor Miss Teen USA 2007 from South Carolina! I'm sure she would have done well if her question was easier, no? The following is a very, very difficult question:

Recent polls have shown that a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?

In my opinion, adequate answers might include:

1. Are you kidding me? 20% of the population? Well, you have me stumped on that one, Jack. I keep hearing comedians say that Americans are stupid but this is the clincher for me. Ahhhhhhhhh. NOW I understand how Bush is still in office!
2. Well, I personally think this is because the pollsters continue to hire uneducated people who cannot coherently articulate the simplest of phrases. Have you heard these guys lately? My guess is that, if they can barely read a basic sentence from a script that they have read aloud countless times already, they are probably just as unskilled at clicking the correct box on their computer screens. In other words, I simply refuse to believe that so many American's can't find our country on a world map.
   
3. The reason many Americans cannot find our country on a world map is because there is mass confusion regarding where America begins and ends these days. Is the UK part of America or do they just do everything we ask of them because they're polite? More importantly, do we now "own" Iraq or is that just a Dick Cheney pipe dream? And come on already. With Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and other mariana-esque islands masking as U.S. territories or commonwealths, how can you blame people for their ignorance? Cut us some slack, freak show.
   

Sadly, this is what our young beauty had to say: our education system needs more maps.

Or, in her less concise words, "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some . . . people out there in our nation don't have maps, and, uh, I believe that our eh-education, like such as, uh, South Africa and the Iraq, everywhere like . . . such as . . . And I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should, help the U.S., uh, or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future. For . . . our children."