EFFECTIVE
TEACHING
CRITICAL
THINKING
CREATIVE
LIVING
LIFELONG
LEARNING
growing work in progress

all about growing
Please leave our teachers alone
and let them teach.

     Here's a math story problem for you. How many hands does it take to show this year's $77 billion budget for the U.S. Department of Education (DOE)? After spending trillions of dollars since its inception,15fingers hamstringing teachers with No Child Left Behind constraints, and ballyhooing phony test scores while forcing teachers to teach to the test, the DOE has given us the state of education in America captured in this photo.

     If that $77 billion were block-granted to local school districts instead of being poured down that federal bureaucracy rathole, every district would receive between five and 15 million dollars each year, depending on district size, to apply to true education — which takes place in the classroom, not in Washington, DC.

     I've worked with students and teachers across our nation and I've heard so many teachers say, "Just leave us a alone and let us teach." When I ask why they don't speak up against the dysfunctional system, they invariably reply that they fear for their jobs. That's why I just have to say something here on their behalf.
all about growing
What kind of people are we?
What kind of people are we becoming?
     I was driving on a city street listening to eulogies of Martin Luther King Jr. on my car radio. When the traffic light turned yellow at a busy intersection, I prepared to stop. Moments later a car sped past me in the center lane and ran through the red light. At one time, running red lights was a rare occurrence. Now I see it happen so often I've made it a habit to look both ways before I enter an intersection even though I have the green light.

     I was considering how and when and why that change took place in our culture when I passed a billboard advertising "The College of Me." I know the sign referred to a school adapting its programs to individual students, but it conjured up the image of self-absorbed boors endlessly whining, "Me. Mine. Me first," and howling, "I want what I want when I want it."

     The reckless driver and 'The College of Me" image echoed the answer a 90 year old man gave when he was asked at his birthday party to cite the biggest change he had seen in his lifetime. Technology was the expected answer — cell phones, computers, GPS's and iPads, space travel and so on. Instead he said the biggest change he has noticed is declining civility: "People don't show respect for each other anymore." The Me, Mine, Me First mindset suggested by "The College of Me" billboard could account for that decline.

     The reckless driver and "The College of Me" image were in sharp contrast with the eulogies of Martin Luther King Jr. and words from one of his last sermons: "I want you to be first in love. I want you to be first in moral excellence. I want you to be first in generosity. If you want to be important, wonderful. If you want to be great, wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant."
all about growing
Sharing the passion: mission accomplished
     Sharing the passion is what the writing life is all about. This parent/teacher's eloquent sharing of her passion renews my own. I'm grateful.
all about growing
Four Veterans Day Salutes
What is a veteran?

A salute from one of my grandsons:


     Veterans are those who, at one point in their lives, wrote a blank check payable to the United States of America for an amount up to and including their lives. That is beyond honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer remember that fact. Share this with others if you are a veteran, know a veteran, love a veteran or support our troops.

A salute to all veterans from a comrade-in-arms:

     I remember the day I found out I got into West Point.

     My mom actually showed up in the hallway of my high school and waited for me to get out of class. She was bawling her eyes out and apologizing that she had opened up my admission letter. She wasn't crying because it had been her dream for me to go there. She was crying because she knew how hard I'd worked to get in, how much I wanted to attend, and how much I wanted to be an infantry officer. I was going to get that opportunity.

     That same day, two of my teachers took me aside and essentially told me the following: Nick, you're a smart guy. You don't have to join the military. You should go to college instead.

     I could easily write a tome defending West Point and the military as I did that day, explaining that West Point is an elite institution, that it is actually statistically much harder to enlist in the military than it is to get admitted to college, that serving the nation is a challenge and an honor that all able-bodied youth should at least consider for a host of reasons, but I won't.

     What I will say is that when a young American is being told that attending West Point is going to be bad for his future, then there is a dangerous disconnect in our country.

     Too many Americans have no idea what kinds of burdens our military is bearing today:
—  In World War II, 11.2% of the nation served in four years.
—  In Vietnam, 4.3% served in 12 years.
—  Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror.

     Over time, fewer and fewer people are shouldering more and more of the burden, and it is getting worse. Our troops are sent to war by leaders who've never served. Only about ten percent of members of Congress are veterans.

     Taxes have not been increased to pay for current wars. War bonds were not sold. Gas was not rationed. In fact, the average citizen was asked to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts. The only people who have sacrificed are the veterans and their families, the volunteers, the people who swore an oath to defend this nation, to defend you, your life, your liberty, your rights.

     Our military serve in deployment after deployment and fight on for you. They've lost relationships, spent years of their lives in extreme conditions, years they'll never get back apart from their kids, and they've conditioned their bodies in a way that even professional athletes can't understand for you.

     Then they come home to a soft nation that doesn't understand sacrifice and suffering, a soft nation that doesn't even understand that bad people exist. When they come home, many sit in college classrooms with political science teachers who discount their opinions on Iraq and Afghanistan even though they were there and know more from direct experience than the teachers will ever know from their textbooks.

     TV shows portray every vet as having post traumatic stress syndrome, and the violent strain at that. Congress is debating their benefits, their retirement, and their pay, while asking them to do more.

     But the amazing thing about those who serve is that they all know this. They know their country will never pay back what they've given up. They know that many Americans will never truly understand or appreciate what they have done for them. They know that, in some circles, they even will be disdained for having worn the uniform. But they do it anyway. They do what the greatest men and women of this country have done since 1775 they serve. That alone makes them part of an elite group without whose courage and commitment our liberty and our nation would cease to exist.

     God bless our nation and all who serve.

A salute from a Marine chaplain:

     It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
     It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
     It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to demonstrate.
     It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag who allows protesters to burn the flag.

A classic salute:

     What is a vet? You can't tell a vet just by looking.

     He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in the Middle East sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.

     He is the barroom loudmouth whose frat-boy behavior is outweighed in the cosmic scales by four hours of unparalleled bravery near the 38th Parallel in Korea.

     She is the nurse who fought against futility in Da Nang and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years.

     He is the POW who went away one person and came back another.

     He is the drill instructor who has never seen combat but has saved countless lives by turning lazy loafers into soldiers and Marines and teaching them to watch each others' backs.

     He is the parade-riding legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

     He is the white-haired guy driving too slowly who helped liberate a Nazi death camp.

     A vet is an ordinary and extraordinary human being someone who offered his life in the service of his country. He is a soldier and a savior, a light against the darkness and a sword against evil and nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.


all about growing
Stay tuned for our next essay contest.
Students In Northern Illinois Are Invited
To Enter A Fall Essay Writing Contest
Offering Prizes For Winning Entries
That Answer The Question
"How and why do I show respect
for the people and places in my life?"

Lockwood Sign     Visitors to beautiful Lockwood  Park on Safford Road just north of Rockford, Illinois, this fall will find a unique addition to the Children's Farm and Trailside Horseback Riding Centre: storytelling hayrides through the woods with bigger-than-life art displays inspired by award-winning artist Tom Heflin's illustrations in The First Forest. In honor of the Lockwood Park "Locktoberfest" celebration taking place every weekend in October, an essay writing contest is under way now through November 10, 2011, for third through sixth grade students in Winnebago, Boone, Ogle, and Stephenson Counties. Prizes will be awarded to students submitting winning entries in two grade-level divisions: third-fourth grade and fifth-sixth grade. Winners will be announced on Thanksgiving Day.

Lockwood art     The contest expands on The First Forest storytelling hayride and draws on the author's note in the book: "Briefly stated, what I want children and adult readers to come away with is a more generous, trusting, sharing spirit. The First Forest reminds us that greed and selfishness are harmful and that peace and harmony flow from an attitude of grateful appreciation for the gifts we receive and a respect for the need and right of others to share in those gifts, also." In 100 to 300 words, students are to answer the question, "How and why do I show respect for the people and places in my life?"

     Prizes are still coming in from area businesses, organizations, and individuals including:
• An MP3 player donated by Lockwood Committee members Dave and Carol Tanner for winner in grade 5-6 division.
• Tour the World free tasting tour of Noodles & Company menu for 4-6 friends (expires 12/15/11) for winner in grade 4-5 division.
• Barnes & Noble Family Fun Packs for winners in both the 4-5 grade level and the 5-6 grade level divisions.
• Rockford Park District coupons for free admissions to Magic Waters, golf courses, etc.
• Evergreen trees to be planted at the winners' schools for both grade level divisions.
• Wagon/pony passes for 2012 at Lockwood Park for the classes of winners in both the 4-5 grade level and the 5-6 grade level divisions.
Don Carter• Don Carter Lanes is presenting free bowling passes to all students who enter and grand prizes of family bowling parties with pizza for both grade level division winners.
• Complimentary copies of The First Forest will be given to all the students in the schools of both the 4-5 grade level and 5-6 grade level winners.
• Free writing workshops (click here for description) at schools of both grade level winners.
Stockholm Inn• Stockholm Inn is providing gift certificates for a free short stack of Swedish Pancakes for winners and runners up in both grade levels.
More prizes are being added and will be included here as they are received.

     Entries must be submitted by mail to Essay Writing Contest, 1710 N. Main St., Rockford, IL 61103, and must be postmarked no later than November 10, 2011, or may be deposited in Essay Writing Contest drop boxes at participating area businesses, including Don Carter Lanes, 4007 E. State St., Rockford; Lockwood Park Trailside Centre, 5201 Safford Rd., Rockford; and Just-A-Second, 1710 N. Main St., Rockford, until closing time, November 10, 2011.

     Contest updates will be posted periodically at www.johngile.com and www.writingworkshopcontests.com. For answers to questions about the contest, call 815.968.6601 or ask by email.

Information on Lockwood Park is available at
http://www.rockfordparkdistrict.org/
Information on The First Forest is available at
http://www.johngile.com/Books.html and at
http://www.jgcunited.com/firstforest.html
First Forest
all about growing
A 9/11 Salute To My Soldier Son
And His Courageous Comrades-in-Arms

"Let us live
to make all free . . ."
    You and the brave men and women with whom you serve are why I and many others believe our nation's best days lie ahead. Your selfless service, paralleling service rendered by your forebears, tells the world anew that Americans have come too far in freedom, have paid too high a price, and owe too much to too many of our forebears to allow any adversary — or adversity — to deter us from pursuing our nation's ideals and destiny.

     America is a nation without "good old days" because all of us  know in our heart of hearts that one person's "good old days" were "bad old days" for others. Our national experiment in self-government is essentially about creating better new days for everyone, about realizing the often recited ideals of liberty and justice for all. If "liberty and justice for all" is to be more than an empty slogan, we need the qualities of character you and the brave men and women with whom you serve have demonstrated for us most powerfully: concern for others and courage in meeting our duties, obligations, commitments, and responsibilities.

     You and the brave men and women with whom you serve have given me and many others reason to believe that we need not fear defeat by terrorists or by an invading horde. Your courageous service has proven that we are too strong and too resolved to allow that to happen. Your courageous service also has given me and many others reason to believe that our nation's best days lie ahead. I salute you, all of you, for all you do.
all about growing
Movies that matter . . .
"Like Dandelion Dust"
opens minds and hearts
to what matters most
all about growing
Back-to-School Night
messages for parents . . .
Are now posted in chronological order
for your printer-friendly convenience
and to welcome your comments
at johngilejournal.blogspot.com
all about growing
Busy in Writing Workshop — Come again
In the meantime, here's food for thought:

"Education should not be looked upon as something to end with youth, but as a key to open many doors of thought and knowledge. Education ought to be a guide to the reading of a lifetime. Those who have profited from education have a wide choice. They need never be idle or bored. They are free from that vice of the modern age which requires something new not only every day, but every two or three hours of the day. The first duty of educators is to teach wisdom, not a trade; character, not technicalities. We want a lot of engineers in the modern world, but we do not want a world of engineers." — My Writing Workshop adaptation of Winston Churchill's Sept. 19, 1950, speech to the House of Commons

all about growing
Busy in Writing Workshop — Come again
In the meantime, here's food for thought:

• The top five percent of students read 144 times more than the bottom five.
• Private schools practice reading 67 percent more than public school students.
• Higher performing National Assessment of Education Progress students engage in 59 percent more reading practice than those in the bottom 25 percent. — Among my Writing Workshop citations from the National Assessment of Education Progress

all about growing
Part eight
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Back-to-School Night
message for parents

     (Continued from response to teacher's question.)

     In Friday's list of easy ways for busy parents to help their children read and write better, I omitted an important idea in the section on watching television. Whenever you watch a movie together, be sure to turn on the subtitles. Other nations — including India, China, and Finland — use this technique to foster literacy at low cost or practically no cost per person. In some countries, subtitles are included with every program on national TV.

     Parents at your Back-to-School Night may leave with a greater sense of urgency and a stronger commitmentWhat Is That Thing? Whose Stuff Is This? to making their homes reader friendly if you let them know how many countries have surged ahead of the United States in literacy recently. They include Georgia, Cuba, Estonia, Latvia, Barbados, Slovenia, Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Russia, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, and Tonga. If reading and writing skills are fundamental to all learning and are reliable predictors of future success, there is a great deal at stake for all of us in our personal and national reading challenge.

     Achievements, personal and national, flow from reading, as  What Is That Thing? Whose Stuff Is This? reminds us: "Words give us power to learn and to grow. They spread knowledge all over the place. With words, we've learned how to build cars, to make planes, and put rockets in outer space." Tomorrow's leaders are today's readers.

     To be continued.

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all about growing
Part seven
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Back-to-School Night
message for parents

     (Continued from response to teacher's question.)

     Parents at your Back-to-School Night may want some specific suggestions for helping their children develop reading power. Because so many parents are so busy trying to make ends meet, here are some easy steps to follow even during the most hectic times:
tv
     1. First, limit TV time or turn off the TV entirely during the school week. The National Assessment of Education Progress has confirmed that reading scores are inversely proportional to the amount of time children spend watching TV. The more time a child spends watching TV, the lower the child's reading fluency and comprehension. Too much TV is one of the primary causes of what some now call the dumbing down of America.

     To alert parents to the damage done by too much time watching TV, I borrowed Homeland Security's terrorist warning chart and created a warning chart parents can tape to their TV's as a reminder of the "terrorist" in their homes. A secondary benefit of time spent reading to and with their children is that it cuts down on TV time and increases the amount of language interaction children have with parents — which is their primary preparation for learning. At the same time, reading to and with their children builds vocabulary power: in the world of the spoken word, the vocabulary is much smaller than it is in the world of writing.

     When you do watch TV with the children, cultivate their critical thinking skills by talking with them about what you watch. Ask them what they think the author's message is in a program or ad. Ask them what the world would be like if everyone behaved the way the actors behave in the story or ad. Ask them if that's the kind of world they want. Ask them if that's the kind of you they want. Children who are encouraged to think critically, another gift that comes with reading and writing, are less susceptible to passively accepting any antisocial messages embedded in programs and ads.

     2. Be a reader yourself. What children see the adults in their lives doing, they will do.

     3. Give books and magazine subscriptions as gifts. Read them to and with the children
and talk about the stories and articles with them.

     4.
Though digital materials are popular today and can be useful, too, have more easily and readily accessible print publications books, magazines, and daily or weekly newspapers in convenient spots throughout your home to make it easy for reading to fill even brief spare moments.

     5. Combine dinner preparation or house project times with reading. Listening to the children read while you complete other tasks m
ultiplies reading time.

     6. Clip from print publications or print out from you computer articles of interest to you and your children and share them at mealtime or have the children read them to you while you are driving.

     Those suggestions are simply a beginning, of course. More will follow.

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all about growing
Part six
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Back-to-School Night
message for parents

     (Continued from response to teacher's question.)

     It's important to encourage parents at your Back-to-School Night with examples and concrete images to illustrate the impact they have when they read to and with their children. In my programs with students, I like to illustrate the power of reading by citing some of my reading heroes. In programs with parents, I prefer to cite the people behind my reading heroes.

     One of my favorite examples is Thomas Edison's mother. In Milan, Ohio, Thomas Edison's birthplace, there's a beautiful Edisonpark in the middle of town just a short stroll from the house where Edison was born. The park is across the street from the cozy Invention Family Restaurant where locals and visitors gather and is surrounded by wonderful antique stores. In the middle of the park is a bronze statue of Mrs. Edison reading to young Thomas.

     Mrs. Edison knew her son was having trouble in school, but she also knew he was a bright and creative youngster. By reading to him, she overcame his problems in school and  opened for him the world of ideas. By reading to and with her son, she set him on a course of exploring and discovering and creating that literally altered the course of human history. The statue is a permanent reminder of the powers that are unleashed when children and parents open books together and enter the wonderful world of reading. When I visit Milan and see the bronze statue, I find myself wishing there were a statue conveying the same message to every parent in every city in America.

     More will follow.

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all about growing
Part five
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Back-to-School Night
message for parents

     (Continued from response to teacher's question.)

     I also would share with parents at your Back-to-School Night what happened when I was the guest on a radio talk show in Alabama. The host was concerned about the decline in our children's reading proficiency and asked me to join him for a 30-minute discussion. Callers made it such a broad-ranging discussion that I ended up being on the program for an hour and a half. By the end of the program, the host and I realized that virtually every social problem in America has a literacy dimension. Reading failure fosters future failures in life, and reading success leads to future successes.

     One caller, a teacher who focused on ways to help children read and write better, said, "I have an answer for children who aohiwicrsk me, 'Why read?' I tell them to put their 'y' at the end of the word read and see what you get. You get the word 'ready.' When you can read, you are ready for anything and everything." That's why reading with your children at home is so important. It helps them get ready for anything and everything in their lives.

     Reading to and with your children helps them get ready for writing, too. A National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) reported that seventy-five percent of our children lack writing skills. That followed an NAEP report that said only thirty percent of our children are reading at the proficient level, meaning they can understand what they read and respond intelligently. Reading is the gateway to writing. And good writing is just good thinking. So reading to your children helps them have better, stronger critical and creative thinking skills. It helps them be better problem solvers and problem preventers and empowers them to have happier, richer lives.

     I also would remind parents at your Back-to-School Night how important their personal attention is and how much better it is to share a book with their children than it is to give them a DVD to watch. Giving your child a DVD says, "Don't bother me." Your warm, personal interaction with a book says, "Please bother me. You're important to me."

     More will follow tomorrow.

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all about growing
Part four
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Back-to-School Night
message for parents

     (Continued from response to teacher's question.)

     I also would tell parents at your Back-to-School Night that reading with your children at home is important because it provides you with opportunities to stop trouble before it begins. Twenty-five percent of our children arrive at school with reading disabilities, according to one Midwestern study. Reading with your children at home enables you to notice if there are any problems and take corrective action early.

     Because seventy-five percent of our children in remedial reading programs are boys, I would especially want to thank fathers and grandfathers who show their support by taking the time to attend your Back-to-School Night. Fathers and grandfathers spend a lot of time teaching their sons and grandsons how to play sports, but it's even more important for fathers and grandfathers to teach their sons and grandsons how important reading is by reading with them and by being readers themselves. Their influence is not limited by gender, of course, as Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters (ISBN: 9781596980129) by Dr. Margaret J. Meeker reminds us.

     Children imitate what they see their parents doing. When they see their parents living the couch potato life and spending their time watching TV, children become couch potatoes and spend their time watching TV. If they see their parents reading, children become readers. Computers can be useful and helpful, but they also can be just another addictive video attraction not too different from TV. Having magazines, newspapers, and books readily available at home and talking about articles and stories with the children are simple ways to strengthen your own and your children's reading and listening skills, hallmarks of success.

     More will follow in the days ahead.

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all about growing
Part three
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Back-to-School Night
message for parents

     (Continued from response to teacher's question.)

     I also would tell parents at your Back-to-School Night how easy it is for teachers to recognize children who are read to at home. They have greater attention spans and larger vocabularies. They have a deeper appreciation for books and become better readers themselves. Their larger vocabularies make them more creative and help them do better throughout their entire academic careers.

     And children who are read to at home benefit from the bonding experience by becoming more self-confident. Time that parents invest in reading to their children at home pays lifelong dividends far out of proportion to the time invested. Taking even a few minutes from your busy schedule to read with them tells them reading is important. And taking time from your busy schedule to read with them is a powerful way you say, "I love you."

     More will follow as publishing commitments allow tomorrow.

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all about growing
Part two
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Back-to-School Night
message for parents

     (Continued from response to teacher's question.)

     To emphasize how important parents
are in helping their children succeed in school, I would read this note I wrote to parents in another book (What Is That Thing? Whose Stuff Is This?) to foster reading:

     "Children with parents actively involved in their children's education scored 28 points above average in reading while children with low parental involvement scored 46 points below average in national testing cited by the U.S. Secretary of Education. That 74 point spread is about one third of the average score. Those results remind us that helping children develop reading power and all the powers which flow out of reading is a team effort. Parents have about a third of the responsibility, teachers have about a third of the responsibility, and the children themselves have about a third of the responsibility. Each of us has a vital role to play, a contribution to make."

     More encouragement and some specific tips for fostering reading skills will follow in the days ahead. (Publishing commitments temporarily limit both updates and programs until I finish research, writing, and release of new work now in progress.)

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all about growing
Part one
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Back-to-School Night
message for parents

     Over the next few days, I will provide some help here for teachers and principals who are preparing for presentations at their schools' Back-to-School Night for parents. What follows stems from a request I received in the following note from a teacher in New Jersey:

Dear Mr. Gile,

     I am on the national panel for Teacher's Choice Awards and have the privilege of now owning one of your books. I plan to read Oh, How I Wished I Could Read! tMailboxo parents at Back-To-School Night. Their children are in my class because I am a Basic Skills/Remedial Reading teacher, which of course means that these families are already struggling with their child's reading skills.

     Do you have any words of encouragement I might pass on to these parents to give them the incentive to stress the importance of reading at home? Looking forward to sharing your book with my students. Robin A.

     The first thing I would want to say to parents at your Back-to-School Night, Robin, is, "Thank you for being here. I have traveled the equivalent of four trips around the planet earth and have worked with more than half a million students, teachers, and parents throughout the United States, in Europe, and in New Zealand. No matter what school circumstances I encounter or what system is being used, I find two constant factors present whenever I see great success. Those two constant factors are caring teachers and supportive parents. So thank you for showing your support for your students by showing up. Your children notice what you do. You are sending two important messages to your children by being here. You are telling them they are important, and you are telling them school is important."

     More encouragement and some specific tips for fostering reading skills will follow tomorrow.

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all about growing
The greatest books have not been written yet.
The greatest inventions are yet to come.
The best ideas are in your head.


     One of my greatest pleasures in teaching writing to children and adults is seeing the light come on as they realize writing is not just an academic or professional skill. It is a way to unleash life-enriching powers that we use every waking moment. Here is a program handout I distribute as a reminder:

genius
all about growing
Looking for an entertaining
and inspirational movie
? Here's a
preview of one you may want to rent:

all about growing
Want jobs? Want economic development?
Then go for "the new manufacturing" (Renie Gile's term for it)
all about growing
"One day a student asked me,
'Why do you dress so fancy?'"

     I enjoy ending my school assembly programs and classroom workshops with a question and answer period. Though the programs center on reading and writing, elementary school students sometimes ask me personal questions that are far off topic. When that happens, I try to add a writing-skill connection to my answer.

     One day a student asked me, "Why do you dress so fancy?" I wear a tie and blazer to elementary schools, but there's absolutely nothing fancy or formal about me or my attire or my programs. I ofteJohnn find myself kneeling on the floor or standing on chairs during sessions. The question caught me by surprise, but I started to answer.

     "Well, people who think about and write about the things we do tell us there are four reasons why we dress. One reason is to protect ourselves from the weather. A second reason is for modesty. A third reason is for decoration. And a fourth reason is to show respect for ourselves and for the people we meet. That's why I dress this way, to show that I respect you."

     The student and I smiled at each other as his face lit up with an "I never thought of it that way" expression. I let the answer sink in for a few moments, then said, "And that's why reading and writing are so important. They give us knowledge and power to think about the things we do and to understand why we do them. Then we can have more respect for ourselves and show more respect to others."

     His "I never thought of it that way" expression was priceless. It confirmed that he was growing. And growing is what writing is all about. — (To be continued.)

all about growing
"The new manufacturing" wave
will create millions of jobs
The Vision: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
The Beginning: First Steps In A New Direction
The Future: Will Our Nation Lead Or Follow?

     Every two weeks
more than a quarter of a million perish from preventable hunger and related diseases. It doesn't have to be that way. Modern technology has made it possible for us to create agri-facilities that produce food and drinking water far in excess of conventional production methods without pesticide and chemical pollution, without crop failure from drought and other weather problems, and without burning fossil fuels that create devastating climate changes around the world
— and create millions of permanent, well-paying jobs in the process.

     Based on the most modest statistics
from world health monitoring agencies, about 16,000 children alone die of hunger and related suffering each day. That is one child dying every five seconds. Imagine placing the emaciated bodies of each child in a normal hearse. In a little over a month, we would create a bumper to bumper funeral procession extending all the way from New York to San Francisco. That doesn't include adult victims and doesn't portray the misery of those living with the consequences of malnutrition — lost human potential, including mental retardation and other maldevelopment — all of which we have the power to end if we so choose, while simultaneously generating unprecedented job creation here and abroad. Just as America created millions of jobs when it retooled to wage war against tyranny in the middle of the last century, retooling to wage war against hunger can create millions of jobs now.

     The estimated cost of facilities
capable of providing food and drinking water for 50,000 is less than twenty percent of the cost of one B-52 bomber. During media coverage of the earthquake response, I heard a Haitian who was receiving help from an American say, "I love America. God bless America." Protecting our national security is important, of course, but is it possible that a new national focus on increasing food and drinking water production here and around the world would strengthen our national security in a way whole squadrons of bombers could never do?
ff kftf
     It's a win-win effort: a national commitment to meeting this most basic human need would both help end human suffering from hunger and help end human suffering from unemployment and underemployment by creating millions of well-paying and meaningful jobs, a major concern of leaders at all levels of government. Because jobs flow from serving human needs, it is not enough to be asking, “How can we create jobs?” — as though jobs are created by magic. Instead, the important question to ask is, “What are humankind's most urgent needs?” Meeting those needs will create jobs. First and foremost among those urgent needs is the need for food and water for parched and starving children and adults.

      Elements for creating multistory crop production farms taking up a city block and capable of feeding and providing water for at least 50,000 people already exist. Greenhouses are not new. Hydroponic farming is not new. Irrigation systems are not new. Solar energy is not new. Controlled lighting, temperature, and humidity are not new. Recycling and purifying water are not new. Indoor planting beds and fields are not new. Multistory buildings are not new. What is new is simply the combination of those elements, even in urban settings where 80 percent of the world's population is projected to live by 2050.

     Cost estimates f
or construction of a multistory crop production farm range from $85 million to $200 million, depending on size and scope. Even at the $200 million figure, the cost of a multistory crop production farm is less than we have been spending on the Iraq war every week. Our expenditures alone for war, for foreign oil, and for global entertainment and media over five years would build enough multistory crop production farms to feed more than half the population of the entire world.

     Beyond that,
billions of dollars, private and public, are projected to be invested in multistory crop production farm technology and development as the need intensifies.  Investment interest in multistory crop production farm technology and development is driven by studies showing that the world's population growth during the next four decades will require almost 60 percent more food production at a time when tillable land availability is shrinking.

     Multistory crop production
farms create hundreds of thousands of jobs in manufacturing and construction here for workers who create and assemble millions of valves, light panels, microswitches, computer control systems and panels, solar energy panels, desalinization and recycling systems, hundreds of thousands of tons of steel and reinforced concrete, millions of miles of electrical cable, hundreds of thousands of miles of pipe, hundreds of thousands of panes of glass, millions of fasteners, and thousands of planting and harvesting devices and maintenance machines for the farms.

     Multistory farm developments
also create thousands of computer programming and technological research jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs in transportation of supplies and materials, and, of course, thousands of jobs processing crops and maintaining
the farms themselves.  If providing water and food for parched and starving children and adults is not sufficient motivation for focusing on meeting this most basic of human needs, perhaps the employment benefits inherent in the vision can provide the necessary impetus.

     Our national leaders
might want to consider what happened to our nation when JFK committed us to landing a man on the moon within a decade.  With his articulation of that vision, our languishing economy came alive with a sense of purpose.  Jobs were created.  Educational excellence blossomed.  And enduring life enhancements for all humanity flowed from it.  Too often today we hear talk of creating jobs, but without vision, without any sense of purpose.  Jobs doing what?  Building unnecessary gadgets or, worse, instruments of death while others starve and the crisis comes closer and closer to home?


     Imagine what might happen
if our president said, "I am today committing the full resources of the United States of America to eliminating hunger from the face of the earth within the next decade by harnessing modern technology and helping all humankind realize the full promise of safe and environmentally sound multistory farming." Just imagine.

     Resourcefulness directed toward worthy endeavors
that feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, and educate every man, woman, and child to live healthier, happier, and more fully human lives is the essence of strong economic development that endures. Let us begin. — John Gile (Related item: click here to read "The day the president shocked the world.")



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GilewithoutGuile
Wall Street Retires Bell.
New York Stock Exchange adopts roulette wheel as new symbol.

     The familiar "ding, ding, ding, ding" that has opened and closed New York Stock Exchange sessions since 1903 will be replaced by the "whir-r-r-r-r, click, click, click" of a spinning roulette wheel and ball roulette wheelfalling into a lucky number when the market opens for trading next Monday.

     NYSE directors voted for the change after returning from a retreat in LasVegas where casino owner Alan Greenspan gave his annual assessment of the U.S. economy.

     "American businesses and investors today are governed by the laws of casino ethics," Greenspan said. "They're looking for a good time and a quick buck, just like many of my customers here on the strip."

     He warned the directors, "You face a large scale diversion of investment capital to state lottery tickets unless you change your image to accommodate the need for instant gratification."

     One dissenting director voted against the roulette wheel and proposed returning to the Chinese Gong that was used from the 1870's until 1903. Directors voted to save the Chinese Gong until Wal-Mart executives and Peking leaders order them to use it after the 2012 election is wrapped up.
selfesteem
GilewithoutGuile
From the video:
   "You will find

       the strength
           to get back up."

     "There are some times in life when you fall down and you feel you don't have the strength to get back up. I have no arms, no legs. It should be impossible for me to get back up, but it's not.

     "I will try 100 times to get up, and if I fail 100 times, if I fail 100 times, if I fail and I give up, do you think I will ever get up? No. But if I fail, I try again and again and again.

     "It's not the end. It matters how you are going to finish. Are you going to finish strong?'— Nick Vujicic
GilewithoutGuile
AandDD300
Giving our children
what they need most

     I received a photo showing one of my grandchildren sitting on the grass in the foreground with her parents in soft focus holding hands in the background. It says something to me about the unfolding of life, how each child is growing in his or her own world while parents recede into the background, less and less in focus but always present and always having an influence. Our granddaughter's obvious sense of security as she examines the world around her with her parents present to her but apart from her also reminds me of the expression that the best thing parents can do to help their children grow is to love each other.

     Somehow the photo also is a reminder of how important it is for husbands and wives to focus on their marriage relationship, which is ultimately most important not only because it gives the children a sense of security while exploring the multifarious universe in comfortable curiosity, but also because the day comes when the children move on in life and the parents are left alone with each other and a lifetime of memories.

     Beyond all that, I see in the the photo's focus field an encapsulation of the circle of life, a reminder that the day comes when children and parents are separated from each other for a period by the veil between time and eternity, yet are always and ever present to each other. We are richly blessed in our children and our children's children, and I am grateful. — John Gile
soberkind
GilewithoutGuile
plaque
Building Bridges
To The Future

     A roadside rest area on a country road between the cities of Rockford and Durand in north central Illinois invites weary travelers to pause and be refreshed by the peaceful retreat. A boulder by benches overlooking a scenic view there bears a plaque in memory of Rockford construction czar Bill Howard.

     The plaque paraphrases a poem by eighteenth century writer Will Allen Dromgoole and tells the story of "an old man, going a lone highway," who "came in the evening, cold and gray, to a chasm, vast and deep and wide...

     "The old man crossed in the twilight dim, the sullen stream had no fears for him, but he stopped when safe on the other side and built a bridge to span the tide."

     A puzzled and cynical fellow traveler chides the old man for wasting his time building the bridge: "You never again will pass this way. You've crossed the chasm, deep and wide, why build you this bridge at evening tide?

     "...The builder lifted his old gray head: 'Good friend, in the path I have come,' he said, 'there follows after me today a youth whose feet must pass this way.

     "This chasm, which has been as naught to me, to that fair-haired youth might a pitfall be. He, too, must cross in the twilight dim. Good friend, I am building the bridge for him.'"
GilewithoutGuile
Another reason why
  I love Sophia Loren . . .

    
"There is a fountain of youth. It is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age." Sophia Loren

     Through the years I've believed that Sophia Loren set a standard of feminine pulchritude matched by few and exceeded by none. When I read her reflection on growing older, it struck me that her outer beauty is matched by a profound inner beauty and wisdom. Her name, Sophia, means wisdom, and it's clear she's aptly named. (With due deference to and respect for another exemplar of beauty and wisdom in my life, my wife Renie
— JG)
GILE without GUILE™
   Speaking of (to) Renie . . .
Dear Renie,
     I walked home from the office for lunch today. You were out running errands, so I fixed myself a sandwich and ate alone in the kitchen. You came back just as I finished, and we sat talking at the kitchen table.

     Though I was in familiar surroundings the entire time, it wasn't until you walked into the room that I really felt at home. The experience reminded me of what Twain wrote in his Diary of Adam and Eve: "Wherever she went, there was paradise." You make ordinary things extraordinary.
                        I love you, John
GilewithoutGuile
The day the president
shocked the world

     Stunned silence greeted President Barack Obama as he entered the General Assembly of the United Nations and approached the podium cradling in his arms the emaciated and lifeless body of a small child.

     He did not speak when he reached the podium.  Instead he stood grim-faced, glaring at the shocked ambassadors.  He fixed his penetrating stare particularly on the representatives of warring nations.

     Raising the child's limp body above the podium, he spoke slowly and distinctly. "Behold the consequence of selfishness and greed.  Behold the result of religious fanaticism and narrow nationalism.

     "I came here today to speak of challenges to global peace and prosperity, but the child I hold in my arms, one of more than 175,000 dying from war and hunger each week, speaks more forcefully than anything I can say.

     "In this child, behold the insanity gripping member nations of this organization who pay lip service to peace and human development, but spend trillions upon trillions of dollars each year to make more destructive bombs and more deadly bullets.

     "In this child, behold our collective guilt.  Hear the questions asked by this child, by this child's parents, and by thousands of others who die each day of hunger and its consequences:  'Why?  Why does anyone die of hunger when technology has given us the power to end hunger everywhere on the planet today?'

     "In this child, hear the plea from millions of other children around the world:  'No more war;  no more hunger.'

     "Nothing new is needed to heed their plea except the vision and resolve in our individual nations and in our joint policies to change perverted priorities that contribute to hunger and spawn wars over food and water in many parts of the world.  Consider the savagery of wars over food and water that will erupt if we cling to those perverted priorities as the world population grows from six billion today to nine billion by 2050.

     "Today's global insanity threatens to engulf all of us in global suicide.  In this child, we behold the question, 'Why?  Why persist in choosing death over life?'

     "Technology available to us today in multistory crop production and other developments can provide food and drinking water far in excess of conventional production methods without pesticide and chemical pollution, without crop failure from drought and other weather problems, and without burning fossil fuels that create devastating climate changes around the world.  Nothing new is needed except the vision and resolve to choose life over death, to choose bread and butter over bombs and bullets."

     Pausing, he bent forward and gently kissed the child's forehead.  Lifting the child above the podium, he repeated the plea, "No more war.  No more hunger."

     No sound was heard as he turned and carried the child from the Assembly Hall. Dazed ambassadors sat in silence with heads bowed.
John Gile




Phone: 815.968.6601; www.johngile.com; www.jgcunited.com.

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