A Rear View Mirror of My Life

© 2012 Charles W. Craig, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 6/4/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4685-4636-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-4635-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012901179

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Contents

Foreword

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Foreword

I was born in Flint, Michigan on May 16, 1932 during the depths of the Great Depression. As I put these thoughts to paper in 2011, I am 79 years old. One of my greatest regrets is that I never took the time to jot down not only people’s names and the places I’ve been, but summaries of unusual stories or events in my life that were, for some reason, noteworthy…at least to me. However, during this 7th decade of my life, I have authored two other books, i.e., Life’s Reflections with a subtitle of From A ToddlerTo Eternity, and Heavenly Poems And Prose. With the exception of Chapter Six, the stories or comments detailed in those two books are not repeated here.

It is my fondest hope and desire that you, the readers of this literary work, will benefit from the stories and events that are detailed herein, so that you will perhaps gain some insights or bits of wisdom that will be beneficial to you in your lives. As my father used to say, You can’t put an old head on young shoulders, and that saying was as true then in his day as it is today.

And so, as you ponder these stories and events that have been particularly noteworthy in my life, perhaps they will encourage you or prevent you, as the case may be, from either making some of the mistakes that I’ve made or by encouraging you to enhance your lives by doing some of the same things that I’ve done, as described herein. I have received a great many blessings in my life, but the greatest one is detailed in Chapter Six. In any event, ENJOY!

Chapter One

Educational Objectives

When I graduated from the University of Michigan, the speaker at our commencement exercises was a Vice-President of Notre Dame University. As she welcomed the parents, students, and guests, she said that the parents of the graduating students had every right to be proud of their children’s educational accomplishments, and the graduates themselves were to be congratulated for successfully completing their educational goals. However, she went on to say that having said that, it was necessary to put things in perspective. She went on to emphasize that at the end of one’s life, one’s primary, secondary, and college educational accomplishments are customarily covered in one sentence in one’s obituary. The rest of one’s obituary details the other important milestones in one’s life, i.e., family, children, vocational achievements, community involvement, church and other organizational affiliations, etc. The gist of her remarks centered on the fact that one’s educational accomplishments were really only the beginning requirements of what a person would or could do with the rest of his or her life.

I’ve met a lot of people in my life who felt that because they had earned a college degree of one kind or another, they were somehow entitled to a better position, more money, more respect, etc. I often hitch-hiked home for the weekend when I was an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan. On one such occasion, I was given a ride by the executive of a life insurance company, and he took that opportunity to share a story about an employee that emphasized the principle at hand. He went on to explain that the top salesman for his company was a man who may not have even graduated from high school, but in any event, he had not attended college. He had another salesman who was the recipient of a master’s degree, and he repeatedly complained to his boss that he ought to get more money because of his educational degrees. The executive’s response was short and sweet, i.e., When you can sell as much insurance as the top salesman does, then and only then will you earn what he does!

This brings to mind a story of a similar vein that I encountered as part of a closed circuit television leadership training seminar put on by John Maxwell several years ago in our church. On page 4 in his workbook entitled Developing the Leader Within You, he reported some statistics that (1) over 50% of the CEO’s of Fortune 500 Companies had a C average, (2) 75% of U.S. presidents were in the bottom half of their respective classes, and (3) over 50% of all millionaire entrepreneurs never finished college.

But the story that I remembered most from his simulcast that took place in March of 2001 was a humorous one on pages 15-16 of the previously mentioned workbook, and it was entitled Sel not Spel. The story is as follows:

A newly hired traveling salesman wrote his first sales report and sent it to the home office. It so stunned the brass in the sales department because it was obvious that the new salesman was ignorant! Here’s what he wrote:

I seen this outfit which they ain’t never bot a dim’s worth of nothing from us and I sole them some goods. I’m now goin to Chicawgo.

Before the man could be given the heave-ho by the sales manager, along came this letter From Chicago:

I cum hear and sole them haff a millyon.

Fearful if he did, and afraid if he didn’t fire the ignorant salesman, the sales manager dumped the problem in the lap of the president. The following morning, the ivory towered sales department members were amazed to see posted on the bulletin board above the two letters written by the ignorant salesman this memo from the president:

We ben spending two much time trying to spell instead of tryin to sel. Let’s watch those sails. I want everybody should read these letters from Gooch who is on the rode doin a grate job for us and you should go out and do like he done.

This brings to mind one of my favorite educational stories that I’ve heard over the years. It seems that Johnny was just sitting at his seat and not doing the assignment that the teacher had given him. The teacher called out to him and said, Johnny, why aren’t you working on your assignment? The boy then replied, I ain’t got no pencil. Sensing that this might be a good opportunity to teach a little grammar, the teacher said, I haven’t a pencil. She hasn’t a pencil. We haven’t any pencils. The boy shrugged his shoulders and remarked, Ain’t nobody got no pencils, I might just as well go home!

The prior remarks remind me of another story that I heard during my career in educational administration. It seems that a particular school district had advertised that a school principalship was available and it invited interested persons to apply. Applicants were subsequently screened and the position was filled with a young man who had a master’s degree in school administration. Another applicant who had 20 years of experience as a first grade teacher was rather upset because she had not been chosen chosen for the principalship, and she requested a meeting with the superintendent. She subsequently met with the superintendent and explained that she should have gotten the job because she had 20 years of teaching experience whereas the young man who was given the principalship had only five years of experience. To that the superintendent replied, Let me correct you right up front. You haven’t had 20 years of teaching experience, you’ve had one year’s experience 20 times!

When I was working on my master’s degree in School Administration, one of our instructors shared with us a story about a new principal, and I have never forgotten it. It seems that this particular principal encountered a thorny problem early in her first year as principal, and she seemed at a loss as to how to handle it. One of her friends was an experienced principal, and the new principal decided to ask her for her advice as to what to do. The experienced principal acquiesced when asked for advice, and so she solicited from the new principal all of the details of the problem that were available. Once she had all of the available facts at her disposal, the experienced principal advised the new principal as to what she would do if faced with the same set of circumstances. The new principal acted upon the advice that she received, and she breathed a sigh of relief as her immediate problem was successfully resolved.

A few weeks later, the new principal was faced with another problem that evaded her ability to immediately resolve it, and again, she turned to the experienced principal and asked for her advice. The experienced principal was a little more reluctant to provide assistance than she was on the first occasion, but again, she agreed to be of help. And so it was that she assessed the situation, gathered the necessary facts, and made her recommendation to the new principal. Once again, the experienced principal’s advice proved to be what the doctor ordered, and the problem of the new principal was successfully resolved.

Not long after that, the new principal encountered yet another problem and turned to the experienced principal for advice. However, on this occasion, the experienced principal declined to be of further assistance, and instead, she related the following story. She said, You know, if you are alone in a rowboat out in the middle of a lake, and the boat suddenly springs a leak, you are going to have to figure out a way to fix it yourself! Having offered her last bit of advice, the experienced principal then hung up the phone.

Another piece of sage advice that I received from an instructor in School Administration had to do with what constitutes the most important factors in a successful principalship. Given the fact that a successful principalship is a multi-faceted entity and involves a great many things, we were advised that the two most important people to a successful principal are the school secretary and the school janitor. Although the education of students is the primary function of the school and the teaching staff, there is no question that a competent secretarial staff and a janitorial staff can positively affect this endeavor.

A couple of examples from the business world are instructive in this regard. Years ago, I recall reading an article about a successful CEO who was hired to take over companies that were floundering for one reason or another. Rather than visit the front office, the first thing that he did when he visited one of these companies was to look at the loading and shipping docks. If he found that things there were in disarray, disorganized, and dirty, he was sure that there were similar systemic problems throughout the company—and he was right.

I recall another study that had to do with the airline industry. Passengers were asked to evaluate the conditions on the inside of airplane cabins and to rate the airlines based on these observations. If passengers found that the tray tables were unclean or were defective in any way, they automatically assumed that the overall maintenance of the planes, including engine maintenance, was also likely to be deficient as well. Needless to say, airlines with these observable deficiencies were not rated very well.

Another one of my favorite stories about students is the one about the Kindergarten child who returned home after his first day at school. As he was welcomed by his parents, his dad asked him if he had learned anything. The boy dutifully replied, I guess not—I have to go back to school again tomorrow!

Speaking of kindergarten children, I love the story about the teacher who was trying to teach her kids the pledge of allegiance. As she instructed the children to put their right hands over their hearts, she noticed one little boy who had placed his hand on his rear end. She approached the boy and asked him why he had placed his hand where he did. He innocently replied that when he was in the presence of his grandmother, she always hugged him and patted him on his rump and told him, Bless your little heart!

When I was a teacher at Potter School in the Flint, Michigan School District, the school’s heating plant was fired by fuel oil; however, the company that had the fuel oil contract used a fuel oil mixture that was so dense that it often had to be heated during the winter time before it could be pumped into the school’s fuel oil storage tanks. Although this sludge was undoubtedly cheaper than a better grade of fuel oil, the downside was that the boilers often rusted out sooner than would otherwise have been the case. Sometimes, public entities, like school districts, as well as businesses, are penny wise and pound foolish.

But the primary reason for this heating remembrance has to do with the first shift custodian and the way in which he responded to complaints from teachers that their classrooms were either too hot or too cold. Although each classroom had a thermostat, the heating system was not connected to any of these thermostats. The whole building, in essence, was on one thermostat. However, the teachers were not aware of this situation, and, as noted, they often asked the janitor to adjust the temperature in their rooms.

And so it was that he dutifully trudged up and down the hallways to respond to their heating and cooling requests. As he entered their classrooms, he found his way to each room’s thermostat, took out a small screwdriver, and appeared to be making an adjustment of some kind. When he was finished, he asked the particular teacher in question if the temperature was either warmer or colder as the request might have been. The teachers thanked him profusely for adjusting the temperature as they had requested, and he went on to work on the next classroom’s thermostat—with a slight smile on his face.

During my tenure as a teacher at Potter School, the later elementary students in grades 4, 5, and 6 were organized into what was called a semi-platoon system. For a half day, these students were taught by one teacher who instructed them in what were called the home room subjects, i.e., reading, spelling, social studies, and English. The other half day was spent traveling between teachers of special subjects, i.e., art, music, physical education, and math and science. It was thought that this system would better prepare these students for a smoother transition to a junior high school environment.

These later elementary students were further grouped by ability, and we had four such groups of students. I specifically recall one year when I had the top academic group for my homeroom class. I found it to be a joy to be the teacher of these kids, because not only were they the best and the brightest, but their parents were more attentive and interested in what their kids were learning. In all honesty, though, I can tell you that some teachers preferred the classes that were comprised of students with lesser ability because they were not under as much parental pressure.

Although all of the kids that I taught that year were bright, there was one student who was head and shoulders above the other students. For example, when President Kennedy was assassinated, she voluntarily compiled a notebook about his life that consisted of articles and pictures that appeared in newspapers and magazines—and the notebook was several inches thick. Then, too, at some point in time, I asked the students to turn in a science notebook, and she turned in five of them—and any one of them was better than any that the other students turned in. I was fortunate to have been her teacher when she was a fourth grader, and she never made a mistake during that entire year.

When she was a sixth grader and perhaps even as a junior high student, my wife and I often invited her to our home for supper, and we made it a special point to invite her to summer park concerts put on by the Flint Symphony Orchestra. She took part in the School District’s academically talented program, and she learned to play the violin as well as the cello. When a wealthy Flint family somehow became aware of her noteworthy abilities, they presented her with a brand new cello, and even in those days, such an instrument cost hundreds of dollars.

However, her academic and musical talents did not stand her in good stead with other students and even with her older brother who was in his early twenties. Her mother came to see me one day, and was concerned about the fact that none of the other children were the least bit friendly towards her. And it wasn’t because she was pushy or a showoff—quite the contrary. In my judgment, she was as sweet as she could be. But I think that the other kids felt so inferior by comparison that they wanted nothing to do with her. Her mother was worried about it, and didn’t know what to do about it. I, too, felt inadequate about not being able to suggest some things to her that would alleviate the situation. As I told the mother, she certainly didn’t want her daughter to act stupid just to please the other kids. And perhaps the only consoling thing I could suggest was that perhaps there would come a time in her life when she would be able to associate with others who would be just as bright as she was and would therefore find the acceptance that she longed for. I have often wondered what happened to her in the scheme of things.

As for her brother, he had been taking guitar lessons for over a year. He was newly married and had a new baby of his own. However, one day when his little elementary-aged sister visited his home, she picked up the guitar and could play it better than he could—even though she hadn’t had any lessons. He was upset to say the least, and from what I gathered, he was downright mad at her.

I’ll never forget another incident that happened to one of the other bright students in the class that I just mentioned in the previous story. Her dad had a history of mental illness, and there came a time when he was admitted to a state mental hospital. However, the powers that be there made the decision to grant him leave to come home over the Christmas holidays. Perhaps they thought such a leave would be good for him and his family. At the end of the last school day before the two-week Christmas vacation began, this girl went home and was unable to find her father there. She ventured out into the garage and found him