Alex left town sometime last week. I’m not sure when; he didn’t tell me. Instead, our last moments together were spent habitat maps of migratory birds and considering the impact of global climate change on biodiversity.

Actually those moments were more or less our first moments together as well as our last. I had only really talked with him once before, and the tone of the conversation made me feel like he didn’t think I thought of him as a friend.

So I feel somewhat responsible for the way things turned out. I never made more than a fleeting effort to get to know him or to spend time with him. I never invited him to dinner, never asked what he was doing with his life, never inquired about bird-watching. I was the same inconsiderate stranger that I’ve secretly criticized Californians for being to me. It was behavior definitely inconsistent with being community.

–Aaron

I was sorting out my music collection today when I came across Barenaked Ladies. I got my first album of theirs, Born on a Pirate Ship, during spring break of my freshman year of college. Jenn was an ardent fan of them, but I never really took music recommendations very seriously–I think it’s too personal. So instead I picked up the album completely by chance from the discount rack at Meijer. For anyone who doesn’t know, stretch your mouth open with your fingers (like the boy on the cover) and say “I was born on a pirate ship”. That was a trick I learned back in third grade.

It was a great album! I was at first blown away by the intricacy of the lyrics. But what I still love now after all these years is how each song is so distinct from all the others. I find it amazing how much variety they were able to produce. I could listen to that album for hours savoring the taste of each song. As I started to get familiar with the songs, they could have almost as much emotional effect on me as the changing of the seasons. It made me reflect a lot on my relationships with people. And they were good for some expressive dancing.

I told this to my mom once (she’s a big Beatles fan): because if you’ll remember, when John Lennon was asked where the name “Beatles” came from, he said that it came to him in a dream… So I always imagined Steven Page being asked the same questions and replying with a story of how they were trying to come up with a name, hoping and praying for inspiration, and then, one night, bare-naked ladies came to him in a dream.

I ended up getting the rest of their albums that summer (that was shortly after Maroon came out). I also bought myself a minidisc player (I had seen them in Belgium the summer before) and I copied all their CDs onto a minidisc. I had a few other minidiscs that I filled: 4-hand Rachmaninoff piano suites, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, the Counting Crows, and Billie Holiday and Carmen McRae. But I think Barenaked Ladies got the most play time during the many long bus trips I took to visit Laura that semester.

The Michigan Greyhound didn’t have very nice routes considering that Ann Arbor and Lansing are the two big college towns (and actually it appears to be worse now). To get between them you had to go by way of Battle Creek, and there was an official lunch stop at McDonald’s along the way. Listening to Maroon is always going to remind me of that route, pulling in and out of the Jackson and Battle Creek bus stations, and running through the pouring rain to get to catch the 4am bus so that I could get back in time for an exam.

There’s a lot of my life, hopes, dreams, and fears tied up with Barenaked Ladies. Maybe You Should Drive still makes me blush thinking about my future wife. It makes me remember all the embarrassing things I did too! Laura introduced me to Dar Williams (and later Ani DiFranco), who ended up carrying me through a lot more than Barenaked Ladies did (though she did have some help from Margaret Atwood). But that’s another story.

P.S. Liz, I will send you that Duke Ellington song– I didn’t forget!

I decided not to post again today. I have some good topics, but I’ve been too slow in finishing up chores. But here’s my self-assessment:

For myself, —What did I do today? I called Jasmine and sent a public email to Tara Hunt (both nerve-wracking). I also replied to all my emails for today (three days in a row!) I also posted an ad for my tutoring business. —What do I want to have done today? I wanted to have gotten to sleep sooner and woken up sooner. I wanted to have an additional hour’s worth of effectiveness in cleaning my apartment. I wish I had called Krystina and invited Liz to the dance.

For my community,—What did I do today? I created a great night of dancing by inviting several people to come. —What do I want to have done today? I wanted to have had more epic conversations with people. I also wish I had talked to Patrick about some of my project ideas.

For others, —What did I do today? I started making myself known and getting myself involved with the HeroCamp group. I made another try at profoundly influencing kids. —What do I want to have done today? I wish I had written my blog post about space exploration. I wish I had watched the TED video of Ian Dunbar a day earlier– it would have helped me with teaching today.

I’ve been thinking over my week (and the past month) and realizing how typical it is for me to work alone. I’ve had few moments in my life where I’ve been focused and productive while working with someone. Most often, when I am productive or thinking or planning or creating, I do it apart from other people. Even on collaborative projects, the work will be broken into distinct pieces and given out to people to work on alone.

This week I’ve heard Llewellyn talk a lot about pairing and how very effective it is for software development. There are several benefits: the spreading of knowledge, enhanced focus and motivation, and full-coverage sanity checking. There’s also something harder to measure: increased creativity, and what Llewellyn calls Excellence. The benefits are pretty extreme, so why doesn’t pairing happen naturally?

For me it’s difficult to put myself in a pairing environment because I have a need to be comfortable with my understanding of something before I start work. Even worse than than, I’m reluctant to talk to people about things that I can’t clearly explain. So it’s difficult for me to open up to someone while I’m working. And I’m not in the habit of communicating verbally in large volume.

So I’ve noticed that the thought of pairing makes me nervous. But the thought of pairing and collaboration is also exciting. I’ve never been a collaborative person, and I’ve never talked much about what I do with my time. But I’m going to redefine myself with actions. My blogging for the last four days is part of that. And creating some collaborative projects is another. I’ve decided to make challenge for myself to involve another person in every single personal project that I work on. It’s going to be a huge shift, to take a mostly-alone life and turn it into a mostly-paired life, but I’m awed by the possibility.

(Psst, want to collaborate? Get in touch.)

For myself, —What did I do today? I replied to all my email for the day. I didn’t use my car. —What do I want to have done today? I wish I had gone to bed earlier and been more focused when I had conversations with people. I also wish I had talked to Erin.

For my community,—What did I do today? I supported Jelly by attending. —What do I want to have done today? I wish I had posted an advertisement for tutoring and made future plans to spend time with someone.

For others, —What did I do today? Not much. —What do I want to have done today? I wish I had gotten a kid to talk to me about school.

I was watching a video on youtube today, Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth and James Blackburn-Lynch’s video response to it. They debate the merit and harm of three math curriculums for 4th/5th-grade math: the traditional method and two quite modern methods.

The difference between the methods comes down to this: the traditional method focuses on getting students to master the ability of doing arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of large numbers) on paper. The new methods emphasize conceptually understanding how long-hand algorithms and mental arithmetic work but avoid giving students the practice of doing arithmetic on paper and instead teach calculator use. So the two warring factions are basically the anti-calculator camp and the pro-theory camp.

But there’s a subtler issue hidden beneath; the fact is that none of the teaching methods in themselves are complete. And the real problem is the same one I’ve been running up against in teaching computer programming. The goal of teaching is to lead the student to understanding. But the method of teaching is by demonstrating and challenging the student to produce results. So there is always the danger that the method of teaching will distract from the goal of teaching.

It’s difficult to wrap my thoughts and my words around this paradox of teaching, but I’ve seen it very clearly in a different domain: in swing dancing. In dancing, I’ve seen in others and experienced for myself many times the moment where understanding is suddenly reached and a new concept is finally learned. And I’ve seen and experienced the long journey leading toward understanding, where you try to follow the teacher’s instructions not knowing where it will lead and struggling to understand–sometimes falsely thinking you understand–until, as if by chance, a random thought connects ideas in your mind and the concepts suddenly become clear.

How can we teach? There must be mastery and repetition balanced with reasoning and intuition. There is synthesis and there is generalization. I suspect that for the most effective learning, you must learn the actions, as a basis for inductive reasoning; and you must learn the words that the describe the concepts, as a basis for deductive reasoning. Both are necessary because the understanding comes when the deductive and the inductive reasoning finally meet and the actions and the words suddenly make sense together.

So as I teach programming (or math, or dance), I have to remember that my method should be to create curiosity rather than to create explanation. I must guide without leading. It’s a fascinating and difficult thing. And I’m still amazed at how much gets learned even with “bad” teaching methods! So for now, I will keep trying new things and looking at learning from different angles and hopefully I will be able to teach myself to teach in the best possible way.

And to keep myself honest with where I stand,

For myself, —What did I do today? I exercised, walked on the beach, went to the farmer’s market, ate a lot of fruits and vegetables. —What do I want to have done today? Besides the above, I wish I had done 5 more hours of contract work, messaged a couple more people on OKC and done the dishes.

For my community,—What did I do today? I organized a dance practice, forwarded a useful email, and blogged about education. —What do I want to have done today? I wish I had chatted with Angela and Megan, Eva or Heather. I wish I had addressed my hesitance to call Deborah and Frank.

For others, —What did I do today? I gave some serious thought to how people learn and came up with some new ideas to try in teaching and became more aware of what I am trying to do in life. —What do I want to have done today? I wish I had bounced ideas off someone– my mom would have been ideal.