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USMC Educator Workshop Debrief · 3 August 2024

Neither the United States Marine Corps nor any other component of the Department of Defense has approved, endorsed, or authorized this blog or this blog post.

If you are an educator and you do not see the United States Marine Corps (USMC) or any branch of the military as a viable option for all of your students, you should open your mind by attending a USMC Educator Workshop.

I attended a USMC Educator Workshop in early July. The goal of the weeklong workshop is, of course, to get educators to see that joining the Marine Corps is a viable option for students. Whether those students are the best of the best or those who are barely squeaking by or may not even be squeaking by or somebody somewhere in the middle. And as the commanding general of the base told us, to realize that we are partners in helping young men and women become the best versions of themselves.

I have always seen any branch of the military as a viable option for any level of student. I have had students go to military academies and students who have enlisted. Sometimes with my urging, always with my encouragement, applause and congratulations. I have seen all branches of service as pretty much equal in terms of what they do to help my former students become the best versions of themselves. I am not so sure I think that way anymore. To be sure, the educator workshop has probably given me a little bias toward steering the best and brightest, and the hardest working students to the Marine Corps. (But I will still encourage and applaud those who enter any branch of the military.)

Part of the reason that I am more likely to send the hardest working students to the Marine Corps is because of the values they instill. I always tell my students that regardless of whether they remember any of the content I teach, they will hopefully retain some of the values I teach. And I can certainly steer students toward an organization that instills the values of honor, courage, and commitment into its people. They are not exactly the values that I try to instill in my students, but they line up well.

But back to the workshop.

Perhaps the best part of the weeklong workshop was that we were assigned a Drill Instructor (DI) for the duration. We had two busses for traveling to and from our accommodations to wherever we were going, and the people on each bus had their own DI. It was interesting getting to know our DI. Actually both DIs. They barked orders to us from the very beginning. They had us get in lines. They had us shout, “Aye aye, sir!” as a reply to almost everything. They told us how to cover down (get in line) and step out (walk) and, of course, how to reply to everything they said (at the top of our lungs). It was thrilling to say the least. But we were not recruits. We did not need to live with those Drill Instructors for the next 13 weeks.

The interesting thing was that when the DIs wanted to talk with us as just normal people instead of simulated recruits, they took off their coveted campaign covers. Even more interesting was that after a couple of days, we still replied at the top of our lungs when they asked us questions without their covers. And on the final day we seemed at a loss and could not function well when we did not cover down to load the busses and when we were not barked at to do everything. To be sure, it was both disconcerting and comforting talking to the Drill Instructors as regular people.

The workshop was amazing. We went from place to place to place listening to briefs and doing activities. We were lined up on the famous yellow footprints, taken through to have our belongs processed for contraband, crushed by the Combat Fitness Test, allowed to shoot at the rifle range, challenged with team problem solving, and exhilarated by rappelling. Oh. And did I mention that we were often marched from place to place to place? (We did not really march, we just walked. In lines. Covered down.) The briefs were informative, the activities were amazing, and the marching was grueling (on at least one day). In short, the workshop was more than I expected.

The captain in charge of the workshops asked us early on in the process who would have signed up to be a U.S. Marine had they known what they knew after just a couple hours of the workshop. Maybe we had already forgotten our barking drill instructors, but I and many others raised our hands.

I know that the U.S. Marines is not for everybody. It really is for the few and the proud. And I will tell my students and anybody else who asks me that the Marines are looking for good people. Not just to win the nation’s battles, but to do all sorts of other jobs in support of that mission.

I could probably go on and on about the USMC Educator Workshop, but it is not something you should just read about. It is something you should participate in. So if you are in education, I would encourage you to attend a USMC Educator Workshop. You will be glad you did. And you will get a small taste of what your students will experience when they start their process of becoming United States Marines.

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Retirement? · 27 July 2024

People keep asking me when I plan on retiring. I keep wondering if they are trying to get rid of me. And I keep telling them that the Lord will let me know.

This next school year will be my thirtieth year teaching. At the same school. Teaching the same subjects (for the most part). Almost exclusively in the same room. It has been a wonderful time. The kids have mostly been great. The colleagues have been amazing. And I have enjoyed almost every minute of it. But after thirty years, I know the end is coming. I just do not know when. Next year? The year after? The year after that? I just do not know. I am happy and healthy, and I still like going to work each day. So who knows?

There is only one other thing that I would like to do more than teaching. That is writing. For a living. If I could spend a few hours each day writing and make enough money to support my family, I would consider retiring. Which means that if you want me to retire, go out and buy a bunch of my books and tell others to do so also. (But do not boycott my books if you want to keep me in the classroom. I still need to retire some day.)

I am actually not sure what retirement looks like. People talk about doing the things they want to do. They talk about leisure activities. They talk about trips. They even talk about writing. But somehow, they do not seem to do all those things they talked about. Or maybe that is just my perception. Maybe they really do golf or fish or exercise each day. Maybe they learn new things. Maybe they take up that new hobby they never had time to do before.

But that is the kicker. If people do not make time now to take up that hobby they say they want to do, why do they think they will do so after retirement? Why do we think that we will really have more time after we retire than we do now? Why do we think that our time is completely constrained by our jobs (and recovering from our jobs)?

I think we all take time to do the things we want to do. Whether we are retired or not. Oh sure. We have budget constraints and time constraints. But we will always have those. Okay. Some people do not really have much budget constraints, but the vast majority of us do. And so we will need to choose what we can do with our time and money. But we have always had to do that. Retired or not.

So we ought to take the time to do the things we always thought we wanted to do. We ought to learn how to tie flies. We ought to write that book. We ought to learn that language. We ought to lower our golf handicap by practicing and playing. We ought to… Well, you get the picture.

I must say that I agree with our former pastor. Christ followers need to think of retirement as a new way to serve God and people. We should be doing that now, and we should keep doing so even in retirement.

I do not know when I will retire, but I do know that I will keep doing at least one thing I love besides teaching. I will continue to write whether anybody reads. I will continue to write whether I am retired or not. I will continue to write, whether I ever get to mediocre or not.

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Sign My Book? · 20 July 2024

I am always surprised when people want me to sign my books.

I decided that I need to give away a few books. I figured maybe that will help with promoting them. Prime the pump so to speak. Maybe it will even generate a review or two. Even if they are not reviews from verified buyers. Or whatever they are called.

So far, I have only given my books to people I know. My friends and relatives. Not to all of them. I may not have that many friends, but way too many relatives to give everybody books. I would break the bank if I gave them each a copy of each of my books. But I have given a few copies of a few titles to a few people. And even though I have not given that many books away, I have been surprised when people ask me to sign them.

Now, most writers give drafts to people to read before they publish their books. They have readers give them input so they can make their books better. While I might do that in the future, I have not done that yet. At least not much. Instead, I just write and publish, write and publish. Now, I am seeing if anybody likes them. It is funny. I have only heard back from one person so far on this batch of books (one of my aunts said she likes my writing). Oh sure, it has not been very long since I gave out these latest books, but I do wonder if any of my friends or relatives have any thoughts about the books. In fact, I usually wonder how bad they think my stuff is. It is not insecurity or anything like that. (I actually like hearing the bad stuff.) I just wonder.

At any rate.

As much as I wonder what people think about my books, I also think it is curious that many of the people I have given books to want me to sign them. I do not think it is that they believe I will be famous one day and so they want to have a book that they can point to proving that they know me. I think it is just a thing you do when you have the author of the book right there.

Okay. One person I know wants my signature in case I get famous. He has a bookshelf with signed books. He said that he reads the books, but then they go on the hallowed shelf. Authors he knows. Or at least authors who have signed his books. He can point to the books and say that he knew the authors when they were not famous authors. Or he knew them well enough to get their signatures. Or something like that.

I suppose I understand that sentiment. Being able to point to a book that the author signed way back when said author was just an aspiring writer. Or at least a writer who was aspiring to have his or her books sell enough copies that people actually know the author’s name. I suppose it is a better story than saying you stood in line for three hours to get a famous author’s signature in a book that you love.

At any rate.

I am always taken aback when people want me to sign books I have written. Whether I gave them the book or they bought the book. I suppose it is just natural. We want to know that there is some connection between us and the author of any book. Even if that connection is just that we both relate to the story somehow. And the author’s signature is just another way to get that connection. At least that seems to make sense.

Still, until I have a book signing event, I will be surprised when people ask me to sign a book I wrote. I will still ask them, “You want me to sign my book?”