A Wall of Separation – The Ten Commandments (Part One)

November 1, 2016June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

In about a week, Oklahoma will vote on whether or not to repeal the ‘Blaine Amendment’ in our state constitution by passing SQ 790. According to proponents, the primary impetus behind this change is the re-installment of a ginormous graven image of the Ten Commandments on Capitol grounds. In practice, passage would open up a legion of church-state issues – including, but not limited to, the voucher-palooza much of current leadership has been craving for so long.

But what about the stated purpose? Is it constitutional to post the Ten Commandments on public grounds? Is it constitutional to prevent it, if someone else wants to put them there? The short answer to both questions is… Yes. Sort of. But not really. So, no. Well… maybe.

The First Amendment contains two specific clauses pertaining to religion. The first says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” – the government can’t do anything to push a particular faith or favor religion over non-religion. This is known as the “Establishment Clause.” The second bit says “…or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” – meaning that the government also can’t discourage faith or punish religion over non-religion. This is called the “Free Exercise Clause.”

As anyone who’s ever had good friends go through an ugly argument knows, neutrality is far more difficult in practice than it sounds in theory. “Staying out of it” isn’t always possible. Responsible government, then, makes a good faith effort to avoid straying far into either danger – an imperfect balancing act at best, and one often complicated by strong emotions on all sides.

It’s difficult to say which has historically done the greater damage – a government that oppresses religion or a government that supports it. The first tends to end very badly for temporal authority; the latter tends to undermine the faith so favored.

So what has the highest court in the land said about the Ten Commandments on public property? Quite a bit, actually…

In Stone v. Graham (1980), the Supreme Court determined that posting the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms without context or educational purpose violated the Establishment Clause, and was thus unconstitutional. While it’s perfectly appropriate – even essential – to teach about faith as part of history, or to better understand literature, culture, or art, the disconnected posting of Bible verses is a big no-no.

But that’s school. Children are essentially a captive audience, and minors at that. What about government properties primarily utilized by grown-ups, who can drive and buy wine coolers and really ought to have better musical tastes by then? Do the rules change?

The Ten Commandments made the news in 2003 when a Chief Justice in Alabama and county officials in Tennessee posted copies of the Ten Commandments in their respective buildings – buildings paid for and maintained by government dollars for public purposes. Neither ended up in the Supreme Court, but defiant defenders of the displays clashed with civil libertarians verbally and emotionally. Add TV cameras and other local press, and… shenanigans!

The Alabama Justice lost his position over his refusal to remove the monument. In Tennessee the issue bounced around a bit until the county sheriff agreed to relocate the Commandments from the lobby to his office – still government property, but less ‘public,’ I suppose.

The issue picked up speed in 2004-2005.

Two different counties in Kentucky posted copies of the Ten Commandments in their courthouses. The ACLU sued, as they are wont to do, on the grounds that such displays violated the Establishment Clause. The counties responded that they weren’t displaying the Commandments as religious statements – pshaw! They were acknowledging “the precedent legal code upon which the civil and criminal codes of… Kentucky are founded.” Duh.

The District Court – the lowest level of federal court, where these sorts of cases almost always begin – applied what’s known as “The Lemon Test.” This was an informal checklist established in Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) and often utilized thereafter to determine whether or not a government action violated church-state separation. It’s not a hard-and-fast rule by any means – several Justices over the years have openly rejected it – but it does come up fairly regularly in these sorts of cases, and it made sense for the local district court to utilized it here.

The Lemon Test:

1. A law must have a secular legislative purpose.

2. Its principal or primary effect must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion.

3. The law must not foster “an excessive government entanglement with religion.”

The district court didn’t get past the first question. There was no secular legislative purpose, so bang – you lose. Thanks for playing, Kentucky – sucks to suck.

Not a people to go down easily, the counties revised their displays. They added a title, “The Foundations of American Law and Government,” and additional documents – excerpts from the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the Star Spangled Banner, etc. There was even a nice picture of Lady Justice, blindfold and all, holding the very scales Kentucky hoped to tip in their favor through these modifications.

The presentation emphasized the role of faith and the ‘Almighty’ in the development of the United States. They were largely ‘secular’ documents, but the cumulative message was one of divine guidance and inspiration.

This second effort didn’t make it to the Supremes. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals shot it down, explaining that the addition of other items without any particular connection to the Ten Commandments didn’t change the religious nature of the display.

Don’t worry, though, kids – Kentucky will be making yet another attempt before we’re through.

On the same day the Supreme Court announced its decision in McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky (2005), it addressed a similar case from Texas – Van Orden v. Perry (2005). Court-watchers were surprised to learn that while Kentucky’s displays were unconstitutional, a seemingly similar display in Austin, Texas, was determined to be acceptable. What was the difference?

The Texas display included an imposing six-foot monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments, so it wasn’t a matter of subtlety. This particular item, however, was located on the extensive grounds surrounding the State Capitol – grounds filled with sundry other icons related to the history and cultures of Texas. It had been donated forty some years before by the “Fraternal Order of Eagles,” a very non-religious civic organization, with additional support from Cecil B. DeMille – the producer/director behind “The Ten Commandments” and numerous other Hollywood blockbusters.

The Ten Commandments monument itself incorporated traditional American iconography – an eagle grasping the American flag and an eye inside of a pyramid – as well as two Stars of David and the superimposed Greek letters Chi and Rho, which represent Christ. Surrounded by various war veterans, heroes of the Alamo, representative homesteaders, and even a replica of the Statue of Liberty, It was firmly established as an element of Texas culture and history.

Essentially, the question came down to context and intent. The Kentucky displays were clearly part of a pattern to test church-state limits and nudge religion into the public sphere as a matter of principle or political maneuvering, while the Texas display was reflective of the religious – and generally audacious – nature of Texans.

Not that it was as clear-cut as the explanation makes it seem. Both cases were decided by split 5-4 votes, and 8 Justices voted the same way both times. The difference was a single Justice, Stephen Breyer. He saw a difference in the two which eight other Justices did not – thus shaping jurisprudence and history for the foreseeable future.

Kentucky made one more run at it in 2010. They claimed to have “fixed” the problems with their original display and that it was no longer unconstitutional. What makes this claim… well, weird, is that the display itself hadn’t actually changed. Instead, Kentucky argued that their motivation – a significant reason they’d lost five years before – had evolved. Now they merely wished to include the Commandments as part of a “commemoration of historical documents.” The same display had magically become constitutional, because… history and culture! Like Texas!

In short, they wanted ‘backsies’. (As a back-up argument, they hoped the Court would consider getting rid of that ‘Lemon’ thing no one liked.)

The Sixth Circuit Court didn’t buy this “new context” even a little. Kentucky could not come back five years later and pretend none of the history associated with their efforts had occurred and none of their prior arguments had been made. Justice may be blind, but that didn’t mean it had mandatory short-term memory loss. (And we’ll decide when we’re through with the Lemon Test, thank you very much.)

Sorry, Kentucky – if you want to see the Ten Commandments displayed, you’ll have to go to Austin.

Related Post: Missing the Old Testament

Better Basketball Through Vouchers

October 23, 2016June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

It’s not something we like to talk about.

Still, painful truth is something of a specialty of mine, so let’s just put it on the table and let the full light of public scrutiny shine.

Our community basketball teams aren’t getting any better. Many of them are actually getting worse.

You know the ones – tournaments in community center gyms, shoddy uniforms and poorly paid coaches. While some teams seem to have actual game plans and even some scattered talent, others are just taking up court space and simply do not prepare players for a real college team – let alone playing professionally.

The fact that these so-called “leagues” are receiving public support is shameful – at least with results like these. So I have – as I always do – a plan.

First, we’re going to make these teams better by raising standards on these coaches and other organizers. I realize they barely make minimum wage trying to hold these leagues together, but then again they’re not really putting in the hours a real job would require, so I don’t know why they’re complaining. More rules, more verbal and bureaucratic abuse, and diminished status will definitely lead to a larger and more highly qualified pool of potential coaches and referees.

Second, we’re going to raise standards and expectations on players as well. There’s no reason a child of 8-years old or more can’t make a free throw 4 times out of 5. In Finland, 6-year-olds are making 4.7 out of 5 easily. And seriously – you’re going to let a kid move up to the adult league at 16 without demonstrating he can consistently score on a simulated breakaway? Back in my day, we had standards!

Honestly, I think teams these days are spending too much time on socialization, conditioning, and character-building. That win-loss record doesn’t have a column for ‘character’. Are we raising players or growing pansies here?

The biggest problem, of course, is a lack of player choice. Players are currently limited to the team in their neighborhood, at the nearest YMCA or other community center. Coaches no doubt love having a captive roster like this, so they don’t have to work at recruitment or become better coaches. Referees don’t have to become better referees. The players are trapped on failing teams in failing leagues.

But there’s a better way.

Players should be allowed to try out for any team they like. They can take the taxpayer dollars – THEIR dollars that THEY deserve because that’s why we pay taxes is so that individuals can spend it on whatever they like – to any team in the state and demand to be considered.

It is, of course, up to the individual teams whether to take them or not. Obviously players looking for a better team are going to seek out, well…. better teams – and those teams don’t get better by taking just anyone who wanders in, the way those community teams do. They have standards – the kind community teams are prohibited by both law and personal ethics from having. So players can try out, and will be considered – if they’re good enough. Some will even be accepted!

Winning a spot doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed that position for the season, of course. Most of these teams have limited locker-room space and if your performance falters, you’re gone – back to that local team that also has limited locker-room space but really just needs to suck it up and deal with it and stop being so wasteful with what they DO have.

If the player does make a team, they’ll naturally need to buy their own uniforms. Those old t-shirts accepted by the YMCA team won’t cut it in a real league. They’ll need better shoes. A gym membership. A dietary specialist. And of course if it’s discovered along the way that they have a slight vision issue making it difficult for them to do a proper layup, or that asthma resurfaces, or they can’t make it to practice one day because of a crisis at home, they’re out.

Out as in “kicked off of the newer, better team,” I mean. They’ll naturally go back to their local community league where we’ll immediately begin blaming those coaches and organizers for not doing a better job with the player we’ve just dumped back on them because we’re not really set up to deal with that kind of thing.

Will this work? Of course it will. I know plenty of kids on elite basketball teams already, and they’re doing very well. Besides, sports are all about competition – just like ‘Merica! If more kids are encouraged to try out for a wider variety of teams, and those teams are partially compensated with community funds for skimming off the elite, that will make the community teams which are left with the rest – only now with less taxpayer resources – BETTER. That’s called healthy competition.

Basketball is important, so everyone must still be required to play. Those community leagues will still be expected to make quality players not only of all the kids who weren’t accepted elsewhere, but of those who hate sports to begin with and basketball in particular. They’ll be expected to make them taller, and thinner, and faster, and require them to “think like pros.” That’s the whole point of playing sports anyway, right? I don’t know why those people are so afraid of a little accountability.

The community leagues, I mean – not the private teams. They can do whatever they like, because… freedom and small government.

From time to time it will be discovered that a player is far more interested in football, or hockey, or cheerleading, or joining the band, or even making the nachos at the concession stand. All of those things are fine – albeit it complete wastes of time if we’re going to compete with basketball teams from Finland – but will only be allowed if the student first proves themselves willing and capable on the court. Those are the standards we’ve decided should apply to absolutely everyone regardless of other issues, abilities, or circumstances. Unlike you, we beieve that every child is capable of dribbling.

Already the community leagues are whining – especially the coaches, and even many of the refs. They don’t want their teams to be stacked up next to the private teams because they’re lazy liberals who hate America.

But I just can’t see the problem. I know it will work because I played basketball and I made it onto a very elite team. I am, of course, wildly successful today doing things that have nothing to do with basketball – thus making me an expert on coaching and organizing a team, or even a league.

Besides, what could be more American than choice?

Talk About The Passion (Guest Blogger: Kristen Perkins)

October 23, 2016June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

I’ve issued an open call for guest bloggers for the month of October and through Election Day, but this post didn’t come from that call – it came from Facebook.

Some of you remember Facebook – it’s where people not on Twitter talk about things, but with more puppies and fake news sites mixed in. The funny thing is, there are some quality folks writing there who still don’t blog or even tweeterize. Go figure!

I came across Kristen Perkins, who’d written an passionate explanation of why she taught, with vigor, even in Oklahoma. (For you out-of-staters reading, we don’t care much for no book learnin’ round here.) A friend insisted she send her FB post to me, which she did, and I asked her to revisit it and then let me share it here.

Which, as you’ve probably guessed, is what this is.

I even made her write her own intro. I figured it would be better than whatever I could cobble together, and it is. I added the aesthetics after the fact because I just can’t resist that sort of thing. But the good parts are all her.

If you have something on your mind or anything you’d be willing to share, you have a couple of weeks left to let me know. There are few if any limits on topic or length – I merely ask for basic decency and sincerity. It’s ideal if you disagree with me about something, but given how difficult that is to do once basking in Blue, it’s not a requirement. I’m looking for other voices – whatever the angle or passion in play.

My name is Kristen Perkins. I teach 2nd grade in a Title I school in Moore, Oklahoma. This is my 15th year of teaching, and I have a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction. My decision to pursue an advanced degree baffled most of my friends and family, because my post-degree income would increase by about $40 per month, or $20 per paycheck. They couldn’t understand that it was simply about better preparing myself to do what it is I am driven to do every day.

This has been on my mind, and on my heart, so I’m going to try to put it into words. Please don’t think this is about teacher raises or even classroom conditions. It is about having a passion.

For the past two weekends, I have either gone to school to work in my classroom or have run up to open the building to let other teachers in, so they can work. At one point, I counted nine of us there on a Saturday. Those who left before I did took work with them to continue to work on at home. On Monday, rather than appearing rested, we look at each other and ask, “Didn’t we just leave here?”

Those outside the profession often shake their heads at us and say, “It must be a calling.” We are often asked, “Why on earth do you devote so much time to something that barely pays your bills?” It’s about passion, and if you’ve never had passion for something… for anything… I’m not sure you’ll understand.

I have had many jobs prior to this. Before teaching, I even worked in a career where I made much more money than I ever will as a teacher. I was given profit sharing, monthly and holiday bonuses, and a clothing allowance. I was routinely taken to restaurants for staff lunches with colleagues in other offices, where we ate great food, chewed every bite, and never once worked on paperwork while enjoying our meal. I had all of the freedom to negotiate the salary that I wanted. Which I did. Successfully.

Still, when payday came, I opened my check and thought, “Well, two more weeks until I get another one of these. Back to the grind.” It was about a paycheck. I left that behind, not because I was “called” or because I have some noble desire to live barely above the poverty line. I left that career for this one, because every day spent in the other career with all of its trappings was another day spent pushing aside, dampening, desperately trying to quiet… a passion.

Have you had nothing in your life that excited you to the point that you stopped counting the days or hours until payday, and instead looked forward to the next day, when you get to return to that place that fulfills you, inspires you, exhausts you, tests you, challenges you and completely defines you? That’s why I do it.

It’s worth it to me to spend my Saturday cutting out laminated flashcards and creating custom activities if I believe in my heart that using them will help a little boy who is two years behind in reading learn a handful of new words. It’s worth it to me to grade papers until I doze off, or to spend my weekend at a conference, because those things are an important part of the big picture. It’s worth it to me to shut my classroom door after a Friday dismissal and cry because my heart was broken in five different directions that day. If I can’t love them like my own, their struggles remain obstacles rather than mere hurdles. It’s worth it to me, because one day, that little girl who isn’t sure when she’ll see her father again, or that little boy who doesn’t believe he is smart and thinks he’ll never learn to read… might have a passion. They might want to pursue it. It might burn inside them, and they may have to struggle to follow it.

I want to be a part of putting all of the pieces in place so that they have the best chance possible to live their dreams, however exhausting, challenging, heartbreaking, and completely fulfilling they may be. It doesn’t mean I love my family any less, or even that I find this “job” more important than them. It means that I’m not completely who I want to be unless I’m pursuing this passion at the level that I feel is my best. Only when I’m THAT person, can I be a completely good mother, daughter, girlfriend, friend, sister or teacher.

I’m fortunate that those closest to me are patient. My children have grown up watching me push myself, push my students, sacrifice my time, and throw my energy into children that don’t live under our roof. I hope they understand my motivations, and I hope that it pushes them to never settle for a “job” and a “paycheck.” I want them chasing their passion. THAT is what life is about.

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Blue Serials (10/23/16)

October 22, 2016June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

I know, I know – so much. Too much. All busy. Things doing! Aaarghhghh!

Nonetheless, Here Are A Few Things You Simply SHOULD NOT MISS From Recent Edu-Bloggery…

The Long Game: Teaching As A Career, Not Just A Job – Christina Torres, on ChristinaTorres.org, talks about fighting weariness, staying alert, and maintaining that new teacher mojo even after you’ve developed veteran teacher chops.

I am still eager to give my students my best, and I still love my job. But after two years it’s much easier to become complacent with the routine of your classroom. You’re able to read the room better. You run into similar problems and pitfalls from the years before. Yes, the kids are different and wonderful and marvelous in their own way, but it’s easy to rest on your laurels and continue on your merry way down the path you forged for two years.
Just like any relationship, though, I am fighting stagnancy and complacency as much as I can. I don’t want to end up getting so burnt out and bored doing this work that I forget all the reasons I returned to the classroom in the first place…

Torres is one of the most genuine and reflective voices in the blogosphere today. I love everything about her at least twice. Follow @biblio_phile on Twitter and fall in love with her yourself.

2-Minute Zen: What’s Your Move? – Dan Tricarico, on The Zen Teacher. If you’re not yet familiar with TZT, you’re doing everything wrong. The ‘Zen’ thing is completely legit, but not nearly as weird as you’d hope.

Instead, Tricarico is ridiculously gifted and making your blood pressure go down and your awareness go up, just by telling you things you kinda already know in ways that sound so natural, but have such impact.

But the question, “What’s the one move I can make right now?” reminds me–in a mindful and present way–that even in a chaotic and overwhelming world, there is always ONE thing I can do. So now that’s my question to you: “What’s the one move you can make RIGHT NOW to create some focus, simplicity, and tranquility, either in your classroom or your life (or both!)?

He’s like Guinan’s counterpart in this time-space continuum.

If it sounds like I have a bit of a crush, you’re not far wrong. Follow @thezenteacher on Twitter and get your own Zen crush on. What’s the matter… chicken?! *makeschickennoises*

The Curse Of Our Online Lives – Bill Ferriter, on The Tempered Radical, has a confession to make. He’s been keeping up with the Presidential campaigns.

I find myself checking into both my news feeds and my social streams several times a day, waiting for another embarrassing revelation about the candidates. I chew through articles about illegal contributions to personal foundations, seedy relationships with high dollar donors or foreign leaders, appallingly misogynistic statements, and accusations of political manipulation…
The ever-present venom frightens me because it barely resembles the kind of open, honest discourse around controversial ideas that characterizes the strongest democracies. So how can we move forward together when we spend so much time spewing hate at one another?

This is both timely and thoughtful – not a surprise, given the source. Follow @plugusin on Twitter for more timely thoughtfulness and less cursing in your online life.

Stop the Blame Game: Teaching Students to Take Ownership – Chase Mielke, on Affective Living, talks real talk about our cultural swamp of blame and distancing ourselves from the least bit of agency in our own daily trudge. I should warn you, though, that while he’s certainly not blaming teachers, he won’t be letting you off the hook, either.

You can see the irony should you choose to get all defensive about it.

A second grader made me cringe the other day. I visited my wife’s class and a girl was showing the class her pictures from a recent soccer tournament. Someone asked how her team did. Her response?
“We got second place. BUT, we actually should have gotten first because the other team cheated and the refs were terrible.”
I cringed. Second grade and she is already building a habit of blaming. I got a dose of depression as I thought about how this blame habit could deepen as she ages…

Check out @chasemielke on Twitter. If you don’t, and end up missing something good as a result, that is SO TOTALLY ON YOU.

That’s all this weekend, my #11FF.

Stay focused, stay informed, and go in prepared for those down-ballot candidates and state questions and stuff. They in many ways matter more than whoever ends up winning the President thing that used to be a big deal.

Koko The Gorilla (Repost)

October 21, 2016June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

NOTE: I’m reposting some of my personal past favorites as a sort of ‘palate cleanser’ from the current electoral shenanigans. This is one of my favorites of all time by anyone ever. Sorry, but it is.

Koko the gorilla, now over 40 years old, was taught sign language from the time she was a wee little fuzzball, and has been studied ever since. She understands a surprising amount of spoken English and even more ASL, and she signs extensively in response to either. She’s sometimes referenced when animal rights are discussed, and essential when the evolution and uses of language are being analyzed. Apparently she can sometimes be quite innovative in her communication.

On the other hand, well… she’s somewhat limited by the fact that – and I feel almost cruel saying this…

She’s a monkey.

Yes, I know she’s not technically a monkey. I’ve seen enough Planet of the Apes movies to know they’re touchy about those distinctions. But if she’s more than a monkey, she’s not quite a people either. She’s a gorilla doing the best she can to hear, watch, and express herself to people who are not her – people who are not even gorillas. Koko provokes some interesting questions about what it means to be sentient, whether certain basic civil rights should be extended to animals, and exactly how many different roles Roddy McDowell could play in one franchise before it became self-parody – none of which are why I find her so fascinating.

She is, to me, a hairy metaphor of something more tangible – an appropriated symbol for something near and dear to my innards:

Koko is why the ‘liberal arts’ matter in education.

I’m all for STEM education, actual future employment, beating the Russians to the moon – all of it. Some of my best friends are math & science teachers (not really, but it seemed like something I should say), and some of my best students are on promising courses to change the world through engineering and biotechnology and Mandelbrot Sets and whatever the hell it is they do once they move into math that doesn’t even use numbers and letters anymore.

As we press into this brave new world, however, I’d like to revisit some reasons non-STEM subjects matter, not just for the sickly pale artistic types, but all students:

1. Right-brain stuff helps you do better left-brain stuff, and vice versa. In practice this means mathematicians are mathier when they also partake of music, science-ish types do better science when they’re stimulated by history or watercolors or e e cummings, etc. The liberal arts and the arts arts are good for the things that aren’t arts.

2. Even people with real jobs (apparently in about ten years this will mean primarily engineers, medical professionals, and iPhone app developers) need to know how to read effectively and communicate clearly in order to do their real job stuff well.

3. Everyone has some magical special gift which must be discovered, nurtured, blah blah blah. In other words, something must keep us in touch with our souls. (Cue violins and rapidly moving clouds.)

4. If we don’t study history, we won’t know how to best manipulate and conquer people while blaming them for the results.

5. We must recapture – and I don’t know how to say this without being kinda cheezy – we must recapture a mindset of reaching beyond our condition, not merely enduring it.

Teacher: What’s an insult? Koko: THINK DEVIL DIRTY
Teacher: [spoken only] What’s an injury? Koko: THERE BITE (to a cut on her hand)
Teacher: What is crazy? Koko: TROUBLE SURPRISE
Teacher: When do people say darn? Koko: WORK OBNOXIOUS
Teacher: What can you think of that’s hard? Koko: ROCK… WORK.
Teacher: What’s a smart gorilla? Koko: ME.

Technical understanding of language allows us to accurately describe what is, or could be – tangible, literal, objective reality. Very important. But a mature understanding of language allows us to use words built on the literal and reach higher than what we can see, hear, or measure. Here’s a paragraph from one of the studies done on dear Koko:

A conversation with Koko that involved this kind of creativity with the sign ‘rotten’… Koko demonstrated the standard form of the sign in an exchange of insults after her companion called her a ‘stinker.’ Koko then inflected the sign by using two hands (perhaps meaning ‘really rotten’) and in the same sequence, brought the sign off her nose toward her companion, conveying the idea ‘you’re really rotten.’ Koko’s use of rotten in this conversation also demonstrates her grasp of the connotation of a word rather than its denotation or concrete or specific meaning.

The objective value of knowledge matters, but the subjective and symbolic value sometimes matters more.

These invented signs indicate that the gorillas, like human children, take initiative with language by making up new words and by giving new meanings to old words. On the next level, there is evidence that Koko… can generate novel names by combining two or more familiar words. For instance, Koko signed ‘bottle match’ to refer to a cigarette lighter, ‘white tiger’ for a zebra, and ‘eye hat’ for a mask. Michael has generated similar combinations, such as ‘orange flower sauce’ for nectarine yogurt and ‘bean ball’ for peas. Other examples… are ‘elephant baby’ for a Pinocchio doll and ‘bottle necklace’ for a six-pack soda can holder…

We should learn all we can learn and know all we can know, but that’s not where it ends. Language and stories and art (yes, she does art) and teachers push Koko – and us – to do more than solve a puzzle to get a banana. Under their influence she strives to understand more than can be understood, and to be more than she is.

It’s not a technical problem, it is – for lack of better verbage – a spiritual quest, a stretching of the proverbial soul. Lest you think I exaggerate:

Some responses, on the other hand, are quite unexpected. “How did you sleep last night?” (expecting ‘fine’, ‘bad’, or some related response.) ‘FLOOR BLANKET.’ (Koko sleeps on the floor with blankets.) “How do you like your blankets to feel?” ‘HOT KOKO-LOVE.’ “What happened?” (after an earthquake). ‘DARN DARN FLOOR BAD BITE. TROUBLE TROUBLE.’

Wikipedia defines an ‘earthquake’ as ““the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth’s crust that creates seismic waves. The… seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time… At the Earth’s surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by shaking and sometimes displacement of the ground.”

That’s a pretty important thing to understand, especially if you live in a world with earthquakes. But what Koko tried to capture was – I’d argue – pretty important as well:

Darn Darn Floor Bad Bite. Trouble Trouble.

That’s an earthquake alright. If you’ve experienced or even observed an earthquake, it makes good sense. In some ways, it’s better than the technical definition.

It’s experiential, it’s emotional, it’s loaded with metaphorical implications. By stretching to capture something she technically lacks the intelligence, the language, the experiences, the paradigm to explain, Koko touches important truths that would never have been brushed up against otherwise. Not just nice words, not just pretty ideas, not just nourishment for the soul – implications and realities that matter matter if you’re ever going to be in an earthquake or live in a universe where earthquakes exist. Maybe even if you don’t.

That’s what we’re trying to inculcate and nurture in the so-called ‘social studies’ and ‘language arts’ and all those other classes which are too often defended only for their roles in promoting ‘reading and writing’ or ‘critical thinking’ skills. That a subject might have wider utilitarian purpose is great, but that doesn’t mean that should be its exclusive or even its primary purpose. If we believe otherwise, we need to take down all of those ‘reach for the stars’ posters and replace them with ‘more accurately measure and label the stars’, and at least be consistent.

Obviously it’s important that we be able to solve the technical challenges of coming days, and press forward on scientific, mathematical, and otherwise tangible frontiers we can’t even imagine yet. I’m a big fan of curing diseases, feeding the world through aeroponics, and whatever The Elder Scrolls VII will look like. But what shall it profit us if we gain the whole giga-world, and lose our proverbial souls?

And yes, that’s cheesy. I’m wincing a bit even as I type it. Like Koko, I lack the words or ability to capture it better, so I’m doing what I can to approximate what I almost conceive. Don’t mock me, or I’ll fling my poo at you.