Page 50 – Mechanical Sympathy

A North American distributed motorcycling network

It’s the time of year again. My next chance to go for a ride is months away. As the dark descends I need to get my head out of the idea that I’m stuck in a box for the next four months. I wonder what it would cost to set up a series of self-storage nodes across the southern US to enable year round riding. With some clever placement I’d be able to fly in and access a wide variety of riding opportunities all year ’round.

Looking at companies that provide self storage I like the look of Cubesmart. They get great reviews, offer good sized storage units with electricity and lighting and look to be well maintained. They also offer parking and other services that would make picking up and dropping off a bike easy. Storage with the same company means I’ll also get looked after better. Setting up all three nodes in the south near airports means I could fly in and be on two wheels in no time.

WEST COAST NODE: a storage unit in San Francisco

The Cubesmart I’d aim for is in Freemont, about 40 minutes from the Airport. $140US a month gets you a 90 square foot storage area that could easily swallow a bike or two and some gear.

There are dozens of best rides around the city, so this makes for a target rich centre for motorbiking. A winter ride doing the PCH north of SanFran and through the mountains back to the city would be a lovely idea…

If San Francisco were my West Coast base I’d have access too all of California and could still reach out to the South West even in the winter months. That’d be the nicest time to ride the deserts anyway.

EAST COAST NODE: a storage unit near Knoxville, TN

Cubesmart has a 10×10 foot storage unit just north of Knoxville for under ninety bucks US a month (about half what San Francisco is?). It’s about an eleven hour drive from where I am now out of the snow and into the Smokey Mountains, or a couple of hours by plane.

I could proceed south to the Tail of the Dragon and further on into Georgia, the Atlantic coast and Florida or west towards New Orleans.

The run south into the Smokey Mountains is a quick one:

Austin, Texas and the lone MotoGP appearance left in North America is only a couple of long days west. Then again, Austin would make another good network node…

Central/South West Node: a storage unit near Austin, TX

There’a another Cubesmart less than 20 minutes away from the Austin airport. Like the Knoxville one it’s less than a hundred bucks a month for secure, lit and electrified storage (which will be handy for getting the bikes ready to go).

Circuit of the Americas where North America’s last MotoGP race is held is only twenty minutes away. The Twisted Sisters, one of the best roads to ride in North America, are only an hour away…

Outfitting Each Node

I’d build up a package to keep with the bikes in each storage depot. A duffel bag with basic tools, fluids, an extension cord and a battery jumper just in case I have to give things a spark to get them going. I’d make a point of putting the bikes away well, but you never know how long it might be until someone is back to exercise them, so having the kit on hand would be helpful, especially if I’m getting there at 4am after a red-eye for some much-needed two wheeled therapy.

Licensing bikes in Ontario for riding elsewhere would be a stupid idea as Ontario is one of the worst places to own a motorcycle. If I could find a reasonable place to make a residence (like BC or Alberta), I could license a number of bikes and leave them scattered around North America. If I hadn’t been there in a while all I’d need to bring along is maybe a new plate sticker if needed.

Off hand, my 3 remote stables would look like this:

West Coast
Kawasaki Z1000R: my favourite super naked motorbike. With a look like something out of Pacific Rim it would keep up with the image conscious West Coast. As a canyon carver little comes close. It’s a bit extreme, but isn’t that what riding the West Coast calls for?

I’d have an SW-Mototech EVO cargo bag that would let me turn the big Zed (and the Suzuki below) into a tourer for those longer trips.

East Coast

With the Tail of the Dragon right around the corner, Knoxville calls for a bike that can handle the corners but can also cover distances if I wanted to ride to the Florida Keys or New Orleans. Most sports bikes look small under me, but not the mighty Hayabusa. It isn’t as skinny and dynamic as a sports bike, but it’s still more than able to handle twisties while also being a surprisingly capable distance muncher. BIKE Magazine just took one across the USA.

Central
For long distance reach and also the chance to ride into the desert when needed, I’d go for the new Triumph Tiger for the Austin depot. A good two up machine that’ll do everything well, it also has good cool weather capabilities for riding in mountains in the winter.

That’s three very different machines for each storage point down south. Swapping machines between depots would also be a cool idea, so riding the Triumph to San Francisco and then riding the big Zed back to Austin if I felt like changing up the options. Setting up each bike drop would also make for a good end of season ride down south.

***

California Dreaming

The snow is blowing sideways in the dark, only visible as it passes through the dull orange of the sodium parking lot lights. The car crunches to a stop in knee deep drifts. I shut it off and the cold immediately begins to creep in through the cracks. Grabbing the duffel bag on the seat next to me I make a mad dash for the monorail entrance at the end of the long term parking lot, the car is already being buried in snow. A big Boeing thunders overhead, lights invisible in the swirling darkness.

The monorail slips silently through the night into the terminal. The airport is dead, barely a soul in sight. With a printed e-ticket I walk straight to security and US customs and pass through quickly. Two hours later the Airbus is thundering down the runway and I’m watching snow vortex off the wings as we slip into the night. Its a five hour and forty minute red-eye flight ahead of the coming dawn; we land in San Francisco at 4am local time.

With no luggage to wait on I’m out of the airport in minutes and in one of many waiting cabs heading to Freemont. It’s a foggy nine degree night as the cab quickly makes its way down empty streets to the storage lockup. Sunrise is beginning to hint in the east as I unlock the roll up door to reveal a covered motorbike in the shadows. The bike underneath gleams black and green in the predawn light as I pull the blanket off. If I was tired before, I’m less so now.

I transfer a few clothes from the duffel to the hangover soft panniers and belt them to the bike. I give it the once over and make sure everything is ready to fly. With the key in the ignition I turn it and watch LEDs play across the dash. The breeze outside smells of sea salt and the fog is beginning to lift; I feel like I’ve landed on another planet.

The big Zed fires up on the touch of the starter so I roll it forward out of the container and let it settle down into an idle. I check everything again and make sure the panniers are secure on the back.

While the bike warms up I change out of travel clothes and leave them in the duffel hanging on the wall. A few minutes later I’m in boots, riding pants and leather jacket and feeling warm in the cool morning air. It’s mid-winter here too, but a Northern Californian mid-winter is a very different thing from Ontario. The forecast is calling for fifteen degree days, no nights under five and mostly crisp, sunny weather. This would be ideal fall riding weather back home and this Canadian riding gear is built for cool days like these.

The PCH is calling so I throw on my helmet and saddle up as the sky brightens. The 880 is still quiet as Oakland is just beginning to wake up around me. I’m through Oakland and over the Bay Bridge before rush hour builds. Traffic is just beginning to build in town as I roll through San Francisco and out through The Presidio and onto the Golden Gate Bridge.

I pull into the Shoreline Coffee Shop in Mill Valley just north of the bridge for a big plate of eggs and bacon and some good coffee; it’s just past 7am. I’ve got six days ahead of me to explore the coast and mountain roads around here before I’ve got to go back to the land of ice and snow.

Image result for pacific coast highway north of san francisco

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Infecting The System

If the internet is the nervous system for a new global
culture, should it be artificially limited by human
self interest?

Cory Doctorow ended a harrowing editorial on artificially limited computing in WIRED this month with the observation that the internet isn’t simply an information medium but has, in fact, become the nervous system of the Twenty First Century.

Doctorow begins by questioning why we shackle computers with controls that users can’t overpower, and in many cases don’t even know exist. He uses the example of the Sony rootkit, that would install viral software on machines whenever a consumer would run one of their music CDs. The idea was to curb pirating, the result was creating a blind spot in millions of customer’s machines that immediately got exploited by hackers.

Whenever we build a computer that is subservient to anything other than the user, we’re creating blind spots that hackers can exploit. Whenever our software or hardware is artificially limited to satisfy human values, whether they be government or business or even educationally motivated, we are creating a machine that is flawed.

There is a simple honesty to computing that I find very appealing. When we’re building a circuit or working with a computer or coding, students will often say that they didn’t change anything but got a different output, or that they did everything exactly right and it doesn’t work. The subtext is always that computer is up to something. Whatever the computer is up to, you put it up to it. Computers don’t make mistakes, humans do. This is why it’s vital that computers are not controlled by remote interests. When remote interests dictate computer outputs, you end up with confused users who start to blame the machine.

… because someone programmed HAL to kill.
Machines don’t make mistakes, unless people tell them to.

I’ve long said that computers are merely a tool, but many people see them as intelligent entities with hidden agendas. If we allow institutions to hard code their interests into our computers then we are intentionally allowing our flaws to infect one of the most honest expressions of human ingenuity. We’re also creating that confusion around computers as entities with evil intent (we provide the intent).

What goes for our personal devices also goes for our networks. Unless we are going to continually battle for net neutrality and efficiency over self interest, we’re going to find ourselves with hobbled machines on near sighted networks, seeing only what vested interests want us to see. In that environment computers and the internet can very quickly move from democratizing force to Orwellian control. Keeping computers free of human influence is vital to human well being.

I’ve been uneasy about the nature of the modern internet as distraction engine as well as the branding of edtech. Both examples reek of the infected human influence that Doctorow refers to in his editorial. Wouldn’t it be ironic if we, as a species, were on the verge of building a more perfect machine that allows us to move beyond our short-sighted selves, but instead of building that wonder we infect it with our own shortcomings and end up using it to create a kind of subservience never before imagined?

I see it every day in machines so locked down that they barely function as computers, with limitations on virtually everything they do. This is done for ease of management, to satisfy legal paranoia and, ultimately, to ease the burden of digitally illiterate educators, but this approach has me watching whole generations growing up in an increasingly technology driven world having no idea what is is or how it works. As a computer technology teacher this is difficult to swallow.

The only restriction on a computer should be the laws of physics and the state of the art. Efficiency and user empowerment should be the machine’s and our only focus. Everything should be up to the user otherwise these magical machines aren’t empowering us, they’re being used to create dangerous fictions. Is it difficult to teach students how to use computers like this? Perhaps, but at least we’d be teaching them a genuine understanding of what digital technology is, and how to wield that power responsibly. All we’re doing now in education is feeding the infection.

Complete Connie

Thanks to the kindness of CoG, some much needed bits and pieces from Murphs Kits, parts from my local Kawi dealer Two Wheel Motorsport and an awesome Givi box and windshield from A Vicious Cycle, the Connie is finally back on her feet!

The parts I needed consisted of your basic filters and fluids, some clutch lever bits, a number of rusty connectors, a speedo gear housing (the cable got replaced too), and replacement levers for the rusted out old ones. At a CoG suggestion I looked at Murph’s and found a full set of stainless replacement fasteners. The bike was missing a number of them and the rest were in various states of disrepair. I now have a pile of spares and new ones on the bike. They look great and the whole deluxe set was less than seventy bucks. Murph also had stainless replacement clutch and brake levers for only twenty bucks each, so I picked those up too.

The nicest surprise was the Concours Owners Group (best membership fee I’ve ever paid for!). When asking about aftermarket options for the master cylinder covers I broke getting rusted bolts out, one of the moderators offered to mail me up a spare set from Florida in exchange for an adult beverage at some future time. If you own a Connie, COG is a must do. I get the sense that even if you don’t have a Concours, COG is still something special.

With everything back together she hummed around our cul-de-sac in fine form. No leaks, controls feel sharp, I think she’s ready for a run at a safety. If she passes I’m going to semi-retire the Ninja and put it up for sale and spend the rest of the season seeing what the Connie can do. Once the snow closes in I’ll break it down again and do the body work so next spring it looks as good as it runs.

Carrying Ninja

Getting a hard case with a back rest. The goal:

To be able to carry the basics and keep them dry while out and about.

To offer a backrest to make it easier for my passenger.

FZ-series Monorack is designed to add a Givi Monokey or Monolock topcase to your existing tailsection. Rugged black finish.

All hardware needed to mount the Givi rack is included. Installs quickly using simple hand tools. No welding or cutting of existing frame or body parts required. Tough black enamel finish with some gray fittings or hardware as applicable.

Select a Monolock(M5M) or Monokey(M5) top case mounting plate that will be used on the FZ445 when ordering for the related products. No Plate is included you need to add it to the cart.

The Givi FZ445 toprack may be used alone or with the Givi PLX445 side rack (for PLX sidecases ONLY).
$80 http://aviciouscycle.ca/MainPages/productpage.aspx?productid=1211

Designed for scooters and low-powered motorcycles.

Capacity of 30 liters, enough to hold a full face helmet.

It comes with a universal plate and mounting kit.

Maximum load capacity of 3 kg.

Note: Notice the body of the case does not change colour. It is just the lid section that will have the colour change.

$99 http://aviciouscycle.ca/MainPages/productpage.aspx?productid=4190

Turn your E300 Tour Case into a comfortable rest spot for your passenger with this Givi E103 Backrest.

Made of thick polyurethane, this backrest will hold up in the elements and provide comfort to all motorcycle and scooter passengers.

Sold each.

Long lasting material.

$45 http://aviciouscycle.ca/MainPages/Productpage.aspx?productid=4191

Items	Quantity	Price	Subtotal
Givi-E300 Monolock Case, 30 Liter		$CAD 98.99	$CAD 98.99
Givi-Backrest for E300 Monolock Case		$CAD 44.99	$CAD 44.99
Givi-Topcase Rack (Kawasaki Ninja 650R / ER6F, ’06-’08)		$CAD 79.99	$CAD 79.99
Rebate Coupon:
Total : $CAD 223.97

http://aviciouscycle.ca/mainpages/Default.aspx

Horse Power

This is Butch, he’s kind of a jerk.

While in Arizona we went out horseback riding for a couple of hours. I hadn’t ridden a horse since I was a kid (almost forty years ago – back then they were tiny prehistoric horses). I got Butch, who liked to eat a lot and thought it a good idea to stick his nose up the horse in front’s ass to get it back to the paddock early for lunch. He managed to piss off half a dozen horses doing this.

I ended up with mighty sore knees because I kept weight on the stirrups for the entire ride. Partly because it was suggested and partly because it took weight off the horse’s back.

Working with an animal is a very different process than inhabiting a machine. I imagine that developing a longer term relationship with the creature eases the guilt I was feeling over using the animal. If I knew that Butch enjoyed taking people out and going for a walk I’d have been a lot happier with bothering him with it. His habit of rushing the other horses suggested that he wasn’t enjoying hauling my heaviness around though.

How different is riding a horse from asking a taxi to drive you somewhere? In both cases you’re paying an organization to provide an animal that will transport you (one a horse, the other a machine assisted human). In the case of the taxi driver you can at least communicate with them and get a sense of their willingness to do the work. You can probably do that with the horse too, but the non-verbal communication takes longer to figure out.

I don’t worry about my largeness (6’3″ 240lbs) hurting a motorcycle but it was on my mind with the horse, even though they gave me one of the biggest ones they had. My animal empathy is overdeveloped, no doubt, but even with a machine I still sympathize with its situation, it’s one of the reasons I take care of mine so diligently. With an animal I’m unfamiliar with I’m not clear on our relationship. If the animal doesn’t want to be there it sours the experience. Put another way, I’ve never met a motorcycle that wasn’t eager to be ridden – it’s their purpose. We might have domesticated horses but their reason for being isn’t to carry people around.

While machines may have their problems they have also offered us an opportunity to stop using many animals as chattel for our own ends.

I enjoyed the horse ride and I’d do it again, but it would be nice to better understand the horse and their situation. Knowing that a horse was excited to see me and go out would go a long way toward enjoying the ride more in the same way that taking out an excited dog for a walk is a positive process. Two days before our rental horse ride I took a rental motorcycle out for the day and didn’t have anything like the same moral quandary, though perhaps I should have.

It’s wonderfully quiet out on a horse in the desert.

Mechanical Empathy & Human Expression

I’ve enjoyed machines since I was a child. My father is a mechanic and engineer and his fearless approach to maintaining, repairing and operating machines amazed and intrigued me. With that fascination I always found it easy to empathize with machines, not necessarily in the anthropomorphic give them a name and talk to them kind of way many people do, but to suggest a machine has personality expressed in how it operates isn’t strange to me.

In the last post I talked about how a MotoGP rider was a much larger piece of the equation than a Formula 1 driver is. That expression of skill through machinery is what interests me about motorsport, the high tech frills are just that, frills. What I want to do this morning (it’s 5am and the world is silent and dark, the people are all asleep and the mental static is at a minimum) is to unpack what machines are and why they are worthy of empathy.

Machines are our thoughts given substance. When I get on the Ninja and go for a ride I’m experiencing a confluence of thinking, dozens of engineers and designers who pieced together a rolling sculpture that best expresses their ideas of efficiency, beauty and inter-connectivity. You seldom get to experience the mind of another person is so intimate a way as you do when operating a machine that they have created. It’s little wonder that many engineers and designers feel that the mechanical devices they produce are like their children.

You can approach this from a couple of interesting reads. Matt Crawford’s Shop Class As Soulcraft focuses on the understanding you develop from laying hands on your machine yourself. As a treatise on the value of hands-on mechanical experience and the development of that mechanical sympathy Guy Martin mentions above, it is priceless.

Melissa Holbrook-Pierson’s The Man Who Would Stop At Nothing comes at it from the riding experience and how motorcycles in particular can reach into you and animate you in a way that many other machines cannot.

A deeply personal look
at how motorcycling
can emotionally
charge you

There is a virtue in motorcycles that is also why so many people don’t partake of them. They demand so many inputs from the rider that they make driving a car seem like running a washing machine; merely the operation of an appliance. This is so endemic to driving a car that every opportunity to interact with the vehicle is being diminished, from manual transmissions to parking. In a few years many will flock to self driven vehicles and become forever passengers. The vast majority of people have little interest in how a machine works or how to express themselves through it – perhaps because they have nothing to express.

That motorcycles are so demanding is a virtue from the point of view of a mechanical empath. The more interaction you have with the machine, the more possible it is to inhabit it with human expression. There is something pure in the mechanical simplicity of the motorcycle, it is bare, naked, not covered in sheet metal designed to conceal and contrive; its function is obvious.

That this naked machine demands so much from its rider creates a giddy kind of connection in those willing and able to make it. This machine connects to your hands, feet and whole body. It demands inputs from every one of your limbs as well as your entire mass. Being naked on the road, the rider’s mind isn’t isolated from their activity and is as engaged as their physical body. Inhabiting a machine this completely is an intoxifying experience.

The thrill of inhabiting a machine isn’t limited to motorcycles, though they are one of the purest expressions I’ve found. The satisfaction in fixing, maintaining or operating any machine well offers some degree of satisfaction. In inhabiting the machine it empowers us, giving us abilities that would seem magical to non-technological people. We can cover ground at great speed, communicate across the world with the push of a button, fly, even slip the surly bonds of Earth and touch the sky, but not if we don’t inhabit the machines that enable us.

When machines serve humans instead of enabling them

If we remove ourselves from this equation machines become limitations rather than a means of expression. The thought of a human being interacting with a responsive, demanding and complex machine offers us a future that is bursting with opportunity for growth. The alternative is stagnation and ignorance. You can guess which approach appeals to a consumerist culture intent on selling to as many people as possible.

That a machine should place demands on us isn’t a bad thing, especially if it leads to a nuanced awareness of our own limitations. The machine that can overextend you, challenge you, stress you, is a machine that can teach you something. We fool ourselves into stagnation when we design machines that do more and ask less from us.

When I see human expression through a machine, the machine becomes a magnifying glass for their achievement, how can that not deserve empathy? The only time it wouldn’t is when the human is a pointless addition to the equation. When this happens machines become oppressive rather than enabling forces in our lives.

Instructional Leadership: the comeback

Our new admin just arranged our first head’s retreat. As a forum for clarifying what the department heads in the school want, I’d call it a resounding success. Toward the end of the day we had a small group discussion on instructional leadership. The idea was to define it and clarify what we need to do it.

I’ve had a long and complicated relationship with leadership and leaders. Much of my time in air cadets as a teen was spent studying leadership techniques. My experiences there suggest I’m an atypical team member. At one point we were playing a massive capture the flag game in the woods at Camp Borden. My Flight Sergeant picked out myself and a few other NCOs. We were told to locate the flag and harass the enemy, that’s it. The vast majority of our flight were younger cadets in their first exercise. The Flight Sergeant kept them all with him and they moved in a large group (like locusts), capturing everyone they saw by sheer force of numbers.

I eventually found the flag after working loosely with the other rangers, but mainly on my own. I had someone relay back to the large group where the flag was and we ended up winning with this very unorthodox approach. The other team did what was normally done – everyone had similar jobs in squads. Afterwards my Flight Sergeant said, “I knew if I kept the keeners in the big group they wouldn’t enjoy it, so I set you all loose and looked after the young ones.”

That lesson in differentiating how you lead has always stuck with me, but my focus when leadership lands on me (I seldom go seeking it) goes beyond catering to helplessness. I want self determination and personal empowerment in my team, and I expect team members to acknowledge that empowerment with engagement. I don’t want them to ever feel like they are being dictated to, or are being forced to accept ideas that run contrary to their own best practices. The leadership structure should exist to empower and encourage self determination in the professionals it manages.

It’s a tough, results orientated job (like pro baseball),
and you’ve got to find ways to handle the pressure.
Leading people who do this everyday is a challenge.
Talking down to them doesn’t work.

Of course, this assumes that you’re dealing with professionals. If you’ve got teachers who aren’t willing or able to be competent professionals then I would be looking to teacher training and board hiring practices to weed them, not detuning the entire educational leadership apparatus to cater to a tiny percentage of incompetents.

In discussing leadership with other department heads at my school I was struck with just how different their idea of leadership is from my own. I not only step lightly around teachers who don’t like or need to be told what to think, but I also expect competence when it comes to internal communication. After saying this I was told by another head (in front of many others) that my department has terrible communication. She said we need to have many meetings where I drill home information, but I should also present it in a way that makes them accept it. My job isn’t just to inform, it’s to indoctrinate.

Absolutist thinking feels lazy to me, the result of trying to
look for an easy way out of a complex situation.

I couldn’t imagine criticizing another leader like this, let alone in front of a large number of colleagues. I became angry at her ignorant and callous disregard for my place in this group, so I walked away rather than firing back. That someone would have this approach to management in my building makes me uneasy (it also explains why the iconoclastic tech teachers in my department would take great pleasure in telling her exactly what she wouldn’t want to hear just to make her angry). It took me a few days to realize that those comments say much more about her approach to management than it does about the colleagues I speak for at heads.

I was having Costanza moments after this altercation.

Instead of not being able to think of something

I tend to be overly vicious in my comebacks.

Walking away is a learned response.

In my mind a micro manager is the worst kind of leader. They constantly interfere and demand consistency with inane details rather than focusing on a goal; they want conformity to process rather than results orientated flexibility. Some people need that kind of micromanagement but I’m not interested in managing them, or being one, or having much to do with that process. If you want to alienate the most capable people in your organization, this is a great way to do it.

Another head who had overheard all of this had a chat with me and went back with this idea, “leaders should also include outliers who question and prompt revision in leadership practices.” The head with whom I seem diametrically opposed thought this a ridiculous idea. Leadership is about forcing compliance. Meetings are about beating down resistance and creating that compliance. Ever hear teachers complain about meetings and wonder why they are so negative about them? I don’t, anymore.

True Colors helps clarify your social approach to leadership.
I’m a strong green/bit of blue – I’ve got no sense of gold…

There are many different types of leaders all with their own strengths and weaknesses. My thing is exploring the edges, and I look for highly capable people to share that project with. If experimentation with pedagogy or learning tools is your thing, then I’m your department head. It’s why technological change and the social upheaval it causes interest me.

My ideal department is staffed with people who need me to support them without constantly questioning them as they improve the state of the art of teaching. Put me in an administrative role where I’m supposed to enforce conformity and I’m a disaster. If that’s what we’re looking for in instructional leadership, I’m ready to step down immediately. You’re also going to find it difficult to get me into lockstep with everyone around me whether I’m a leader or a follower.

Consensus building is something that I’m terrible at but greatly admire. Those leaders who can create a sense of direction in a group without alienating anyone are magic. Whereas I get passionately angry about the asinine people I’m supposed to direct, these patient consensus builders are able to gently take them in hand and find a way through to them. I can appreciate the efficiency they bring to group work and admire them for a skill I lack.

The bureaucratic pencil pusher who holds the-way-it’s-always-been as sacred is the antithesis of everything I consider important, but those people play a vital role in creating consistency and order in an organization. As leaders I can’t really see the value in them, but I’m sure a consensus builder somewhere could help me with that.

A good bit of reflection here, I think. I’m no longer angry about the altercation we had and I’m trying to see the value of diverse voices in leadership positions. If the goal is all of us in lockstep as we produce the same narrow goals in the same way then I’m in the wrong place. I only hope that people higher up the org-chart recognize the value of diversification in instructional leadership or, as an outlier, I’m in real trouble.

Emergency Memo: Post Peak, Nov 2014

GRAND RIVER DSB – EMERGENCY MEMO – Mon, Nov 3rd, 2014

NOTE: This memo is being sent to all staff within the board. Following the upheaval and violence over the summer, and the Federal Government applying the War Measures act on a national scale in August, the combined RCMP/Police/Military presence has restored some order. Fuel is being rationed by the Federal Government and the Provincial Government are being asked to enact emergency measures to normalize the situation and reduce chances of mass starvation and freezing as winter approaches. One of the key aspects of the plan is to normalize and enable basic rights, including the right to education. What follows is GRDSB’s plan…

The sudden, sharp rise in fossil fuel prices (here for information) have forced our board to make some dramatic policy revisions in order to match the new emergency management plan recently presented by the Ministry of Education, Province of Ontario.

A typical school bus run now costs approximately $550 in fuel costs alone, and is expected to become even more expensive, making this option economically untenable. With the various unions, we have tried to maintain the collegial relationship of previous collective bargaining agreements while working to create a sustainable public education system in our province. These changes are brought on by world-wide resource issues beyond our control, and we have to modify our approach to education in order to continue maintaining a sufficient level of service. The followings steps will ensure this:

TEACHERS

1) Teachers are still required to attend the nearest school to them, preferably without the use of petrochemicals. Those schools with a sufficient number of local teachers will remain open while being retrofitted with sustainable energy devices. In many cases, if you can see a wind turbine or mini-hydro project being built near you, this will indicate a public school.

Note: This is a provincial and federally mandated program in order to ensure ‘energy islands’ in as many communities as possible. The lack of fossil fuels makes mega-infrastructure such as non-localized power generation unsustainable. All communities will now be responsible for generating their own power.

2) If you live out of the board area, it is suggested that you consider relocation, or contact your local board for employment opportunities. We will do everything we can with neighboring boards to ensure that teachers are able to make this transition. If you do neither, and you are no longer able to able to fulfill your contract, you will be declared surplus and released.

3) If there is no local school within walking distance of your home location you may:

a) Apply to the provincial online learning initiative. With this initiative any household with children under the age of 18 may receive free wireless high speed internet, meaning many students will take this opportunity to learn online. As an eteacher you would also qualify for sponsored high speed internet at home. You would then resume your duties by teaching remotely.

Please click HERE to contact the board elearning conversion initiative for remote students and staff.

b) Apply through our board for a provincial grant to open a learning centre. If you own or have access to a building that would provide a suitable environment for a micro-school, and there are enough local students you can consolidate your area students into this structure and initiate your own k-10 program. Since all schools are now k-10 schools, you would be in a very similar teaching environment to your colleagues. LCs will be developed where-ever a 10-1 student-teacher ratio can form.

Please click HERE to contact the board provincial liaison for learning centre creation.

4) Curriculum has been revised and the law altered to reflect our new circumstances. The old standardized tests have been removed and in their place the New Ontario Diploma now exists. This diploma follows previous standards, but offers students earlier departure (students may now graduate between 15-16 years of age) while ensuring that fundamental skills are still evident. The NOD review is highlighted on the updated Ministry curriculum page. It is a two week series of literacy, numeracy, citizenship and general knowledge assessments designed to ensure that a graduating student has sufficient skills to survive in the new, post-peak-oil economy.

Please click HERE to see the NOD initiative and the new requirements for graduation.

STUDENTS

Ontario curriculum will now be revised and the law changed to reflect our new reality. Students are legally required to be in a virtual or physical personal learning plan until the age of 16. During their 15th or 16th year, students may take the Literacy & Numeracy Review. A mark of 70% or higher in both of these reviews will grant them a NOD (New Ontario Diploma). NOD now takes the place of the OSSD.

Students who fail the NOD at the end of their 16th year are assessed and presented with a Sub-NOD rating. SNOD60 would indicate a student at 60% NOD requirements. SNOD30 would indicate a student at 30% of NOD requirements.

Young adults who have finished school at 16 may choose to return, but like ANOD students, they will be required to support their learning financially.

Following passage of the NOD, students may choose to:

1) WORK: the reduction in mechanization has put a premium on physical labour, and graduates will have no trouble making a living wage in the new economy. Jobs in agricultural and infrastructure labour are not only available but in great demand. One of the key reasons for reducing the graduation age was to fulfill this need. We can no longer afford to hold willing workers in public institutions until they are 18.

2) APPRENTICESHIP: the skilled trades have made agreements with the Ministry of Education and post secondary institutions in order to encourage and maintain high skill positions. Students may choose, after completing their NODs in their 15th or 16th years to begin an apprenticeship in any one of dozens of trades. These apprenticeships often involve moving away from home. The Ministry will continue to track and support these students until they reach journeyman status (usually in their 5th year of apprenticeship). Regular reviews will ensure students are in productive, safe, learning and working environments.

3) ANODs: students interested in pursuing academic streams may choose to complete their Advanced New Ontario Diplomas. These courses are designed to be completed by a capable student within one year. As a result, funding is only available for the 12 months following successful NOD graduation. Students taking longer will have to fund their own studies, including the costs of energy and school access.

Graduates with ANODs will be able to apply to one of the four remaining universities in the province. Entry into these institutions is very competitive. Only students who complete ANODs on time (or early) with exceptional grades should apply. Courses in post-secondary now tend to be much more applied in nature. Universities are intent on turning out doctors, engineers and teachers rather than unused undergraduate degrees. Students who do not know their major, will find access to university very limited. Students who do not have a working plan for their academic studies will also find post secondary access challenging.

The new streams are designed around an expected distribution of 60% NOD to the workplace, 30% apprenticeship and 10% ANOD graduates. The manual nature of post-oil food production and distribution alone requires this kind demographic.

SUMMARY

The Federal and Provincial mandates recognize that the era of cheap energy is over, and our society needs to adapt in order to maintain and improve our technical skills and preserve the rights found in the Constitution. Public structures such as law and education can ensure that human rights are not being violated and children still have an opportunity to become educated, effective members of our brave new world.

Children and the poor are at risk of being tyrannized as their value as manual labour has increased and the petro-chemical basis of pre-peak social justice is broken. Without a presence in every community, the weakest members of society are at risk of abuse. With this in mind, it is vital that our public education system reassert itself with the support of regionalized arms of the provincial and federal governments.

By normalizing schools and supporting local sheriffs, we hope to rebuild a safe and fair society. Drastic times call for drastic measures. Please consider being part of the solution, it’s time to let go of the past.

Stay warm as the weather is getting cold and ensure that your lodgings are able to withstand a non-chemically heated winter.

Best of luck,

Your Superintendent.

GRDSB

ps: as further information becomes available, and the board network comes back up under its own power, I will continue to email the latest.

Class Caps are a Low Resolution Solution to a High Resolution Problem

The updated, final copy of this can be found on Dusty World here: https://temkblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/class-caps-are-low-resolution-solution.html originally published, Mar 24, 2019

I’m going to do what I do best and annoy everyone by not agreeing with anyone. I’m so perverse, sometimes what I don’t necessarily believe what I write, but if it serves to push my thinking, then I leave it in. Come down the rabbit hole with me to the magic land of Ontario Education where everything and nothing is data driven and very little of it makes sense… unless you’re a politician.

***

I’m just spitballing here, but after reading dozens of articles on the impending loggerheads between Fordnation and every public school teachers’ union in Ontario over class size caps, I thought it might be a good idea to think outside the box seeing as no one else is willing to.

Education minister Lisa Thompson seems to be getting deeper and deeper into the doublespeak as she tries to justify increasing class sizes for high school students by over twenty percent, offering up such nuggets as, it’ll make them tougher and more resilient, or, students can teach each other. If we don’t dehumanize our kids in school, how are they ever going to make it in the world of work isn’t a great selling point when justifying this approach to parents.

On the other side the hyperbole is coming on song with teachers and unions talking about how class caps are what saves students, but as someone who has been working in a classroom in Ontario since 2004 (and not in a union office or support role out of the classroom), I’m here to tell you that caps don’t work very well at all. All this noise about them in the media means we’re going to claim this as the hill we die on as Fordnation gleefully turns up the heat until we’re locked out or on strike. These violent delights will have violent ends, but I sincerely hope the people and organizations involved are looking for a solution rather than a fight.

I don’t see any of this as a winnable scenario. If the unions somehow find a way to win, all we get is the same inflexible and stratified system we currently have that produces a lot of people supporting already overfilled classrooms. If we lose we get that system made worse.

The idea of a cap of 22 means that we’re funded at that level. For every 22 students in the system, we get money from the Ministry to run a class. Funding at that level means we have lots of people in support roles at school, board and ministry levels. For every one of those people not teaching, we have a classroom with over 22 students in it to justify their existence. I’d love to see the data on the number of teachers we have in the system that aren’t teaching, but that sort of thing doesn’t get out. When they say we’ll have classes of 35 or 40 if the cap is raised to 28, they’re talking about how we currently have classes capped at 31 with an average cap of 22. Lots of people in the general public haven’t wrapped their heads around this, but they should. Bigger classes don’t help students or teachers, and we already have them.

What’s strange is that any talk of raising the caps doesn’t seem to impact the people in supporting roles and just trickles down directly to classroom teachers who are already over the average to support those jobs. There are many people who do those supporting roles exceedingly well, but there are also a number who are doing them because they don’t like teaching in a classroom and are looking for an out. Still others are doing jobs that require nothing teacher related, but are still getting paid as a teacher. If you’re doing health and safety or shuffling paper in an office, I’d suggest you should be getting paid accordingly, and not as a teacher. If we reviewed all those seconded teacher jobs and actually paid them inline with what the job was, there would be many more teachers in the system who, you know, teach.

As far as teachers in supporting roles go, those roles should be have expectations at least as stringent as the work a classroom teacher has if we’re expecting a teacher to do it. If a support role is being used diligently (and by diligently I mean with the same rigour that your classroom teacher works while preparing hours of instruction and then delivering it in a live, dynamic and differentiated manner to 70+ students every day), then I’m all for it. I’ve met ‘teachers’ who haven’t taught a class in Ontario in over a decade. They’re often considered to be experts in teaching. Some of them appear in my classroom periodically and proceed to assess me on my ability to teach, something they themselves haven’t done in years, and didn’t do for very long when they did (I’ve had a bee in my bonnet about this since 2011).

There are other supporting roles that get calcified into a permanent job. This should never happen. Any seconded teacher should be treated like a short term contract with specific goals to be met and then they return to the classroom. Not only would this stop nepotism, but it would also mean more cross training and wider experiences as more people cycle through seconded opportunities. Instead of seeing the same old seconded crew at the board, it would be fresh faces all the time. Pushing that further, I’d like to see anyone involved in assessing teachers actually, um, teach. VPs and principals should dip a toe in the classroom every few years just to remember what the job is and help create a leaner, more teaching focused system. Class sizes drop even with a higher cap if more people in the system are teaching.

All of this would require flexibility in the system and a management team that is agile, forward thinking and adaptable. It’s totally doable. We have the talent, we just don’t have the culture. If changes are coming, knocking the stratified, hardened nature of support roles loose may not be a bad thing. The only reason teachers would be wary of this is because usually change is focused on cheap, not better, and usually any changes land hardest on the people on the front line.

I assume there are ever so smart people in the Ministry and boards across the province who have been seconded from teaching who should be doing this sort of thinking, but that’s ok, I’ll take my weekend to iron it out for you all so I can be back in the classroom next week doing what I do – ignore that link, and all of these, and these ones – all of those conferences I’ve presented at, or learning fairs I’ve attended in the summer, or additional qualifications I’ve done in the summer, or Ed-camps on weekends or competitions I’ve taken days away from my family for, that’s all volunteer work. What I get paid to do is teach students in class every day – all that extracurricular work is done on my own time for no pay, but I think that’s what being a professional means, doing extra work to ensure my effectiveness. Having never been paid to do the array of work I do beyond the classroom while still being in class, I can’t help but wonder about seconded teachers and what it is they do when it isn’t obviously apparent. It always should be, otherwise they should be teaching. For those of them that would do anything to not be teaching (and I’ve met a few), perhaps it’s time to find another industry to work in?

Here’s how we can fix this no-win mess in Ontario Education that our government and unions are walking us into:

The 28 cap is now a talking point for this government and they can’t back off it. The 22 cap is where our unions are going to hold the hill to the last of us. Getting rid of caps entirely isn’t going to happen, too many people have a stake in that thinking, so why not create a cap system that is actually reflective of student need in each classroom?

This government has surely realized by this point that throwing special needs students under the bus isn’t just mean spirited and hurtful, but also has terrible optics. They need a win with the special needs community, and class caps of 28 with no other changes to the system ain’t going to do it.

How about this: actually give Individual Education Plan (IEP) students with special needs some weight when it comes to the classes they’ll be in. This should be data driven and transparent. All students are considered a 1 in the low-res class cap system we have right now, but anyone who has taught a class knows that not all students = 1. Off hand, my IEPed students can range from a 1.1 (barely needing any more than non-IEPed students), to a student I have right now that I’d rate at 4+. Some IEPs suggest small supports that don’t ask too much of a teacher. Other IEPs make many demands on a teacher’s time and ability to support both that one student and everyone else in the room simultaneously. Don’t forget, every time an IEP demands extras, like one on one instruction and differentiated delivery of material, that’s an expectation that requires time spent away from everyone else both in class and in extra preparation time out of it. The current system does nothing to acknowledge or support that.

I have an open junior high school class at the moment which is hard capped at 27, but over half of the students in this class have IEPs, and in several cases they have exceptional needs beyond what I’m able to do in a class of 27. Using this weighted system of class capping based on where I think my time is spent in that class (I finish each period in there sweating and exhausted because I’m trying to be in four places at once), this class is the equivalent of 38.3 non-special needs students, which I think is about right. I’d be just as frazzled and wrung out trying to serve the learning needs of 38 non-special needs students in the same circumstance.

Had I 27 students with no special needs (IEP special needs are dictated by psychological analysis by professionals, these aren’t arbitrary decisions), then I think I could manage this class effectively and be everywhere a student needs me when they need me. If I take half of that class of 27, let’s say 14 of the most high needs students, one of whom is the most challenging student I’ve dealt with in the last ten years, the needs-adjusted cap equals 24.3 students. In that class, two more students with lighter special needs loads would bring it to the current cap of 27. I would find that class of say, 16 students just as difficult to manage and provide effective learning as I would the class of 27 non-special needs students.

We say students have special needs in Ontario Education and then ignore the workload that comes from it. If the PC government wants to place 28 cap average sized classes on us, this special needs weighting would go some way toward making that a viable possibility for the teachers actually working with those students in the classroom. In a strange way, smaller class caps would give a teacher a heads up on what’s coming. How I approach a smaller, high-needs class would be very different to how I approach a larger, non-special needs class. Differentiation of instruction to promote positive outcomes for everyone is the goal, isn’t it?

If done right, this system would automatically size streamed classes based on the learners in them. I teach open level classes so get the full gamut of learning needs all at once, and suffer that lack of resolution our vague system provides now. Academic, applied and essential classes have lower caps as student needs increase, but that wouldn’t be necessary if we had weighted students tied to their individual needs. Most essential classes are IEP heavy and would automatically get downsized to make them more effective (smaller class sizes work more effectively with high-needs students).

A weighted IEP system that acknowledges students with special needs would make a 28 cap tenable. Making teachers seconded from the system short term, contract specific and then getting them back to teaching would be another way to make a higher cap possible. For jobs that aren’t at all teaching based (health and safety, office work at the board), don’t pay them as teachers because they aren’t.

Debt went up with all three parties at the helm – even
during Mike Harris’s legendarily fiscally focused years.
The liberals were doing well until the US dragged the
world into a financial crisis orchestrated by private business.
I’m OK with seeking efficiencies in Ontario education, but
not at the expense of student achievement and not while
the government is paying friends and voting themselves raises.
Is fiscal balance a high urgency goal or not?

Ontario has the highest sub-national debt load of any jurisdiction in the world. We pay billions in debt management every year. Creating a leaner education system focused on putting teachers in front of reasonable numbers of students would protect our excellent education reputation. Ensuring that everyone who is paid as a teacher directly impacts the classroom would be a good way to get sag out of the system while doing our part to make Ontario more economically sustainable. That leaner system would still be able to support those teachers in special education, student success and learning commons who enrich learning for all both with and without special needs (students can suddenly become special need because of changing circumstances, having experts in the school to assist with that is vital).

Our education system would need to be more fluid, flexible and less stratified than what we have now. That agile system would be focused on classroom resources first and foremost. In doing so we might be able to manage a higher cap while still retaining the excellence Ontario’s education system has become known for.

If we’re just looking for a fight, then that’s what this will turn into, but for the sake of our students and the already stretched teachers working in classrooms all over the province, I sincerely hope we’re looking for better and not to burn it down. Lockouts, strikes and impending doom aren’t doing anyone any good. If nothing else, consider this a search for better solutions to what I hope is a commonly shared goal: the best possible outcome for every student in our system.

SUGGESTION SUMMARY:

weight IEPed students when calculating class caps so high needs students are able to find success in classes better suited for them. In classes with low IEP counts, higher numbers mean more students moving more efficiently through the system
Destratisfy seconded teaching and make these jobs short term contracts that seldom have a teacher out of the classroom for more than a year. Set specific, high expectations for seconded teachers, encourage more teachers to cross train and experience secondment in a short term way (this would reduce burnout and improve the emotional intelligence of many classroom teachers)
Don’t pay teachers doing non-teaching seconded jobs as if they are teachers (health and safety, office administration, etc). In some boards this is already the case, but not in all. No teacher should be driving up class average sizes doing a job that isn’t teaching related.
Set high, specific expectations for support role teachers in schools. Make those supporting roles contract based and short term, so more teachers experience the role. This cross training would improve school communication and effectiveness.
Encourage excellence in support roles by removing people who can’t or won’t demonstrate beyond expectation work in the role.
Anyone who is looking to avoid teaching in a classroom at all costs should be assisted into another profession.
Administration should keep a toe in the water and teach a class every few years.
Instead of suggesting that increased caps are going to land on classrooms, look at rejigging the system to put more teachers in classrooms so increased caps don’t hurt us where the rubber hits the road.
Board and Ministry jobs are constantly evolving and are team based as new people come and go through existing initiatives. This is the end of lifers in those jobs. If you’re an Ontario teacher you’ve taught in a classroom in the past three years.

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Scripted Lives

I’ve been mulling this over on the motorcycle side of things, but the idea runs throughout modern digital life, so I’m going to open it up further here.

Being a computer technology teacher I have a passing acquaintance with software. I’d even say I’m pretty handy with it, but I don’t really like where it’s going since it has become an integrated part of modern life.

Since we started carrying networked computers around with us we have become scripted creatures. Our devices wake us up, tell us what we’re

Turing tests have computers imitating people in order to demonstrate intelligence. Ironically, it’s pretty much the opposite nowadays. Instead of bringing machines up to human intelligence, we’re watching human intelligence lower itself to a simpler standard.

doing, and how to get where we’re going. They remove doubts and make memory redundant. We no longer guess at unknown information, or watch media by accident. We live in a walled garden of playlists and information at our fingertips, surprises seldom happen. Technology gives us access to information and media, as well as allowing us to communicate, but it changes how we do it; the medium is indeed the message.
When we connect to The Network we are operating within a script, quite literally, all the time. Software scripts dictate what we see, how we see it, and how we express ourselves. Complex human relationships are being reduced to scripted simplicity dictated by technological limitations rather than the full range of human ability. This restriction has begun to redefine what people are capable of doing.

I struggle to find non-scripted moments when software isn’t dictating my responses. You’d think this only happens when you make a choice to connect on a device, but it happens constantly in the world of action. I can’t stop my car in heavy snow as quickly because a computer steps in to keep the wheels spinning, even when I’m making a conscious choice to lock them. Scripts are written for the largest possible population. We’re all being held to the outcomes of average thinking.

As Kenneth Clark states in Civilisation:
35:36: The obvious: “…our increasing reliance on machines. They have really ceased to be tools and have begun to give us directions…”

… and that was his angle on things in 1969. Things have come a long way since. Our brave new world of technology is levelling everyone off. Individual ability doesn’t matter when we are all just variables in an equation.

Students experience education, entertainment and interpersonal relationships through a digital lens whose singular intent is that of continued engagement. When your world is housed within a simplistic digital process designed to constantly get your attention you have a lot of trouble dealing with your irrelevance in the real world.

When prompted into unscripted situations where I am asking them to critically analyze a piece of media, students long for a Google search to tell them what to think. When given a opportunity to express themselves many students will leap into the same template to organize other people’s material they copy off the internet. When given a stochastic engineering problem with no clear, linear resolution they freeze up and long to return to scripted experience.

Technology is such an enabler, but it’s also limited by its capabilities. If friendship is now understood through the lens of social media then it isn’t what it once was, it’s less with more people. More isn’t necessarily better even though we’re told that it is more efficient. If communication with a student is primarily through screens then teaching isn’t what it once was, it’s more information with less learning. Both friendship and teaching pre-date digital communication and have deep, nuanced social histories, but we are happy to simplify them into oblivion for convenience and the illusion of efficiency.

If you ever find yourself struggling against invisible limitations, fighting to express yourself but finding it increasingly difficult, you’re up against this reductive technology. That freedom of choice you feel when you put aside the digital and reclaim your full range of sense and capability is intoxicating. It supercharges your mind and allows you to retain your humanity. That I see so few people having those moments is a real cause for concern.

My son and I searching the tidal pools at Pacific Rim National Park on the edge of the world. Carefully selected technology (a motorbike – so no digital distractions and out in the world) got us there, and then we put it all down and got lost in the world with no scripts telling us how to interact with it. When was the last time you were unplugged?

This was such a complicated idea it spawned a number of others, including these thoughts of gamification.
The wise Skillen of the internet also shared this article on distraction prevention by a new media professor, which led to thoughts on distraction.