Why Be Concerned About Common Core Data Mining? Orwell, Kafka and the CCSSO (Updated) | Missouri Education Watchdog

Why Be Concerned About Common Core Data Mining? Orwell, Kafka and the CCSSO (Updated) | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Why Be Concerned About Common Core Data Mining? Orwell, Kafka and the CCSSO (Updated)

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The following is an updated post originally appearing on the Blogger Missouri Education Watchdog site in June 2013.

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If Common Core reading lists truly want to create “critical thinkers”, maybe Orwell’s 1984 and Kafka’s The Digital Person should be required reading. Students could compare/contrast the two authors’ views on privacy. From the Atlantic and Why Should We Even Care If the Government Is Collecting Our Data?:

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As people have tried to make sense of the recent revelations about the government’s mass data-collection efforts, one classic text is experiencing a spike in popularity: George Orwell’s 1984 has seen a 7,000 percent increase in sales over the last 24 hours.*

But wait! This is the wrong piece of literature for understanding the NSA’s programs, argues legal scholar Daniel J. Solove. In his book, The Digital Person, Solove writes that the troubles with the collection of massive amounts of personal data in databases are distinct from those of government surveillance, the latter being the focus of 1984. He summed up his argument in a later paper (emphasis added):

Many commentators had been using the metaphor of George Orwell’s 1984 to describe the problems created by the collection and use of personal data. I contended that the Orwell metaphor, which focuses on the harms of surveillance (such as inhibition and social control) might be apt to describe law enforcement’s monitoring of citizens. But much of the data gathered in computer databases is not particularly sensitive, such as one’s race, birth date, gender, address, or marital status. Many people do not care about concealing the hotels they stay at, the cars they own or rent, or the kind of beverages they drink. People often do not take many steps to keep such information secret. Frequently, though not always, people’s activities would not be inhibited if others knew this information.

I suggested a different metaphor to capture the problems: Franz Kafka’s The Trial, which depicts a bureaucracy with inscrutable purposes that uses people’s information to make important decisions about them, yet denies the people the ability to participate in how their information is used. The problems captured by the Kafka metaphor are of a different sort than the problems caused by surveillance. They often do not result in inhibition or chilling. Instead, they are problems of information processing–the storage, use, or analysis of data–rather than information collection. They affect the power relationships between people and the institutions of the modern state. They not only frustrate the individual by creating a Why Be Concerned About Common Core Data Mining? Orwell, Kafka and the CCSSO (Updated) | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Excellent Sheep Run the World: Part II - Michelle Rhee | Just Visiting @insidehighered

Excellent Sheep Run the World: Part II - Michelle Rhee | Just Visiting @insidehighered:

 John Warner

There are perhaps no better exemplars of the products of our current meritocratic system than three of the most important recent figures in the education reform movement: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, “Common Core architect” David Coleman, and one-time chancellor of the Washington D.C. schools, Michelle Rhee.

They are also all near-perfect examples of what William Deresiewicz labels as “excellent sheep,” in his new book, Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite.

According to Deresiewicz, one of the chief problems with this miseducation is in these so-called “elite” individuals mistaking “being in charge” with “being a leader.”

In my review/response to Deresiewicz’s book I argued that these people are especially important because the rest of us are subject to their rule, as they find themselves so often at the intersections of money, politics, and power.

These “excellent sheep” are also the products of persistent myths which they appear to have swallowed whole, but which the rest of us would do well to reject.

In a series of posts, I mean to explore the origin stories and mindsets of these “excellent sheep” and seek to demonstrate how and why these people in charge seem to perform so poorly in positions of leadership.

I’ll start with Michelle Rhee.

--

While Rhee, Duncan, and Coleman are a generation ahead of the students Deresiewicz discusses in his book, they share the same discernible pattern of educational advancement as the present day “excellent sheep”: professional parents, attendance at elite secondary schools, exposure to less privileged communities via community service, and then the Ivy League, before embarking on a postgraduate opportunity that also involves “meritocratic” selection/validation.

Rhee grew up in Toledo, her father a doctor, her mother the owner of a clothing store. She attended Maumee Valley Country Day School for high school, and volunteered at an American Indian Reservation.

Graduating from Cornell (’92 Government), Rhee chose Teach for America, then in only its second year, and was placed in the Baltimore school district. Immediately post college, we appear to have a young, driven, well-educated, apparently idealistic person ready to change the world through a life of service to others.

But that doesn’t appear to be enough.

--

At the start of her tenure as chancellor of the D.C. schools, Rhee is portrayed in a2007 Washingtonian magazine profile by Harry Jaffe as the tough-as-nails reformer, siding with students and parents against an entrenched bureaucracy and substandard teachers. She has apparently been shaped by her struggles in her first Teach for America year, after which she knuckled down, driving herself and her students to work harder, assigning “two hours of homework a night,” which was “time better spent than hanging out, playing video games, or watching television.”Excellent Sheep Run the World: Part II - Michelle Rhee | Just Visiting @insidehighered:

A Teacher's Plea to President Obama | John Thompson

A Teacher's Plea to President Obama | John Thompson:

A Teacher's Plea to President Obama

I became a teacher after Supply Side economics and the Reagan era banking collapse devastated our neighborhood. Three hundred houses were abandoned and the "Hoova" set of the Crips set up dozens of crack houses in vacant properties.

Mr. President, I became attached to the children in the drug houses and became an inner city teacher. Twenty years later, not long after I returned from campaigning for you in Iowa, the Great Recession hit. The economic collapse of 2008, however, was not nearly as disastrous in my community.

Why not?

We were rescued by your American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Your Stimulus also saved 100,000 teachers' jobs. President Obama, I sincerely thank you.

Sadly, President Bush's and your education policies had the opposite effect on schools. NCLB-type testing and choice drove my run-of-the-mill Oklahoma City low-income school into The Wire, as brutal as the worst in Baltimore. By the time you took office, accountability-driven reform had turned our neighborhood schools into classic examples of schools with such intense concentrations of children from generational poverty and trauma that they became virtually impervious to improvement (at least by the policies that were allowed during your presidency.)

You had far more pressing issues on your mind when you agreed to sacrifice my students and profession to the test, sort, and punish regime known as corporate school reform. You had your political reasons for endorsing the mass dismissal of teachers in Central Falls, Rhode Island, and across the nation, even though the overwhelming majority of us were guilty of nothing more than choosing to teach in schools where it is harder to raise test scores.

Worse, your Secretary of Education Arne Duncan put NCLB-type testing on steroids. That discredited law only subjected 20 to 25% of our nation's classrooms to bubble-in accountability. Under Duncan, nearly 100% of teachers and students are subject to some sort of punishment by some sort of bogus metric. So, even though your A Teacher's Plea to President Obama | John Thompson:

8-26-14 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION:

Four Reformy Problems in a Single Tweet

@NeeravKingsland @CtrEdEcon @smarick @amandaripley How do we measure schools' progress without annual tests?— Michael Petrilli (@MichaelPetrilli) August 24, 2014This is the kind of statement that brings me up short. It's neither notably nefarious, nor is it larded with some deliberate obfuscation, and yet it is loaded with so many assumptions.Measure schools' progressIs schools' progress really a

1 by Peter Greene / 42min 

The Cult of Order

Many, many, many reformsters are members of the Cult of Order.The Cult of Order believes in blind, unthinking devotion to Order. Everything must be in its proper place. Everything must go according to plan. Everything must be under control.It is not new to find cult members in education. We all work with a least a couple. Desks must be just so. The surface of the teacher desk must be pristine and

1 by Peter Greene / 6min 

8-25-14 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION: ACT Report Finds ACT Really ImportantOkay kids. Here's today's lesson in critical thinking (which, as you may have heard, is built right into the heart and sinew of the Common Core).When a business releases a study showing the importance and effectiveness of that business's product, is there a possibility that the study might be aimed at something other than Telling the Whole Truth

by mike simpson / 22min 

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog 8-26-14

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog:

Ferguson, Missouri

The New Yorker's cover for the week we return to school,  Eric Drooker's "Ferguson, Missouri." “An artist friend of mine was killed by a cop in lower Manhattan, back in 1991. He happened to be black, and the police officer was never indicted.” Drooker continues, “As a resident of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, I witnessed the blurring distinctions between the police and military during the

by L. Jablonski / 23min 

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog 4-26-14

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog:Russia is Still Having Fun with the UkraineSo there are now up to 40,000 Russian troops equipped with all their fighting machines on the border of the Ukraine. Russia has annexed Crimea and clearly shows intent of not stopping there. Ethnically Russian cities inside of the Ukrainian border have exploded in revolt and violence has torn the streets. There are cities in the

by mike simpson / 7d 

On Kevin Johnson and Michelle Rhee’s latest power moves - Sacramento News & Review -

Sacramento News & Review - On Kevin Johnson and Michelle Rhee’s latest power moves - Bites - Opinions - August 21, 2014:

On Kevin Johnson and Michelle Rhee’s latest power moves

Some call the mayor and his wife the next Bill and Hillary

When we checked in a couple weeks ago, Sacramento’s Michelle Rhee was coming back to help run husband Kevin Johnson’s St. HOPE charter schools. It’s since been confirmed that she’ll also be stepping away from leadership of StudentsFirst, the education-reform lobbying group she began in 2010. In a memo to staff, Rhee explained she wanted to spend more time supporting Johnson’s career.

Perhaps that is because StudentsFirstfell far short of the $1 billion that Rhee boasted she would raise to elect anti-teacher-union lawmakers around the country. And Bites suspects that Rhee’s anti-labor, teach-to-the-test brand of education reform was just getting tootoxic to be effective anymore.

Then again, toxic may be no big deal for Rhee. While ministering to her husband’s career and running his charter schools, she’s also taken a gig serving on the board of the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company.

Scotts is in the business of selling environment-damaging synthetic fertilizers and weed killers, like Roundup. In 2012, the company was hit with $12.5 million in penalties for violating federal pesticide laws. Among the violations was selling poisoned bird seed.

Is it at all weird that our mayor pitches Sacramento as the “Farm to Fork” capital and as a sustainable green-tech-loving “Emerald Valley,” while Rhee does marketing work for a multinational chemical company? Yes, of course it’s weird. But very Sacramento.

Rhee’s job shuffle stoked new speculation about Johnson’s future career path. The news site Politico even mused that Johnson might be planning a run for U.S. Senate or for governor. The Sacramento Bee also went on at length about the dynamism of the “bi-coastal power couple,” comparing them to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

But consider that any bid for higher office is going to mean facing a kind of media attention very different from what he’s used to here in Sacramento. At that higher level, there are at least a few professional bullshit detectors out there covering campaigns, some who won’t be starstruck. They will look again at the wince-inducing transcripts of conversations that Phoenix police recorded between Johnson and the then-16-year-old friend he called “Whiskey.” They will revisit the unpleasantness of the federal investigations into Johnson’s misuse of AmeriCorps funds. And consider the other material that a well-funded adversary with lots of money for opposition research will undoubtly churn up. Maybe the larger California electorate will be as blasé about Johnson’s past weirdness as the locals have been. Maybe not.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from local government-watchdog group Eye on Sacramento. Its latest project is to try and improve citizen access to Sacramento city government. A report from late July complained that the city’s 311 call center is understaffed, and that it’s hard to find the right person in City Hall to deal with a citizen’s problem. “Wait times of 10 minutes or more are both common and unacceptable,” says Eye on Sacramento’s Craig Powell of the 311 backlog.

The city’s 311 manager, Chris Hobson, acknowledged the issue, saying, “We are aware and Sacramento News & Review - On Kevin Johnson and Michelle Rhee’s latest power moves - Bites - Opinions - August 21, 2014:

The super wealthy can self-promote themselves for ALS while collecting and distributing student data, profiting from e-college, etc. | Reclaim Reform

The super wealthy can self-promote themselves for ALS while collecting and distributing student data, profiting from e-college, etc. | Reclaim Reform:

The super wealthy can self-promote themselves for ALS while collecting and distributing student data, profiting from e-college, etc.

Posted on August 26, 2014

by Ken Previti

“Here’s another example of what happens when the very wealthy and the very self-loving gets involved in a grass roots movement to help. They can turn anything into some means to feel secure about their lofty positions and expose their deep seated psychological need to be recognized as better…
Sick little heads…
They keep Freud alive.”
John Dillon, retired teacher and blogger extraordinaire

Three billionaires. One, J. B. Pritzker, makes a video, starring himself, as a generous donor to ALS research. How much is the contribution? $26,000.

Let’s see…

$3,000,000,000

- $26,000

——————–

$2,999,974,000

Hmm…

Contribution Rule #1: Never spend more on a video promoting your personal generosity than you contribute to the fund raising effort.

(How much was your personal income last year? Think of all the wonderful and sincere people across America who are giving so much to ALS research while having a little fun putting their videos on YouTube. Terrific! It’s infuriating that JB and his narcissistic, The super wealthy can self-promote themselves for ALS while collecting and distributing student data, profiting from e-college, etc. | Reclaim Reform:

All Things Education: In the past fifteen years, the overall number of teachers of color in DC has decreased by almost a third.

All Things Education: In the past fifteen years, the overall number of teachers of color in DC has decreased by almost a third.:

In the past fifteen years, the overall number of teachers of color in DC has decreased by almost a third.

In one of my last posts, I wrote about the decline of and need for more teachers of color and about my own PK-12 schooling at DCPS.

In private conversations, a few DC friends have asserted that while they don't entirely agree with the Rhee and now Henderson regime of policies, that there was "nothing racial" about them. I'm not so sure. I don't think that Rhee, etc.'s approach to reform has been intentionally or explicitly racial, but they have been racial at the very least in perception and effect.

For one, I refer you to this post I wrote in response to Rhee biographer Richard Whitmire's take on education reform in DC, where he continually refers in coded and loaded language to the majority black DCPS system that Rhee came into as "incompetent," "corrupt," and full of blinding race pride. This seems to encapsulate the collective mind-set of the DC rhee-formers and repeats many erroneous bits of what became collective wisdom that so many even earnest journalists repeat.

Second, the three sets of numbers I will present tell somewhat of a racial story.

Before I present them, a few caveats:

1.  Data sets 2 and 3 (from 2007-2008 and 2011-2012 respectively) include both the charter and the district sectors. While both may be complicit in the decline of teachers of color, since in DC DCPS and the charter schools system are totally separate entities, one can’t hold the division responsible for the human resources policies of the charter sector nor the inverse.

2.  Teacher recruitment and selection plays a role in the number of teachers of color in DCPS (and in any school system). Changes in DCPS’s approach to teacher recruitment and selection began way before Michelle Rhee’s chancellorship. In 2000, the DC New Teacher Project contracted with DCPS that same year to do an alternative teacher certification program and not long after to run teacher recruitment for DCPS. Coincidentally, however, Kaya Hendersonwas the Executive Director of DC TFA in the late 1990s, and in 2000 became head of the DC New Teacher Project (an All Things Education: In the past fifteen years, the overall number of teachers of color in DC has decreased by almost a third.:

Accountability LAUSD's iPad Saga Has Just Begun - ChangeTheLAUSD

Accountability - ChangeTheLAUSD:

 Accountability

LAUSD's iPad Saga Has Just Begun

“It was controversial?”
- John Deasy (1)

At the beginning of this month, Superintendent Deasy was mocking opponents of his plan “to provide an iPad to every Los Angeles student, teacher and school administrator.” (2) Yesterday he cancelled the project as the controversy grew over mounting evidence of improprieties in the bidding process. This step should serve as the beginning of a process to make sure that the mistakes that haunted this project from the beginning are never repeated.



Unfortunately, the Board of Education’s record of overseeing the superintendent does not inspire confidence. Board member Tamar Galatzan served on the committee which drafted a report that concluded the iPad program “was beset by inadequate planning, a lack of transparency and a flawed bidding process” and, therefore, had advance access to the information that was being collected. (3) Instead of seeing this as a reason to question the ability of the superintendent to run the district, she focused her attention on trying to get rid of his critics. For example, she repeatedly voted to block the reappointment of Stuart Magruder to the bond oversight committee because she thought that “the committee has done too little oversight on construction projects and too much on technology.” (4) Of course this line of reasoning ignored the fact that it was Deasy who had decided to pay for consumer items and software with bond funds that were sold to the voters as money needed for construction.



A program costing over $1 billion should not have been implemented in a district that has been haunted by shortened school years, closed libraries, unstaffed nurses offices, increased class sizes, teacher layoffs and furlough days. The fact that it was implemented so poorly that it must be restarted is absolutely unconscionable. The students, parents, teachers and taxpayers of the district are owed answers to their questions, including the following:



DID DEASY BREAK THE DISTRICT’S ETHICS POLICIES? “The superintendent recused himself from the bidding process because he owned Apple stock.” (5) However, e-mails show that he was “meeting with Pearson and Apple to discuss the eventual purchase of their products starting nearly a year before the contract went out to public bid.” (6) Were these meetings ethical and, if they were, should the superintendent have recused himself from them?

DID DEASY BREAK THE LAW? During the time period when these private meetings occurred, did the superintendent buy or sell stock in either Pearson or Apple. If he did so knowing that he was going to commit the district to a $1 billion purchase, then this would subject him to insider-trading laws.

WHY DID PEARSON HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNAL CONVERSATIONS ABOUT DISTRICT POLICY? A sales representative from Pearson was included in an e-mail conversation between Deasy and his head of curriculum, Jaime Aquino. In these e-mails, she let it be known that “she did not want the district to solicit bids from other companies.” (7) A private company, especially one with a potential financial Accountability - ChangeTheLAUSD:

Speaking Out Against Excessive Testing (Susan Ohanian Speaks Out)

yahoo good news (Susan Ohanian Speaks Out):

Speaking Out Against Excessive Testing

Susan Notes: There's something in the air: revolution against federal standardized testing! Breathe deeply.

by Susan Ohanian

While newspaper editorials call for obedience to federal laws linking student test scores to teacher evaluation and scrapping tenure, policy makers representing the people are beginning to see things differently.

In June 2012, the Vermont state board of education and department of education signaled resistance to federal testing mandates when Vermont refused to apply for NCLB waiter--because the waiver required tying teacher evaluation to student standardized test scores. "We did not want to use NECAP (New England Common Assessment Program) scores as a significant portion of a teacher's assessment," noted the deputy commissioner of the Vermont Department of Education told theBoston Globe.

Be aware that other states don't have the waiver tying student test scores to teacher evaluations: California, Montana, Nebraska, and North Dakota. Vermont is special because we refused to apply for the waiver.

March 2014 Maryland Senate Passes Bill Delaying Use Of Test Scores For Teacher Evaluations. Delaying evil is not exactly taking a moral stand, but it may be the first step toward it.

March 2014. Washington legislators reject Arne Duncan's demand, refuse to force schools to teach to the test. This meant the Feds revoked Washington's waiver.

August 6, 2014. Vermont secretary of education writes a remarkable letter to Vermont parents, explaining "The Vermont Agency of Education does not agree with yahoo good news (Susan Ohanian Speaks Out):

8-26-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

Issues with Test Scores for a Seattle School?

A letter sent out from Superintendent Nyland:Dear Seattle Public Schools community, I’m writing today to let you know that on Wednesday we will receive our final state Measurements of Student Progress (MSP) test scores. Earlier this month, while reviewing preliminary data, we discovered an anomaly with Beacon Hill’s test results. We requested that the scores at Beacon Hill International School be

by Melissa Westbrook / 4min 

Seattle Schools' Equity and Race Advisory Committee

The district is looking for new members via nominations.This committee is a commitment to transforming our current practices at a systemic level to eliminate disproportionality in education and in all aspects of its administration. These efforts require a long-term commitment from our advisors that includes both making recommendations and staying engaged as our work progresses over time.The Superi

by Melissa Westbrook / 2min 

Tuesday Open Thread

 In the "grrrr" editon of Open Thread:In Jurupa Valley (a small city near Irvine, California), school officials apologized to parents of high school Sped students because, as part of a "functional skills program," the schools had them dig through trash for items that could be recycled for money.  The Superintendent carefully phrased his apology:“I personally apologize to any st

by Melissa Westbrook / 44min 

8-25-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum: If You Want to Transfer Your Child under NCLB, Get that Request InI was reading the Spokane newspaper and it was stated that for Spokane's school district, the deadline to request a transfer to a new school under NCLB is August 26th.  So I wrote to SPS to ask what their deadline is.  Here's the answer I received: Parents have to request a transfer by the first day

by mike simpson / 21h 

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA):



Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO) Home

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education.

FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children's education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level. Students to whom the rights have transferred are "eligible students."

• Parents or eligible students have the right to inspect and review the student's education records maintained by the school. Schools are not required to provide copies of records unless, for reasons such as great distance, it is impossible for parents or eligible students to review the records. Schools may charge a fee for copies.
• Parents or eligible students have the right to request that a school correct records which they believe to be inaccurate or misleading. If the school decides not to amend the record, the parent or eligible student then has the right to a formal hearing. After the hearing, if the school still decides not to amend the record, the parent or eligible student has the right to place a statement with the record setting forth his or her view about the contested information.
• Generally, schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student's education record. However, FERPA allows schools to disclose those records, without consent, to the following parties or under the following conditions (34 CFR § 99.31):
  • School officials with legitimate educational interest;
  • Other schools to which a student is transferring;
  • Specified officials for audit or evaluation purposes;
  • Appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to a student;
  • Organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the school;
  • Accrediting organizations;
  • To comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena; 
  • Appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies; and
  • State and local authorities, within a juvenile justice system, pursuant to specific State law.

Schools may disclose, without consent, "directory" information such as a student's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance. However, schools must tell parents and eligible students about directory information and allow parents and eligible students a reasonable amount of time to request that the school not disclose directory information about them. Schools must notify parents and eligible students annually of their rights under FERPA. The actual means of notification (special letter, inclusion in a PTA bulletin, student handbook, or newspaper article) is left to the discretion of each school.

For additional information, you may call 1-800-USA-LEARN (1-800-872-5327) (voice). Individuals who use TDD may use the Federal Relay Service.

Or you may contact us at the following address:

Family Policy Compliance Office
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202-8520

Rich Student, Poor Student | EduShyster

Rich Student, Poor Student | EduShyster:

Rich Student, Poor Student

 Students in Salem, MA learn a hard lesson about class

Dear [insert name here]:
Welcome back to school, Salem, MA student! If you’ll be attending thisschool, this school or this school, let me take this opportunity to congratulate you. Like the mariners of yore, your parents successfully navigated the treacherous shoals of Salem’s school *choice* system. And that’s great news for you because it means that you’ll be having your *whole child* educated this year, including the part of you that loves art, music and super cool project-based learning. As for those of you who’ll be going to this school, this school, this schoolor this school, well, your education is going to look just a little bit different. Shall we pop in and see?

Blueprint 4 Success
Say hello to your new teachers, Bentley Elementary 3rd, 4th and 5th graders! You see, your old teachers were supposed to lift your school up and turn it around—but they couldn’t make it turn fast enough. And that got some grownups thinking: what if instead of waiting for your old teachers to make the school turn faster, some professional turn-er-arounders ran your grades instead? Better wear your helmet, because your school is going to be turning fast!

Relentless rigor
I bet you’re noticing some big Rich Student, Poor Student | EduShyster:

Looking Back (Part 5) | Taking Note

Looking Back (Part 5) | Taking Note:

Looking Back (Part 5)

by JOHN MERROW on 26. AUG, 2014 in 2014 BLOGS, LOOKING BACK

(For the past few weeks I have been traveling down memory lane and then posting entries on my blog. Memories aren’t sequential, I’ve learned. As evidence of that, here is one from my year away from college.)

I’ve been a baseball fan for as long as I can remember-but I’ve been only a fan, not a player. In my case ‘fan’ is short for fantasy, not fanatic. As a kid in the ’50s I spent hours starring in imaginary baseball games, throwing an old tennis ball against the barn wall and pretending to be Johnny Logan or Red Schoendienst in the field, Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron or Stan Musial at bat. In real life, unfortunately, I was pretty awful, invariably one of the last chosen for pickup games and almost always the rightfielder. But I had one glorious moment when I was 20, an accidental invitation to try out for the St. Louis Cardinals and a brief – very brief – chance to sit in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ dugout during a game.

In 1961 I had taken a year off from Dartmouth and was working in Kansas as a reporter-photographer forThe Leavenworth Times. I was restless, enthusiastic and energetic, and I managed to get myself fired in February of ’62, largely for being a pain in the neck.[1]

Jobless, I was free to do whatever I wanted, so I decided to hitchhike around the country. I took to the road, intending to wend my way south, toward warm weather and, more important, spring training.

I had read Jack Kerouac’s On the Road at least twice and was ready for adventure. And I had plenty of them: I met hundreds of interesting, lonely people, including a couple of gigolos in New Orleans, got run out of a small town in Idaho by roughnecks who amused themselves trying to run me over, spent a night or two in jail and talked my way into Disneyland and into the Seattle World’s Fair on opening day. But no memory shines as brightly as spring training of 1962 at Al Lang Field.

Carrying only a sleeping bag and a dark blue flight bag with a Pan Am logo on it, I headed for St. Petersburg, Florida, where I knew I’d find the Cardinals, and Bradenton, where the Braves trained. Along the way I found places to sleep where I could, in fraternity houses, once in jail in West Memphis, Arkansas, (my choice, not theirs) and under the stars, snug in my sleeping bag. Coming into St. 

 Looking Back (Part 5) | Taking Note: