Age of Socialism

Socialism is here! Social Security is suppossed to go up every year to make up for inflation; however, inflation actually decreased this year. To make up for the lack of an increase, Washington wants to redistribute our wealth (aka, debt-load). Here’s the article if you care to read more about it: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091015/D9BB77S00.html .

Fear of Failure: Education

While receiving my secondary education degree, I read countless articles and listened to numerous lectures detailing educational theories meant to provide children with the tools they need to succeed.  One theory I never heard about was the fear of failure; however, I am starting to believe that this is the equation some children may need in order to inspire current and future generations to reach above and beyond their expectations.

It’s hard to use my personal account in determining the road map for how public education should be handled. I had no learning disabilities. I was physically healthy, had a great home life, English was my first and only language, and I had no problem adapting socially to the different personalities of school life.  I know that for others individual education, they may had/have more challenges: learning disabilities, broken homes, language barriers, low self esteems, etc.  However, I believe that in many instances personal challenges should be used as a catalyst for one to succeed.  The option for not succeeding is to fail. The fear of failure should not be swept under the rug; rather, it should be embraced and used as motivation for a generation that is consumed with too much political correctness, public safety nets, and nanny-state laws.

While living near Santa Barbara, California, I had the wonderful opportunity of befriending my neighbor, Constantine.  Constantine was born in northern Indiana to Greek parents.  During many Greek barbecues Constantine hosted, I had the pleasure of meeting George.  George was born and raised in Greece until the age of 16.  He then moved to Michigan to live with an uncle.  Nowadays, schools are forced to spend millions of dollars to cater to students like George and help them deal with the language and cultural barriers that they experience. These programs are referred to as ESL (English as a second language).  These programs are a challenge for schools to fund.  Qualified teachers are hard to find and teachers are burdened with paper work and meetings dealing with the requirements that go along with ESL learning programs.

One inexpensive program we could use would be the one George’s uncle used: adapt, ASAP!  George told me that he remembers going to school in fear of not catching up to the learning curve.  His uncle required him to not speak Greek while at home and the school had no program to assist him in his new surroundings.  George did not want to fail, and this fear led to him quickly catching up to the kids around him.  Now he is a successful bilingual mechanical engineer who still loves and embraces his Greek culture while he enjoys the freedom and opportunity of his American lifestyle.

I’m not saying that the fear of failure would work for every child’s education; however, I do believe we need to study and teach the postive results that can come from fearing negative consequences.

Fear of Failure

Out of all the things that have made America great, I believe our greatest success stories have come not from the will to succeed; but rather, from the fear of failure.  Let me explain.

In the history of America, many stories exist that detail one man’s, one woman’s, one family’s, one race’s, one generation’s rising the social and economic ladder to add their name to the history books as another American success story.  Opportunity for all has been a staple of this country since we toppled the giant arm of monarchical rule over 200 years ago.  But behind every success story has been a driving force that some may not always think about at first: the fear of failure.

When our Founding Fathers signed their names for King George III to see, these colonists were not only motivated by the dream of living in a free market society; they must have been encouraged by the plain and simple fear of failure. Failure for them meant embarrassment for their family, loss of their property, and most likely death.  However, despite this fear, our Founders and thousands of colonial soliders and families chose to stand up to their fears of the powerful British Kingdom and create a free society built on freedom principles and inherited rights.

Over 200 years later, American success stories have been a testament to the power of freedom.  But the freedom to succeed could not have been possible without the risk and fear of failure.  To be continued…

Sore Muscles

As many of you already know, I’m currently training for a marathon.  As the training becomes more rigorous and the long runs are getting longer and longer every week, my muscles are starting to get a little sore. Soreness is a reality of getting in shape, a natural result of getting your body out of its comfort zone and testing ones physical limits.  If all goes well, the soreness will decrease as your body gets stronger; and hopefully, what once made you sore will feel like a walk in the park.

Erin and I were discussing the goods and bads about moving home this evening. As I was dwelling on some of the adjustments we have been forced to make, I commented to her, “I guess one can’t get into shape without first making his muscles sore.” She told me to blog about it, so I did.

Stuck in the Mud

Yesterday evening I decided to do a little off-roading on my property.  After looking at a creek crossing and asking myself, “Can I make it through that?,” here I am sitting at my computer while my truck is still sitting in the middle of the woods.  My dad was able to help me get out of the rut that initially got me stuck, now I’m waiting on Mother Nature to help with stopping the rain so I can make it back up the way I came down.  After walking up the hill I asked my dad why he is so good at getting things un-stuck.  He wittingly responded, “Because I’ve been stuck so many times.”  So dont’ be afraid to get stuck in the mud every now and then.  The more you do it, the better you’ll be at getting yourself un-stuck.

Dave Kates Shout Out

Here’s to Danny’s Daily 1,000,000th subscriber: Dave Kates (give or take on the actual number of viewers by 990,980).  Either way, thanks for checking in on me Dave. I promise to keep up on posting a little better as the summer moves along. To all the rest of you, happy belated 4th of July!

Marge Update

Erin’s mom is about to undergo a more aggressive chemotherapy.  Despite 3 months of chemo this spring, the cancer is spreading throughout her bones and liver. Please pray that Marge responds well to the next round of treatments. Marge and her wonderful family thank you for your prayers.

Shocking News Story

I found this article on the interent today. Before reacting too much, I’m going to fact check the story and hope that there’s an explanation for the local government’s actions. Please read the article and do some fact checking as well. Let me know what you find out.

Living Off-Line

Since moving into our new house in March, we have been without Internet and television. And I’m not just talking  about tv stations, we don’t even have a television to watch movies! But don’t feel sorry for us; the break from technology has been quite nice. Now just because we’ve not been active on the web doesn’t mean we aren’t staying busy. Aside from both of us starting new jobs and me working as a volunteer track coach, we are also remodeling our house. Erin’s specialty is painting, and my forte is buying thousands of dollars  worth of stuff while trying to get people to come over  and  install that stuff.  A special thanks  goes  out to all of you that have helped in one way or  another (especially Michael and Brian for lending out tools  and my Dad for using those  tools).

Now for those of  you that are going through Danny’s Daily withdraws, don’t worry! I plan on being back online by June.  I look forward to getting the politcal and social gears turning once  again. For now, get off the computer and enjoy the beauty of the world off-line…I know I am.

Blogging is On the Backburner

Hello Danny’s Daily enthusiasts.  As you can probably tell, my blogging has decreased significantly since moving back to Indiana. After hours of diagnosing the reasoning for this reality, I have concluded that a daily job really hinders both my will and ability to post random thoughts on the Internet.  But don’t worry, as time goes by and we start to get organized and settled in to our new jobs and home, Danny’s Daily will be back and better than ever. Cheers!