From the archives: from confirmation to citizenship

Mom in her Confirmation dress at age 14, Münster, Germany. This would have been about 1947.

One of many safety drills on the old rust bucket on which my parents sailed to North America.

My dad swears this was an impromptu shot of mom. "Click." Just like that.

This would have been about 1952.

We visited the States twice before finally moving to Southern California in 1959. On one visit in 1958, an artist—not a very good one—at the old Pacific Ocean Park (POP.) did these drawings of Annie and me. I barely remember the occasion.

POP ("pee-oh-pee") sought to compete with Disneyland, and it did well, until the city of Santa Monica pursued redevelopment, which made POP parking difficult. The final episode of "The Fugitive" was filmed at the park just before it was shut down in 1967. It was finally demolished in the mid-seventies. There's nothing left.

Annie would have been 4. I would've been 3.

My parents being sworn in (or "pledged," or "flagged," or whatever it's called) as new U.S. citizens in front of the old Santa Ana Courthouse, c. 1965.

A closeup of mom and pop becoming citizens.

My parents chose to include Annie and me in this citizenship thing.

I think I've got the paperwork somewhere.

The old "Ocean Park Pier" became P.O.P. in 1957.

Childhood memory: Palisades Park

Mindless study strategies persist

College Undergrads Study Ineffectively on Computers, Study Finds: Students Transfer Bad Study Habits from Paper to Screen (Science Daily)

     …"Our study showed that achievement really takes off when students are prompted to use more powerful strategies when studying computer materials," said the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Ken Kiewra, an expert in study methods and one of the authors of the study.
     The research, published in The Journal of Educational Psychology, found that students tend to study on computers as they would with traditional texts: They mindlessly over-copy long passages verbatim, take incomplete or linear notes, build lengthy outlines that make it difficult to connect related information, and rely on memory drills like re-reading text or recopying notes.
     Meanwhile, undergraduates in the study scored 29 to 63 percentage points higher on tests when they used study techniques like recording complete notes, creating comparative charts, building associations, and crafting practice questions on their screens.
     Kiewra, a professor of educational psychology, calls the method SOAR: Selecting key lesson ideas, organizing information with comparative charts and illustrations, associating ideas to create meaningful connections, and regulating learning through practice. It complements how the brain processes information, he said.
     "Learning occurs best when important information is selected from less important ideas, when selected information is organized graphically, when associations are built among ideas and when understanding is regulated through self-testing," Kiewra said.
. . .
     Kiewra authored the new study with former UNL graduate student Dharmananda Jairam, at Penn State University, and said the study shows that as undergraduates spend more and more study time on computers, it will be vital for them to learn better ways of processing and then making use of information.
. . .
     "Teachers need to help students dispel crippling studying myths such as highlighting, outlining and rehearsal, and instead teach them strategies that help them succeed," Kiewra said.

Useless requests

Youthful lunacy is universal, I guess—at least among young men.

When my grandfather was a young man, he and his friends climbed this crazy rock in southern Germany. Today, I came across a photo of their efforts. It would have been about 1928.

You can barely see four or five people hanging on that rock. (Click on the image to make it larger.)

Why?

Here's a closer view. 

* * *

When I was about the same age, I recall doing things equally crazy and stupid.

Recently, I drove through the Santa Ana Mountains on Santiago Canyon Road and I recalled a night 38 years earlier. I was working at a gas station along the 55. After work, at about 12:30 a.m., I drove my old '66 VW into the mountains.

Loved that VeeDub. It was cherry. I had just tuned it up.

But it sported the last of the 6 volt electrical systems. The headlights were horribly dim.

I roared (well, I buzzed) down the grade toward Irvine Lake at well over 90 m.p.h. The car did OK through those curves at the end of the grade, but I did sense some significant instability. I backed off.

I recall feeling exhilaration. I realized that what I was doing was very dangerous.

"Wow," I thought.

Good Lord! What was I thinking?!

* * *

I'm waiting for the moment to talk to my nephew about this. I'll say, "Adam, at some point, you might be tempted to do a dangerous thing, 'cause young men do that. Don't know why. They're stupid, I guess."

I'll cite examples. I'll describe some of my own misadventures.

I'll say: "Please don't do that. OK?"

He's a great kid. He'll nod gravely.

Yeah. That'll do it.

Sheesh.