Comments for Dirt Under My Fingernails

Comment on The Rube Goldberg Conclusion: If it’s broken, toss it. Then try something new! by gwynridenhour

gwynridenhour — Sat, 11 May 2013 15:43:29 +0000

Hi Michael – thanks for asking! Yes, please feel free to use the photo. My daughter will be thrilled that her beloved stuffed koala is acquiring such fame and glory. You can credit the site simply by including the web address. If you post your presentation, be sure to let me know, so I can show my daughter! Thanks again-

Comment on The Rube Goldberg Conclusion: If it’s broken, toss it. Then try something new! by Michael

Michael — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:26:15 +0000

Gwyn. I found your site through Google image search and would really like to use this picture in one of my upcoming presentation talking about systems. I couldn’t find a contact method so I figured this was my best bet. Please let me know if this would be alright and/or how you’d like me to credit you/your site. Thanks.

Comment on What To Do When They Don’t Make the Cut: Kids and Competition by gwynridenhour

gwynridenhour — Sat, 04 May 2013 17:52:00 +0000

I think vision is important. But I guess my point is that if a particular vision becomes in itself a limiting factor, then we need to reassess. Vision should be flexible and evolving to accommodate changing situations. Taking for example the jazz choir. If you don’t make it in, and that was your vision, you need to update your vision if you still want to sing. See what I mean?

Ah, and the greater good. I am a huge proponent of using our talents to improve the world. That is a big discussion in and of itself. I believe that any passion that we truly hold can be used for the greater good. And if we let ourselves be guided by what we love, then our work becomes inspiring and personal!

Comment on What To Do When They Don’t Make the Cut: Kids and Competition by Cy

Cy — Sat, 04 May 2013 03:55:26 +0000

Sounds like a fascinating documentary. Do you think that having a “vision” of how something should be is crucial to being so dogged in pursuing something though? And somehow something for the greater good seems far more inspiring, yet somehow less personal.

Comment on What To Do When They Don’t Make the Cut: Kids and Competition by gwynridenhour

gwynridenhour — Fri, 03 May 2013 18:49:11 +0000

Thank you Cy. I agree that failure can be felt keenly in highly capable people, but I also know that it can be just as significant for kids all over the academic spectrum. I think you can make the argument that if you consistently don’t make the team, you begin to internalize that as a sense of self, just as the “gifted” child creates their own internalizations. Understanding each kid in terms of where he might be on the spectrum and tying that framework of knowledge in with our personal knowledge of that child are so important in giving us the best tools to help our kids find their own version of success. Ok. That was wordy. But hopefully you catch my meaning.

I think you’re right; we do tend to think of success as a one-shot thing. If we don’t make the baseball team we want, then somehow we can’t play baseball. ? That’s crazy. We need to shake ourselves out of that attitude. The kids and I just watched a 3-hour PBS documentary this week on Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, called “Not For Ourselves Alone.” These women worked their whole life for women’s rights, women’s suffrage. Beaten down again and again, criticized, rejected, hounded, they never gave up. Knowing they wouldn’t survive to see the vote come, they (instead of giving up) focused their energies on nurturing a new generation of suffragists, who would reap the “winter wheat” that the two elder women had sown. Talk about not giving up. If you ever needed to get a little perspective on life and what success means, give that film a watch. They are my heroes.

Comment on What To Do When They Don’t Make the Cut: Kids and Competition by Cy

Cy — Fri, 03 May 2013 17:04:22 +0000

Go for it, Gwyn! You’re a bull-dozer! (I mean it in a good way) I have been impressed and interested in your determined and incredibly creative ways of creating an education for your kids.
Yes, I often have to remind myself that failure is a chance to … practice at failing. I think especially for highly capable people, failure is super scary because it is tied to their sense of self. I like the model of finding new ways to do what you want if you can’t get it in the most direct path, I think it might also ease the sensation that success in one thing is the only way you can “be” something.

Comment on The Peoplehood of the Traveling Swirly Pan: Where Education Meets Tasty by gwynridenhour

gwynridenhour — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:51:22 +0000

Great Lili! Just sent Jenni an email with your mailing address. You can reach her at onlinepastrychef at yahoo. Welcome aboard!

Comment on The Peoplehood of the Traveling Swirly Pan: Where Education Meets Tasty by Lili

Lili — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:31:19 +0000

I want to do it! I’m in New Mexico! Sign me up! Haha.

Comment on The Peoplehood of the Traveling Swirly Pan: Where Education Meets Tasty by gwynridenhour

gwynridenhour — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:18:43 +0000

I definitely see a book in the Swirly Pan’s future. Do it Jenni! What a fun endeavor. I’m glad my friends (and Mom) have signed up, and we are super excited to watch this happen and participate in turn.

Comment on The Peoplehood of the Traveling Swirly Pan: Where Education Meets Tasty by Traveling Swirly Pan (@SwirlyPan)

Traveling Swirly Pan (@SwirlyPan) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:10:54 +0000

Thank you so much for sharing, Gwyn!

You are so right, Gwyn! This is like a Flat Stanley project except for it is edible and will last for years! I can envision a “crowd-sourced” cookbook; I’d love to see folks make some short videos to document their time with the pan. And I cannot even tell you how excited I am to read the journal entries! Gives me goosebumps!

I’m so happy that you and Eva are participating, and I know at least a couple of friends you told about it have signed up as well! I encourage anyone who participates from an educational perspective to share the love and the learning with the Peoplehood!

And it’s never too late to sign up. The pan will be swirling for years! First stop is near Houston, TX!