“Where is the Character?”

“Where is the Character?”

There is a cost to character!  The question one must ask is this.  Am I willing to pay the price to be a man or woman of character and therefore excellence?

CHARACTER CRISIS

Consider a case in point.  The owners along with management of an NFL team lead the head coach to believe that though the season has not gone well, he will be continued in his position.  He is allowed to go out into the community and speak about the season ahead and his hopes for the team.  At the same time and unbeknown to the coach the team owners and management approach another coach and hire him to replace the current coach.  Where is the character of the men who did such a thing?

The new coach accepts the position knowing full well that because he does so, the current head coach will be fired.  There is no indication that he surfaced concerns as to the commitments made to the present coach.  Where is the character of the man who did not do so?

Consider another case in point.  The head football coach of a university has repeatedly and openly stated his commitment to remain in his current position.  As the season draws to a close and unknown to the faithful he is approached by another university to become their head coach.  Even though the team is going to a bowl game, he accepts the new position and leaves immediately for the new position.  Where is the character of the man who did such a thing?  Where is the character of the university that approached him, asking him to leave before the season is over?

Consider another case in point.  The university that lost the head football coach does the same thing to another university as they approach their head coach.  That coach accepts the position even though his team has not completed its season and is bowl game bound.  Again, where is the character of the university and the man who accepted their offer before his season was over?

Not only is there a character crisis on the part of the NFL organization, the two universities mentioned and the three coaches referenced but there is a very clear message sent to the teams and the students.  It is this.  Commitment and therefore character does not count for the sake of expedience, for a winning season, and for one’s personal desires and convenience.

CHARACTER/IDENTITY FORMATION

A brief survey of the literature yields the point that character begins to be formed somewhere between the age of three and twelve BUT one does not establish ones’ identity in and of themselves until sometime between 20-25 years.  Further those with troubled pasts, from broken homes, and those experiencing other kinds of mental-emotional trauma will slow the process.

CHARACTER/IDENTITY ILLUSTRATED

Here is the seriousness of this matter. 

Take a high schooler who in middle school begins to show some talent for football.  His coach plays him a great deal and he becomes a standout.  He goes on to high school where he again receives special treatment and begins to view himself as special. 

He is then recruited out of all of his peers to play at one of the universities referenced above.  Remember now this is while still in a character/identity formation modality.  He is still trying to find himself and here is a leader, the head football coach.  This is the man who leads his referent group the team.  He is a man who presents a persona to be admired. 

Our young man is under his leadership for the next four or five years.  His character/identity is continuing to be formed, largely influenced by this group is being led by a head football coach.  Let us then say that he makes the NFL team in question at age 21 or 22.  He again is selected ahead of his peers and part of his formation is that he is special and because he is special he can live beyond the expectations of others.  Remember he is still in formation mode and he now begins to see and be influenced by others like team owners who have possessions, power, position, and prestige. 

So now his world is distorted by his being “special” and his referent group, the team is populated by role models who are men who live above what is normal for most folks.  These very same men make decisions not based upon character but upon expedience.

Now here is the question.  What kind of a person does he become whenever it is that his character/identity formation nears completion?  His head football coach has abandoned a commitment made for an opportunity.  The universities have made decisions because to win at any cost is a cheap price to pay.  The owners of his NFL have the same attitude.  No one has made the tough character decisions and the player is still in his character/identity formation stage of life.

THE OUTCOMES

The names that could be listed are common to many sports fans.  One CNN poll spoke of NFL felons, rapists, and ex-convicts.  Others could be added such as alcoholics, the sexually promiscuous, gang bangers, drug abusers, and those guilty of gross misdemeanors, etc.  Is it any wonder to any of us that these sports heroes whose formative years were spent being told they are “special” and falling under the men of “character” as described above end up as moral decadents?

THE CHALLENGE

It is time for those who have been entrusted with the education of those in character/identity development in the classroom, on the sports field, and in the business of sports to establish standards of character.  Not just establish them but live by them, model them, and yes, require them of these young athletes.  It is time to evaluate men not on winning seasons but on how they model and thus contribute to the formation of integrity, honesty, thrift, and a whole host of other character qualities.

MY PROTEST--I GIVE UP

If it matters to you which I am sure it does not, now you know why.

Why, with the exception of soccer, I’ve given up on professional sport in general and the Seattle Seahawks and Mariners in particular.  

Why I’ve given up on the magic of opening day and holding our country's flag on that opening day at Safeco .  

As well, why I have given up on college sports in general and University of Washington sports in particular.  

Will I miss them?  Yes, of course.  I will miss the Saturday afternoons and Sunday afternoons immersed in a game.  

Will they miss me?  No, they do not know I exist so it will not matter to them but I know I exist and therefore it does matter to me.  Guess I will try high school sports and see how that goes.

Man's Greatest Power - Part I

The Greatest Power Known to Man

There is a power that is greater than the mightiest river, the strongest ocean current, the most violent storm, the greatest tsunami, and/or the most rattling earthquake ever experienced.  It is the power to make choices.

That power is so great that it has shaped governments, enslaved people, liberated the oppressed, and done much to change the shape of humanity.  It can be durable and unstoppable or it can be fragile and at the mercy of situations.

Circumstances Come and Circumstances Go

No one can choose the difficulties which come from living in an imperfect world, among imperfect people, in imperfect bodies.  However, no matter how dire the circumstance, still one can do one thing—a person can make choices.

History is replete with the stories of people who were mistreated, enslaved, and abused but…

Those same people made the choice to not give in to the difficulties.

Those same people made the choice to do what they could to overcome their situation.

Those same people made the choice to live above what might be expected of one in such circumstances. 

Certainly there are the failures most of which are lost from the pages of history.  However there are those maybe did not soared above the storms but with right choices made it through.  It is those who provide examples, challenge, and inspire.

Such a man was Captain and Explorer Ernest Shackleton.  After his ship was trapped in the ice of Antarctica and against all odds he navigated hundreds of miles across the ocean in an open boat, then without winter clothing crossed over a mountain range, and in doing so saved his crew from certain death.

Character and Choice

It is one’s circumstance that provides the opportunities for such choices that will cause one man to fly and another to flounder. It is not some super-hero that has made the difference but an average man who through strength of character and right choices carried the day.

One’s character determines how those choices are made.  It is character which then will navigate one through the situations and circumstances of one’s life.  Good character leads to good outcomes, even in failure.   Poor character leads to poor outcomes even when there is a measure of success. 

It is not the circumstance in which one finds himself that decides a man’s future, indeed it is the choices that such a man makes.

Character

What then is the character that will carry the day?  Very simply it is doing what is right no matter the cost.  It is tenaciously staying the course, ever plowing toward that which is right. Oh, not in the big decisions of life, most handle those with relative ease but it is in the myriad of small decisions which on the surface would seem of little importance.

It is doing what is right according to ethical truth not according to some whimsical morality such as situational ethics (an oxymoron to be sure) which shifts with the druthers of culture.  It is doing the right according to those higher ideals that have prevailed year after year since the beginning of recorded time.

To be continued…

"Chicago Teachers - Calling or Profession"

 "Is Teaching a Calling or a Profession?"

The Chicago Teacher Strike brought to mind some of the teachers of my youth.  Yes, there were the duds--those who should have found something else to do in life.  However, there were those who were every bit the professional as today's teacher but to them it was a sacred calling.  To them it was serving the children and in some cases their parents. To them it went beyond contracts to calling. 

You see, there are some "professions" which call upon those who serve in those areas to keep a firm grip on a sense of "call."  Included would be the obvious like pastor, priest, and rabbi.  However, there are others such as police officer, fire fighter, and yes, teacher. 

Thinking back to my teachers, it was understood that the pay would not be the best but that there were other pay offs as for instance seeing your former student graduate high school and go on to work in the trades or off to college.  There was certain gratification that a paycheck or a retirement plan could not offer.  It was the gratification of what one might instill character and knowledge in the life of a child.

However, now things are different.  It seems that the more that any profession has become enamored with the classification, "professional" the more that profession has lost touch with the notion of "calling."  That is not to say that all teachers have done so but for most who wave their union signs and demand this or that benefit, it seems to be little more than a job.  It seems that such people find serving below their dignity and thus will not stoop down to that level.

As the camera's sweep the strikers, I try to imagine Mrs. McClary, Mrs. Mayer, Mr. Peterson, or Miss Grimes in and among the crowd.  For the life of me, I cannot imagine these and others going on the news denigrating the school board or the school administration. 

Was it that they were well paid, had benefits, and a short school week with planning days built in?  No of course not, nor did they expect that teaching would be easy.  They knew that the challenges would be many, the problems huge, and the pay low.  But for them it was an opportunity to train children in skills that would be needed throughout life. 

From Mrs. Mayer teaching basic addition up through Miss Grimes teaching Algebra and Geometry, there was no thought of professional standing and strikes.  It was all about teaching. It was all about training young people to be responsible adults with enough skill to not be a burden on society.

Mr. Joe Peterson?  He was a combat injured Marine who understood what Jr. High young men needed.  A firm but fair hand that was realistic and who dealt with the harsh realities of life.  We knew he was tough.  We knew that he could not hit us but we did not believe it.  He was a man's man that by his life demanded the respect of some very troubled young men.

So, Chicago Teachers, if you care for the kids the way you say you do then I have one very simple question.  Why are you on strike?  Why do you listen to the union thugs?  Why don't you get back to teaching and prove to the citizens of Chicago and the country that you are there because it is a calling, not just a job? After all, you are among the highest paid teachers in the nation.  Well, maybe you are just out to give new meaning to the word, greed!


As you strike you know that you even now are teaching your kids.  You are teaching them that it is okay to demand your way.  You are teaching them that if they do not get what they want, behaving like a barbaric thugs is okay.  Then when they behave in the classroom as you are now you wonder how is it that they can do this?  The answer is simple.  You taught them by how you walked off the job, created havoc for families, and thought only of yourselves.

Whoever you are, what a fine example of a teacher, a role model you present.

If you are the professional teacher that you say you are, then go back to your kids and teach them by your life that even when life is unfair, a person of character presses on with the task at hand.  That lesson will do more for them than all the picketing, the catcalling, the demanding, and all else that is a part of this strike.

Oh, Mrs. McClary?  The last time I saw her (she died at a young age of breast cancer) it was after the school day, she was in her car, burning her own gas, delivering cupcakes and party favors to a student who had been home sick and thus had missed a party in her classroom.  Now that is a teacher who was every bit a professional but who taught and related to her kids with a sense of calling and never got around to worrying about the notion of being a professional.

Where it in my power, I would fire the lot of you and bring in men and women who understand call, character, and commitment.  Men and women who deliver cupcakes and party favors on their own time, using their own resources.

Giving Away One's Word!

What does the giving of one’s word mean?

Without integrity of word and behavior it is impossible to check man’s descent into chaos.  This would be true of the individual as well as the culture!

At one time one’s word once given and due to a man’s character was as real as truth.  It was in that time that a man did not need to execute a contract because a man’s word meant something.  It was his sacred duty to keep his word and so “A man’s word was his bond.”  Said another way he held himself in the bonds of his word.  Such was so unless released by the other party.  It was an issue or personal ethics.

Often one carried out his word; it was viewed as his sacred duty because it spoke to his personal reputation and his honor.  Thus a man even at great personal cost, loss of material wealth, or even loss of his own life, could be counted upon to do what he said he would do and behave as he said he would behave. 

Sadly in today’s culture one is beyond naïve if he does business on a handshake.  Recently I was in a meeting in which it was decided that the group would purchase a series of products at an agreed upon price.  It was moved, seconded, and passed.  There was no contract only a verbal agreement that the product would be produced at a certain price point. 

The product arrived and then it was revealed to the group that there were additional “set up” charges.  It was moved, seconded, and passed that we pay the additional charges.  There were two dissenting “no” votes.  The reason I so voted was based solely on the fact that there had been an agreement and that the other party had made an agreement and then did not perform according to the agreement.

How one keeping his or her word has changed.  Today if one feels that he inconvenienced or feels that the costs involved are too unfair, such a person seeks to be divested of any responsibility to carry though with his commitments.  He may blame circumstances and comfortably believe he is absolved of such responsibility as his word has established however in making the decision and in giving himself such permission, he does incur another consequence that may ultimately be more costly and inconvenient.  Indeed it is a character issue!

The simple truth is that for one to act outside of his word gives practical expression to the moral fiber of his heart.  It very clearly suggests a life and belief system which is void of such things as trust, honor, honesty, respect for others, and personal integrity.  To gain such a reputation is a consequence and a cost much higher than any inconvenience or material loss that may accrue.

The business community is littered with failures neither because of quality nor craftsmanship but because a man would excuse himself from keeping his word.  Such a decision is not without consequence in one’s own life and in the lives of those he contacts.  We found such to be so in a home project—a kitchen remodel in which the cabinet installer just could not seem to keep his word.

Is it any wonder that we live in a culture that is unraveling?  Some years ago I formed a “handshake” agreement with a service manager to have certain work done on my car at a certain price.  All was well and good until I got the bill.  Later I found out that he did the same thing with others and that he was dismissed from the position by the owner.  The sad part is that someone else hired him in the same position and so he went on deceiving other unsuspecting customers. 

The question we all need to consider is this.  What does it mean when we give our word to another?  Is it a gift that can be counted upon or is it a gift that will be taken back?  Your trustworthiness is based or we might say finds its foundation in your answer!