The article refers to a number of colleges and universities that have “gamed” the system in activities that range from out-and-out lying to actions that breach the spirit of the rankings.  For example, the article notes that Baylor University offered to pay incoming freshmen to retake the SATs in order to artificially raise the average SAT scores of… well… the incoming freshman class.  (Not exactly illegal, but definitely shady.)

Cheating in schools has been a hot issue for some time.  Perhaps if we address cheating by schools we can get the kids to follow suit.

Check out the article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/education/gaming-the-college-rankings.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

Onward,  Malcolm Gauld

In her article, Bolonik has Alexandra, a French mother, square off against Tanya, an American mother (with a French husband named Philippe) relative to four of the premises in the book:

1) On the notion of getting kids to sit still, Bruckerman points out that the book says that “French kids learn patience from traditional, deliberately paced, multi-course meals.”  In response, Alexandra concurs that her kids don’t get up from the table and reports horror stories of what she’s observed with American families.  By contrast, Tanya wonders how to stop kids from belching at the table.  (You can probably tell where this is going!)

2) As for setting limits, the book says that “French experts and parents believe that hearing ‘no’ rescues children from the tyranny of their own desires.”  In reaction, Alexandra is puzzled why American parents spend so much time negotiating with their children.

3) The book points out that French parents don’t allow their children to invade the parents’ sleeping quarters: “French babies ‘do their nights’ as early as 6 weeks old thanks to what she calls ‘La Pause,’ a five-or-so-minute wait before attending to a crying baby.  This teaches self-soothing, which staves off expectations of instant gratification.” Alexandra calls the sleeping area “very big in terms of privacy. If you let the child intrude there, you don’t have a life.” Tanya disagrees… while Philippe laments the fact that he’s not getting enough sleep(!).

4) “Most important: French parents don’t make their kids the center of the universe.”  Bolonik observes that the French “assume that even good parents aren’t at the constant service of their children, and that there’s no need to feel guilty about this.” Philippe observes that “French people are much more relaxed about being parents.”  He further notes that “You don’t spend your weekends bringing them to sports things.”  Alexandra closes off with a dagger to the heart of an American stereotype: “We make fun of this in France, the soccer mom.”

Should be interesting when Bringing Up Bebe hits the market.  I look forward to lots of controversy!

Onward,  Malcolm Gauld

In recent meetings with Hyde seniors at Bath and Woodstock, I have tried to impart the message that good opportunities are still to be had out in the big, bad world, provided you are… Exceptional.

In today’s New York Times, I was delighted to see that Thomas Friedman has addressed this issue head-0n in a piece titled “Average is Over.”  I wished I had had this paragraph available while I was talking with the kids:

In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job, could earn an average lifestyle. But, today, average is officially over. Being average just won’t earn you what it used to. It can’t when so many more employers have so much more access to so much more above average cheap foreign labor, cheap robotics, cheap software, cheap automation and cheap genius. Therefore, everyone needs to find their extra — their unique value contribution that makes them stand out in whatever is their field of employment. Average is over.

Sounds like a plan.  Onward,  Malcolm Gauld

Beginning at Hyde: Learning from my students

A few weeks ago I was on duty supervising dinner crew. I was sitting around the round table nearest the coffee bar with a group of students that I coach. The conversation was a regular selection of high school topics. I can often fit into these conversations without disrupting their candor, maybe because I look very young.

The conversation wandered to a student who is sometimes picked on. It grew unkind, but not overtly so. It was the unkindness of tacitly recognizing that a peer doesn’t behave in the right way, has trouble reading social cues, and is part of the imagined outgroup. The conversation escalated, almost to the point of an impression, when one of my students blurted, “Stop!”

The table paused for a beat. Most people aren’t used to being challenged on social cruelty. She looked to me for support.
“Mr. Tunney, are you ok with this?”

I hastily changed the subject, and we moved on. The truth is I had been ok with the situation, or at least I had tacitly accepted it. I was listening. I was present in the conversation. I even thought the impression would probably be funny. I wasn’t allowing my conscience to lead me, and I was betting on my lesser instincts.

My normal response to such an obvious moral failing would be shame, then anger at myself, and finally an ardent and fruitless attempt to forget the situation, hoping that I wouldn’t make the same mistake again. But being at Hyde gives you a new framework to evaluate everyday experiences. What was my attitude behind setting a bad example for my students? Was I looking for acceptance? Did I believe that a person’s worth was defined by their social grace? Why had I failed to look for the best in one of my students?

Conscience is an enormous part of any person’s education, but it’s taught in almost no curriculum. One of the advantages of being at Hyde is that you’re surrounded by people who are striving to live according to their conscience. There is the presumption that we will teach each other, stretch each other, and be willing to learn about ourselves. Sometimes this comes as a healthy slice of humble pie, like when your student’s act of conscience highlights the failure of your own. But it’s a culture that turns mistakes into teaching moments. It lessens our quotient of defensive oblivion and increases our ability to reflect upon ourselves and learn from the example of others.

Thanks, Robert.

Onward, Malcolm Gauld

“How do you find the Beatles’ Let it Be?”  Students use iTunes of course, but they also shared a long list of options the man didn’t even know about:  YouTube, Rapcity.com, and Pandora.  Clearly the sources for gathering information are vast and growing vaster.  Sound like your classes?

“Where do you put it?  How do you store it in there?”  Mr. Romac wondered aloud to the boy with 15,000 songs, will you live long enough to listen to all of those songs?  That left him pondering.  The boy calculated that he had 52 days of music, so he was going to be OK.   I suppose that young man needs to figure out which play lists deserve more of his time and sort his favorites into those lists.  Kind of like chunking class content information and deciding where it goes – both in the binder and the mind.

“How do you find it?”  When a person has 15,000 of anything, how do they find it again?

“What can you do with it?”  Often students find a song they like at the gathering phase, and then they share it a few times before they start connecting it to other songs they like.  Then they gather more songs – back to step 1.  It turns out that the boy with 15,000 songs also has the capacity to mix songs together on his iPod.  The power to create on such a small device amazes those of us who grew up without the internet, a touch screen or the Cloud.

“How do you share what you’ve done?”  Steve Jobs made that so simple.

But if you can’t remember where you stored it, or you can’t retrieve it because it is in a different format then perhaps  you ought to have taken some time to synch it with your master computer system.   Or, what if you can’t play it because your iPod is running on an empty charge or you lost your ear buds.  All of these will keep you from communicating the song you have fallen in love with.  And if you can’t communicate “it” with others, then you really don’t have it.

Now where did you file that “song”?  Where did you even find it in the first place?  What if it was critical information for a class, or for life?

One of them is to be nice to everybody. You never know if that kid you’re teaching in class or coaching on the field will wind up as your boss. (See Jeff Black ’79.)

Another truth is that you never know how things are going to turn out. That brings me to Katie (Howard) Solter ’90.

Nearly 25 years ago, Katie, the sister of a Hyde student, inquired about doing a month-long study of Hyde as her senior project as a student at The Pingree School (Hamilton, MA). I needed no introduction to her given the fact that a few months earlier she had scored the winning goal against my women’s soccer team in the New England Prep School Tournament. (Oh, how I remembered that!) After that month, she engaged so thoroughly in things at Hyde that she spent a post-graduate year with us.

Beyond the fact that I derived significant direct benefit from her decision to switch from playing soccer against us to playing with us, she had a great year on all fronts. After four years at The College of Wooster (OH), she taught at both our Bath and Woodstock campuses, moving to the latter after marrying then Hyde teacher Tom Solter.

A decade or so ago, I sort of lost track of the couple when Tom left us to accept a position on the faculty at the St. Paul’s School (Concord, NH). That is until…

Last week Laura and I drove to the beautiful chapel on the campus of St. Paul’s to take in a ceremony called “The Ordination of a Deacon.” The new deacon, as you might guess, is none other than Katie Solter. (Suffice it to say that Katie took that “life of purpose” thing quite literally!)

Having never taken in such a ceremony, both the majesty and spirituality were unforgettable. From the facilitation by The Right Reverend Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, to the roles played by Katie and Tom’s children, to the beautiful vocals of The St. Paul’s Madrigal Singers, it was an evening to remember. Katie’s “shout out” to Hyde in the program for helping her in her journey made it all the more special.

Yeah, going way back to that bittersweet soccer loss in November of 1988, I never would have predicted that I’d be going to this girl’s ordination as a deacon a quarter of a century later. Then again, back then I didn’t know enough to stop making predictions. “Ah,” as Bob Dylan sang, “But I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”

Onward, Malcolm Gauld

The first paper I submitted as a freshman at Bowdoin College was a 2-pager in English Composition.  I thought it was one of the finest pieces of academic work I had ever done and I eagerly awaited the professor’s verdict.  A few days later, the professor returned it to me all marked up in red ink with a grade at the top that read “D-/F.”  Although I had never seen that grade before, something told me that it wasn’t a good thing.  I soon found out that this was the lowest grade one could receive at the college that was not an F.  Suffice it to say that my world was rocked.

Distraught, but guided by false pride, I initially told no one and certainly didn’t ask anyone for help.  After receiving  a few more less than stellar grades in other classes, I broke down and approached my roommate, a guy who seemed to effortlessly receive A’s on anything and everything that he wrote.

He good naturedly offered to critique my work.  He also asked me, “How honest and frank do you want me to be?”  I responded with, “Brutal… no holds barred.”

A few days later, I presented my roommate with the draft of a paper that had been assigned in a political theory course we took together.  He attacked it.  I recall that the paper had included an observation prefaced with something like, “It’s only human nature for man to yada, yada, etc.….”  Upon reading this, my roommate turned to me and said, “Oh, I see… so now you’re an expert on human nature.  Exactly when did that occur?”  He must have read the resentment on my face as he softened the blow by asking, “You sure you still want brutal?”  I responded with the mid-70’s equivalent of “bring it.”

While I cannot report that immediately after this exchange I began to knock down A’s on my papers, I can say that I stand eternally grateful for the tutoring (mixed with a bit of tough love) that my roommate gave me.  I credit him with helping me take some big steps forward academically.

However, I also credit myself for intentionally seeking out and voluntarily entering into a demanding and challenging tutorial relationship… a Brother’s Keeper relationship .  Sometimes asking for help is not enough.  Sometimes you have to seek out the help that you might not want but it’s the help that you know you need.  (You also cannot always be on the receiving end of this dynamic!  Sometimes you need to reciprocate.)  My own Hyde education helped steer me to do just that.

“We help other’s achieve their best.”  That’s what Brother’s Keeper means.  It sounds simple, but it’s probably the hardest concept a Hyde student has to learn.  That’s OK, because it also offers a lifetime of value.

Onward,  Malcolm Gauld

Last weekend I attended a school meeting at Woodstock that featured recent alums on stage talking about their efforts to apply what they’ve learned at Hyde to the challenges of the outside world.  During the Q&A phase of the meeting, one student pointedly asked the alums, “Do you really do Brother’s Keeper in college?”

One of the college students replied, “Definitely.”  Nearly all of the others nodded in agreement.   What was clear was the difference in mindsets between the questioner (a newer student who didn’t appear to be much of a fan of BK) and the “answerer” (an alum who, having once been a Hyde student, could certainly identify with the questioner’s attitudes about BK).  They were two ships passing in the night.

The student, still in the early stages of understanding, meant, When you see kids breaking rules, do you turn them in? Being a relatively new student, he has trouble seeing beyond BK as anything other than a snitch system.

The alum, thinking on a deeper level (and having been knocked on his tail a time or two since graduating from Hyde), observed that college becomes both easier and productive once you establish a network in the form of a productive peer group that will both support and challenge you.  College (and life itself) is pretty tough to do on your own.  And a peer group works both ways: you give and you get.

This alum’s off-the-cuff remarks focus the reason we value BK at Hyde.  Neither I nor Hyde’s most seasoned veterans have ever assumed that Hyde grads will fall into lockstep with BK as practiced at Hyde.  After all, this goes back to the comments I made in BK Primer #4 (12/1/11) about Forgiveness.  BK works at Hyde for the very reason that Hyde is such a forgiving place.  It also works because all members of the Hyde community have made a commitment (even if it might sometimes be uttered under false pretenses!) to uphold the Hyde ethics.  When kids get to college, they enter a world that is far less forgiving to say nothing of one that features a diversity of ethical viewpoints.  It’s natural for college kids to both test and explore their ethics.  Furthermore, it’s entirely appropriate given the fact that unlike Hyde students, they are also adults.

It is our hope that exposure to BK at Hyde will prepare our students to establish interpersonal relationships – with both individuals and groups – that will help them be the best they can be.  We also hope that they will someday pass the importance of this idea on to their own children.

Onward,  Malcolm Gauld

Thanks to the thoughtful generosity of my wife and kids, I was able to check off an item on my personal Bucket List when Santa gave me two tickets to see Chuck Berry at BB King’s Nightclub in Times Sguare on New Year’s Eve.  Since none of my family members were willing to brave the madness of Times Square on that night, I brought along a friend and colleague who laughs in the face of madness: Pete Gregory ’89.

I love Chuck Berry for his disarming simplicity – 3 chords about three topics: cars, girls, and high school.  His lyrics are spot on.  (Is there a better anthem on “teenagerness” than “No Particular Place to Go”?)  And his guitar riffs are so ubiquitous that teenagers who have never heard of him spend hours mastering licks that they don’t even know began with him.  He’s 85 and doesn’t do many shows anymore.  New Year’s Eve 2011 was my chance!  After a delightful early dinner with another guy who embraces madness — Ken Goris ’90 — we headed to the show.

As I wrote to some Facebook friends after the show, ‎’Twas a night to remember.  In a number of places he just plain forgot the words to the very legendary songs he penned a half-century ago. (He even apologized to the audience a few times for it.) Then just when you’d start to feel sorry for him, he’d hoist that axe and rip off those classic riffs that he also created as if to say, “I ain’t done yet!” He was either playing the audience OR the memory in his fingers just took over to cover for what the mind could no longer remember. Pro personified.

He also showed that rock & roll defiance when the stage manager motioned him off the stage after his “last” number.  (There were two shows that night and they wanted to clear the hall for the second one.)  Chuck started to walk off-stage, turned and grinned at the audience, turned right and sneered at the management, then turned left to his band and said, “Let’s do one more.”  Yeah!!!

John Lennon famously said, “If rock & roll had another name, they’d have to call it Chuck Berry.”  How’s that for disarming simplicity?

“Hail, hail, rock & roll!  Malcolm Gauld

The young man seemed to struggle with his writing skills, but his greatest weakness was integrity.  Perhaps his struggles with integrity significantly limited his writing ability.  No matter where it begins in the proverbial chicken or egg story, our experience together began with writing stories; and this young man was writing about a childhood event that involved fighting and lying.

This young man’s narrative line jumped around and his draft could not tell a coherent story.  He began threads that seemed interesting (how he reacted to a brick thrown at his friend) only to skitter away and take up a different thread (how he had managed to stay home without his parents in the first place).  Through days of revision conferences and revision strategies, he never could settle in, focus on, or go deeper into the narrative thread of his story.

I used a visual to help him see the intended shape of a story and the actual shape of his story.  I drew an inverted triangle to show how a story should draw the reader in on one idea and event – to give all the details associated.  Then across the top edge of the triangle, I drew a sketch that looked like a time-lapse image of a stone skipping across the water.  I explained that, at present, his narrative presented a random and surface-level series of topics and images.  I selected a few of his stronger points in the story as entry points for more detail, more specifics.  I asked him to go deeper.

However, a young man who struggles to tell the truth often struggles with putting down the details and sharing all the specifics.  In fact, this young man had made a career of lying to his parents, his friends, and his schools. In the end, at the same time we tried to improve his paper, he was secretly holding back many truths about his actions in present time.

When the truth began to break, yet the young man continued to deny it, I saw in perfect 20/20 hindsight view how his writing struggle was not one of focus and depth, but one of truth.

Next time you find yourself stuck with a student who cannot seem to get deeper in their writing, ask them to consider their commitment to the truth.

1. Still Surprised – A Memoir of Life in Leadership by Warren Bennis
2. Fire & Rain – The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970 by David Browne
3. Townie by Andre Dubus III
4. I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive by Steve Earle
5.  The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
6. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
7. Tabloid City by Pete Hamill
8. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
9. Basketball Junkie by Chris Herren & Bill Reynolds
10. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
11. The Moment by Douglas Kennedy
12. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

1. For his 30^th book, Warren Bennis offers Still Surprised – A Memoir of Life in Leadership as a personal exploration of his lifelong experiences trying to exhibit, understand, and teach leadership.  (Note: Warren is a Hyde alumni parent, father of Will ’87.)

2. David Browne tips off the reader as to message of Fire & Rain in the (full) title.  Following the 60s, rock settled into its passive aggressive period.  Browne portrays these musicians as nowhere near as laid back as their music and images might suggest. Having been a high school sophomore in 1970, the history conflicted with the image I had of the time… or maybe it was the image I wanted to have!

3. In Townie, Andre Dubuis offers a compelling memoir of a young man in a divorced family caught in the town/gown dynamic of a small New England college town.  His father, a writer and professor, tugs him in the gown direction while his mother pulls him in the other as she struggles to make ends meet.  Throw in alcohol, extreme dysfunction, and the violent aura of a hard-luck post-industrial region and we and our protagonist are tugged in every which way.

4. Steve Earle would get my vote as best songwriter of 80s given his 3-peat masterpiece of Guitar Town (1986), Exit 0 (1987, my favorite), and Copperhead Road (1988).  After a book of short stories (Doghouse Roses, 2001), he’s now tried his hand at a novel.  I’ll Never Get out of This World Alive is a captivating tale featuring outlandish characters in a seedy section of San Antonio.

5. In the Marriage Plot, Jeffrey Eugenides tells the story of three friends who meet at Brown University in the early 80s and follows them through the years immediately following graduation.  There’s humor, pain, reflection, and sorrow.  I think I read this in two sittings.

6. After two false starts with Freedom, I got hooked on my third.  I concur with the critics who say that Freedom tells us a lot about how we live right now and how we got here. Furthermore, the “we” cuts close to home as the story winds its way through high schoolers in the Watergate era, 30-somethings during the Reagan years, 40-somethings under Clinton, 50-somethings… Hey, wait a minute!… He’s “talkin’ ‘bout my generation!”

7. Tabloid City is a novel about New York by a guy who does that genre as well as anyone.  There’s murder, mystery, socialites, tabloid journalism, hedge fund managers… you know… all the stuff that makes New York our most exciting city.

8. The Art of Fielding uses baseball to tell its story but it’s not exactly a baseball story.  Like The Marriage Plot, it’s a great campus novel, this time set at a Midwest liberal arts college.  I can’t help thinking that Eugenides, Franzen, and Harbach got together and said, “Hey! Let’s put a whole new slant on the whole ‘coming of age’ thing!”  For some reason, these books are linked in my mind as a trilogy.  Then again, I could be crazy.  (Actually, with my kids home for the Holidays, I’ve been hearing that a lot lately.)

9. In Basketball Junkie, Chris Herren tells the story of his basketball rise, fall – more like free-fall — and redemption.  His brutally honest story reveals a young man blessed on one side with extremely rare athletic ability and competitive spirit counter-balanced by an insatiable desire for mind-altering substance.  The fact that he’s writing about all of this hints that the ultimate ending is positive, but it sure doesn’t seem that the dots will connect that way while you’re reading the story.

10. After both Laura and I had finished Unbroken, I asked Laura for her first reaction to the book.  She replied, “Not to get all cheesy on you, but it brings to mind Faulkner’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech quote: “I believe that man will not only endure – he will prevail.”  It’s an amazing story of a human rising above adverse circumstances only to… prevail.

11.  As he does with most of his books, Douglas Kennedy takes the reader for an intercontinental ride in The Moment.  Raised in NYC, Doug, my college classmate, now lives a trifurcated (is that a word?) existence in London, Paris, and Maine. All four locales are likely to wind up in his novels – this book was #1 in France – including frequent references to Bath and environs. Among Doug’s other can’t-put-down novels are The Job, The Big Picture, Pursuit of Happiness, and Leaving the World. Definitely check him out.  (Watch for his The Woman in the Fifth on the Silver Screen starring Ethan Hawke and Kristin Scott Thomas.)

12. With a plot set in Mississippi in the early 1960s featuring the interplay of a recent college graduate, her contemporaries, and their maids (i.e. The Help), The Help presents a “no holds barred” look at race relations both then and now.  Not only does Stockett, a young woman, nail so many cultural nuances unique to the time period, it was hard for me to believe that this is her first novel.  Can’t wait for her second.

Onward,  Malcolm Gauld

Album of the Year: Dawes: Nothing is Wrong
This gets my nod for album of the year for a very simple reason: I can’t stop playing it!!! I was drawn to Dawes because of the name (My good friend, longtime Hyde faculty member Mike Dawes, passed away last year) and the fact that the critics say they sound like The Band.  They do.  (The song “Moon In The Water” sounds like the ghost of Rick Danko.)  They also have a touch of Jackson Browne who guests on the album. I would never have thought that 70′s-retro would sound good, but this does. It’s easy on the ear without being Easy-Listening.

1. Hayes Carll: KMAG YOYO – I first heard this guy this summer on Sirius XM radio’s Outlaw Country when the song “Hard Out Here” got a fair amount of air play.  One critic observed that the Dylanesque title track harkens back to a “Subterranean Homesick Blues” vibe.  One could be called worse things.  (BTW: “KMAG YOYO” is military slang for “Kiss my ass guys, You’re on your own.”)

2. The Civil Wars: Barton Hollow – My college roommate turned me on to this male/female duo.  From the black & white album cover shot to the 12 original songs within, this is a thoughtful and soothing offering.  Great track: “C’est la Mort.”

3. Steve Earle: I’ll Never Get out of This World Alive – I’ve been a big Steve Earle fan for 25 years.  (I’d put his 1987 release Exit 0 on my all-time top-10 list.)  In what may be a first, this album is accompanied by Earle’s (excellent) novel with the same title.  Give a listen/read to both.

4. Fitz and the Tantrums: Picking up the Pieces – Hyde alum Scott Marlow ’81 tipped me off to this “California band with a 60′s pop sound.”  (Hyde-Bath seniors will remember that Scott, a national expert on family farming, taught a few sections of Government class in September during fall alumni weekend.)  Very catchy stuff, especially the title track.

5.  Levon Helm: Ramble at the Ryman – Levon Helm has given me so much listening pleasure over the past 40+ years that the least I can do is buy his albums whether good or bad.  (See #8.)  This is a good one featuring a hot band and covers of songs he did with The Band (e.g., “Ophelia” and “Rag Mama Rag”) mixed with other strong numbers.

6.. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings: The Hard Way – I’m cheating as this is a 2010 release, but as I wrote on my Facebook page, “Wow! If you only buy one album this year!!!… These guys are going retro on the Stax and Motown sound right down to insisting on using analog recording equipment. It’s as though all those great artists of yesteryear – Supremes, Martha Reeves, Temptations, Ike & Tina, Smokey, Otis, James Brown, Maceo Parker, Wilson Pickett, etc. got together seeking reconnection with their audiences, only they (and we) are all grown-up now and the issues we face are, shall we say, more mature… And that Sharon Jones can saaaahng!!!”

7. NRBQ: Keep This Love Goin’ – Some Q people are troubled by this album being called an NRBQ album with only one original member (Terry Adams) presiding.  Well, regardless of whether it qualifies as NRBQ or not… it’s good.  Love the title track and “Boozoo and Leona.”

8.  Robbie Robertson: How To Become Clairvoyant – As a diehard disciple of every note played by The Band, I buy any and all offerings that the original members produce.  (See #5.)  I never really cottoned to Robbie’s prior solo releases because I thought his vocals were weak.  (I might have been prejudiced by the fact that he rarely sang on The Band albums.)  However, in this outing, the songs seem tailored to fit his raspy, understated vocals.

9. Rolling Stones: Some Girls – Contrary to some of the critics, I love this remix of the 1978 original.  The “new” songs make an excellent stand-alone album.  You might have to be a Baby-Boomer to “get” the hilarious “Claudine” (remember the Claudine Longet/Spider Sabich/Andy Williams love/murder triangle?) but anyone will enjoy the covers of “Tallahassee Lassie” and Hank Williams’ “You Win Again.” Hey, nobody does covers like The Rolling Stones.

10. Tom Waits: Bad as Me – While devotees may accuse me of sacrilege, the experimental turn that Waits took 20 years ago with Bone Machine (1992) left me a bit cold.  This release strikes me as the best of both worlds.  And he seems to have a good time here.  And how many guys could poke fun at the Stones (“Satisfied”) and have Keith Richards back him up on guitar while he’s at it?

11. Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile, Stuart Duncan and Edgar Meyer: The Goat Rodeo Sessions – Try this experiment: Put on the Goat Rodeo Sessions and wait to see of someone doesn’t say, “What is that, anyway?… Sounds good.”  It’s hard to classify.  One critic claims that Yo-Yo Ma has swapped Bach for bluegrass.  I suspect that music stores won’t know which genre rack to place it in.  Buy it and decide for yourself.

(Rock) Onward,  Malcolm Gauld

My strategy: I sent an email to 25 friends who are big music fans and primed the pump with three 2011 albums I like a lot.  I was hoping to get some of them to offer up some of their own personal favorites.

Here are my three choices with a brief explanation in support of each:

- Dawes – “Nothing is Wrong” (2011)
- Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - “The Hard Way” (2010)
- Rolling Stones - “Some Girls” (2011).

I was initially drawn to Dawes because of the name (Many of you know my/our good friend and longtime Hyde faculty member Mike Dawes who passed away last year.) and the fact that the critics say they sound like The Band. They do. (The vocals on “Moon In The Water” could pass for the ghost of Rick Danko.) They also have a touch of Jackson Browne who guests on the album. I would never have thought that 70′s-retro “Laurel Canyon” would sound good, but this does. It’s easy on the ear without being Easy-Listening. Great to just let it filter through the house… like it’s been doing at ours all this week!

Speaking of retro, The Dap-Kings offer the best of Detroit/Motown and Memphis/Stax soul while leaning decidedly to the latter, grittier R&B sound. (I understand they even record their stuff on old retro equipment to get that 60s/70s sound.)  I discovered them only because I happened to be exploring the racks at Bullmoose Music in Brunswick — a must stop if you’re ever in Bath and looking to spend some quality downtime — when this album came thru the store sound system. It stopped me in my tracks.  I bought it immediately. It’s a great mix of strings, horns, and drums. And that Sharon Jones can saaahng!

Contrary to some of the critics, I like the “Some Girls” re-mix. The “new” songs could pass for a stand-alone album. You’d probably have to be a Baby-Boomer to “get” the hilarious “Claudine” (remember the Claudine Longet/Spider Sabich/Andy Williams love/murder triangle?) but anyone will enjoy their covers of “Tallahassee Lassie” and Hank Williams’ “You Win Again.” Nobody does covers like The Rolling Stones.

So, I showed them mine (so to speak).  Stay tuned for the responses I received.  (And don’t be shy about offering some of your own.

Onward,  Malcolm Gauld

I was headmaster at Hyde when Kenyatta attended.  I felt like my heart stopped when I heard the news of his passing.  My heart is still pretty heavy right now.  During my 35+ years of teaching, I’ve encountered my share of kids who have made me wonder, “What am I doing this for?!?” Kenyatta was one of those who made me say, “Oh yeah… THAT’s why I’m doing this.”

I remember him as a guy who met his obligations in a respectful manner and didn’t make a big deal about it.  I guess you could say that he under-promised and over-delivered.  And that can be a rare quality in a world of people who sometimes live in a state of over-hype.

Similarly, he was also a rare mix of tough and soft. On the one hand, his football coach (Gary Kent) called him “The Assassin” for his hard-nosed play on the field. On the other, he was as kind and gentle a guy as you could meet off the field.

He also had a great sense of humor. I remember his “quote of the day” at our daily morning meeting once: “The road to Rome is paved by Gregory.” (Sorry for the inside joke.) He also not only used to razz me over the new Ford Taurus I once bought that I was so proud of, he managed to work a joke about it into a performing arts show we did that year.

Kenyatta makes me proud to say, “Yeah, he was one of mine.”  And anyone who has ever been a headmaster would agree, that’s as good as it gets.  With thoughts and prayers to Kenyatta’s family, friends, and loved ones.

Onward, My Friend,  Malcolm Gauld

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/business/geoffrey-canada-of-harlem-childrens-zone-on-remembering-basics.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&adxnnlx=1324321225-n4I%20HFOZ1l25xwMAc6CdbA

Onward,  Malcolm Gauld