Principles of Principals

  6th grade, remember your experience? Do you remember your teachers, or just one in particular? I do. I have an uncanny memory for all of my teachers, first and last names, the when, the where, and most of all, how they made me feel. My sixth grade year at Basalt Middle School wasn't out of the ordinary for the first half. I was learning to wrestle, figuring out some of the dynamics of family and school life, learning who my friends were...and weren't. Mrs. Palmer was my teacher. She remains a fixture in my life. In fact, she attended our thirty year high school reunion. As is the case with every teacher, she had her sayings and things she would do that are memorable. Shutting the lights off if class got too rowdy meant we would all retreat to our desks, heads down, and wait for her gentle voice to guide us back to reality.  Firmly calling out, "Cool your jets!"  The non-negotiable of all rules, we were never allowed to utter the words , " Shut up ". Ever.

  They do. If you dispute this, stop reading. Move along. When I coached, my focus was in three areas; Fitness of the body - overall physical conditioning preparatory to successful wrestling. Fitness of the mind - overall mental conditioning preparatory to successful strategy. Fitness of the character - well-rounded humans who oozed humility off the mat. My wrestlers were very familiar with physical, emotional and mental struggle so some of this came with relative ease to them. Building habits of fitness was a challenge. All of it we measured by our behaviors. For example, we conducted weekly grade/eligibility checks, we counted our mat time and pushups, we stayed out of the principal's office and out of detentions. Fundamental to creating habits of fitness was dealing addressing my mindset. First.  First, I made a conscious choice to see them as humans with goals, hopes, and dreams. Humans who were completely capable of excellence. Capable of achieving their highest potential.  Ne

As a man who believes in Christ and strives to understand how I process those beliefs in my life, my actions, and my words; I often turn to modern philosophers to help me make sense of things. In my own weakness, I don't always understand scriptures. My faith often falls short. My prayers could be on repeat. I love to read, think, and write. I often come across gems that strike me as relevant. One such philosopher who's words captured my young heart, C.S. Lewis, gives me pause. Here is his take, on the atomic age, my additions and emphasis embedded, no disrespect intended. “In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic [ covid ] age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer,

  I grew up in the Rocky Mountains, and now reside there as a middle-aged man. God's country. My family has lived here for six generations, founded to towns, owned gold and silver claims, timber, farmed and ranched here. My father was killed and is buried here.  All around me are these beautiful and majestic trees. For a time, my business was trees. Well, commercial landscaping. Purchasing, planting, cultivating, trimming, and growing trees. I can look at a tree and tell you if it is healthy, I can tell how it's been cared for, and when/where it should be trimmed. Over the course of my life I've learned a few things about these beautiful creations. Aspen trees are known for their breathtaking Fall colors. But did you know that they are the world's largest living organism? Their root systems are connected and when one member of a grove is sick, the others support it with nutrients.  Because Aspens are a united grove, they aren't as susceptible to disease and insects

 Image Courtesy of Salt Lake Tribune Romney v Nixon 1968 - Republican Primary, my how different things might have been had the media not been so eager to help a Republican candidate self-destruct. Leave it to the main stream media to cherry pick one sentence, spin vigorously, and let the context and facts fall where they may. The media industrial complex. Romney was a successful person, in the worldly sense. Also, he was successful politically and socially. Auto executive. Father. Religious leader. Willing and humble community servant. He entered the primary, arguably was doing quite well, and uttered the words "brain washing" when describing parts of his tour of the war in Vietnam. Taken out of context, those words were used out of context and portrayed him as an anti-armed services, anti-American...and you get the idea. Nothing could have been further from the truth. No one checked his political record as Governor of Michigan, nor did they care to circle back and ask him fo

  Greetings dear reader!  In addition to my posts questioning the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control, United States federal government, Boulder County Health, Peoria Unified School District and St. Vrain School District decisions, I offer some sound COVID protocols for your health. I am not a medical doctor.  I do believe in self-care. I do find it curious that the above mentioned institutions are not publishing any guidelines about how we CAN AND SHOULD take care of ourselves, don't you? If it is really not about me as I see on all these activist t shirts and yard signs, then please, be reminded that a mask isn't what you think it is. Know that you have a lot more responsibility to others. Know that you should be taking care of yourself. A mask isn't going to cut it. These are provided by my professional colleagues and people I admire at GORUCK. **Not intended to be a substitute for hospitalization or PCP/Provider advice** My name is Dr. Richard Angel,

I recently read a post from a former colleague about how there exist correlations of racism because people don't know how to pronounce names anymore, or better still, they don't take the time to properly pronounce a person's name. I wonder first, where's the data on that. Low inference data. Anyone? Is it peer reviewed or is it a part of the #gatedinstitutionalnarrative ? Here, stand in a round room and find a corner. Never mind us, we're just going to laugh while you try. See, in my experience, mispronouncing names is fairly common the world over. Just ask Mr. Garvey. Take me for example. I have no idea the origins of my name. If you were to base it on my skin color, you might draw one conclusion. If you are a part of my tribe, you could draw another. If you heard one of my students speak to me, you may be confused by their familiarity. I've been called ; jerry, Gary, jarhead, garret, jerrid, Jarrod, parrot, ferret, carrot, Janet and many variations with ensui

With thousands of children on forced lock-downs across the nation, we are witness to the compounding of an ever present challenge facing our schools. Child sex trafficking,  child sexual abuse,  child abuse,  child neglect.  However one decides to label it, mandatory first reporters - teachers - are hamstrung by the lack of presence in our children's lives. This is particularly troubling when we consider the steady decline, manifest back in March of 2020, in reports of child neglect.  Difficult to discern how many would have been investigated and found illegitimate since none of them could have been as they weren't reported.  Since those children who almost exclusively rely on a public school infrastructure for medical care, immunizations, communication, food, and learning no longer have access to those things - we can't reach them. We don't even know what we don't know. We hear activists and media clarion calls for safety first. I see t-shirts that say It's not

Dear reader, here's a report of a child who is suspended for a toy he has in his own home.  The so-called teacher, in a millennial activist fugue, spotted the dangerous weapon and used common sense to alert the parents, have a discussion with them, and then realized she should mind her own business. District administration immediately knew nothing and also were able to mind their own business, getting back to the bloat and lack of necessity they now find in their jobs, sending a multiplicity of boring emails and eating carbs. Except, no . That didn't happen. Here's what really happened. Police were called. They conducted a wellness check   without parental consent. The elementary school child is suspended. He is a Black student. Why do I mention this, because...it matters. District fascists stand by their decision. Parental rights, private property rights, 2nd Amendment Rights, and the right to own whatever toy I want...eroding. Listen up! Keeping cameras off preserve

That people make up afterwards. I hear people say this all the time, and it just makes my moral and ethical skin crawl. Everything happens for a reason. Everything? Really? Bullcrap.  What reason would that be? Folks who say this have no idea what they are saying. However, when an event confirms their belief in that statement, the verbal diarrhea resumes. "See! I told you there was a reason. It is/isn't meant to be! Things happen for a reason." No they do not.  Things happen.  The reasons that get propped up happen after and do not relate except in your feeble mind. Stop saying this to people. Stop saying it to yourself.   Child abuse doesn't "happen for a reason". Genocide doesn't "happen for a reason". I lost my wallet because I'm an idiot. Good and evil are real. They exist in my heart, and in the hearts of us all. We do dumb things, for no reason. We do great things for no reason. We are humans BEING.  Attributing some random illogical

I adore the sport of wrestling. Very few things have brought me as much personal and professional satisfaction, grief, suffering, confusion, and growth.  Three of my children have wrestled, including my youngest daughter. She's a pioneer in the sport, as evidenced by the interesting questions she gets asked. "You wrestle boys?" She does, and she wrestles female opponents as well. Or, "Wow, that's cool?" Almost like a side compliment. Wrestling is all about equality . It begins with weigh ins. Pre-match and pre-tournament, stripped down to the skivvies, get on the scale and check how much you weigh. I wrestled in the 119, 132, and 138 pound weight class. My opponents weighed the same.  The mat size is the same for all competitors. Mat time is the same, roughly six minutes, depending on division and age group. Same number of coaches are allowed in your corner, two. Same number of referees, usually one, supervise the match. Unless someone puts their thumb on t

For almost a decade I worked with youth who were, or had been incarcerated. Many of the students I served were remanded to the care of a Youth Detention Center focused on behavioral and psychological services. Many more were identified as Emotionally Disabled and placed in a self-contained setting as directed by the Least Restrictive Environment portion of their Individual Education Plan. The work was demanding. These young souls were deeply troubled, had suffered great trauma, and some had made choices that exacerbated their situation.  They understandably lacked trust. Trust was the fundamental key that opened the door to learning new social and behavioral skills. The door to that room swung on the hinges of relevance, repetition, and reward - honest reward. Relevance - the skills we taught had to make meaning in their lives. Repetition - the skills had to be modeled and repeated many times over. Reward - we collaboratively leaned into teaching intrinsic reward systems - the ethic