Of High Stakes Examinations and its Victims

Measuring what and how well students learn is an important building block in the process of strengthening and improving outcomes in the education sector. Examinations, along with student grades can provide critical measures of students' skills, knowledge, and abilities, and ideally, attitudes. Therefore, examinations should be part of a system in which broad and evenhanded access to educational opportunity and progression is provided to all students. Examinations are among the most comprehensive and objective ways to measure student learning and performance. But, when examination results are used inappropriately or as a single measure of performance, they result in negative consequences. Ideally, examinations should be mandated by government to measure level of curriculum effectiveness and relevance, student performance and to hold individual schools and the education system as a whole accountable for that performance. If we measure what and how students learn, we have a chance to improve the weak areas. If we are measuring performance of the system then we also need to put in place measures for teaching and instruction, instructional leadership and supervision; and curriculum alignment to the needs of the country. Knowing if and what students are learning is important. Examination results give classroom teachers important information on how well individual students are learning and provide feedback to the teachers themselves on their pedagogical skills and curriculum materials. It is important to remember, however, in evaluation, no single tests is fit for all purposes. Indeed, examinations vary in their intended uses and in their ability to provide meaningful assessments and feedback on student learning. As such, while the goal of using large-scale examinations (such as the KCPE, KCSE) to measure and improve student and school system performance is laudable, but it is also critical that such examinations are sound, are scored properly, and are used appropriately. Thus we must devise ways to measure how the content that students are taught is useful. As it is, the only facet of the education sector examined in the Kenyan system is the learner. On this premise we assume that the student is solely responsible for the system results at the end of a course. When do we as a country evaluate the pedagogical practices in class? What is the efficacy of existing policies governing the sector? Don’t these facets require evaluation as well? Having students to take responsibility for the entire system is unfair to say the least. The first premise of Howard Garner’s Multiple Intelligence theory maintains that not all learners do well in cognitive examinations because their intelligence lies elsewhere. But most of the national exams are purely cognitive based. Secondly, many students are affected by examination anxiety or do not show their learning well on a standardized examination, resulting in inaccurately lower scores. You cannot test what has been learned in 4 years in 2 hours. In an unequal society such as ours, many students do not have a fair opportunity to learn the material on the examination because they attend poorly-funded schools with large class sizes, inadequate books, libraries, laboratories, computers and other facilities. These students are usually from low-income families, and many also suffer problems with housing, nutrition or health care. High-stakes examinations punish such children for things they cannot control. The situation is worse for students with learning disabilities who are examined the same way as regular students and fail examinations far more frequently than do mainstream students. The higher the stakes, the more schools focus instruction on the examinations that we commonly call drilling. Instruction then begins to look like the examinations. Reading for example is reduced to short passages followed by multiple-choice questions, a kind of "reading" that does not exist in the real world. Writing becomes the short incoherent essay that is useless except on standardized examinations. If you don’t believe me, pick up an ‘insha’ book for any form one child fresh from class 8, and you will get dizzy at the attempt to force ‘misemo’ in every sentence in an insha that cannot read, a result of the belief by teachers that the examiner with be looking for ‘tamathali za semi’. The upshot of this is that what is not examined often is not taught. Whole subjects may be dropped e.g. art or physical education is effectively eliminated in the actual curriculum because focus is placed on the subjects that are examined. Consequently topics or skills that cannot be examined with paper-and-pencil examinations – such as writing critical thinking and creativity are ignored. Again, this narrowing of curriculum and instruction happens most to students from poor families. In schools serving wealthier areas, teachers and parents make sure most students gain the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in college and life. They are taken to private schools, with small classes and closely monitored teachers and sometimes students are afforded extra tuition. Too often, students from poverty pockets get little more than examination coaching that does not adequately prepare them for further learning. In some schools, the library budget is spent on sample examination papers, and professional development is reduced to getting teachers to be better examination coaches. All this further limits educational opportunities for children from poor backgrounds. In such a scenario, teachers in such schools get discouraged. You cannot be teaching in schools always regarded as failures. Nobody wants to fail all the time. Good teachers are often discouraged, even disgusted, by the overemphasis on examinations. Many excellent teachers leave for other professions. It is ridiculous and absurd to believe that the "best and brightest” will want to become teachers when teaching is reduced to examination preparation and when schools are continually attacked by politicians, business leaders and the media for failures that are system-wide. When narrow examinations are used to hold schools accountable, teachers also leave low-performing schools where they are needed most. I think it is unfair to students that the system simply churns them out even when they have not been adequately educated. But again, if students do not have access to an adequate and equitable education, they end up being held accountable for the sector-wide performance while the education system is not. Teachers in Kenya simply lobby the government using a powerful union and get pay increments with no direct correlation to the effectiveness of their teaching. The government must take responsibility and be held accountable for providing a strong educational opportunity for all. The practice of high stakes testing in this country is an effort to treat teaching and learning in a simple and fair manner, but in a world where education is hugely complex with inequitable distribution of opportunity. If we are to increase the level of accountability for the sector, we need challenges from multiple viewpoints as to the costs and benefits for the children in our schools. Education requires decisions as to how children, teachers, and schools will be sustained, improved and promoted, but focus on high stakes examinations oversimplifies the decisions to be made. Today the education CS will preside over a live televised pompous ceremony called releasing KCSE exam results. That ritual will be the beginning of an upward trajectory for some children, and there will be celebrations across the country. It will also sound the death knell for most of the graduates who are victims of indiscriminate examination system. As we mourn or celebrate the results, we as a country should take time and reflect. We need be alive to the fact that most serious problem with high stakes exams such as the one whose results we expect today, is its insistence that education be evaluated in a narrow way. As an educator I know that every child can learn and learn extremely well, but not every child can necessarily do well in KCSE. When we represent children in percentages and means, we insulate ourselves against the miserable feeling of sending so many children into oblivion, because those are just statistics. When we stop transpose statistics to a personal level, we know these are the Wanyonyi’s, Habibas Kibets and Onyangos, and that is when we acutely suffer the system failure. Perhaps we need to examine consequences in real situations for real people affected, not just chunks of statistics. Currently, the examination system policies and practices fail to provide the mechanisms of review, meta-evaluation, and validation demanded by professional standards of education in the 21st century. I would love to celebrate a result from a system that gives a fair chance to all. I would love to celebrate good results from an objective assessment system. Unfortunately, I cannot. Not today, for I am yet to experience that system.

Special Tribute

Special Tribute- I wrote this in Jan 2011 to three incredible human beings that walked with me the treacherous journey. Today is a day of celebration for me. It's the day I have met the lady who saved my life!!!!! Once my results came out clean with no evidence of cancer in the surrounding tissue or lymph nodes, I consider myself more than lucky. Of course, I say that knowing that a lot of patients that I know have passed on and here I am preparing to celebrate cancerversary next year January 31, the last day of the month I was declared cancerfree and its coincidentally my birth month. Three years ago, in February, I wrote my journal just before I headed to the hospital. It is entitled "Lord, please make these tumors benign!" Well the Lord didn’t exactly grant my plea and as I read through that, I reflect on all the changes I've endured over the past two years. There have been a lot of them! In a comment I made later that night, I mentioned that I'd been told prior to the test that the tumor was 2.0 - 2.5 cm and when I learned the lab had trouble locating it I rejoiced because that suggested to me the tumors must be was smaller than earlier believed. Two days after writing that comment, I learned the reverse was true. The tumors had grown since the last scans and was actually 3.5 cm…it was all the lymph nodes in my upper torso, and it wasn’t just one tumor. They were growing pretty aggressively at that point. The problem in locating the tumor in the lab was due to the marker coming out and the doctor actually had to leave surgery and come make a positive identification as a preliminary biopsy (FNA- this is just about the most horrible procedure *sigh*) had to be done before the treatment could continue. In 2008 it was somewhat a slow progress nothing alarming until 2009 September when I got meningitis successively followed by amoebic infection. I grew thin and emaciated. I “knew” the end was near. As the doctors struggled, I felt sliced, diced, pickled and fried. I have gained incredible respect for what the human body can endure and can attest to the fact that we are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made. I am in complete awe of God's design. In 2010 I faced things I never thought I could face and went places I never thought I my small frame could endure. And the miracle of it all is indeed the essence of this entry. The three of you, in different ways did me up in ways I'd never been lifted up before. You basically stayed my side and said, "We want to walk with you and hold up your arms when you just can't do it anymore." Yes, we do have our faults but I have discovered that love is truly amazing in spite of our faults. In 2009 I had to become extremely vulnerable mostly because I was going through what was then really difficult emotional wilderness. That wasn't something I wanted to do, but cancer throws on your path emotional hurdles that are hard to understand. I wanted to be tough and strong but I quickly learned I was not. I could either take a risk, open myself up and truly receive care and concern or I could seal myself up even more which would result in not really living at all. LPA(identity concealed), thank you for sticking even when you had the reason and freedom to walk away. That you stuck with me means so much and this is written on the tablets of my heart. Physically, the very location of my cancer made it impossible not be vulnerable. Any dignity you may have had has been stripped away by the time they finish treatment. Dr P, thank you for your counsel and for making sure that I didn’t feel dirty when I couldn’t undertake the most basic biological processes by myself. I know what made the difference- when it came to emotional and spiritual vulnerability, I wanted to willingly place myself in God's hands and say, "Here I am, do what you will." I wish I could say this was easy. It has probably been one of the hardest yet most rewarding things I've ever done. I've shed many a tear over it at times when I wasn't physically able to cope with it. That's when I had to remember that God could and He did! In all honesty, I have to say the joy I've been given as a result has far exceeded the pain I endured. In 2010 I looked back and discovered I really didn't have regrets to speak of, meaning I realized that I really had been pursuing the things that mattered all of my life. I'd always understood that life without God is not life at all! And People are much more important than things; and that relationships take work, hard work. Money and worldly positions have always had very little meaning for me, as I really do view those things as temporary and I learned very early in life (thanks to my darling parents) that life as you know it can be changed without warning in an instant. Life as I knew it before cancer has changed forever. I still have to poke myself a couple of times a day and I hope there is never a recurrence that I may live a long, productive, wonderful life. This experience has touched my life irrevocably. I feel like I am so much stronger now, and I have more energy than I used to have. I am no longer struggling to get through the day, but am still struggling with this sudden tiredness that just hits me suddenly and vanishes as suddenly as it appears. I don’t know what lies ahead. We are all waiting in hope. Cancer might come back. Or it may not. God, however, has not changed and He never will. He is still my Heavenly Father and I am still His little princess! I am rejoicing daily and looking forward my 1st cancerversary but I am confident now that the very best is yet to come! In all these, G*, P* and A*, you are the heroes. May you have the most wonderful and joyous days all your lives!! You three continue to be a shining example to me. For you dear angels from India, to all your patients who, like me, go through in their journey dealing with severe disease and sickness I will say this: Your willingness to be more than doctors helped me to be open and honest about my feelings, my doubts and fears along with sharing my victories which have been an inspiration to me as I went through this battle. Thank YOU. Unless a person has to deal with a chronic disease or devastating situation such as cancer, it is hard to understand the raging battles that go on within the mind and heart. It is hard to understand how a day such as this, when assessment says “I am healed” (and will remain in the trust fund list), would produce such feelings of joy unspeakable and Thanksgiving. Unless a person has experienced the mind numbing time when a doctor says in so many words, "you may die from this", it is impossible to appreciate the thrill when those projections did not come to pass. Unless a person has been to the floor of the valley it is impossible to really enjoy the mountain top. I cant thank God enough that He has healed me. I thank him more that he has given each of you the heart of a servant and a champion to take my experiences and use them as means to help and strengthen me. So many would simply be content to bask in their personal victory, but, I deeply and profoundly thank God we have so far made and wish we can make it our mission to use our victories (and set backs) to help all of us better understand what it is like and what it means to live with such a serious and devastating disease even for a season. It is my prayer that as I share my journey, others will truly realize that our God enables us to be victors over our circumstances rather than victims for His own purposes! There is no darkness so dark that God cannot penetrate it and slay it! There is no path that is too dark, steep or hard for God and to be with God on those terrible paths is far better than to be a smooth, sunny, pleasant-looking path without Him because the former leads to true life while the other one leads to destruction. I wrote a journal entry during chemo which was called something like "It's A Setback, or Is It". I can't remember for sure, I lost the booklet in the many trips to the hospital in a dazed state. The title contained the word setback anyway. I had been looking at my bloodwork results and was concerned that some things were coming back somewhat and other things seemed to be getting worse. Dr Col.S* P* you told me that while those appeared to be setbacks, they really weren't. You were actually causing those particular numbers to go down on purpose and systematically dismantling some of my body defenses so that the drugs could destroy cancer cells without the interference by my immunity system. This is one of my "cancer lessons". What I view as a "setback" may not really be a "setback" at all. I had to trust that God is in complete control and He has a purpose for everything which befalls me whether I understand it or not. I have to say that if one person comes to understand this truth through something I say or do, it is truly worth the cost! I wrote this to the three of you because I have wept enough today, I have now understood clearly the trouble to which G* and Dr P* went through in order to secure the treatment regimen for me *Sob, Sob* Really I have absolutely nothing to say to express my gratitude. And for you LPA, you will always be my pillar. I am profoundly thankful and I know without a doubt that I could not have fought by myself without you 3 angels. May God bless you. In a very profound way.

Educating the Heart

We live in an environment of life skills crisis which can be conceptualized as a potentially disastrous imbalance between resource and need. In education circles there is abundant discussions of the need to boost academic achievement with solutions given that include boosting provision of textbooks, increasing the number of teachers, and formulating what is perceived as performance enhancing policies. In reality, though, in terms of importance, the need to boost academic achievement runs a distant second to the need to boost life skills. The happiness and success of our students and the productiveness and success of our society depend on the level of our life skills and, as educators, we need to admit, face, and address the challenge of life. Being in the profession of teaching and curriculum development for as long as I have, I can tell students today are radically different from students a generation ago. Students of past generations came to class with basic virtues and life skills such as honesty, courtesy, and perseverance which were nurtured and ingrained within the family or the closely knitted communities. If we fast-forward from that time to today, we find the norm has become dishonesty, rudeness, and impulsiveness arising from fragmented families and communities. Students were sensitive to the feelings of others; today's students too often treat others as objects. An alarming percentage of students have lost the fundamental values of respect, honesty, kindness, and lawfulness. Today they are insensitive; they are hurting, are not sure of their identity and feel lonely. In a nutshell, today's students do not come to school with basic life skills. Compared to students of a generation ago, students today lack basic intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. They are rude, and uncooperative. They lack emotional skills: They act out their feelings without awareness of the feelings. They are not empowered with personal, organizational, and planning skills, and are not exposed to basic citizenship skills. We know that when we learn to deal with the psychological requirements of learners, and when we become sensitive to what makes them want to learn, we can then focus on what they need to learn. “Addressing the needs in the affective domain is more important than cognitive needs”. We need to educate the heart as we educate the heart. A humanistic approach is needed to view the child as a whole and everything that makes him an individual. Instruction in EQ will help students understand themselves and understand others. Instruction in emotional intelligence is not a quick fix or a one-time lesson. Social and emotional learning programs work best when parents and teachers are partners, and that means schools need to bring together parents and teachers in ways to promote behavior that improves communication, empathy, self-awareness, decision-making, and problem-solving. Parents, educators, policymakers, and business people all have a role to play in supporting the social and emotional learning of schoolchildren. It’s a whole new vision of education that says that educating the heart is as important as educating the mind.

The Anwer my Friend is Blowing in the Wind

Been thinking about all the questions I have… and was drawn to Bob Dylan’s Blowing in the wind. Especially this verse got my attention: How many times must a man look up Before he can see the sky? Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have Before he can hear people cry? Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows That too many people have died? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind, The answer is blowin' in the wind. Wow, there are obviously many difficult questions throughout this song that have equally challenging answers. Why would answers to such profound questions be blowing in the wind? How are they just blowing? For I have never been able to see the wind, I can only see or feel the effects, good or bad. However, the outcome or aftermath from a bad storm is real, but not always predictable. In some ways like a difficult decision, outcomes are not always easy to deal with for everyone involved. Good and bad always comes from any decision. Methinks this song is all about the flaws of human nature. We as people spew so much anger and hate in the world around us. When we look back on the creations of our hands and minds we see greed, mediocrity, corruption, we see war, death and despair. Even after decades (maybe centuries) we are surrounded by these hateful crimes. We see all of the negativity on the news every morning noon and night. Indeed sometimes it’s hard to even comprehend the evil and sinful acts that humans are able to commit against each other. Yet we seem destined to repeat ourselves and we are unable to eliminate those petty emotions like jealousy and fear. It is emotions like these that guide our hands when we judge others whom we don't understand. These are the roots of prejudice and evil. It doesn't matter how many people we see die around us; we never seem to learn from any of it. Humans have been killing each other off since they first discovered how to. Nevertheless, even after thousands of years of death and destruction we still engage in war to solve our conflicts. We can share the deepest love for each other yet in a moment’s notice we can turn around and hurt someone whom we barely know. We constantly find faces for our troubles and people to blame, when the truth is we only need to look in the mirror to see who is really at fault. We perpetuate the evil that eats away at our souls and hearts. There is something so self-destructive about the human nature. It doesn't matter how many videos or books or stories we read about things like greed or corruption, it’s no closer to being eliminated from our mindset than it was in the days of old. This song begs the question, how many times? How long must we continue living in the dark before we see the light? It asks the ultimate question, when will we learn from our mistakes? This song reminds me of the fact how we are restricted or confused by our surroundings (the physical) and therefore fail to notice the most obvious truths in life (the Spiritual), to do whatever that might be helpful to the world, to ourselves. It means getting past our pride to see that the answer is right in front of us. Humility is the key. Humility is a spiritual virtue, and therein lies answers to life's questions.. “…be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. (1 Pet 5:5)

Musings of a PhD Student

Two years ago, when I started this site, I thought I had it all figured out. I was in the very early stages of my PhD work and thought I was going to be focusing on how EQ could improve leadership performance in schools. I hadn’t planned to bog about it but I think it makes sense to. Here’s the thing: It turns out that doing a PhD is hard. Really hard. And amidst many sleepless nights of writing papers, examining primary research and reading more journal articles than I can fit on a very large bookcase, I had to let go of many things, and socializing is one of the casualties. I don’t know if I should apologize or be happy (in some way am more peaceful in this solitude). In fact I think there’s a silver lining: As I near the end of 2nd year… I think it just ended actually –I am learning that as much as I had it all mapped out… I didn’t!. Part of why I wanted to do a doctorate in educational leadership is because I wanted to contribute to building better, effective educational leaders. This site represents my experience into that, with musings based on research, articles and books I’m reading. While the updates are sporadic right now, they probably will be less so in the coming months. Think about it.. I had planned and even applied for an MBA to run concurrently with this PhD. But that would have been a cakewalk compared to the dissertation I’m starting after data collection if I succeed in my proposal defense- which in itself qualifies to be a phenomenological study of the lived experiences of being a PHD student in Moi University. But that is a story for another day. My Phd is a correlational study of EQ, Instructional Leadership and Learning Outcomes. I have mused together with my supervisor as to what the DV is IL or LO. We finally agreed last week that it is LO. That being clear, I am using adapted standardized instruments.. the MSCEIT for EQ and PIMRS and the SAQ for IL.. and for learning outcomes my employer has been gracious to allow me to use Baseline data on EGR and EGMA in the counties I lead in implementing the Primary Reading and Math Initiative. Essentially, that means I’m going to have head teachers who fit into this demographic (school leadership) about what they’ve experienced, and synthesize the information to find the essence of the experience through filling in the MSCEIT and the PIMRS. They will then have teachers under them to rate them on the SAQ. Trust me, it’s more complicated than it sounds. But I can’t wait to get started. This is a topic that is very personal to me and very relevant this area of education– Bush and Oduro say that Principals are appointed on the basis of years spent in the system rather than by any leadership traits or values that they exhibit. Ayiro says leaders with high EQ post better learning outcomes. So if we have horrible results like what we always cry about, we have a leadership problem… The problem can’t be solved until it is documented. I want to say a few things about this journey. Over the past two years, I’ve grown more than I ever thought possible. This is not a journey of regurgitating facts and philosophies – it’s about being able to desegregate information in a completely new way and look at things with a judicious eye. The only experience that I can think of to compare to it would be having children – it is very persona, and will never be the same even if you had more than one child. In other words… there is no expertise on a PhD journey, there is only experience. .. I never could have comprehended what it would be like without going through the experience I have had first-hand. The greatest change of perspective I have had is how I look at faculty… I do look at faculty in a whole new way. You may see them as just having expertise in a very niche area (certainly!) but doing something like this involves more than just learning subject matter. It completely changes the way you think and process information. I look back at the person I was two and a half years ago and know that person would have annoyed the heck out of the person I am now. So, please cut them some slack. Do they know everything? Certainly not. And the good ones will admit that. But don’t disregard what they are saying either. They may be able to help you look at information in a way that you never would have considered otherwise. PhD, for all intents and purposes the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I’ve hated parts of it, but looking back now it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I much prefer the person I am today over the person I was two and a half years ago, and that’s entirely because of this experience. Yet more is yet to come. I have had a good measure of frustration and exhilaration too… So it takes me back to what LPA told me a few years ago... “If you want to be a true Dr, you must allow yourself to suffer… punish yourself at the altar of excellence.” If you are planning to do a PhD by all means do it.. you will grow by leaps and bounds…and you will of necessity read A LOT!!!

Only by pride cometh contention

The cycle of wickedness, misery, repentance, prosperity, pride, contention, wickedness, is seen among the people in the Book of Mormon. Most of these challenges are attributed to ego, selfishness, pride, malice envy…

“And again, the Lord God hath ^acommanded that men should not ^denvy; that they should not have ^emalice; that they should not contend one with another; ….and that they should do none of these things; for whoso doeth them shall perish.

Contention drives the Spirit of the Lord away. It also drives many of our members away. Contention ranges from a hostile spoken word to worldwide conflicts. The scriptures tell us that “only by pride cometh contention” (Proverbs 13:10; see also Proverbs 28:25).

Pride does not look up to God and care about what is right. It looks sideways to man and argues who is right. Pride is manifest in the spirit ofcontention. Another face of pride is contention. Arguments, fights, unrighteous dominion, generation gaps, divorces, spouse abuse, riots, and disturbances all fall into this category of pride.

Some people consider contention to be a small sin. However, the following two statements by latter-day prophets emphasize the seriousness of this sin

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles cautioned: “The sins of corruption, dishonesty, strife, contention, and other evils in this world are not here by chance. They are evidences of the relentless campaign of Satan and those who follow him. He uses every tool and device available to him to deceive, confuse, and mislead” (“Deep Roots,” Ensign, Nov. 1994, 76).

Marvin J Ashton: of the Quorum of the Twelve: There never has been a time when it is more important for us as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to take a stand, remain firm in our convictions, and conduct ourselves wisely under all circumstances. We must not be manipulated or enraged by those who subtly foster contention over issues of the day.

For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.“Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away.” (3 Ne. 11:29, 30.)

We need to be reminded that contention is a striving against one another, especially in controversy or argument. It is to struggle, fight, battle, quarrel, or dispute. Contention never was and never will be an ally of progress. Our loyalty will never be measured by our participation in controversy. Some misunderstand the realm, scope, and dangers ofcontention. Too many of us are inclined to declare, “Who, me? I am not contentious, and I’ll fight anyone who says I am.” There are still those among us who would rather lose a friend than an argument. How important it is to know how to disagree without being disagreeable. It behooves all of us to be in the position to involve ourselves in factual discussions and meaningful study, but never in bitter arguments andcontention.

In the March 1991 edition of the Ensign, Elder John K. Carmack, then serving in the Seventy, noted the diversity that defines the modern-day Church. Differences among the members, he wrote, need not lead to divisions among the members:

“The question of whether there is a unifying force powerful enough to overcome the divisive elements of diversity is answered with a resounding yes! Inspired and energetic leaders are required. Where there is vision, the people respond. The doctrine is in place. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the Church, and all who join are ‘no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God’ (Eph. 2:19). The prophet of God gives us a single authoritative voice on matters of doctrine and practice. Priesthood authority granted to men gives them the right to baptize, bestow the Holy Ghost, and bless our congregations with unity without robbing us of our diversity. Authoritative scriptures contain the word of God to guide us. Basic gospel ordinances, weekly sacrament meetings, temple blessings, and a universal priesthood and Relief Society are available. The gospel is centered in homes, and the work of spreading the gospel through missionary service and temple service for our deceased ancestors keeps all members involved, providing a dynamic, action-filled life for the Saints. Undergirding everything, the Holy Ghost unifies all who live worthily to receive and magnify its gifts.

“Despite these simple and unifying doctrines and practices, there are some barriers to creating a greater unity amid our diversity. These barriers include racial and cultural discrimination and attitudes of separatism. The gospel is marvelously sufficient to create the desired unity, but people are imperfect. Discomfort because of language barriers, fear of accepting those with differences in skin color, alienation of singles—all have created barriers to unity. Usually, this mistreatment, isolation, and discrimination is self-justified by the use of labels. Labeling a fellow Church member an intellectual, a less-active member, a feminist, a South African, an Armenian, a Utah Mormon, or a Mexican, for example, seemingly provides an excuse to mistreat or ignore that person. These problems and many more need to be addressed if we are to create a society such as that which Enoch created. “As we become one with God, we will become one with each other. As we become one with each other, we will become one with God.

President James E. Faust of the First Presidency warned, “When there is contention, the Spirit of the Lord will depart, regardless of who is at fault” (“What I Want My Son to Know before He Leaves on His Mission,” Ensign, May 1996, 41).

 President Henry B. Eyring, then of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, echoed the essential role the Holy Ghost plays in bringing about unity in a divided world: “Where people have that Spirit with them, we may expect harmony. The Spirit puts the testimony of truth in our hearts, which unifies those who share that testimony. The Spirit of God never generates contention (see 3 Ne. 11:29). It never generates the feelings of distinctions between people which lead to strife. It leads to personal peace and a feeling of union with others. It unifies souls. A unified family, a unified Church, and a world at peace depend on unified souls” 

THE ROOTS OF SERENDIPITY

Humankind, says a noted scientist, is like the lowly turtle: we inch forward only if we stick our necks out and take chances.

“What is life but a series of inspired follies?  The difficulty is to find them to do.  Never lose a chance: it doesn’t come every day.”  George Bernard Shaw.

It is never entirely in fashion to mention luck in the same breath as science.  Science is considered a rational endeavour, and the investigator is supposed to make discoveries for logical reasons by virtue of his own intellectual hard work.  As everyone no doubt knows, however, discoveries do come about through chance, but this fact becomes more impressive only when it happens to you personally.

Much that is really novel in our creative efforts will still be decided at the pivotal moment when we confront chance.  Like the lowly turtle, man, too lurches forward only if he first sticks his neck out and chances the consequences.

What is chance?  Dictionaries define it as something fortuitous that happens unpredictably without discernible human intention.  Chance is unintentional and capricious, but we needn’t conclude that chance is immune from human intervention.  Indeed, chance plays several distinct roles when humans react creatively with one another and with their environment.

We can readily distinguish four varieties of chances if we consider that they each involve a different kind of motor activity.  The varieties of chance also involve distinctive personality traits and differ in the way one particular individual influences them.

Chance I is the pure blind luck that comes with no effort on our part.  If, for example, you are sitting at a “Karata” table of four, it’s “in the cards” for you to receive a hand of all 13 spades, but it will come up only once in every 6.3 trillion deals.  You will ultimately draw this lucky hand – with no intervention on your part – but it does involve a longer wait than most of us have time for on this earth.

Chance II evokes the kind of luck Charles Kettering had in mind when he said; “keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it.  I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.”

In the sense referred to here, chance 2 is not passive, but springs from an energetic, generalized motor activity.  A certain basal level of action “stirs up the pot,” brings in random ideas that will collide and stick together in fresh combinations, lets chance operate.  When someone, anyone, does swing into motion and keeps on going, he will increase the number of collisions between events.  When a few events are linked together, they can then be exploited to have a fortuitous outcome, but many others, of course, cannot.  Kettering was right, press on.  Something will turn up.  We may term this the Kettering Principle.

In the two previous examples, a unique role of the individual person was either lacking or minimal.  Accordingly, as we move on to Chance 3, we see blind luck, but in camouflag.  Chance presents the clue, the opportunity exists, but it would be missed except by that one person uniquely equipped to observe it, visualize it conceptually, and fully grasp its significance.  Chance 3 involves a special receptivity and discernment unique to the recipient.  Louis Pasteur characterized it for all time when he said: “Chance favours only the prepared mind”.

Pasteur himself had it full measure.  But the classic example of his principle occurred in 1928, when Alexander Fleming’s mind instantly fused at least five elements into a conceptually unified nexus.  His mental sequences went something like this:-

(1)               I see that a mold has fallen by accident into my culture dish:

(2)               The staphylococcal colonies residing near it failed to grow:

(3)               The mold must have secreted something that killed the bacteria:

(4)               I recall a similar experience once before;

(5)               If I could separate this new “something” from the mold, it could be used to kill staphylococci that cause human infections.

Actually, Fleming’s mind was exceptionally well prepared for the penicillin mold.  Six years earlier, while he was suffering from a cold, his own nasal dripping had found their way onto a culture dish, for reasons not made entirely clear.  He noted that nearby bacteria were killed, and astutely followed up the lead.  His observations led  him to discover a bactericidal enzyme present in nasal mucus and tears called lysozyme.  Lysozyme proved too weak to be of medical use, but imagine how receptive Fleming’s mind was to penicillin mold when it later happened on the scene!

One word evokes the quality of the operations involved in the first three kinds of chance.  It is serendipity.  The term describes the facility for encountering unexpected good luck, as the result of: accident (chance 1.) general exploratory behavior (chance 2, or sagacity.  (chance 3).  The word itself was coined by the Englishman-of-letters Horace Walpole in 1754.  He used it with reference to the legendary tales of the three Princes of Serendip (Ceylon) who quite unexpectedly encountered many instances of good fortune on their travels.  In today’s parlance we have usually watered down serendipity to mean the good luck that comes solely by accident.  We think of it as a result not ability.  We tended to lose sight of the element of sagacity, by which term Walpole wished to emphasize that some distinctive personal receptivity is involved.

There remains a fourth element in good luck, an unintentional but subtle personal prompting of it.  The English Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli summed up the principle underlying chance 4 when he noted that “we make our fortunes and we call them fate.”  Disraeli, a politician of considerable practical experience, appreciated that we each shape our own destiny, at least to some degree.  One might restate the principle as follows:  Chance favours the individualized action.

In chance 4 the kind of luck is peculiar to one person, and like a personal hobby, it takes on a distinctive individual flavour.  This form of chance is one-man-made, and it is as personal as a signature.  Indeed, it is to motor behaviour what Chance 3 is to sensory receptivity.  But Chance 4 connotes no generalized activity, as bees might have in the anonymity of a hive.  Instead, it comprehends a discrete behavioural performance focused in a unique manner.

Chance 4 has an elusive, almost mirage-like, quality.  Like a mirage, it is difficult to get a firm grip on, for it tends to recede as we pursue it and advance as we step back.  But we still accept a mirage when we see it, because we vaguely understand the basis for the phenomenon.  A strongly heated layer of air, less dense than usual, lies next to the earth, and it bends the light rays as they pass through.  The resulting image may be magnified as if by a telescopic lens in the atmosphere, and real objects, ordinarily hidden far out of sight over the horizon, are brought forward and reveal to the eye.  What happens in a mirage then, and in this form of chance, not only appears far-fetched but indeed is farfetched.

Accordingly one may introduce the term altamirage to identify the quality underlying Chance 4.  Let us define it as the facility for encountering unexpected good luck as the result of highly individualized action.  Altamirage goes well beyond the boundaries of serendipity in its emphasis on the role of personal action in chance.

Chance 4 is favoured by distinctive, if nor eccentric, hobbies, personal life-styles, mode of behaviour peculiar to one individual, usually invested with some passion.  The farther apart these personal activities are from the area under investigation, the more novel and unexpected will be the creative product of the encounter.

CONCLUSION

Why do we still remember men like Fleming?  We venerate them not as scientists alone.  As men, their total contribution transcends their scientific discoveries.  In their lives we see demonstrated how malleable our own futures are.  In their work we perceive how many loopholes fate has left us-how much of destiny is still in our hands.  In them we find that nothing is predetermined.  Chance can be on our side, if we but stir it up with our energies, stay receptive to its every random opportunity, and continually provoke it by individuality in our endeavours and our approach to life.