1977 Series III Two Door 109 Land Rover for Sale

Below please find pictures of my 1977 Series III Land Rover. The vehicle has two tops, a soft top which is new in the last 3 years and a hard top. The Rover was mostly restored when my wife and I bought it seven years ago. It has a new chassis, new drive shafts, reconditioned body panels inside and out, and it runs well. The Rover has a tow bar that I have used several times in towing the vehicle short distances (less than 10 miles). The seat box and the rear tub have also been reconditioned; they are not new but are in relatively good shape - only a couple of wear spots. The Rover has passed state inspection (first Virginia and now Vermont) since we have owned it. The petrol engine and drive train work well and have no major issues. I cannot tell you the mileage as I have replaced the speedometer with one from another Rover. We have put approximately 20,000 miles on the vehicle since we have owned it. The tires have approximately 85% tread wear left on them and have inner tubes. If you were to finish the restoration you would want to replace the dash, install inner liners for the doors, manufacture a rear door for the soft top (mine is constructed from wood), replace the door posts, and use Rover parts for some other small items.

Vermonters Should Choose School Choice

For nearly 140 years Vermont has supported school choice. Since many of its small towns do not have schools or have schools that do not span the entire K-12 spectrum, Vermont law allows families in those towns to choose a public or independent school that best fits the educational needs of their children. The benefits of school choice are many.

1. Schools are not one-size fits all. Children respond differently in a variety of educational settings, and parents ought to have the ability to choose the setting that best suits their child.
2. School choice creates competition in the marketplace. Competition drives quality. School choice ensures that we do what we say we do. If not, families and their tuition dollars will go elsewhere.
3. School choice promotes "higher levels of academic achievement in areas where competition for students was greatest; benefits from a competitive environment that were not limited to specific demographic groups; and significant cost savings to Vermont taxpayers."
   
   Christopher Hammonds, “The Effects of Town Tuitioning in Maine and Vermont,” Friedman Foundation, 2002.

Currently, the Vermont legislature is grappling with a serious budget shortfall of $150 million for the next fiscal year. School consolidation is seen as a way of providing some of this savings. Please join me in ensuring that school choice is part of the solution. For information, visit http://www.schoolchoicevermont.com.

Did You Know 4.0

Recently, Darren and Jared Bachynski published a Fall 2009 update (Did You Know 4.0) to a now famous Did You Know video that has circulated on YouTube for some time. The information, if accurate, is startling. We are only just beginning to understand the Digital Age's impact on education and learning.

From iPhones to Twitter, our communities are rapidly changing the way we communicate. Surely, this will have an impact on our schools. Isn't it interesting to consider how these technologies impact language development? An argument could be made that English is still the language of international communication, but what happens when "lol, OMG, ru" and other common "tweets" begin to replace the formal language we now use? Should we be teaching "tweetglish" in our classes? Also, what happens to the human brain now that we are communicating differently? Will it structure itself differently?

Though many of us tend to suggest that the Digital Age has changed "kids these days," I argue it has had as big an impact on adults. I think it's time we embrace this stuff, work with it, and begin to figure out how we can capitalize on the good and remediate for the not so good. What do you think?

109 Series III Land Rover Station Wagon Restoration Project for Sale

Gail and I are selling our Series IIa restoration project. Please find some pictures below...

On Success

This afternoon the Long Trail School middle school boys' soccer team won its 8th straight game. While I am a firm believer that a team and a player can learn as much about themselves in a losing effort as a winning one, it sure is nice to taste success on a regular basis. The confidence that our boys built over the course of the past few weeks is evident on the playing field. They were excellent teammates today, sharing the ball well, looking for each other on give-and-goes (the best play in the history of field sports), and, in general, demonstrating passion for and skill in the game of soccer.

I was especially pleased with the way some of our more gifted players sought to collaborate with the other guys on the team. Instead of dribbling past two or three defenders for a shot on goal, they sought out their teammates, creating opportunities and allowing our guys to make a play on the ball.

Soccer can be a magical game when played correctly. Today was one of those days where the flow of the play seemed to be orchestrated by a conductor of a symphony.

Macroeconomic Confusion

Every day I read conflicting stories about our economy and our markets in the popular press. Months ago we were worried about inflation, now we are worried about deflation. Then, we thought that Americans were playing a perilous game of roulette by not saving for our futures. Now, we are concerned that increased savings rates could negatively impact consumer spending in an already declining economy. High oil prices this summer spelled doom for consumers; low oil prices today are crippling suppliers who locked in at higher prices. Good news drives the stock market downward and bad news seems to drive it upward. What do we make of this?

It seems to me that we are learning a lot about ourselves and our country during these times of economic turmoil. The historical standards that we used to rely on are no longer prescient, and the new culture of the market has not yet been created. As a result, our economy, our moods, and our markets are subject to wild swings - up 6%, down 3%, up 4.5%, down 5.2% - that are not likely to soften until we come to an understanding of what kinds of reasonable expectations will guide us into the future. What will acceptable rates of saving and spending be? Will the threat of $4 gas create lasting change in our driving habits and how will that affect domestic and foreign automakers? Will high unemployment rates cause the structure of our labor force to change so that workers gravitate to new, successful industries and away from older, troubled industries?

In the meantime, we are forced to have very real discussions about the things that matter to us at the national, state, local, and familial levels. Though the current conditions have caused a great deal of pain in this country, I would argue that the conversations that are happening in my household and yours, in my community and yours, and in my state and yours, are beginning to lay the groundwork for a successful, focused, and more secure future.

Last night I had the privilege of taking my four daughters (three of my own and my exchange student) to dinner. Looking for a topic of conversation, I asked them if the US government should help out US automakers by loaning them money in their time of need. Below is a summary of their thoughts.

Madison is my 8 year old third grader. She is a social butterfly and she thrives on relationships. She thought that the US government ought to loan GM, Ford, and Chrysler some money because it was a nice thing to do. She also thought it would help out those who worked for the companies.

My 14 year old 9th grader, Elizabeth, had the opposite opinion. As the oldest of the bunch, she is a rule follower and very much into justice and accountability. She argued that Chrysler, Ford and GM should have been more careful to begin with and that there is no reason to believe, given their track record, that they would use the money wisely. Furthermore, she wanted to know why these large companies with millions of dollars at their disposal did not foresee high gas and oil prices and the effects that they would have on demand for cars and trucks.

I suspect that most Americans would fit somewhere along this compendium. Isn't it refreshing that our children sometimes see things more clearly than we do?

Resilient Philanthropy

For those who are interested, please click here for the article on Resilient Philanthropy.

TSL: A Value Added Proposition

Jay Matthews is a long time columnist for the Washington Post who writes a weekly column about education. Frequently, I take issue with Mr. Matthews' points of view. His ranking of public high schools and his "Washington Post Challenge Index" are particularly offensive to me; however, I appreciate his ability to focus the national debate on education.

In one of his most recent columns, "Beware of the Easy School Fix," Mr. Matthews describes his introduction to a measure called Total Student Load (TSL) that has been the focus of William Ouchi's most recent research. Now, I don't know Mr. Ouchi, but I do know schools, and Mr. Ouchi's suggestion that TSL plays an important role in student success is right on the money.

According to Mr. Matthews, Mr. Ouchi writes in his latest book, "when a district has too few classroom teachers student loads per teacher rise to the point where teachers can no longer know their students well enough to establish a bond of trust with them. Without this trust, a teacher can neither establish an orderly classroom nor push a student to do his or her best, and the teacher's job often becomes frustrating and constantly stressful."

So, smaller TSLs lead to better student and teacher performance. Small schools should delight in this revelation; we have been preaching it for some time, and we are glad that researchers like Mr. Ouchi have taken the time to confirm our beliefs. Thank you Mr. Matthews for bringing this important research to our attention.

National Service

Tonight, Barrack Obama and John McCain joined a CNN crew at Columbia University to talk about, among other things, the idea of a "national service" initiative. Unlike many countries, the United States does not have a service requirement, military or civilian, and McCain and Obama both spoke very strongly in favor of establishing one.

What do you think? Do you believe that young people ought to be required to serve upon graduating from high school? Should high school graduates have to serve in exchange for scholarship aid? Should tuition loans be forgiven in exchange for military or civilian service? How will this initiative impact our families, economy and country?

Dancing the Dance

If Shakespeare is correct and politics makes strange bedfellows, what an interesting week this has been!

First, Barrack Obama, the candidate for change, picks one of the Senate's longest serving members as his running mate. To be sure, Biden brings to the ticket a sense of statesmanship and experience that Obama ostensibly lacks; however, Biden is the ultimate insider. He is so connected in Washington and at home that his son is mentioned as his potential successor if he and Mr. Obama are successful.

Contrast Mr. Obama's pick with that of Mr. McCain. By choosing Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate, McCain steals the thunder of Mr. Obama. The ultimate outsider, Mrs. Palin could not be any further from Washington unless she were from Hawaii! Mother of five, married to an Inuit man, supremely in touch with the people, and younger than Mr. Obama, Mrs. Palin looks to be everything that McCain's candidacy lacks.

To me, it looks like Obama vs. Palin and McCain vs. Biden. Won't it be interesting to see how this process unfolds?

If only we knew now what they knew then - or maybe not?

In 1895, 8th grade students from Salina, Kansas had to pass a five hour final exam that covered the subject areas of grammar, arithmetic, US History, orthography, and geography. The test consisted of a total of 50 questions and was administered orally; teachers evaluated the students on the content of their answers as well as their penmanship. Some of the questions seem appropriate for a modern day 8th grade curriculum, including:

• Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.
• Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
• Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
• Use the following correctly in sentences: Cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
• What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
  

Others seem completely out of place in today's schools, such as:

• Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.
• If a load of wheat weights 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50 cts. Per bushel, deducting 1050 lbs for tare?
• Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
• Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: Card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
• Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall, and Orinoco.
  

What do you make of this? Are we requiring less of our students? Does this exam provide evidence of a decline in the American educational system or are the needs of our students so different today that knowing the nine uses of capital letters is no longer relevant?

To read the entire exam visit the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society's website at http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/saline/ and click on School Exam 1895.

Ken Burns Is Right

Ken Burns is a brilliant filmmaker who has been praised by historians and Hollywood alike for producing fair and insightful documentaries, which have explored both the ordinary and the extraordinary people, places, and subjects that have helped shape our nation. From the citizens of the towns of Mobile, Alabama, Sacramento, California, Waterbury, Connecticut, and Luverne, Minnesota, whom he highlights in "The War," to "Thomas Jefferson," "Jazz," and "Baseball," Mr. Burns has a proven natural proclivity for exposing the human side of those themes that have created this country and culture that we have come to know as America.

During his remarks at the Equinox Hotel last week, Mr. Burns stepped beyond his own profession to give a scathing rebuke of the American educational system. He suggested that we - schools, school boards, departments of education, and the like - are missing the proverbial boat when it comes to educating our children. According to Mr. Burns, our fascination with standards of learning and cute technology is reducing our effectiveness; our attention is being diverted from the schooling of our children to feeding something akin to an "education industrial complex." Rather, he argued, we ought to focus on teaching the lessons that our forebears learned as they struggled to build this country and enrich the lives of its people. Mr. Burns is right, and his observation merits a response.

Approximately 1,000 veterans of the "Greatest Generation" are dying every day; with them pass their stories of courage, dignity, and compassion. Too often our curricula overlook these lessons in favor of a cursory study that fails to stimulate excitement in our classrooms. We "check the box" indicating that we covered a particular topic or time period, but, in reality, we blast through the course outline celebrating how far we got without allowing time for the deep investigation and thoughtful reflection for which Mr. Burns longs. The result is an education that is wasteful in its efficiency. We try to cover a little bit of a lot of stuff only to realize that the lack of depth creates no staying power in our student's, and our society's, collective memories. That is a shame.

Daily our educators are faced with the great dilemma to determine what is relevant and necessary in the education of our students. To be sure, we cannot teach it all. There is more history in America today than there was in 1945, and the school year has not gotten any longer. But, somehow we have to make time for the stories that the subjects in Mr. Burns' latest film tell. Parents and communities play important roles in this process, and I commend organizations like Northshire Bookstore for its efforts to extend education beyond the formal classroom. But if we do not embrace the important lessons that the Greatest Generation taught and teaches us, we will have failed.

In his Gettysburg Address, arguably the greatest speech in American history, Abraham Lincoln spoke of the responsibility that the current generation has in honoring our ancestors and advancing the cause for which they fought and died. He said,

"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced."

Let us - families, schools, and regional and national education boards - rededicate ourselves to this solemn goal so that those who came before us will not have struggled in vain.

This article was originally published in the ManchesterJournal and can be found at http://www.manchesterjournal.com/oped/ci_7660538

A Whole New Mind

This past summer I asked the faculty and staff at Long Trail to read Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers will Rule the Future. In his introduction Pink suggests that the Information Age - an era dominated by "left brain" thinkers like accountants, MBA's, radiologists, and software engineers - is giving way to the Conceptual Age, a "high touch" and "high concept" age during which "right brained" artists, inventors, designers, and storytellers will "reap society's biggest rewards and share its greatest joys." What do you think? Will the MFA be the new MBA? If Pink is correct, what are the implications of his hypothesis and how do they pertain to Long Trail School? Read the rest of Pink's introduction at http://www.danpink.com/excerptwnm.php or buy the book to learn how he thinks design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning are the six essential aptitudes of the future.