The Stuff We Can't Measure--What the Research Says

A few months ago I was reading an old copy of School Administrator and came across a study I read about years ago and forgot. It rekindled my curiosity about the outcomes and I can't stop thing about it.

In the mid- 1960's a group of child psychologists wanted to see what the effects of pre-school were on 3 and 4 year olds. Researchers recruited low-income, low IQ parents from the town's black neighborhoods in Ypsilanti, Michigan, an old industrial town west of Detroit. Children in the treatment group were admitted to Perry Preschool, a high-quality, two year preschool program. Kids in the control group were left to fend for themselves. The children were then tracked for the rest of their lives. The subjects are now in their 40's, which means researchers have been able to trace the effects of the Perry intervention well into adulthood.

As a case for early-childhood intervention, the experiment always had been considered something of a failure. The treatment children did do significantly better on cognitive tests while attending preschool and for a year or two afterward, but the gains did not last. By the time the treatment children were in the third grade, their IQ scores were no better than the control group's.

However, when researchers looked at the long-term results of Perry, the data appeared more promising. It was true the Perry kids hadn't experienced lasting IQ benefits. But something important had happened to them in preschool, and whatever it was, the positive effects resonated for decades.

Compared to the control group, the Perry students were more likely to graduate from high school, more likely to be employed at age 27, more likely to be earning more than $25,000 a year at age 40, less likely ever to have been arrested and less likely to have spent time on welfare.

James Heckman, a former Nobel prize winner in economics is re-examining the results of the Perry Project. Heckman began to rummage more deeply into the Perry study, and he learned that in the 1960's and 1970's, researchers had collected some data on the students that had never been analyzed. These were reports from teachers in elementary school rating both the treatment and the control children on "personal behavior" and "social development."

The first term tracked how often each student swore, lied, stole or was absent or late; the second one rated each student's level of curiosity as well as his or her relationships with classmates and teachers.

Heckman labeled these noncognitive skills, because they were entirely distinct from IQ. After three years of analysis, Heckman and his researchers were able to ascertain that those noncognitive factors, such as curiosity, self-control, and social fluidity, were responsible for as much as two-thirds of the total benefit that Perry gave its students.

It turns out the Perry Preschool Project worked entirely different than everyone had accepted. Although the program did not have long lasting IQ benefits, it did improve behavior and social skills. For the students in Perry Preschool those skills turned out to be valuable indeed.

Heckman is showing that if we want to improve the odds for children, and poor children in particular, we need to approach early education anew, to start over with some fundamental questions about how human skills develop and how character is formed. Daniel Willingham said that "We don't yet know how to teach self-direction, collaboration, creativity, and innovation the way we know how to teach long division."

Maybe James Heckman can show us how.

On Thanksgiving morning I awoke to the sounds of my granddaughter's little feet scurrying on the floorboards and imagined what my new granddaughter will look like when she arrives. As I savored the scents and events of the day, I wondered what lay in store in the years to come. What kind of world are we preparing for the children of tomorrow? What kinds of schools will they attend? What careers will there be? Will they be healthy? Will they be happy?

For a moment I wanted to hold the happenings of the globe at bay. Instead, I wanted forests filled with soft new snow and wild horses and silver bells and brave princesses with crystal wands and a world filled with peace. For a while I was able to hold that image. I am thankful that I had that moment. It filled me with possibilities and gave me hope for a better world.

May you all have moments filled with possibilities and may we all find a way to realize our dreams.

Happy Thanksgiving.

The Spoken Word

For the past few days I have been at the National Council of Teachers of English conference in Boston. The general session began at 8:00 in the Hynes Center Auditorium with a presentation by the First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Learning Community from the University of Wisconsin. The First Wave Learning Community is the first university program in the country centered on spoken word and hip-hop culture. I have seen performances on the spoken word, but this was the first one I saw live. I was transfixed. Subtle chords of guitar music were interspersed with rhythmic machine gun fire words interspersed with heartfelt pleas and bruising accusations.

The art of spoken word poetry has existed for many centuries. The ancient Greeks included spoken word in their Olympic Games. I know that spoken word is used to inform or make an audience conscious of some human aspect pertaining to life. I felt the frank raw pain in these performers. They are reinventing the future of poetry.

That's the Way We've Always Done It

I am reading a book called Teaching the Digital Generation by Kelly, McCain and Jukes. It examines how educators can address the learning needs of secondary students immersed in a digital world by designing and implementing new instructional models and technology infrastructures. It starts by examining our railroad system.

Today in North America, the spacing between the rails on railroad tracks is always 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches--- a rather odd and seemingly arbitrary number. It is said that the reason that this particular spacing is used is because that's the rail spacing they used to build the railroads in England, and Englishmen built the railroads in America. So why did the English use that measurement for the spacing? It was because the English railcars were built by the same people who built the horse-drawn wagons in the pre-railroad era. That's the axle width wagon makers had always used, so they just kept on using it when they built the first railroad cars. Why did the wagon makers use that particular axle width? They did this because, if they used any other axle spacing, the wagon wheels would break on the sides of the established wheel ruts on English roads. So, where did those old rutted roads come from? The first long distance roads in Britain and Europe were build by Imperial Rome for the use of the Roman military, and they have been in use ever since. Why did the Romans use that particular axle spacing? That was the width of the two horses that were used to pull the chariots. Thus, the North American standard railroad track spacing of 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.

This story is a great metaphor for our public school system. Schools were designed and developed for an Industrial Age that no longer exists. At the beginning of the Industrial Age more than 90% of students lived on farms or in rural areas. The school year had to be conceived as a seasonal accommodation. Why hasn't it changed? Because that's the way we've always done it. It is time to rethink some of these outdated notions. On Wednesday I will be taking a field trip with a group of students. As we board the train, I will be sure to point out that the tracks are 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches apart.

Walking in Someone Else's Shoes-What is Empathy

This week I have been reading the work of Paul Zak, a professor of neuroeconomics who is looking for biological explanations for empathy. I came across his work as I was continuing my research on storytelling.

Zak did an experiment to show how storytelling increases empathy. He showed participants a video telling the story of a father and his young son, who is dying from cancer. Viewers empathized with the characters in the video and were more likely to make a charitable donation after watching the video. In looking for biological explanations for empathy, Dr. Zak found increased levels of cortisol and oxytocin in the blood of those watching the video. Cortisol correlates with distress and focused the mind's attention. Oxytocin is a chemical associated with care, connection, and empathy. The study also scanned brain activity while watching the video and found that areas of the mind associated with understanding what others are doing were highly active, as were areas rich in oxytocin receptors.

Dr. Zak notes that viewers were asked to watch several videos about the boy and his father. Only those videos with a dramatic story arc produced cortisol and oxytocin in the viewer. Simply watching a video of a boy and his father walk around a zoo, for instance, produced no change in blood chemistry.

In other words, powerful stories with dramatic arcs can create chemical reactions in the reader or viewer that increase their empathy. A strong story can help connect characters to the viewer.

Professor Zak has a TED talks video that further describes his work. I highly recommend it.

Storytelling

http://blog.bufferapp.com/science-of-storytelling-why-telling-a-story-is-the-most-powerful-way-to-activate-our-brains

I have always been interested in storytelling. A good story captures my imagination and helps me remember things. I have always wondered why schools do not capitalize on this technique more often. History is really a subject based on "his" "story." Yet it was never really presented like that to me.
There seems to be a lot of research supporting the power of story (see link at top of page).
In addition I have been reading the work of Dr. Pamela Rutledge.

According to Dr. Pamela Rutledge Of the University of California Irvine:

•Stories have always been a primal form of communication. They are timeless links to ancient traditions, legends, archetypes, myths, and symbols. They connect us to a larger self and universal truths.


•Stories are about collaboration and connection. They transcend generations, they engage us through emotions, and they connect us to others. Through stories we share passions, sadness, hardships and joys. We share meaning and purpose. Stories are the common ground that allows people to communicate, overcoming our defenses and our differences. Stories allow us to understand ourselves better and to find our commonality with others.


•Stories are how we think. They are how we make meaning of life. Call them schemas, scripts, cognitive maps, mental models, metaphors, or narratives. Stories are how we explain how things work, how we make decisions, how we justify our decisions, how we persuade others, how we understand our place in the world, create our identities, and define and teach social values.


•Stories provide order. Humans seek certainty and narrative structure is familiar, predictable, and comforting. Within the context of the story arc we can withstand intense emotions because we know that resolution follows the conflict. We can experience with a safety net.

•Stories are how we are wired. Stores take place in the imagination. To the human brain, imagined experiences are processed the same as real experiences. Stories create genuine emotions, presence (the sense of being somewhere), and behavioral responses.

•Stories are the pathway to engaging our right brain and triggering our imagination. By engaging our imagination, we become participants in the narrative. We can step out of our own shoes, see differently, and increase our empathy for others. Through imagination, we tap into creativity that is the foundation of innovation, self-discovery and change.

What stories have been most powerful for me? Storytelling is a lot like blogging. Is that the power in blogging?

Is there a relationship between literacy and terrorism?

In the International Reading Association's journal, Reading Today, there was an article about the state of literacy in Pakistan. Pakistan is one of the 12 countries of the world that spends less than 2% of its GNP on education; its primary education system ranks among the world's least effective. The literacy rate in the province called Sindh and the province called Balochistan are 59% and 41% respectively. Only 40% of the literate population can read simple text in local languages. In schools students only read selected portions of texts to prepare for their examinations. Teachers and administrators rarely buy any books for their own reading. Most schools lack libraries. There is not a culture of reading. Reading is not seen as a way to learn. Reading for pleasure is not promoted. Could the current reading deficiency be one of the major causes of the existing wave of terrorism and extremism? These two provinces are working together to change current practices. They have opened libraries run by the collaborative efforts of teachers and students. They are also getting training. Imagine if learning to read is the real kingpin to world peace.

Are We in Too Deep?

New York State has created a series of modules to help teachers implement the Common Core Standards. These standards are incredibly ambitious. I have looked at what is planned for students in grades 3-5. The topics are excellent and the proposed lesson plans are detailed. I do object, though, to some of the reading materials used. On Friday, I took an in-depth view of one of the fourth grade modules that focuses on women's rights. Students are required to read the original speech of Susan B. Anthony from 1872. I understand that students are often able to comprehend subject matter that is way over their heads with support and scaffolding. However, I thought this article was pushing our students into the deep end of the pool with a rubber duck. Susan B. Anthony's speech is beautifully written and posits a convincing argument on why women should be allowed to vote. However, the vocabulary and sentence structures are very sophisticated. Words like oligarchy, odious, aristocracy, ex post facto are all mentioned. Will fourth graders grasp these broad ideas? Are we in too deep?

The Matthew Effect

Educators are always discussing the critical role of vocabulary acquisition for literacy. It is well documented that reading 20 minutes a day is the most effective way for children to increase their vocabulary. As afar back as 1990, Keith Stanovich described something called the Matthew Effect. It is based on the passage of Matthew (25:29) in the New Testament: "For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." In other words, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Stanovich used the term to describe the phenomenon that early success in acquiring reading skills usually leads to later successes in reading, while failing to learn to read before third grade often leads to lifelong learning problems.

The following link gives information on Pareto's Principle. Loosely translated, it means that in anything, a few people (maybe 20%) are vital and many (maybe 80%) are trivial. What a divergent point of view from Mr. Spock's famous line, "logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Unfortunately, it is the Pareto Principle that seems to be driving New York State Ed Department. I must communicate to my teachers, my principals, my parent community, and my students that we are all much more than a number. http://management.about.com/cs/generalmanagement/a/Pareto081202.htm In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. In the late 1940s, Dr. Joseph M. Juran inaccurately attributed the 80/20 Rule to Pareto, calling it Pareto's Principle. While it may be misnamed, Pareto's Principle or Pareto's Law as it is sometimes called, can be a very effective tool to help you manage effectively. Where It Came From After Pareto made his observation and created his formula, many others observed similar phenomena in their own areas of expertise. Quality Management pioneer, Dr. Joseph Juran, working in the US in the 1930s and 40s recognized a universal principle he called the "vital few and trivial many" and reduced it to writing. In an early work, a lack of precision on Juran's part made it appear that he was applying Pareto's observations about economics to a broader body of work. The name Pareto's Principle stuck, probably because it sounded better than Juran's Principle. As a result, Dr. Juran's observation of the "vital few and trivial many", the principle that 20 percent of something always are responsible for 80 percent of the results, became known as Pareto's Principle or the 80/20 Rule. What It Means The 80/20 Rule means that in anything a few (20 percent) are vital and many(80 percent) are trivial. In Pareto's case it meant 20 percent of the people owned 80 percent of the wealth. In Juran's initial work he identified 20 percent of the defects causing 80 percent of the problems. Project Managers know that 20 percent of the work (the first 10 percent and the last 10 percent) consume 80 percent of your time and resources. You can apply the 80/20 Rule to almost anything, from the science of management to the physical world.

Kim Marshall

Last Thursday I attended a great workshop. It was given by Kim Marshall, author of Rethinking Teacher Supervision and Evaluation. Not only was the workshop great, it truly inspired me. I haven't felt inspired in a long time. The endless assessments, and the APPR machinations, and the results of the assessments have really bogged me down. I was not sure how I was going to lead my teachers or support them or cheer them on. The Marshall workshop was no magic bullet. However, it did provide me with some good common sense suggestions about supervision. Here are some questions that were asked: What's the ideal frequency of school visits by supervisors? Should supervisor's visits be announced or unannounced? If you are supervising a principal, should the principal get a brief write-up after each school visit? What the workshop did was NOT answer these questions. The answers change and are different for different districts. The trick is in thinking about the answers to these questions with your stakeholders. Maybe I needed help in asking the right questions. One of the questions that was asked during the workshop really hit home with me. "Is there a secret code in your school when anyone from Central Office arrives?" Years ago, when I was in the classroom, we would send a student around with a green ruler signaling the Superintendent was in the building. I had forgotten all about that. One of Marshall's most provocative suggestions was using student surveys. Certainly, the students are the most vested stakeholders. I was curious about how many districts do this. I think this could be really helpful. It would be a bit of a culture shift, but so helpful. Marshall also showed the formula that NYC is using for their value added model. He reported that for ELA if has a confidence interval of 53 points. How is this possible? This statistic smacked me in the head. We are so much more than a number. I must remember that. Michael Fullan said that, "Nothing undermines the motivation of hard-working teachers more than poor performance in other teachers being ignored over long periods of time. Not only do poor-performing teachers negatively affect the students in their classes, but they also have a spillover effect by poisoning the overall climate of the school." One of my most important jobs is to thank a teacher for a job well done. The Marshall Memo is one of the best ed publications around. You can view it at www.marshallmemo.com.

professional development

On May 1, online course provider Coursera announced a new partnership that will allow teachers worldwide to take its online courses for free. Courses available to teachers include such topics as introductory teaching, student engagement and successful classroom tactics. So far, 28 courses are listed in the online catalog and will begin each month starting in June and running through November. Classes range from four to 12 weeks long, depending on the course. “We want to help K-12 students by helping their teachers,” Coursera Co-Founder Andrew Ng said, in a statement. “Many schools just don't have the resources to provide teachers and parents the training and support they need. By providing free online courses on how to teach, we hope to improve this.” Some of the courses that will soon be available are: “First Year Teaching – Success from the Start,” and “Integrating Engineering into Your Science Classroom.” The partnership is a collection of U.S.-based universities including the College of Education, University of Washington; Curry School of Education, University of Virginia; Johns Hopkins University School of Education; Match Education’s Sposato Graduate School of Education; Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.; Relay Graduate School of Education; and University of California, Irvine Extension. In addition to partnering with universities, Coursera partners with other educational institutions and museums. I am hoping this will allow my content specialty teachers the support and training they have asked for. I AM KEEPING MY FINGERS CROSSED THAT THIS IS GOING TO BE GREAT! I found this out on the School Leadership website, one of the beswt resources on the web. You may use or reference this story with attribution and a link to http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/Educating-Teachers-via-Free-Online

welcome back to my blog

     There is an old joke that gets passed around from school district to school district.  The angel Gabriel greets a newly departed teacher at the pearly gates.  He welcomes him warmly and begins to take him on a glorious tour of heaven.

     "Here is where the doctors all live," he explains.  For their dedication and service to mankind they are given a beautiful section of heaven." 

      The teacher remarks how happy everyone looks and the excitement on everyone's face as they bustle around.  They continue on the tour. 

     "Here is where the firemen live."  Again the teacher remarks on how beautiful the space is and how happy everyone looks. 

      Finally they arrive at the the teachers' section. 

      Gabriel announces, "Here is the special section set aside for teachers."  The teacher is astounded by the beauty of the place.  

     However, unlike the other sections, it is desolate and quiet ---there is not a soul to be seen.  "Where is everyone?"  he asks Gabriel.

"Oh--they're in hell--for a bit---they had to go to professional development."

     I have the dubious privilege of arranging for the professional development for the teachers in my district.  Once in a great while teachers find the professional development inspirational.  Sometimes, it even impacts their professional practice.  More often, they find it just bearable.

     I have learned over the years that professional development has to be ongoing.  It must be sustained over time and must sometimes occur during the insturctional day.  The one-time charismatic wonders with magic solutions to solve all classroom problems are like a puff of smoke on a windy day. They make piecrust promises that are easily made and easily broken.

     Teachers in my district are required to take a minimum of 10 hours of professional development.  I try to have a broad menu of choices and most years offer over 100 possibilities.  However, I have had difficulty finding content rich sources for my secondary folks. 

     For the past two years I have been able to provide high quality webinars for my art teachers.  These have been a great resource.  They are provided by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  They are affordable and the teachers have raved about them.  But these kind of webinars seem to be the exception. 

     Does anyone know of some high quality on-line professional development that is affordable?

     Should professional development be an independent endeavor?  Should all professional development be orchestrated by the district?

     I have great respect for people's time.  I want to make sure that if I keep teachers after school or take them out of their classrooms it better be for a good reason. If I want to impact instructional practice---let's say ---in improving questioning techniques-----how much time has to be dedicated to the initiative?  How do you know when it's taken hold?

   I welcome suggestions!

More on Vocabulary

I couldn't stop thinking about the Sparks article on vocabulary.  I know that vocabulary is a key indicator of reading comprehension and intelligence, and a predictor for academic success.  I keep wondering why we don't have better instructional practices in this area.

I looked at my old copy of Classroom Instruction That Works by Marzano, Pickering and Pollack. The book also cites the incredible gaps among the lower, middle and upper classes when it comes to vocabulary.  They cite the work of Stahl and Fairbanks(1986) and Nagy.

Since a vocabulary teaching program typically teaches 10 to 12 words a week or about 400 words a year, ...vocabulary instruction is not adequate to cope with the volume of new words that children need to learn and do learn without instruction. 

Nagy and Herman (1987) offer an alternative to direct instruction.  They propose that students spend 25 minutes a day reading.

If students were to spend 25 minutes a day reading at a rate of 200 words per minute for 200 days out of the year, they would read a million words of text annually.  According to our estimates, with this amount of reading, children will encounter betweeen 15,000 and 30,000 unfamiliar words.  If one in 20 of these words is learned, the yearly gain in vocabulary will be between 750 and 1500 words. (p.20)

I was so pleased to read this.  Nagy sounds like the voice of reason.  Administrators and teachers are reaching for out of the box solutions for Common Core instruction and gap closing measures.  Students have to be given time to read.  This is not as easy as it seems.  It takes practice and perseverance to teach an eight year old how to maintain concentration and read.  But this is a skill like all skills and it can be taught---it should be taught---it must be taught.  Sustained silent reading both in and out of school must be practiced on a daily basis.  Then--perhaps---we will see some gains in voacabulary.

On February 6, Education Week published a great article by Sarah D. Sparks called

 Studies Find Vocabulary Instruction is Falling Short

.http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/02/06/20vocabulary_ep.h32.html

It says, "the whole common core will fall on its face if kids are not getting the kind of instruction it will require." 

Pre-school students in poverty enter school knowing far fewer words than their peers from higher-income families. According to the article, by age 3 youngsters from high income families have a working vocabulary of 1,116 words, compared to 749 words for children in working-class families and 525 words for children on welfare. 

In a study done in Michigan by Susan B. Neuman and Tanya S. Wright, few formal structured lessons on vocabulary are given.  Instead, most teachers defined words during teachable moments that came up as they read stories to students.   That informal style led to major discrepancies in both the number and difficulty of vocabulary words introduced.  Some teachers teach 2 words a day and others as many as 20.

Words are often chosen from the stories the students are reading. 

This is common in my district.  Words are taken from the basal reader or leveled readers or the content subjects. Basal readers, at most,  introduce about 300 words a year, not enough to close the gap among children.

Studies suggest that a student needs to hear a word about  28 times to remember it.  The more sophisticated the word, the more important it is for students to have opportunities to recall it.

It seems that vocabulary instruction seems haphazard at best.  Sparks remarks --and I agree-- that vocabulary is a critical, but deceptively simple literacy skill that is essential to students' academic success. 

One of the measures suggested was to consider the Dale -Chall list, a list of over 7,000 words commonly known by 4th graders. 

Another suggestion was to concentrate on Level II words.  These are lists of words categorized by Isabel L. Beck, a professor the University of Pittsburgh.  She says that Level I words are common words and that Level III words are content area words.  Level II words are academic words such as 'categorize' and 'compare.'  Explicit instruction is an effective method of instruction.  Strategies for rehearsing and repeating new words have to be developed so that students are exposed to new vocabulary repeatedly.

Be the Coffee

     I have been struggling for the last few weeks writing Student Learning Objectives or SLO's. In New York teachers who do not administer a state assessment must have 20% of their evaluation based on an SLO.; This involves creating a goal for some sort of an assessment. For example, "70% of students will score a 75 on the end of year assessment." Teachers must have one of these objectives to cover at least 50% of their rosters--- so some teachers have 2 or 3 of these. The problem is I am not so sure this system is really going to be very effective. They are making teachers highly anxious, and the writing of them is taking up most of my days. I am trying hard to keep this in perspective. Then I remembered the first day of school. On that day, I told an old story to my faculty. It always helps me.

Once upon a time there was a wise old woman and her daughter. 

The daughter had married and had nothing but hardship. The young woman went to her mother and told her about her life’s struggles and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up.  She was tired of fighting and struggling.

It seemed as if when one problem was solved, a new one arose.

 Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire.  Soon, the pots came to boil. In the first pot she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

 In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, 'Tell me what you see.'

 'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,' she replied.

 Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots.   She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.  

The daughter then asked, 'What does it mean, mother?'

 Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile.  Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

'Which are you?' she asked her daughter. 'When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean? The daughter wondered, “Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat?

 Did I have a fluid spirit, but when I experienced hardship did I become hardened?

Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a hardened heart?

 Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changed the hot water.  When the water got hot, it released the fragrance and flavor.

I ask you, “Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?”

I must remember to  try to be more like the coffee.