Colin Taufer is the headmaster of Delphi Academy, my children’s school. He is a writer, one I respect a lot. Recently he wrote this piece for his newsletter.  He kindly gave me permission to reprint it here.

Exploring Education

by Colin Taufer

Ours is a technology driven society. Every day newer, better, faster, smaller, more powerful micro-gadgets hit the street, pushing yesterday’s older, slower, less powerful, not-so-micro-gadgets aside. The advance is swift. Technology marches on.

As a child, one of my most treasured micro-gadgets was a Sony Walkman. I could listen to an album’s worth of my favorite music on a compact cassette tape; it was my own personal concert. The sound quality was fair. The music would speed or slow according to battery strength. But it was cutting edge technology and it was fantastic.

Comparing the technology of the Walkman to today’s is laughable. With no moving parts, today’s digital music device can hold 40,000 songs and is a fraction of the size of the Walkman. And if that’s not enough, it’ll also store and display 200 hours of video. Incredible!

So what happened to yesterday’s micro-gadget maker?

The answer lies in this famous quote by educator Dr. Laurence Peter: “Everyone rises to their level of incompetence.”

Unfortunately, yesterday’s micro-gadget maker, the expert in the technology of compact cassettes, is a master of a dying technology. We can hope his expertise advanced apace with the technology and he is today gainfully employed in a related field. If this is the case, and we hope it is, we can correctly assume his core competencies, his ability to study, to read, to mathematically compute and to reason, were fully achieved in his schooling as a child.

But what of the micro-gadget maker lacking these solid academic basics? Without these components of competence in place, like yesterday’s discarded micro-gadget, his ability to make his way in today’s world has vanished. He has gone from king to pauper.

How does the educator of the present prepare today’s students to be competent with the unknown technologies of tomorrow?

The answer lies in the teaching of the basic academics, the traditional core competencies: reading, writing and arithmetic. Beyond that the teacher must add still more competencies: the ability to study, to communicate, to research and to reason.

All of these abilities, fully taught to a very high standard, give the young student a firm foundation upon which all future education can be built. And from there he can build his own kingdom no matter where the tides of technology and change carry him.

For, as the Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle said, “The king is the man who can.”

Today we decided to start a new writing contest at Delphi Academy of Florida. It will be a 6 word short story contest.

The contest will be open to children of any age, as well as adults.

We’ll keep the entry fee very low, at $5 a story. $20 buys 5 entries (designed for creative families).

We will have cash prizes, along with other cool incentives along the way. The main purposes is to get people writing and to raise a little money for the school.

Above is a photo taken by my friend Simaen Skolfield at the wrap party for last year’s contest. Dozens of children attended and we all played various writing games. The kids are still talking about it!

If you are interested in joining us in the fun, you are very welcome. All the money raised will go to the school, helping to build a new science lab and high school!

Submit your 6 word story to:

Delphi Academy
1831 Drew St.
Clearwater, FL 33765
Attn: Writing Contest

Please make checks payable to “Delphi Academy”.  If you can, please email me as well and give me some heads up that you’re entering.  Thanks!

The room is silent. You can literally hear the people breathing around you while you study the sixty-four checkered squares in front of you.

Glancing over at the chess clock you see you have plenty of time left in your game. A move cries out to be made, but you bide your time and check for others. You know that a move made in haste could cost your dearly.

Finally, confident that your initial idea is sound, you reach out a hand and grasp your knight, hopping it to its intended destination. There is an audible gasp from a few behind you.

You hit your clock signaling your opponent’s turn. Only then do you steal a glance at him. He meets your eyes with a look that speaks defeat. You see that he knows it is just a matter of time.

He shakes his head and stares at the hopeless position. You lean back in your chair and watch him study the board for possible flaws to your plan. There are none. It is hard to stifle the grin that threatens to spread across your face.

You glance around at your spectators. Some recognize your opponent’s fate, while others wear puzzled expressions. Two whisper to each other and finally nod their heads in understanding. One winks at you in admiration and turns to observe a game with a less determined outcome.

The fact that you are only ten years old, playing in an adult tournament, might have intimidated some, but not you. No, you know that your dedicated study and eagerness to learn the game has paid off.

You continue to improve each time you play.

Your teachers at school notice a difference, writing glowing praise home to your parents on a regular basis now. You know that you can do whatever you put your mind to do and it shows in various aspects of your life.

Your opponent shakes his head, stops the clock and reaches out his hand to you, signaling his resignation. You shake his hand, smile and offer to analyze the game with him, a ritual amongst players. He returns your smile and nods.

You know he doesn’t care about your age, because he knows your analysis will help him improve. How many activities are there where an adult would be eager to hear the thoughts of a child?

As you set up in the next room to go over the game you notice other adults have followed. They too want to hear what you have to say. There is no better feeling.

When the dust settled, after our last writing contest, the creative juices were still flowing.  As I had hoped, many people had caught the writing bug and were enthralled by the six word short story concept.

Two stories that came in after were:

Colin and his son Xane:

“Gladys Foambutt finally changed her name.”

OK, I loved that one.

And my six-year-old son and I came up with this one:

“Alien argued, ‘No, you’re the alien.’”

Do you have any six word stories you wish to share?

There were a lot of really amazing six word short stories created by the contestants of our writing contest at Delphi Academy of Florida.  Our judge decided on these winners:

Colin Taufer, adult: Bride: “I do!” Groom: “I do?”

Nova Steward (age 13): Baby. Child. Teen. Adult. Elder. Death.

And the overall winner, taking the age of the participant into account was:

Connor Steward (age 9): Kid meets father. First time ever.

There were many other excellent entries, ones I will feature in upcoming entries.  Overall the contest was fun and inspiring!

It is a a wonderful feeling to inspire others to write.

This last year I hosted various writing contests for children and adults and was rewarded by their enthusiasm for writing.  The six word short story concept is a very good place to start.  I found that even 5 and 6 year olds can get behind this game.

My 6-year-old son came out with a few entries that I really enjoyed:

“When its dead, scientists find bones.”

Here he’s talking about his love of dinosaurs without ever using the word.

“The plant escaped from the tank.”

My love of sci-fi makes my imagination run wild with this one.

One of his friends, Dane Skolfield, won for his class with:

“Santa rides in bus, summer Christmas.”

There were three other entries by their classmates.  Impressive!