Odd Article

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This article is about a family with parents who have recently been convicted of torturing their children to raise them. It says that they hit them with shoe horns and stabbed them with knives and forks as a form of discipline. It was discovered when one of the three children told a school nurse about how their parents treated them. The parents are in complete denial, they said things like, how could you accuse us of hitting our beloved children?

I think that this is news because abusing children is a very serious thing. I think that it is odd because we have all heard of abuse but not many people have heard of people stabbing their children with knives and forks as a form of discipline to raise them.

I think that the parents have done this to their children but it makes me wonder because the children are like 6, 8, and 10... so what if they made it up? A lot of children could do something like this if they do not like their parents.. but in reading this case, I think that the parents actually did do it because of how the children were scared to tell anyone about it and that is a strange thing to just make up.

4th Post

1. Something that John Wooden believed that stood out to me was definitely that he allowed all the chance to achieve greatness. In some sports in my school, if you are on JV then you are assumed not to move up that season since you were put on JV in the first place. A lot of times, even if that person's skills increase significantly, they wont play because the coach is only focused on varsity. They don't pay attention to the younger players or the ones who didn't stand out in the first couple of weeks. John Wooden made it clear that anyone could start. He made sure that even his best players knew that their spots were not set in stone.
2. I honestly cant think of a coach I've had that has coached like Wooden. Some coaches are similar in some ways but don't stand out to me. One coach who sort of made the point of everyone being able to achieve greatness but didn't necessarily follow through, was my basketball coach last year. He had told all of us that anyone could start. Eventually a couple of girls got in at the end of the season and I support that because during the season they worked hard and their skills did increase significantly.
3. I think it is very important to study leadership. If our leaders didn't take examples from great leaders then no one would be successful. If you are a leader, you need to study the things that great leaders did and what morals they had if you want to be a successful leader also.

3rd blog

1. In the later pages that I have read, I have gotten to read about more of the parts of the pyramid of success in more detail. I am towards the end of it and it is all coming together now. There are a lot of things that I have found very interesting. "Never stoop to playing dirty-- play hard and don't complain." -John Wooden. Quotes like that are things that I have been reading about. This quote and this section in the book really taught me a lot. I've realized that you always have to push your hardest and give 100% if you want to reach success.
2. One of the main things that my author is pushing on leadership is that, it's not about winning. Its about the fight. This is something that I have realized is that is really important if you want success. If you put up a great fight and the outcome doesn't come out with you having more points, then you had a moral win, which is much more important than winning on the score board.
3. "A leader who is ruled by emotions, whose temperament is mercurial, produces a team whose trademark is the roller coaster- ups and downs in performance; unpredictability and undependability in effort and concentration; one day good, the next day bad. (John Wooden, 107)" --This quote is one of the huge things that I think really decides weather you are going to be a strong and successful leader. I think that this is what has failed one of my teams that I am currently on and I think that if that coach would realize this, then we would be more successful. Controlling your emotions is something that I think is extremely important as a leader. If the leader cannot control themselves, then they can't expect anyone else who looks up to them to control theirs.
4. In biology yesterday, we were taking a test on microscopes and a student next to me asked me to tell them the answer. I said that I didn't know, even though I did and I knew I had it right. I made the ethical decision not to let that person cheat. Also because I turned out doing bad on that test... but that answer was still right!

1. I am really liking this book now. The beginning was all about his life and now it is about how he developed his pyramid for leadership. It is very inspirational. The things that stand out so far are definitely the things about what you need if you want to be a leader. The main thing that stood out to me is the part on Self Control. "Control of self is essential for consistency in leadership and team performance." "Self-control in little things leads to control of the bigger things.
2. My views of leadership have changed in the way that I didn't know that it took so many elements to be a successful leader. I am learning all of the things that are necessary qualities to have to be a good leader. Such as, self-control, enthusiasm, initiative, effort, skill and many more.
3. I was put in a leadership position when our class was decorating the hallways. Ana and I were the main ones who led and told people what to do. We had to come up with a lot of ideas and we had to help direct people on what to do. We didn't have much time so we had to keep people on task. I wouldn't do anything different unless maybe be a little more prepared on what we needed to do.
4. "A leader must have initiative- the courage to make decisions, to act, and the willingness and strength to risk failure and take a stand even when it goes against the opinion of others (Wooden, 43)" I can use this quote in the future to motivate me to take a stand for what I believe in. You can't worry about what others will think of you or weather you might fail or not.

Wooden

I read the beginning of the book, Wooden on Leadership by Coach John Wooden. I have so far read the whole introduction which is a short autobiography of his life. He says how he measures success is the most important thing. He seems so far like he is different than many other coaches. He never cared weather they won or lost, he cared weather they tried 100% and played their hearts. He is also different because he never listened to rankings or anything like that. He never let himself loose sleep fearing the other team. He said he wanted the other team to loose sleep worrying about them. Winning-wise, one of his most unsuccessful seasons was the year of 59-60. Their last game they played was the one that determined weather they broke .500 or not. Spectators said that the program was going down the drain but Wooden thinks that team was very successful. They just didn't have that much talent, but they gave they're all. In just four years, his next team went 30-0.