Bound Root Morphemes

Today’s post begins with a funny story. All of the English majors in college were required to write a ten page paper on the etymology of a single word. It was one of those assignments that had gained infamy, and many students spent a great deal of time trying to find the perfect word before they had even enrolled in the course. As for me, I chose coffee. Predictable, I know.

A good friend of mine chose huckle, as in huckleberry. The word itself isn’t actually a word, it’s a bound root morpheme. This requires a brief lesson in linguistics. A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaningful language. Girl is a morpheme, as is skip. Girlfriend has two morphemes, as does skipper. Got it? Some morphemes can be free (as in girl, skip, and type) whereas other morphemes are bound (as in huck, funct, and ept). A free morpheme has meaning, a bound morpheme does not. In order to make the bound morphemes make sense, you have to add another morpheme. Funct must become defunct and ept must become inept. So, to review, there are free morphemes and bound morphemes. A free morpheme can stand alone, and a bound morpheme must be attached to another morpheme before it makes sense.

For the purpose of clarity, some linqustics folk call them “bound morphemes” while others call them “bound root morphemes”. I prefer the longer.

Having chosen huckle as his word, my friend was faced with a problem. Huckle isn’t actually a word. It’s a bound root morpheme (technically, it’s two bound morphemes). So he took action and decided to wage a fairly aggressive underground campaign to free huckle – literally. Everywhere he went, he’d scribble “Free Huckle!”. He’d tag bathroom stalls, library books, and campus bulletin boards. His goal was simple: to free huckle from it’s bound mopheme bonds. Of course, nobody who didn’t know of this campaign had any clue what “Free Huckle!” was supposed to mean when it was written on a bathroom stall.

Sadly, huckle is still a bound root morpheme. So I’ve spent the last few years compiling an interesting list of fellow bound root morphemes. Perhaps a small army of these guys could eventually form into something larger and more meaningful.

Here is the list I have so far. I would welcome any additions you have. Keep in mind that some of these are presented in their longer form to clarify their bound status (gruntled for example, is actually two bound morphemes; one of which is a free morpheme – grunt – but this creates a different morpheme).

Can you connect these bound morphemes with their missing morphemes? For example, you can inflate or deflate a balloon, but can you flate a balloon?

flate

embowled

beknownst

combobulated

gruntled

plussed

wildered

fuddled

hibited

ept

chalant

creped

trepid

capitated

stitious

funct

fenistrate

whelemed

linquished

vincible

evitable

There are, of course, millions of bound morphemes (including –ful, de-, and –es), but this particular list aims to find the funniest ones.

Tough Choices or Tough Times

Something wonderful happened last night. Most readers won’t understand why I’m so excited right now, so I’ll cut to the chase. For the past two years, I’ve been advocating a radical reform to the structure of our public school system – and last week, New Hampshire officially adopted that exact system. Utah and Massachusetts are also planning to adopt this model as well.

Here’s the story . . .

It all begins in a bar in Dallas, Texas. I was having a lengthy chat with Alan Sitomer, the 2007 California Teacher of the Year. During the conversation, he said that we needed to shut down the entire public school system and rebuild it from scratch.  At first, I was struck by the implausibility of such a radical idea – but his hyperbolic hypothesis illustrated the core issue: our public school system is broken beyond repair, and incremental steps to fix it won’t work. Over the course of an hour, I was transformed. I stopped defending a broken school system and started my journey to find a better way to teach our children. The only thing I was missing was the “better way”.

A few weeks later, during preparation for my National Teacher of the Year interview, I read a report titled “Tough Choices or Tough Times.” The report itself is a rationale and blueprint for a restructuring of our national school system. I’d heard that each of four finalists for Superintendent of the Year were required to read and respond to the report for their interview, so I figured I would read it too. This report provided the missing piece of the puzzle. Not only did it offer an alternative to the current structure of our public school system, it provided a substantially better alternative.

For the next month, I dedicated myself to learning everything I could about national school reform.

Ultimately, I decided to make an incredibly bold move. I decided that my interview speech to the selection committee for the National Teacher of the Year would focus on advocating an entirely new national school system. This would be a stark departure from the norm. The committee is used to hearing about the power of teachers, the promise of education, and the importance of children. While these topics are near and dear to me – they are not the centerpiece of my passion for education (and those who know me can attest that I make a much better policy wonk than a cheerleader).

The interview process for National Teacher of the Year is fairly intense. The four finalists have a formal dinner with the 15 panel selection committee, then have a mock press conference, a one-on-one media interview, a presentation, and an hour-long question and answer session. The whole ordeal takes about three days. Everything went well with the first two days. On the third and final day, we did our speeches and Q&A sessions. (You can read a copy of my interview speech here: josh-anderson-interview-speech-for-national-teacher-of-the-year). After the speech and during the Q&A, the selection committee made it clear that they were not about to name a National Teacher of the Year whose primary agenda is restructuring our national school system. I wasn’t surprised at their reaction, nor did I necessarily disagree with it.

So I didn’t get National Teacher of the Year. I was ok with this, though, because the alternative would have been a year of promoting my second or third most important message instead of my first.

On my flight back to Kansas, I received a telephone call from the Education Commission of the States. Governor Sebelius, who chairs the ECS, was hosting a planning meeting in Overland Park for their national conference in Philadelphia. The Governor asked me to give a speech to the planning committee regarding my thoughts on education. I accepted, and a few weeks later, I was sitting next to the governor for breakfast.

I pulled a copy of “Tough Choices or Tough Times” out of my backpack and placed it on the table. I asked the Governor and everybody else at the table if they had ever read it. None said they had.  After a very nice introduction from the Governor, I gave a speech about TCTT. All in attendance were suddenly very excited about the proposal, including Bill Wagnon, chair of the Kansas Board of Education.

I received a call from Dr. Wagnon a few days later, and we met for coffee. He wanted to know how we would go about adopting this reform system. I’m not suggesting that he was completely ready to submit Kansas to this reform, but I think that it was pretty cool that he would at least consider it.

About a month later, I received an invitation to the National Forum on Education Policy. This is one of the most important education conferences in the nation because it’s devoted to national education policy. Governors, senators, and representatives (federal and state) as well as the top education officials in all states are the primary attendees of this conference. So, you can imagine my shock and surprise when I saw that the entire conference was devoted to “Tough Choices or Tough Times”. Literally, the keynote speeches and most of the breakout sessions were centered on TCTT.

I was overwhelmed with joy. Could it have been that a ten minute speech of mine provided the entire platform for the most important national educational policy conference? It seemed so.  Even better, I was asked to give a keynote speech on the final day of the conference.

I even had the opportunity to co-author an OpEd piece with Governor Sebelius for the Philadelphia Inquirer regarding “Tough Choices or Tough Times.”

The speech itself was absolutely the best speech I have ever given. It was delivered without a single piece of paper in front of me, and it was a true call to action. If you are so inclined, you are welcome to listen to my speech here (scroll down to Thursday, July 12th, then click on “Chair’s Breakfast”, then download the MP3 file. NOTE: you’ll need to fast-forward to about the 33 minute mark since Governor Sebelius delivers the first half of the presentation).

Since that time, I’ve spoken to thousands and thousands of people across the country about restructuring our public school system. Most people thought it was a good idea. A few people thought I was absolutely crazy for suggesting such a radical departure from the system we know.

 So, in a nutshell, that’s why I’m so excited that New Hampshire has adopted this model.

Happiness is a Journey.

On a personal note . . .

I sit here writing; drinking a strong cup of coffee. Christmas music plays on my computer (as it does every year months before it is time), and a candle with an earthy, autumnal scent fills my house with the smell of fall. Outside, it’s about 55 degrees, and a light rain falls. The first few leaves start to turn.

Everything is absolutely quiet, except for the music and the click of the keyboard. My house is clean and nothing needs dusting, straightening, or washing.

All of my work is complete, and I’m not behind any more. I’m excited about going to work on Monday. I am making substantial progress on my personal promise not to be married to my job, and because I’m observing boundaries and limits (i.e. refusing to bring work home), I love my job more than I ever have.

The kids at school are amazing, and each day I get more and more excited to share our world with them – on their terms, not mine.  The things we are learning about continue to inspire me to be a better person.

I am at total peace with all of my friends and family.

In short, I am grateful for everything that I have and everyone I know.  Tonight, this holy night, I do not sip life – I gulp it down and let it wash over me and through me.  

This is why I love autumn. It’s the time of year when you come inside from months of hurried hectic whatnot and sit by the fire and drink hot chocolate and spend time with friends and family. Autumn is the warm, welcoming embrace on the doorstep of winter.

It is Robert Frost, and it is wearing a sweatshirt with shorts. It is football. It is elections.

Autumn is all of these things.

This moment is my church. This is my beautiful thing that connects me to you. This is our Holy Night.

Welcome to my Blog!

Hello Reader,

Chances are that you are a friend of mine who I’ve forced at metaphorical gunpoint to visit this blog. I genuinely appreciate your acquiescence. I also want to give a nod to a blogger by the name of “harddriller” who posted a comment on my first blog post just a few minutes after it was posted! I guess this blogging thing really is a pretty global and open affair.

I’m guessing that this blog will continue as a way for friends and family to check in with me and as a virtual whiteboard for right-wing nutjobbery in the comment section (which I invite).

One of the main reasons I’m creating this blog is to put in writing my thoughts and feelings, along with the dates and times of posting.  This way, I can look back and laugh at myself at some later date for being so incredibly wrong (or, conversely, prove some of you motherfuckers right when I tell you that what I say is true).

So that’s that. Read or leave.