TACTics Journal
A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners
September 5, 2003

In this week's issue:
Connections
(1)    Poetry and the Theory of Constraints, Mike Round
Editors' Notes    
(2)    Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards

CONNECTIONS

(1)    Poetry and the Theory of Constraints
Michael Round, USA

Poetry has always been a mystery to me.  I rarely understand what is being said in a poem, and why the poet has written what they have written.  My Ambitious Target 2003 Poetry Goal is:  To learn 20 of the "great" poems.

What is the poem about?  Are the poet's words meant literally, metaphorically, or a combination?  Why has the poet written this poem?  What is the significance of this poem?  How can I use this poem in my daily life?  And how can the logical steps, the evaporating cloud, and the ambitious target be used in this learning process?  My goal is to address the former (understand great poetry) via the latter (the TOC thinking processes).

I start here with Mending Wall by Robert Frost.

MENDING WALL--Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs.  The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side.  It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors?  Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.  'I could say 'Elves to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself.  I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me‹
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."


THE CONTEXT

The wall separating my field and my neighbor's field annually crumbles.

IF:    The frozen-ground swells under the wall, and spills the upper boulders in the sun;
THEN:    The wall separating my field and my neighbor's field annually crumbles.

It's also the case:
IF:
   Hunters come, and leave not one stone on another, to have the rabbit out of hiding;
THEN:    The wall separating my field and my neighbor's field annually crumbles.

Therefore:
IF:
   The wall separating my field and my neighbor's field annually crumbles;
AND IF:    Both neighbors want a good wall;
THEN:    Come spring, both neighbors meet to "mend the wall."

THINKING ABOUT THE SYSTEM

IF:    Come spring, both neighbors meet to "mend the wall;"
THEN:    Both neighbors repair the wall, "keeping the wall between us as we go."

IF:    As we repair the fence, we have to use a "spell to make the rocks balance;"
THEN:    Mending the wall is hard to do, and is hard work.

It's also the case:
IF:
   As we repair the fence, we wear our fingers rough with handling the rocks;
THEN:    Mending the wall is hard to do, and is hard work.

THEREFORE:
IF:    
Both neighbors repair the wall, "keeping the wall between us as we go";
AND IF:    Mending the wall is hard to do, and is hard work;
THEN:    I start to wonder, "Why do we need a wall between my neighbor and me?"

IMPROVING THE SYSTEM

IF:    I start to wonder, "Why do we need a wall between my neighbor and me?"
AND IF:    On his side of the wall "is all pine and I am apple orchard;"
THEN:    I realize "there where it is we do not need the wall."  "Something there is that doesn't love a wall."

THEREFORE:
IF:
   I realize "there where it is we do not need the wall."  "Something there is that doesn't love a wall;"
AND IF:    BOTH neighbors want a good wall;
THEN:    I must tell my neighbor we do not need the wall.

SYSTEM INERTIAL TAKES OVER

IF:    I must tell my neighbor we do not need the wall;
AND IF:    My neighbor has not done any thinking on the need for the wall;
THEN:    My neighbor "will not go behind his father's saying, and he likes having thought of it so well."

THEREFORE (sadly)
IF:
   My neighbor "will not go behind his father's saying, and he likes having thought of it so well;"
THEN:    My neighbor will only repeat, "Good fences make good neighbors".

THE SYSTEM CONFLICT

The neighbor's position:  I want to be a good neighbor.  In order to be a good neighbor, tradition says we must have a wall between us.  Therefore, we must maintain the wall.

Frost's position:  I, too, want to be a good neighbor.  In order to be a good neighbor, I see no need to keep this wall between us.  Therefore, the wall should come down.

THE POEM'S CONCLUSION

And so the story ends, Robert Frost, wishing the wall come down, as "something there is that doesn't love a wall,
" and his neighbor, steadfastly maintaining "Good fences make good neighbors."

Frost would "rather [the neighbor] said it for himself," but does not know how to convince him.

If only Frost had studied the Evaporating Cloud!

POETRY IMPLICATIONS

General ideas from the study of Poem #1:
What is the role of metaphor in this poem‹or any poem?

What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for inferring metaphors from the actual text of a poem?

What is the role of surfacing assumptions to explain interpretation differences of a poem?

How can the TOCTP take up where the poet left off?  For example, Frost concludes his poem wishing he could convince the neighbor no wall was necessary.  An interesting follow-up project:  apply the Evaporating Cloud to surface assumptions of both Frost and the Neighbor to evaporate the conflict.

EDITORS' NOTES

(2)    Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards

We thank you, Mike, for sharing a most unique application of the Ambitious Target.  We certainly hope to get feedback from our readers about your creative use of this tool.  To our TOCFE family, we truly welcome all of your responses, applications of the thinking processes, lessons, announcements, and etc.  So please, send by mail to:  Cheryl A. Edwards, 2253 S. Hill Island Rd., Cedarville, Michigan 49719, USA.  Or, send hyperlink to cedwards@cedarville.net or bucknek@earthlink.net.

This week's TACTics includes two attachments!  One is our usual version of TACTics, which contains special formatting of Mike's Ambitious Target and  the other is the Microsoft PowerPoint presentation that he created to express his goal.  Please note that you must have Acrobat Reader to open the file.  It is freely available for download from:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html

If you have the Reader installed but still can't open the file, drag it from this e-mail to your desktop, launch the Reader, and open from the FILE menu.

You may also view TACTics in its intended formatting, by visiting our web site at www.tocforeducation.com.  Click on "What's New."