New Character Forum for Legacy

Last year, I attended Socon07, a conference on social networking (forums, blogs, linked-in, etc.). Some call it Web 2.0 - the transformation of the Web from a place to read people's stuff to a place where people meet, chat and share ideas. My Space, Facebook and endless other sites have revolutionized how we use the Web. Utilizing these tools could revolutionize the way provide resources to youth workers and character education leaders. I plan to attend Socon08 in a few weeks.

Speaking of Web 2.0, we're starting a character education forum this month at http://www.characterforum.info . Our purpose is to start making our character initiative more two-way, giving everyone the opportunity to chime in about what's working and what's not. If we get enough response, we can gain a lot of wisdom through posting questions, getting responses from across the globe, and sharing resources. Since we have from 450 to 600 people visiting our character site
( www.character-education.info ) daily, there's a vast amount of wisdom we'd like to draw from. One conversation has already begun. Hopefully, we'll start hearing from others soon.

Capturing Ideas

Capturing Ideas

I don't just research for my present project; I read for a lifetime of writing. So whether I'm reading a biography of Da Vinci, a weighty tome on investing, or a technical journal on ethnomusicology, I index it for ideas, quotes and stories.

First, I underline or put a mark beside the paragraph. Then, in the back of the book, I jot down a reference:

• "quote, p. 76, contentment"
• "joke, 103, saving money"

(Note for those who can't stomach writing in their books: A recent visitor to John Adams' personal library [over 3500 volumes] noted how Adams wrote throughout his volumes, asking questions and adding his own thoughts. See http://www.johnadamslibrary.org . I also seem to recall that Adler's classic, How to Read a Book, advocates writing in your books.)

It may be months or even years before I put these in my illustration databases, both at www.character-education.info and www.youth-ministry.info , where I keep over 3600 illustrations. As I harvest the illustrations from a book, I put a check mark beside each reference so that I know it's in a database.

Additionally, I copy and paste ideas from e-mails and online reading to files in my computer.

I love collecting illustrations as much as anything I do. I've become a useful resource to educators, pastors, missionaries and fellow-writers. While some may begrudge the time spent typing in illustrations or summing up people stories, I see it as a way to get much more out of my reading. We remember so little of what we read. By taking time to harvest the good stuff, I remember multiples more than if I'd merely read it and set it aside. And what I don't remember, I can always find in my databases.

So I begin writing an article or book. As I write, I draw from my databases, computer files, and the back of unharvested books for my illustrative material.

On Finding and Crafting People Stories

Readers will remember my stories long after they've forgotten my witty sentences or ten point outlines. I spoke on the importance and use of people stories at a character conference in St. Louis and wrote an article based on that seminar here.