Newsletter
Volume 28 | 2005 | Number 1
Ogden R. Lindsley, Flint & Steel, Sparks & Fire,
Measurement & Celeration
By Malcolm D. Neely, Ed.D.
During a 1963 summer NDEA School Counselor Institute, I was assigned the task to describe a gifted pupil by a young Idaho State University Assistant Professor named Dr. S. Samuel Shermis. It was an easy write as I merely described the behaviors of a specific high school pupil of whom I was particularly aware in my capacity as school counselor and family friend. This notable task remained with me as I met other outstanding folk, both younger and older.
Seven years later I recognized genius behind the Standard Celeration Chart (then the Standard Behavior Chart); in ensuing years met the Chart’s outstanding contributors and disciples; and finally, had the good fortune to have the SCChart’s founder, Dr. Ogden R. Lindsley, as Chairman of my Doctoral Committee.
No one could miss Og’s genius, but remembering Dr. Shermis’s 1963 assignment, I often wondered how I might have written of Ogden in his teen years.
In the winter on 1978, forsaking family and job to concentrate upon dissertation writing on the Kansas University campus, with Og, I was allowed a glimpse.
In the middle of intense editing of my work, some causal remark about my being an Eagle Scout launched an incredible story of how Og led his Boy Scout troop to winning a Jamboree contest in flint and steel fire lighting and water boiling (or, perhaps, string burning).
The Boy Scouts of America packaged an official flint and steel kit consisting of a small file, a small flint, a piece of cloth, and a nest of tinder. It was hard to hold the file and the flint would strike fingers as much as file; sparks were limited and fire was more improbable than probable. I accepted that as the way it must be.
Naturally, young Og figured outside the kit. Og found a large rasp, flint to hold in his palm, quality silk from the hem of his grandmother’s wedding dress, and extra dry tinder that he nested in a sling. One rasp showered a light show of sparks that instantly ignited the nested silk for Og to swing into a huge flame and throw into the waiting wood—a start that insured the winning of string burning or water boiling.
Now Og’s nature was always to share knowledge so, of course, he trained his troop—thus their Jamboree winning.
I was prone to finishing a day’s writing by signing my initials, Mdn. After an editing session one day, Og inquired, with a wry smile, “How does it feel to be a median?”
Upon the completion of my dissertation, I included Ogden, my advisor, at the end of Acknowledgements, as “Being the ‘moving force’ showing how to measure and multiply human behavior to make more of every human’s potential, and for helping to significantly (p < 3-10) raise a …Mdn.”
That is the crux of Og’s genii, the sparking light to measure and celerate human skill. The world will miss Og’s spark and light only if we survivors allow his fire to extinguish.
Proud member of Ogden’s Precision Troop, Malcolm D. Neely.