Author’s Note: I’ve re-posted this article for your reading pleasure as I am on vacation.
Kids who grow up with no television in their homes either (a) make friends quick with a kid whose family worships the ‘mote, or (b) they read a lot. My utter lack of pop culture references from the mid-seventies through the mid-nineties should do all the explaining as to which path I took.
The outcome being, I ended up with a stellar vocabulary, full of words I’d only ever seen in print and therefore usually couldn’t pronounce correctly. Whatever. At least I knew what they meant.
And there were some I knew how to say. (With feeling). When I was eight my 18-year-old babysitter burned the chicken pot pies that were to be our dinner. My mother never bought us crappy processed food, which meant my brother and I were infatuated with all sugary, well-preserved, and insanely processed foodstuffs.
I was understandably pissed when the sitter burned my only shot at packaged food for the month and filled the kitchen with smoke. To vent my anger I hollered, “What are you trying to do, asphyxiate us?!” She had no idea what that meant, and almost sent me to my room because she thought I’d called her something so horrible, not even teenager her had ever heard that particular obscenity before.
There is also the common problem, among adults and too-smart-for-their-own-good children, of only ever hearing a word or a phrase and never figuring out the correct spelling. There are so many words that sound alike but are spelled differently, and each version of the stupidly exact-sounding word means something completely different. I’ve got their, there, and they’re down cold, but it took a while for me to get affect and effect straight. The English language, in my bitchy opinion, has some definite asinine qualities.
Or perhaps I should ask more questions. Until I was in college and saw this phrase written on the board as a common mistake college sophomores made when writing papers for the professor, I had always thought “For all intents and purposes” was “For all intensive purposes.”
According to Paul Brians, author of Common Errors in English Usage, I’m not the only native English-speaker to screw that phrase up. Which made me feel better for about point seven seconds until I saw the bit where he describes the phrase as “Another example of the oral transformation of language by people who don’t read much.” Ouch, Professor Brians. That was totally uncalled for.
I read plenty, thank you. The books I read (fine literature and lots of science-y non-fiction) just haven’t ever contained that exact phrase. I am still very smart and am an excellent reader. And clearly I have nary a hang-up about the whole intents/intensive blunder.
Author’s Note: I’ve re-posted this article for your reading pleasure while I’m on vacation.
The notion most of us have when thinking about the University (read that with a deep and important voice, please) is of a well-architectured limbo-land full of higher thought, in-depth learning, and forward motion steeped nicely in tradition. The University isn’t (or didn’t used to be) as susceptible to the rules of government and society; they’ve managed to create their own little spheres.
These days, when you really stop to ponder the reality of the University bubble, that place of higher thinking seems a lot more watered down in its autonomy. Money, politics and red tape have pulled the rest of the world into the fabric of the University, while the University is forced, more and more it seems, to rely on the non-University world in order to survive.
No less than eight members of my family, between 1932 and the present, have spent their careers at Universities. I’m not an idiot; I know that even in 1932 the University was already pretty susceptible to red tape and politics. But the University was still thought of, from without and within, as a place where academic freedom was considered sacred.
It appears, especially through the eyes of those on the inside, as though the last vestiges of higher learning and new thinking are being chipped away at an increasingly rapid rate, all in the name of popular research and big-name publishing. That all comes down to the ongoing faculty wrestling-match to figure out who will land the biggest chunk of grant money.
You can’t survive without money, and you can’t continue your research (or your job) without funding. Grant money is usually awarded to those trying to answer the newest, biggest, hottest question of the year. It’s difficult to land decent financial support for researching the esoteric topics.
When a dispute regarding academic freedom comes up, it’s usually about the rights of instructors to speak freely (within reason; there’s never any need to go overboard, for crying out loud) about politics and religion and all the Big Bads no one’s supposed to bring up in classroom discussions. Academic freedom is also supposed to include the rights of students and faculty to think, wonder, ask questions, and to perform research in order to find some answers. If money and funding are driving the machine, it seems obvious that the academic freedom to do research is being severely shaped by outside interests.
President Robert Zimmer of the University of Chicago gave a speech recently at Columbia University’s conference entitled “What is Academic Freedom For?” He spoke about academic freedom at institutions of higher learning, what that means and why it’s important to protect and maintain that tradition in the modern-day University.
The greatest contributions universities can make to society over the long run are the ideas and discoveries of faculty and students that emanate from the resulting intellectual ferment and the work of alumni across the scope of human activity―alumni whose capacity for invention has been dramatically enhanced through their education in this environment. Moreover, that universities are almost unique in making this type of contribution only highlights its importance to society.
If this is the purpose of universities, the purpose of academic freedom is precisely to preserve this openness of inquiry and freedom of thought. In other words, academic freedom is designed to protect and preserve for the long run the unique capacity of universities to contribute to society. More…
Japanese school kids have gained a reputation for insane adroitness in their memorization and test-taking skills while lacking a basic working knowledge of problem solving. Being ill-equipped for the solving of the problems turns out to be somewhat of an issue in the real world.
As we’ve all realized by now, s**t happens in life. You don’t even have to try to interface with s**t and it will still happen. Death, taxes, and s**t are the only guarantees we humans are given. So, avoid death, pay taxes, and prepare yourself for the s**tstorm we call life.
The book was originally written by Ken Watanabe for Japanese school kids, but ended up becoming incredibly popular among Japanese adults in the business world. It’s short, it’s simple, it’s meant for smart, less-than-fully-grown humans, and it’s practical. I’m buying it as soon as I post this.
It’s cringe-y and funny and it just upset me and made me laugh until I snurfed green tea out my nose. I think you should read it too. Chag Holland is Cynical Dad and he is capable of making your day better.
I help out in my daughter’s class. I used to just do simple things like copy papers and cut out shapes and crap, but somewhere along the line, someone got the dumb idea that I could actually work with the kids and teach them things. Big mistake. Last week, I was working with a table of kids and teaching them how to carry ones. One of the little boys at the table spoke up.
Boy #1: I’m the best in the class at math.
Internal Chag: Um, no, or you wouldn’t be sitting here with me.
Girl #1: No you’re not! Hamid is!
Boy #1: That doesn’t count. Of course he’s the best at math.
External Chag: Why is he the best at math?
Boy #1: He’s from another country. All they do is math.
One must always be learning. Even if you’re one of the learning ones and you’re an educator, who’s supposed teach. Because even teachers have to keep learning. Did they not tell you that in Teacher School?
Ric Murray wrote a piece about a profound moment he had: learning something completely unexpected from a student. He’s a seasoned teacher, is incredibly involved with his school and with his teaching and coaching work. He’s not effing around when it comes to going above and beyond the call of duty, and so was caught totally off guard when he realized he had missed something that was so significant his students.
Mr. Murray is a seventh grade Social Studies teacher and some of his students, being new to the U.S., are English Language Learners (ELLs). A former student, Rocio, was a newly minted high school graduate and a Gates Millennial Scholarship recipient when she showed up to say goodbye to her old school before heading off to college.
Mr. Murray asked her to say a few words to his new class about her experiences as an ELL student and what it’s possible to achieve after coming to the States knowing how to say only “Hi” and “Yes” in English.
She began to speak, explaining her path and how she’d gotten to this moment—heading off to college. Most of the students gave a disrespectful look and turned away. To which she responded with two items:
First she said, “I know why you are looking away. You think this can’t happen for you. You think you’re not smart enough. You think you’re not meant to go to college. You think it would be disrespectful to your parents; who did not even go to high school. I know that’s what you are thinking, because I sat in your chair just a few years ago, thinking the very same thing when teachers talked about students going to college.
But let me tell you something, Your parents would not have left their families, struggled with their children to travel here, and now work 16-18 hours everyday if they didn’t want you to get your education. So make them proud. That’s why they came here. Not for them, but for you.”
Second she said, “I’m not saying it will be easy, but I am saying it will be worth it. What we know that your teachers don’t know is that we can’t even be ourselves or show our real personality to them, or our classmates, because we don’t have a personality until we own the language the people around us use to communicate. We know that you can’t be who you really are in someone else’s language. But when you do learn the language, and you will, you will be able to reveal the real you to them.”
Realizing the absolute truth of that statement, You can’t be who you really are in someone else’s language, Mr. Murray now asks his ELL students to tell him about something they’ve done recently, something fun. First he asks them to tell him in English. Then in their own language. The information is given and received satisfactorily in English. But in the second telling, when the students tell ostensibly the same story but in their native tongue, they laugh, their eyes light up, more of them comes through.
No one could ever hope to describe me as a rabid Star Trek fan. Ever. It’s a cool show, interesting concept, blah blah blah. But I never have and never will go out of my way to sit still and watch it. (I do confess to having a bit of a crush on Spock; what girl can resist a tall, dark, pointy-eared man who’s saturated with logic and utterly lacking in emotion? What am I, made of stone?)
The best thing Star Trek has to offer (excepting Spock, obviously) is not Next Generation’s Picard walking along a beach in a disturbingly non-Shakespearian banana hammock*, but the fact that the first season of the show came on as a flippy little wisp of a wacky television series seemingly destined for cancellation, and has engrained itself inextricably in the pop-culture knowledge of several generations of television viewers.
Where are the original Star Trek cast members now? Alive and well in society’s cellular makeup. I have seen probably less than ten episodes of Star Trek (either series), and I am aware, down to my ribosomes, of all that is Star Trek. Upsetting to be sure, but a phenomenon nonetheless.
Is there any other television series that has utilized synthetic fabric to such an extreme degree? No. And I find it hard to believe that any other series has inspired for-credit college courses in cultural anthropology and linguistics, including: “Xenolinguistics: The Anthropology of Alien Language.” The students were required to learn Tribble, Klingon, Vulcan and Romulan, as well as creating their own fictitious language. I don’t feel like I need to learn those languages, but that’s just damn cool.
I think this is where I say, “Live long and prosper,” and I do the Vulcan hand sign thing. (Which I can totally pull off, by the way.)
Here’s a list of all the stuff you thought you didn’t know about Star Trek. I knew more than I should have. Click it and it’ll get bigger and actually readable.
*I have it on good authority that there’s an episode in which Picard does a flashback/memory/holodeck thing and is walking along a dreamy beach wearing a very small Speedo-type get-up. I searched the Internet and am so happy to have found no such image to share. You’ll thank me later.
Wired magazine calls him “the explainer.” Michael Wesch is a social anthropologist who teaches at Kansas State University. In his 15-minute TED talk, he explains the effects of media (social and otherwise) on learners, on humanity, and on the classroom environment.
Wesch also manages to squeeze in a bit telling other educators how to take advantage of all the media and the technology humans have available as a way to make students more “knowledge-able” than just knowledgeable. It’s not just memorizing facts and theories anymore—all the information is out there, students need to learn how to find it and ponder it and bring their own thoughts and theories to the table.
Watch it. It takes about 15 minutes; that’s less time than it takes to drink a cup of coffee. And no way one cup of caffeine will blow your mind like Michael Wesch can.
Campus-dwellers are safely past the Winter Bleak, the March Doldrums, and are now in that half-in, half-out, two-month moment between Spring Has Sprung and Summer Freedom that exists in its own slow-drip cubicle in the space-time continuum. The world is beautiful and there is no end of coursework in sight. It is excruciating. How long is this going to take?!
This may help to put it all in perspective for any higher-education seekers and providers who may be having a difficult time embracing Spring and letting go ever so slightly:
“If I were able to live my life anew, in the next I would try to commit more errors. I would not try to be so perfect, I would relax more. I would be more foolish than I’ve been, in fact, I would take few things seriously.
I would be less hygienic. I would run more risks, take more vacations, contemplate more sunsets, climb more mountains, swim more rivers. I would go to more places where I’ve never been, I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans, I would have more real problems and less imaginary ones.
I was one of those people that lived sensibly and prolifically each minute of his life; Of course I had moments of happiness. If I could go back I would try to have only good moments. Because if you didn’t know, of that is life made: only of moments; Don’t lose the now.
I was one of those that never went anywhere without a thermometer, a hot-water bottle, an umbrella, and a parachute; If I could leave again, I would travel lighter. If I could live again, I would begin to walk barefoot until autumn ends. I would take more cart rides, contemplate more dawns, and play with more children, If I had another life ahead of me.
But already you see, I am 85, and I know that I am dying.”
Variously attributed to Jorge Luis Borges and Don Herold (via Ben Casnocha)
Let go a little, people. I promise you it will all work out.
A significant portion of humanity makes me cringe, wishing I was something less human and more innocuous. Being a buttercup or a bluebell would be nice. It’s difficult to pull off a solid evil vibe when you lack higher thought and opposable thumbs.
Even cynical, cranky me has had to admit to being moved by some of my fellow people. Martin Luther King, Jr. is near the top of my list of beings I’m proud to share the classification “human” with.
So beloved and respected is he still, in 1996 Congress officially authorized the Memorial Foundation to begin raising funds for a National Memorial in honor of Dr. King. The Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial will be placed on the National Mall, between the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial.
It should be noted that Dr. King’s memorial will be the first on the Mall to acknowledge a person of color, a man who worked and spoke out for peace, and who was neither a veteran of war nor a president.
Here’s what the completed memorial will look like:
Questions Answered:
Why build a Memorial to Dr. King?
More than a monument to a great humanitarian, the National Memorial honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be a place for visitors from all over the world to be energized by its extraordinary power; the power that illuminated the faith of our founders and now impels us toward our destiny as a nation; the power flowing from the uniquely American spirit of brotherly love, freedom, justice, and the priceless blessing they endure…peace.
Why build the Memorial now?
Dr. King once reminded the nation of “the fierce urgency of now” while warning against “the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.” The time is now a historical perspective. Many young people have heard of Dr. King, but are unaware of the significance of his contributions to America and the world. The design has been established; the site is secured; the fundraising teams are already at work; and more than $106 million of the campaign goal has been raised. The time is now.
When will the Memorial be completed?
The Ceremonial Groundbreaking occurred on November 13, 2006. The Dedication of the Memorial is tentatively scheduled for the Fall of 2011.
How much will the Memorial cost?
It is estimated that the total cost of the project will be $120 million. Of that amount, more than $106 million has been raised.
What can I do to help?
Individuals as well as corporations can add their financial support to this effort. Contributions, large and small, are needed to attain our goal of $120 million. Spread the word to your friends, neighbors and acquaintances that their donations are urgently needed. Most major employers match employee donations, so if you donate to the Memorial Foundation your employer may double that amount.
