Showing posts with label philosophy. Show all posts
Part 5 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.
Life, much like water, always seeks the path of least resistance. Trees bend with the wind instead of fighting it, wolves attack younger prey instead of going after adults, spiders build webs to lure instead of hunting their meals. But humans actively celebrate people doing difficult things.
Think of any accomplishment that has ever been bestoyed upon anyone. They are always for doing something percieved as difficult or challenging. "You climbed Mt. Everst, nice work, here's your photo on the cover of TIME." "You can throw a football really far, awesome job, here's $50 million." Even the participation awards given out to every young kid regardless of performance are still a way of rewarding them for doing something that other people are not doing. "You are here when you could of been somewhere else, here's a ribbon."
We actively seek ways to make our lives easier, but the moment life becomes too easy we start moving in the opposite direction. We build massive homes filled with running water and electricty and comfy beds, but people get bored by the ease of every day life and search for more challenging things to occupy their time. To our ancestors people of the present must appear deranged. "Let me get this straight, you have a magic box that brings you images from every place on the planet and you're so bored with life you're going to jump off a bridge?"
On one hand, it is because of the people who pushed boundaries that we have the amenities to make life easier. But on the other, it's an unsustainable habit that is only going to get worse over time. As technology continues to take the place of day to day tasks our lives will become easier. The question is, how will we fill our time?
I am perplexed by this thought more than anything else. I think that it is important to be happy with less, to find contentment without continually needing more and more. But I also realize that true innovation only comes because things are made easier. What must be understood is that things need to work in balance. To abandon all difficulties, whether it be climbing Mt. Everst or just climbing a set of stairs, would be as counterproductive as returning to the days before mass conveinces made our lives less about survival and more about enjoyment.
Part 1 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. To see all entries, click here.
A few weeks ago I went to the San
Francisco Zoo. I walked around for a few hours and took pictures for
Gridlock Magazine, a rather enjoyable use of my Saturday. Then I saw
a Giant Anteater. Here's a picture for the uninitiated.
For my entire life I thought I knew
exactly what an anteater was, an animal with a long snout and tongue
to dig in the ground and eat ants. The only problem was that I was
picturing an aardvark.
The strangest thing is how sure my
brain was that it knew exactly what an anteater looked like. There
was absolutely no questioning of my aardvark-inspired, anteater
look-a-like. The image and thoughts I have about anteaters is, admittedly, minuscule. However, before my trip to the zoo basically
all those thoughts were based on some figment of my imagination I
created while watching PBS's Arthur.
How many other things have I
constructed to the point of comfort in my mind? Thoughts, images,
memories that I do not even realize are inherently wrong. I assume
that most are small things, like anteaters and aardvarks, but what if
the big things are wrong as well? Political affiliations, historical
events, the color of my shirt.
The only thing to do when realizing
one's infallibility is to seek knowledge while remaining humble.
A new day reminds us only of how little we know- and how much we can
learn. Hopefully, I can remember that as I continue to move through
this world of anteaters, aardvarks and everything else.
"Because he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now." -Commissioner Gordon (The Dark Knight)
Cords that resonate with viewers long
after the credits roll. The Dark Knight is a film that allows people
to escape only to show them a reflection of society, and it is not a
bright reflection at all.
A commenter on a blog said it
eloquently:
drvictordavishj: "The key is the way Gordon draws a contrast between (Harvey) Dent "the hero we need" versus the Dark Knight "the hero we deserve." Nolan is saying that we need a law-abiding idealist, but that we don’t deserve him."
But these are our heroes. These are our
leaders. President Obama, Speaker John Boehner, Rep. Nancy Pelosi,
Sen. Harry Reid. These are the men and women who are supposed to be
our White Knights. Yet, not one is anything more than a sock puppet
for special interest groups, banks and lobbyists.
"Because I'm tired of it. Year, after year, after year, after year, having to choose between the lesser of who cares. Of trying to get myself excited about a candidate who can speak in complete sentences. Of setting the bar so low I can hardly look at it." -Leo McGarry (The West Wing)
We continue to allow our rights to be
taken away. Sometimes piece by piece and sometimes in massive sweeps
disguised as protection against our enemies. The, so-called, Leader
of the Free World signed a bill on December 31st that makes it legal
to hold United States citizens in jail...forever. With no charges or
trial. All anyone has to do is claim they are a terrorist.
We assassinate our own citizens, apply
justice arbitrarily, allow our private lives to be searched without a
warrant, refuse the global community the right to try our leaders for
war crimes and, incredibly, denounce other states for doing the same
exact things.
Maybe America is the world's Dark
Knight. We take on the evils of the world and the only way to do so
is by getting our hands dirty. Just as the Joker brings Batman again
and again to that moral line he does not wish to cross, the
world is doing the same to America. Maybe we don't want to be the way we
are, but what other choice is there?
I turn again to an anonymous commenter:
drvictordavishj: Nolan is ultimately saying that strong societies don't tolerate Dark Knights. If we do, it's only because we lack confidence in the institutions and values that we've inherited. After all, with all his gifts, Bruce Wayne could have easily been Harvey Dent, but because he lacks confidence in legitimate institutions and his moral inheritance, he’s not the philanthropist and healer that his father was. He's the sign of a sick society."
Ask yourself, do you have confidence in
our institutions? Is the government of the people, by the people and for the people?
The sad truth is there are a great many
things wrong with this society. We need no more evidence than the
existence of all the Dark Knights we allow to exist. Whether they be
vigilantes fighting crime in New York City or the very
countries we live in.
These are the heroes we deserve. These are our silent guardians, our watchful protectors. The existence of Dark Knights is a
sign of a sick society. And our society is filled with them.
This is part of our Us Meets World
posts. Check them all out here, write about the topic on your own
blog, let me know and we'll link to your page.
Tell the truth. You are selfish. You
want someone else to take care of everything. You want money to come
flowing in, cookies to be plentiful and all your cares in the world
to disappear. It's okay. Guess what? We are all selfish.
Very few people actually want to work.
There's millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dads out there who
want nothing more than to hang out with their kids all day. The
difference is they aren't socially allowed to do that. They have to
work, bring home the bacon, be the caregiver and make the mullah.
You greedy women want to have your cake
and eat it to. (Drop Marie Antoinette reference to appear smart). I
can hear the stampede starting now. "Women have been oppressed
for centuries, forced to stay at home and do all the cleaning and
cooking and basically being a slave for the man of the house. If you
go back far enough, women were the same as slaves-treated like
property to be exchanged from father to husband. The last century has
been the only time in history that women have finally had the freedom
to do all the things that men can do. How dare you!"
How dare me?
Here's the truth. Men want almost
exactly what women want. To be treated fairly, to have a stable home
life and to be happy. Sometimes that happiness comes from rock
climbing or golfing or photography. Some men are painters or writers,
some are athletes or firefighters. Some men love to be around other
people, some love to be left alone.
There's not as many physiological
differences between the sexes as we make out to be. We all get
hungry, horny and tired. Beyond that, it's all social pressure.
One of my first posts was titled The Art of Being a Man...and why nobody cares. The simple summary,
the universe doesn't care if you act manly. It doesn't care if you
act feminine. As far as I can tell the universe doesn't care a whole
lot either way. The same way you know a river does not care about a drowning person, the universe doesn't care if you're acting manly
or not.
I tell you that to tell you this.
There's nothing that we should be doing. Men/women/humans want to be
treated fairly, to have a stable home life and to be happy. How do
you get happiness? That's a personal question, not a universal one.
If you love flying airplanes then you need to make a lot of money
because, as I understand it, airplanes ain't cheap.
My suggestion? (I'm so glad you asked).
Be happy with less. Less things, less friends, less children, less
video games, less beers, less, less, less. Whatever that thing is
that you think you need to be happy, you don't need it. You don't
want a thing, you just want more. You're selfish. It's okay. It is
biological. We don't want to die during winter and so we hoard nuts
during fall (fact check last statement, that might be squirrels).
You can be happy with less. You can be
happy that you're husband doesn't work 18 hour days, instead of being
happy he just bought a new car. You can be happy that you got one
notification on Facebook, instead of being sad you didn't get a friend
request from that cute guy in history class. Happiness is a choice.
What you are happy about is completely up to you. There is no
universal requirement or quota for happiness. You have the option to
always choose happiness.
And you can be happy with less.
This is the another post in my Zen and the Art of Teaching series. Check out them all here.
This can apply to a variety of
businesses. Maybe you'll notice how similar what I'm about to
describe fits the office where you work. Let me assure you, schools
have mastered the art of the soul-sucking meeting.
You know the one. It drags on and on.
You're not even sure why you came in the first place. What's going on? Is this
important? Whoever is in front speaking sure seems
to think so. In fact, they believe this is the most important meeting
on the face of the earth. As if the Lord Almighty commanded this
meeting be brought forth from oblivion to bring the idle masses to
salvation.
It's about toner cartridges.
Or teaching strategies. Or a particular
student. Or tardies, fire drills, rallies, football boosters, school
elections, math club, being too disengaged with students, being too
engaged with students, not teaching enough, teaching too much, and on
and on and on. Eons pass and ice ages come and go in the time it
takes to get through some meetings.
The worst part is that we could be
working. We could be finding our way into the Element. Creating
lessons that will actively involve our students and actually teach
them something. Perhaps, if we are lucky, inspire them to create
something of their own.
Schools (and maybe your business) need
to discover what meetings are for. They are not for hanging out,
catching up, checking in, seeing how things are going or progress
reports. There is no need to have a meeting every day, probably
unnecessary to have one every week.
What a meeting should be is a place
where individuals can gather to collaborate and share ideas. You
should go to a meeting, get something wonderful out of it that will
help you create something of your own. Regurgitation of a process is
simple. Every animal species can walk in a line. Humans are so
advanced we invented email. If all a manager wants done is for his
drones to follow an order- send an email.
Here are my rules for meetings, when I
am in charge.
1. Cancel it. Honestly, is this meeting necessary? Will every single individual get something out of it that will improve their lives and their students lives? If the answer is no, cancel the meeting. If the answer is yes, move on.
2. Never longer than a half an hour. Ever hear someone say, "Kids attention spans are so short nowadays." It's not nowadays and it's not kids. The absolutely maximum a mind can stay focused on a single task is 45-50 minutes. But that takes a lot of interesting things, active involvement and communication. Most likely, a mind can handle closer to 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes is the perfect length of a meeting. Assemble the troops, hand out papers, expect them to read the papers another time (don't go over information twice), say something inspiring and let them do the job you hired them for.
3. Inspire. Make it so meetings aren't necessary. The best manager should make themselves obsolete. The best teachers should fade into the background. People want to work and think and create all on their own. Inspire them to do that.
Here are my rules for meetings when I
am in attendance.
1. Don't go. It's a waste of your time. Inform your superiors beforehand. Make it clear to them you don't do meetings. They are a drain on your energy, your time and they prevent you from reaching the Element.
2. Seriously. Read number one.
3. If you must go, do your best to be open to inspiration. Chances are it won't happen. Whoever is in charge is probably wasting everyone's time with idle chatter. However, you can at least, for a moment, attempt to be open. If you can't make it through three hours of being open to inspiration then try small segments. But seriously, read number one.
Send emails, use IMs, set up a Skype
account. You know what all of those things have in common? You can
turn them off whenever you want. You have a choice about when you are
going to work individually or collaboratively. Unlike when meetings
are forced upon you, choice is present. Companies/schools that block
websites to improve worker productivity are stupid. Let your
employees go on Facebook and Twitter. Let them search the web for
Gnostic Christianity and sites on Anarchy. They may be inspired to
create something wonderful for your company. Or teach a child
something that will change his/her life.
Block meetings though. I'm all for
blocking meetings.
*With inspiration from Leo Babauta.
We are all searching for something.
Often in life we feel lost or scared or confused, but what we are is
directionless. We've stopped searching. As we stop searching we begin
to feel confined, isolated and afraid. We are out-of-sorts, and we
continuously wonder why.
It is because we are not in our
Element. It is because we have not remembered our Authentic Swing. It
is because who we are in actuality is not who we are pretending to be
in reality.
These are all topics I've hit on
before. Topics I've hinted at and mentioned. My posts on Zen and the Art of Teaching are all about this, in the broadest sense. Yet, I've
never tackled the issue head on. Partly, because it is still
undefined in my own mind. Partly, because I know that my ideas are a
collection of Ken Robinson's and Leo Babauta's and Kevin Smith's and
Steven Pressfield's and Joe Rogan's and John Green's.
The names I mentioned are just the tip
of the iceberg. Each of those individuals were inspired by others
stretching back through time. Rogan loves Graham Hancock and Hunter
S. Thompson. Kevin Smith is motivated by Wayne Gretzky and his own
Catholicism. Pressfield studied Indian cultures and religions.
Everyone is a collection of other people's ideas. It may be that
there is no originality whatsoever, only the ether. Only the Element
where all possibilities exist simultaneously and continuously. Where
our Authentic Swings can be remembered.
I am mixing different terms which may
be confusing to those trying to pay attention. Let me be clear:
There is something beyond our own
internal bodies. Something outside the clicking clock that operates
our organs. It goes by many names; heaven, yin and yang, the Field,
the Element, the Middle Path, Nirvana, consciousness, the ether,
Alpha and Omega. Arriving at a name is problematic because it has a
tendency to alienate those unfamiliar with this new name. Or it
causes suffering because of preconceived notions and biases.
I realize these problems exist. Help me
circumvent them. I am calling this consciousness outside ourselves
The Element. It is what drives us in our searching. It is both the
destination and the path. The Element is where we all wish to reside.
We have been there before. When we are
playing sports and get into the zone our bodies seem to become
extensions of our minds, reacting at our slightest will, and
sometimes, without our will at all. Almost on pure instinct. When we
are writing and the words seem to flow from our fingertips. The pen
flies across the paper, our fingers dance across the keyboard and
beauty emerges. We are in our Element when we are in love and when we
are at play. I know we have all been there before. The key is how do
we remain there.
How can we be in The Element at all
times? That depends on who you are. Are you an athlete, a warrior, a
writer, a lover, a singer or a saint? To put it another way, what is
your Authentic Swing? The path you will take is not identical, in
fact it can not be identical, to someone else's. Your path is based
on who you are and the experiences you have. It is individual and
personal. Yet, it is still The Element.
The Element is universal. It is calling
to all of us, and we are searching for it. The more we realize this,
the more we become aware of the cues. We begin to see what leads in
the right direction and what leads us astray. Awareness is the first
step towards The Element. You must open your eyes before anything
else can take place. Yes, the light is bright, but we must embrace
it. We lose our way not because The Element has shifted the path, but
because we choose to shield ourselves from the light.
Take the first step. Open your eyes.
This is the another post in my Zen and the Art of Teaching series. Check out them all here.
Every teacher approaches things in a different fashion. I don't mean to be all-encompassing and over-generalizing. This is how I feel, but I believe it's how a great number of people feel as well. This is partly to let you know you're not alone, and partly to remind myself that neither am I.
Every teacher approaches things in a different fashion. I don't mean to be all-encompassing and over-generalizing. This is how I feel, but I believe it's how a great number of people feel as well. This is partly to let you know you're not alone, and partly to remind myself that neither am I.
Teachers don't care about a student’s grade.
They care what a student learns, they care if a student is better educated when they leave the classroom, and they care about a student's health and well-being. None of that has anything to do with a student's grade. Which is why it is so easy to cheat for students.
If day in and day out a teacher sees how a student behaves and works, they know if a student is getting the material or not. Then test time comes around and the kid does terribly. We know he is smart, we know he is capable, we know he understands the material. So why not bump him from a D to a C?
People's gut reaction is, "That's unfair. It is giving special treatment to a small group of students."
Life's not fair. People, teachers included, know this instinctively. We know people get treated differently, we see it all the time in our work or professional lives. There is little, if anything, fair about the world. So fairness isn't a priority in our mind.
To add insult to injury, we know everything is a little silly. The only teacher's who believe their material, tests, homework is important to a student's livelihood are the ones who take themselves too seriously. I do not take myself seriously.
I don't mean to imply that I'm not a professional or not serious about my students’ education. I am both. That doesn't mean I take myself seriously. I was a class clown in high school, rarely did homework, and aced most tests. Years after high school, I turned out alright.
Here's the truth. Adults don't know what they are doing. We are just as lost and confused as teenagers. There is no moment of revelation that comes bestowing adults with untold knowledge; unlocking the mysteries of the universe. Adults make just as many mistakes, if not more, than teens; most likely, because we have more decisions to make than teenagers.
The difference is that some adults forget how dumb they really are. They come to believe that because they've been doing one thing a certain way for 15, 20, or 50 years that now they know something about life. They do not. We do not. I do not.
This is why when true innovators come along, people who actually perceive the world differently than everyone else, we are blown away. Steve Jobs, Gandhi, Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Jesus Christ. All of them blew us away with their views on life, their tenacity, their innovative way of looking at mankind. By this comparison, I only mean to point out the inherit ability of different individuals to change the world simply by having a different outlook.
Those people are the exception, not the rule for adults. Most are followers, nothing more than mindless sheep that wake up and do the same thing every single day. When a person begins to realize how silly everything is, they can not take themselves seriously. They know that a test is not a reflection of a student's intelligence, not a measurement of how they will do in life and not anything more than an inadequate tool that has been used for far too long.
I've been flying high and optimistic on
my last few posts in Zen and the Art of Teaching. You can see them
here.
Here's a little dose of realism that
nobody tells you while you're in college, that you don't understand
when you're in high school, and maybe nobody is brave enough to talk
about when you're an adult.
Eventually, you have to watch your kids
fail. You have to watch them get hurt. You have to see them cry. You
have to listen as they tell you horror stories about what happens to
them outside of school. Eventually, you have to watch some of them
die.
I believe every person handles these
things a little differently, but I know for a fact no one is prepared
for them. How can someone be prepared for a child you see all the
time to tell you they're being assaulted at home?
There is no way to prepare. So instead
we don't talk about it. No professor tells you in that intro
education class that eventually you'll have to deal with horrible,
terrible things happening to your students. To your kids.
I'm not a parent. I don't make any
claim to know what a parent feels like when something bad happens to
their child. But I can tell you that outside of their parents, I
interact with these kids more than any other adult. In the cases
where students despise what's happening to them at home, I interact
with them more than their "parents."
And it hurts like hell when something
bad happens to one of my kids.
I've already talked about the fact that
I am in a protector/rescuer by nature. That's just my instinct. I
want to help people in need. A past girlfriend of mine liked to refer
to the scene from The Blind Side when Leann Tuhoy is talking about
how high Michael Oher scored in protective instincts on an aptitude
test. This is partly because if I'd ever taken a test like that I
would have scored similarly to Oher, and partly because my past
girlfriend was a fan of mediocre sports movies.
Nobody talks about these things though.
Beyond the petty high school drama that gets joked about so often,
there are real, serious issues going on in our schools. I see some
people trying to do what they can to help those who have it the
worst. At the end of the day though, there is simply not enough being
done.
Why aren't we talking about these
things?
This week I did something rather crazy/bold/refreshing/fantastic. I asked all my Facebook friends to stop being friends with me. I know you've all thought about it from time to time. I did it. I'm going to see if I can use Facebook in a different fashion. Use it as a tool to have in depth and intelligent conversations about a range of topics. I still have to see if that will actually happen, but if you were wondering how to get most people to unfriend you on Facebook, here's how I did it.
_____________________________________________________
Here it goes.
A couple of weeks ago I posted a quote that I found floating around the internet:
"Post your desires publicly. Whoever complains that you shouldn't want that, unfriend. Then ask for suggestions from the rest."
After that I did absolutely nothing. I was terrified. Fear got the best of me. "What if they don't like what you say?" "What about so and so?" "Aren't you being a little egotistical?" "Why do you think you are so important?" "Nobody else seems that upset, calm down wacko."
That's me, talking to myself. If you don't like that, please unfriend me.
If you're not engaged and interactive with me on Facebook, please unfriend me. If it's been years since we last talked, please unfriend me. But most of all, there are about to be numerous status updates from me. If you disregard them and move on, please unfriend me. If you find what I say offensive to the point that it upsets you, please unfriend me. If, at the very least, you can't try and open you're mind to what I'm saying and inquire as to why I'm saying it, please unfriend me.
Facebook is a marvelous tool, but I'm not using it correctly. I'm too often concerned by what people are going to think. I'm too bogged down in pointless updates that do nothing to enhance my life. I'm tired of it all.
I say this only with honesty and compassion. Never out of anger. I won't take it personally, I'm not offended, and I'll still think you are a good person. I hope that you will feel the same towards me.
I want to use Facebook as an intimate setting. A place where I can share my ideas and opinions, and hear yours in return. That is what I offer if you remain my friend. Someone who is actively engaging in the things you find important enough to share. Someone who is interested in what you have to say. Someone who will listen and talk about any topic you can imagine.
To put it another way; an actual friend.
If that's not something you're interested in, please unfriend me.
-Tyler
Here it goes.
A couple of weeks ago I posted a quote that I found floating around the internet:
"Post your desires publicly. Whoever complains that you shouldn't want that, unfriend. Then ask for suggestions from the rest."
After that I did absolutely nothing. I was terrified. Fear got the best of me. "What if they don't like what you say?" "What about so and so?" "Aren't you being a little egotistical?" "Why do you think you are so important?" "Nobody else seems that upset, calm down wacko."
That's me, talking to myself. If you don't like that, please unfriend me.
If you're not engaged and interactive with me on Facebook, please unfriend me. If it's been years since we last talked, please unfriend me. But most of all, there are about to be numerous status updates from me. If you disregard them and move on, please unfriend me. If you find what I say offensive to the point that it upsets you, please unfriend me. If, at the very least, you can't try and open you're mind to what I'm saying and inquire as to why I'm saying it, please unfriend me.
Facebook is a marvelous tool, but I'm not using it correctly. I'm too often concerned by what people are going to think. I'm too bogged down in pointless updates that do nothing to enhance my life. I'm tired of it all.
I say this only with honesty and compassion. Never out of anger. I won't take it personally, I'm not offended, and I'll still think you are a good person. I hope that you will feel the same towards me.
I want to use Facebook as an intimate setting. A place where I can share my ideas and opinions, and hear yours in return. That is what I offer if you remain my friend. Someone who is actively engaging in the things you find important enough to share. Someone who is interested in what you have to say. Someone who will listen and talk about any topic you can imagine.
To put it another way; an actual friend.
If that's not something you're interested in, please unfriend me.
-Tyler
It is terribly scary to be alone
Whether literally or figuratively.
Being on the outside of a group is frightening.
So be kind to others.
Buy a round for everyone, share a story.
Be willing to open up.
Best advice I ever got or can ever give
Be Kind.
This is the second post in my Zen and
the Art of Teaching series. Check out the first post here.
I'm going to do two things in this
post. First, I will tell you exactly how I wish I could set up my
classroom and interact with my students. Then I'll tell you why that
is so difficult to achieve.
Currently, our schools work in a
strange way. Kids are supposed to "learn" new material from
a teacher at school. They are then sent home and given homework which
is supposed to reinforce what they learned during the day. This is
100% the opposite of how I think things should work.
Here's what I would do. Instead of
forcing kids to learn new material at school we should send them home
with a podcast or assignment to research a new topic using the
internet. Wikipedia pages should be used often. All new material
should be learned away from school.
 |
| So you don't get kids looking like this. |
Why? You ask. Two main reasons. First,
this is exactly how the rest of us get information. If you want to
learn something new isn't your first stop Google or Wikipedia? "Oh,
I just heard about an anaconda. I have no idea what an anaconda is."
When was the last time you followed that by saying, "I'll go to
school to figure out what an anaconda is."
Schools aren't needed in that regard
anymore. They are not the source of knowledge. The internet has more
information on it than you could ever learn at school, regardless, of
how long you spent there. The teachers in the world can not give you
1/1000th the information that the internet contains on any given
topic.
So why do we treat young adults
differently? Mainly because that's the way it's always been done.
That was necessary. You did actually need a physical location to go
to where someone could teach you things. But that's not the case
anymore. Today, information exists and is available to our students
at the touch of a button, literally.
What do the kids do at school then?
 |
| Pictured: The actual button for information. |
Schools become the place where students
reinforce the knowledge. Where they go to trained professionals who
have extensively studied the subject area and know ingenuitive ways
to help students incorporate it into their lives. Students go to
school to make sense of the details, to add that layer of understanding that is necessary for true learning to take place. They go to school to ask questions instead of be told
facts.
That would be the first phase of how I
would teach in a perfect world. Reversing the manner in which we
absorb and retain information. The second phase would involve
interacting with students in every medium possible. I think Twitter
could be one of the greatest tools for connecting individuals. As
students are listening to a podcast or reading pages on Wikipedia
they can @mention or hastag their classmates, teachers, even people
from outside resources like National Geographic or Apple.
All this is possible with today's
technology and yet, I often see a backlash to innovation in the
classroom. Which brings me to...
The Challenges
I work at school that has a no
electronics policy. Not a "no phones in class" or a "no
ipods in the hall" policy. Any personal electronic is banned
from anywhere on school.
Is this policy followed? Nope. It does
not reflect the world we currently live in. It reflects a world some
people are trying to hold on to. A world where students came to
school and had no distractions and were perfect little angels. A
world which never existed.
 |
| Voldermort held on to that world too. |
Solution
Here's my two cents. It's idealistic
and unrealistic, but I'm young and can still afford to be both.
Besides, it's not like anyone in charge is pushing anything that great.
I want education to be treated like the
military. I want companies to compete for lucrative contracts to
provide the most cutting-edge equipment to our schools. I want the
best of the best to be given to our students not once in awhile, but
every single day. The most highly skilled people working should ALWAYS be the young because they've had years of hands on experience with the latest technology. This would insure that future innovations are continually being sought after by the people who, statistically speaking, will be around the longest.
I realize how silly that may sound to
some. I also know that there are people who read this and
agree. I leave you with a quote from the TV show The West Wing that
more articulately sums up my position:
"Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes, we need gigantic, monumental changes. Schools should be palaces. The competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be making six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge to its citizens, just like national defense. That's my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet." -Sam Seaborn, The West Wing (S1E18)
On this week's podcast Rolando and I were discussing the changes Netflix is making as a company and when that morphed into talking about globalization and the positive/negative affects of technology, I kind of went off the deep end. This blog is to clarify my ramblings, and expand on a fun concept that my brain kicks around from time to time.
The gist of what I said:
“I think we are at the point in our
society when there is the possibility that we could develop a way to
connect our minds through the internet, or something like it. Not
just you sign in to facebook and look at what I'm doing, but your
mind is plugged into the internet, and my mind is plugged in and we
literally are one. We know everything there is to know about each
other. When/If that happens I think that is what religions are
striving for. To become one with all humanity.”
I didn't come up with this idea in a
vacuum (In fact, no idea comes from a vacuum, but that's a different
blog post). This is based on Ray Kurzweil's thoughts on the future of
technology and what he calls the singularity. The point when a
man-made machine becomes better than the human who created it,
mankind ceases to exist. He was on the cover of TIME a few months
back and there is a great story there.
Technology is on an exponential growth
curve. Each year it grows faster and faster because it is being
created with the previous years' new technology. Think of it this
way: Windows 8 OS isn't made on a computer running Windows XP, it's
made on a computer with Windows 7. Windows 9 will be made using
Windows 8. That's incredibly simplified, and not even entirely
correct, but it's a good example for what I'm trying to say.
Technology develops on an exponential curve because it uses the
newest possible technology to create the next greatest thing.
Our Smartphones today are thousands of
times more powerful than the first computer, and they fit in the palm
of our hand. As technology keeps progressing exponentially, why would
it be crazy to think that they could put our smartphones into our
brains?
For me, that's where things get interesting. The line between who you are as an individual begins to fade away. All of a sudden you can literally sign on, see, feel and interact with the internet using your own mind. The same way you can, right now, imagine and visualize signing onto your computer and reading a blog; in a few years you'll be able to actually do that. All in your own mind.
Using that technology, we create the
next tech. Which would be to completely remove any chip in our heads
at all. We could, theoretically, copy all the information on our
brains, everything that we are, and put it inside a computer.
Here comes the spirituality. Once you
do this, and I do this, and a guy in India does this, and a girl in
Russia... then we are connected. Not in a flimsy way that Facebook
tries to tell you are connected to all 500 of your friends. It would
be as if their minds were my mind. As if there was one collective mind
of all our combined knowledge, emotions and thoughts.
To me, that is Nirvana. That is heaven.
That is what it means to become one and achieve enlightenment.
This idea- or goal if you must think of
it that way- is talked about more often in Eastern religions than
Western ones. But just because we don't talk about it doesn't mean
it's not there.
Old Testament: Lev 19:18- Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
New Testament: Mark 12:31- And the second is namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
It doesn't say love your neighbor a
lot. Or love your neighbor like you love your children, or your wife,
or your best friend. It says love your neighbor as you love yourself.
Ask yourself who is the person you love
the most.
My guess is it's the person that you
know the best. That you've spent a lot of time with, because the more
you know a person the more love you have for them.
Now to bring it all back. Imagine this
world I'm talking about when minds can be shared. Not pieces of a
mind, or the flashy outsides that we display publicly. Everything a
person is. You would know them exactly as much as you know yourself.
If that happens, how could there be
anything but an overwhelming amount of love for one another?
That's a good intro. I'll expand
another day.
Thanks for reading.
One love.
"Hiding aspects of your personal
life in order to get hired or attract more business is a shameful
practice." -Steve Pavlina
Once again my posts begin with
inspiration from another source. I started following Steve Pavlina on
Google+ after he was recommended by Leo Babuta, also on Google+.
If you're not keeping track, that's
three people that you went through to get the above quote. You went
through me, I went through Leo, which lead me to Steve. The internet
is wonderful. We are slowly moving towards becoming one...but today
is not the day for my crazy awesome theories.
Today is a day for simplicity. That's
what I find Steve Pavlina brings through his posts and comments on
Google+. That quote above lead to numerous comments from Steve's
followers, most driven by anger.
"Equally shameful are businesses that make hiring decisions based on said aspects of one's personal life."
"Will YOU hire me? Will someone you know hire me? Should I lessen my chances at any job by being completely honest about things that are completely irrelevant to the performance of that job? ESPECIALLY knowing that at least half of the 100+ other people trying to fill that position are going to lie through their teeth and get away with it to get that job?"
"Keeping some parts of my life or personality private doesn't make me feel like I'm compromising anything."
I latched on to some of the concepts
Steve was talking about. Most importantly, the profile picture* on my
various social networks.
Steve's point (and the one I agree with) is that people are not interested in your brand or your marketing campaign, in fact they probably never were...it was just all we've had for so long. What they are interested in is you, and they want to see you when they interact through social media.
Steve's point (and the one I agree with) is that people are not interested in your brand or your marketing campaign, in fact they probably never were...it was just all we've had for so long. What they are interested in is you, and they want to see you when they interact through social media.
My philosophy was to brand as many
things as I could: The podcast needed artwork. We got that...now
spread the artwork as fast and as broadly as possible. Every thing
you do should be connected to that artwork. Twitter, artwork.
Google+, artwork. iTunes, artwork. Anywhere they go the costumer
should be able to see and recognize the artwork.
Sound familiar? It should. It's the
marketing strategy of every major company including Wal-Mart,
McDonalds and Nike.
My new philosophy? I'm not Wal-Mart and you're not a faceless consumer. In the age of the internet you
should be interested not in the brand, but the source. I'm the
source, and I need to stop hiding behind the brand.
The 21st century has already fostered
more growth in a decade than the 20th century fostered in a hundred
years. On September 11th, 2001 every single news internet site
crashed from overwhelming page views. Today, Facebook serves 750
million people across the world. There are over 170 million tweets
sent per day. Every smartphone available now is hundreds of times
more powerful than a 90's computer.
In this supercharged world it's easy to
tune things out. Branding only makes tuning something out easier. But
when you know that there's a person behind the brand; a person who
works hard, thinks creatively and interacts with you
individually...that is hard to ignore.
I'm changing all the Twitter profiles
to include a picture of me. Not a cartoon. Not a brand. Just me.
Simple.
That's how I plan on marketing in the
21st century.
This is the beginning of a big idea. I
wanted to get my thoughts out now because they are still fresh in my
mind, but tune in often to see me continue this series.
It all starts with my post on The Energy of People. Which was influenced by Jay Mohr (@jaymohr37). The
basic concept is that people all give off certain energies and it is
the job of the teacher (or in Mohr's case, comedian) to manipulate
those energies to achieve the desired result.
 |
| "...and that's why the chicken crossed the road." |
As I go about teaching it becomes more
and more apparent to me how similar teaching is to stand-up comedy. I
perform a routine every day. Sometimes it's four 10 minute bits with
5 minute breaks in between. Sometimes it's an hour and half,
non-stop, Dave Chappelle at the laugh factory, crazy train. I stand up
and do these routines 3 times a day, twice a week, and then I write
new material for the next two days. Then the performance starts all
over again. (To explain, our school uses an A/B schedule. I teach 6
classes, 3 each day. Hope that makes sense.)
Ultimately, it's all about those
energies my students are giving off, and how I manipulate that
energy. How I use it to make them laugh, to focus them, to quiet
them, to get them to share something. But what is the most important
part of this energy-manipulating equation?
Me.
It starts with knowing myself. Knowing
my own energy. Knowing who I am. In order to feel this energy and take it in,
change it, then deliver it back out- I need to be at peace. I need to
be zen.
Athletes call this being in the zone.
Ken Robinson calls this the element. The book I'm stealing this blog
entry's title from, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, calls
it Quality. Both are talking about the same thing; being in an
environment where you are comfortable, knowledgeable and capable of
producing results. When you get to point where "work"
doesn't feel like work. It feels like creation.
I'm not perfect yet. Far from it, but I
love going into the classroom to work towards perfection. There are
moments where I tap into it. Great, wonderful, perfect moments that
artists always hope for when things just flow.
One of these moments happened today. It
was my second day of giving the same lesson (remember, A/B schedule),
and so I was already feeling like a comedian who had worked out his
material the day before. The lesson was regarding the Spanish
explorer Juan Ponce de Leon. The textbook mentioned that he is often
remembered for failing to find the fountain of youth. Near the end of
class a student raised their hand and asked, "Why would someone
be remembered for failing to find something?"
There's a bunch of different possible
responses to that. It's Friday, with 5 minutes left in class. I could
blow it off- "Because the text wanted something interesting to
write about." I could dismiss it- "I don't really know."
Perhaps I would have given one of those
answers if I had been feeling anything other than perfectly calm, in
my element, zen.
I looked to my right, stared at a
student for a few seconds who was talking to a neighbor until he
quieted down. Now the class is silent, all attention on me. It's my
audience to win over or lose completely.
"Why would someone be remembered for failing to find something? Good question. No, great question... I think it is because of the time period that had come just before. These explorers are sailing only a few generations after the dark ages; a time of decay and disgust. A time when there was no growth in culture or art or science. A time where someone was born, lived and died without ever traveling more than 25 miles from their home."
"Then come these explorers. They tell stories of lands so vast it fills the whole skyline from end to end. They tell stories of strange new people, and of riches so plentiful they make kings and queen look like beggars. They tell stories of cities made of gold and mythical fountains that can let you live forever."
"I think we remember these people because it doesn't always matter if you find what you are looking for. After times of darkness, sometimes the most important thing you can do is tell someone a story that gives them hope."
Bell rings. Class dismissed.
In a world where we are so often told
that work is just a device to make us money; I think it is important
to find something that you can do in your own element.
I think I've found mine, and I know
that every day it's exciting to go back in and find myself in that
zone of peace and serenity where words, and concepts, and laughter
all flow effortlessly.
It's either that, or I'll try my hand
at stand up comedy.
Thanks for reading. Love you all.
This is the first post in my Zen and the Art of Teaching series. Check out the second post here.
This is the first post in my Zen and the Art of Teaching series. Check out the second post here.
"Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is." -William James
I will divide these thoughts into three blogs and link each here as they become completed.
Part One: Himself
Part Two: Others
Part Three: Truth
There are six people present.
There is each man as he really is.
There are many directions this post can go. Spiritual is the one that jumps into my mind first. There is either some type of spiritual void before and after we die, or there is not. I don't have any great insights to lend to that conversation and my personal opinions, at least for now, will be kept personal.
I ask that we move beyond the initial spiritual question of defining who we really are. For one who believes, the answer is usually simple; there is our true selves, and God knows whom that is.
I can't speak to what God knows.
What I am interested in is the problem of identifying ourselves.
We are bound by certain sociological factors. Culture, time period, parents, friends. More importantly, language.
You are funny.
Stay with me here because it gets a little crazy. I'm also assuming you've read the other posts.
Who is that sentence referring to? You are funny. Obviously, it is spoken by a second person (in this case me). It is being said to you, but which you? Am I saying that to the person I perceive you are, the person you perceive you are, or the person you really are?
(That was tough, I know. Read it again if you must.)
All these people exist. All these creations are real. Now we are trying to get at truth. Are you truly funny? Or is the man I imagine you are funny? How can we decipher these differences?
More mind boggling...what does the word funny mean? My long-time philosophical question on the subject: Is a joke funny if no one laughs? Is a person funny if no one thinks he is?
I know this is heavily philosophical. I can't deal in reality for this part because I don't have any specific answers. Only more questions.
Language is obviously defined by society. If you need convincing ask the thirteen year old version of myself what the word sick means...the answer is cool. "That's sick man."
Is language truth though? When I say something am I actually speaking about the true object?
If you know another language fluently you've probably come across those specific phrases that have no translation. This boggles my mind. There is no word, maybe no combination of words, in the entire language that can define what another human being is experiencing.
Obviously, their experiences are happening. They are "true". But I can not define them. I can not explain them. I can not know them.
It seems like this happens all the time. Language is one of the first separators from truth, reality, actuality. Of course, it is also necessary.
Try describing yourself in seven words or less. It doesn't need to be complete sentences. I'll give you an example:
Kind. Smart. Funny. Tired. Hungry. Happy. Quiet.
Now try and count the definitions for each of those words. Then count the translations into other languages. Then study and immerse yourself in those languages enough so you know that what your saying is actually defining "kind" and not "generous." Then in each of those languages you are now an expert in, find the root of whatever word you are saying, trace it back as far as you can. As you can see, it's incredibly difficult to say only a few simple words and truly understand the meaning.
Can we ever know our true selves when even the language we use is confining, restricting, and impeding? (See what I did there, I used three words that all mean the same thing. Which is a joke fans of The West Wing will appreciate).
Again, this is not the post for answers. At the very least I hope that you have gained some questions of your own. Maybe questions you've never thought of before. That was my goal tonight.
"It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he'll look for his own answers." -Patrick Rothfusss
Faced with the unending questions that come with any philosophical inquiry I am left with only this:
We must understand that life is complicated, and complicated further by our own actions.
We must be humble in our dealings with others.
We must understand that there are things that we do not know.
There are six people present.
Who are you, really?