I'm getting really tired of privacy issues on the internet. Being in a position where I may one day be working with minors I hear a great deal of conflicting instructions, but the one I am going to talk about is the issue of being somebody.
We talk a lot in the Education Department about being a person, being relatable, being careful, being conservative, being experimental, being professional, being ourselves, and so on. So, where does that put me? Am I supposed to be careful of every little thing that I post on the internet? I haven't got any posts of illegal drug use, pornography, hate crimes (at least I don't think my "People I Hate" segments are considered hate crimes) or illegal activity (someone took down the picture of us walking left out of a parking lot that had a Right Turn Only sign), so what's the big deal? Sure, I drink and I swear and I make the occasional wild accusation, but the people that don't do that kind of stuff are the people who hide the fact that they do. So, should I join the conservatives and the cowards and try and erase my existence on the internet? I have two problems with that.
1) I'm not that good at the internet. It'd be like trying to clean up an oil spill with my bare hands.
2) Fuck that!
Why should I spend the time and effort to make myself digitally invisible? Why should the only information be an e-portfolio? Should I make all of my friends and colleagues sign confidentiality agreements before I act like myself? If we're going to let our potential employers dictate how we act, then we let them dictate who we are. And if we all tried to present ourselves as hard working, innovative, creative, involved cardboard cutouts, then future employers will just have to dig deeper to find out who you really are.
Many of you may already know my opinions on public and even private surveillance, but for those of you who don't, here's the truth: we all do things we wouldn't want other people to see. We all do things that we think separate us from everyone else. But, when everyone is doing something wrong, who's to say that it is wrong? If we were all seen as ourselves, then all the 'unacceptable' things that we do would be entirely normal.
So wouldn't it be great if we all let ourselves be who we are? What are our future employers going to do? Not hire anyone? The problem is, "I am Sparticus" doesn't work in this case when some people don't participate. Those people are fake. But maybe that's what you have to do to play the game.
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Friday, September 24, 2010
Efficiency
So, I'm taking my Bachelor's of Education and at the lecture our prof is talking about efficiency and how it was the biggest thing in the Industrial Revolution. It was so big, in fact, that the concept of efficiency flooded all aspects of life, including how teachers teach their students. Given this comparison, our class was outraged. How can people treat children as if they are machines to be made?
The simple fact is that we don't. The word "efficiency" has been demonized in our heads. We immediately understand "efficient" as being inhumane and wrong. I find it funny/sad how so many degree holding people can be so reactionary. They're probably all Slap Chop owners, too, not to mention the storage rooms full of Oxy Clean (even I felt Billy Mays had more authority than most professors).
O, what a glorious world we now live in now that we are enlightened! No longer are we subjects of the evil system of efficiency, nor must we suffer the anguish of mustard stains!
The problem is that efficiency is not a bad thing. It's a concept. Concepts are never entirely bad.
What about fascism? Hey, I'm all for democracy of sorts, but wouldn't you agree that being a fascist when it comes to something like flushing after you shit that fascism is a good thing? Shouldn't we all be shit-flush fascists? Say that five times fast.
Efficiency is no different. Yes, we should not treat children like brain jars that we need to pour knowledge into as quickly as possible. But that is assuming the formula for educational efficiency is curriculum covered/curriculum available, or even just proportional to the students' final grades (answers correct/total questions asked). No one seems to be capable of imagining the formula {[sum of the change of lifelong knowledge (learning)/number of children]/time}, or, to put another way, how much learning you can evoke in how little time.
Let me give you an example. Most people in my program take the concept of efficiency and disregard it as evil, suggesting instead "quality of quantity." Now, imagine yourself in a class of 30 students. A teacher could certainly take the time to teach each child in the classroom the lesson of the day in a unique style that would cater exactly to that student's learning style. Who can argue that this would not yield a greater quality of education? But, as anyone can plainly see, this strategy of teaching each individual child on their own is ___________.
If you said "stupid" I have to agree with you, but you're not quite there yet. If you said, "tha gr8est idea evar!!!1!!" I have to ask you to politely go fuck yourself (and yes, there are seriously people like that). If you said "inefficient" well then I guess I've made my point.
If you're still unclear about something I've covered in today's blog, please, come see me after class.
The simple fact is that we don't. The word "efficiency" has been demonized in our heads. We immediately understand "efficient" as being inhumane and wrong. I find it funny/sad how so many degree holding people can be so reactionary. They're probably all Slap Chop owners, too, not to mention the storage rooms full of Oxy Clean (even I felt Billy Mays had more authority than most professors).
O, what a glorious world we now live in now that we are enlightened! No longer are we subjects of the evil system of efficiency, nor must we suffer the anguish of mustard stains!
The problem is that efficiency is not a bad thing. It's a concept. Concepts are never entirely bad.
What about fascism? Hey, I'm all for democracy of sorts, but wouldn't you agree that being a fascist when it comes to something like flushing after you shit that fascism is a good thing? Shouldn't we all be shit-flush fascists? Say that five times fast.
Efficiency is no different. Yes, we should not treat children like brain jars that we need to pour knowledge into as quickly as possible. But that is assuming the formula for educational efficiency is curriculum covered/curriculum available, or even just proportional to the students' final grades (answers correct/total questions asked). No one seems to be capable of imagining the formula {[sum of the change of lifelong knowledge (learning)/number of children]/time}, or, to put another way, how much learning you can evoke in how little time.
Let me give you an example. Most people in my program take the concept of efficiency and disregard it as evil, suggesting instead "quality of quantity." Now, imagine yourself in a class of 30 students. A teacher could certainly take the time to teach each child in the classroom the lesson of the day in a unique style that would cater exactly to that student's learning style. Who can argue that this would not yield a greater quality of education? But, as anyone can plainly see, this strategy of teaching each individual child on their own is ___________.
If you said "stupid" I have to agree with you, but you're not quite there yet. If you said, "tha gr8est idea evar!!!1!!" I have to ask you to politely go fuck yourself (and yes, there are seriously people like that). If you said "inefficient" well then I guess I've made my point.
If you're still unclear about something I've covered in today's blog, please, come see me after class.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Party Time
The Mount Royal University appears to be hosting an event at their on-campus drinking establishment. The event? "Tight, Bright & White."
Am I a bad person to think that sounds like a really good party?
Oh! You mean close friendship, festive decor, and winter season precipitate!
.... yeah, that's what I thought you meant too. Sounds... sounds like a good party.
Am I a bad person to think that sounds like a really good party?
Oh! You mean close friendship, festive decor, and winter season precipitate!
.... yeah, that's what I thought you meant too. Sounds... sounds like a good party.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Standard of Living
I think it must be an element of the human condition to desire in life the most what we do not have; to want to do what we can't do, or what we are, or at one point were, bad at. Some people aren't smart and think that life is better when you are educated. Some people are poor and think that life is better when you are rich. Some people are single and think that life is better being together.
What is odd is that only that last fact can go the other way. No rich person ever says, "fuck, what I'd do to just be poor!" No educated person ever says, "I wish I never learned any of that!" Maybe they'll say, "that was a waste of time," but they don't knock the education, just the time it takes. But people in relationships always seem to be able to wish they were single. Becoming single is easy. "This isn't working out." It's four to five words, depending on how well you enunciate. It's the reverse that is hard. Granted, "do you want to go out?" is only six words, but there is an argumentative factor. The response affects the outcome. You can't break up with someone and then they refuse to break up with you. That's not how it works.
One might say that it is the irreversibility of the process that is daunting. But education is also irreversible. So how can we say that one irreversible process is entirely positive while another is not? One might say that education doesn't hurt anyone, but we must always look deeper. Classes often fill completely up. Programs are often waitlisted. Your enlistment often ensures that someone misses their chance. Someone suffers the detriment of your benefit.
Being single is sometimes necessary, much like it is necessary that every start out uneducated, and that it is good for some people to be poor. But just because it's necessary and sometimes can be fun (let's face it, knowlegde can be a burden and finances bring a certain financial responsibility. Also, there is class comrodery. It's lonely at the top, they say) doesn't mean that it's ideal.
But this is just me. Some people must want to be single, just like some people might want to be poor and uneducated. Spiritual enlightenment, afterall, disregards institutional learning and material possessions.
What is odd is that only that last fact can go the other way. No rich person ever says, "fuck, what I'd do to just be poor!" No educated person ever says, "I wish I never learned any of that!" Maybe they'll say, "that was a waste of time," but they don't knock the education, just the time it takes. But people in relationships always seem to be able to wish they were single. Becoming single is easy. "This isn't working out." It's four to five words, depending on how well you enunciate. It's the reverse that is hard. Granted, "do you want to go out?" is only six words, but there is an argumentative factor. The response affects the outcome. You can't break up with someone and then they refuse to break up with you. That's not how it works.
One might say that it is the irreversibility of the process that is daunting. But education is also irreversible. So how can we say that one irreversible process is entirely positive while another is not? One might say that education doesn't hurt anyone, but we must always look deeper. Classes often fill completely up. Programs are often waitlisted. Your enlistment often ensures that someone misses their chance. Someone suffers the detriment of your benefit.
Being single is sometimes necessary, much like it is necessary that every start out uneducated, and that it is good for some people to be poor. But just because it's necessary and sometimes can be fun (let's face it, knowlegde can be a burden and finances bring a certain financial responsibility. Also, there is class comrodery. It's lonely at the top, they say) doesn't mean that it's ideal.
But this is just me. Some people must want to be single, just like some people might want to be poor and uneducated. Spiritual enlightenment, afterall, disregards institutional learning and material possessions.
Those who can't do...
Real life is really fucking hard. There are so many things that can go wrong. It's not standardized and you can't just go back and correct your mistakes when you fuck up.
School is easy. A lot of people have trouble with it, but you just have to do the work. It's simple. And if you do fuck up, you just try again.
A lot of people say that's the same with life, but it just isn't. So many things are unique. When you fuck up a relationship, it's hard to fix. In school you can scrap it all and start over. Some people say that about relationships, but I think they miss the point.
A relationship can have all the same variables the fundamental grounds of the relationship are different for every person you are with. Every relationship is unique. In school, the variables all change, but the question is always the same. You can practise over and over with no consequence to anyone. It's all the same and you can only get better at it.
Plus, you get to take breaks from school and when you do, nothing has changed.
School is easy. A lot of people have trouble with it, but you just have to do the work. It's simple. And if you do fuck up, you just try again.
A lot of people say that's the same with life, but it just isn't. So many things are unique. When you fuck up a relationship, it's hard to fix. In school you can scrap it all and start over. Some people say that about relationships, but I think they miss the point.
A relationship can have all the same variables the fundamental grounds of the relationship are different for every person you are with. Every relationship is unique. In school, the variables all change, but the question is always the same. You can practise over and over with no consequence to anyone. It's all the same and you can only get better at it.
Plus, you get to take breaks from school and when you do, nothing has changed.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Tax Reasons
I sometimes wonder if the money is worth it. I'm only in classes this semester still for tax reasons. I'll earn more from my tax returns than the classes have cost me if I stay in school. But sometimes I wonder if it is worth it. If I dropped out I could try and work full time and earn all that money back in no time. I guess I've just been trained not to drop out because of how it reflects on one's record (one wonders how my ex's record looks... or even how she managed to withdraw from so many classes in the same program...)
Maybe I just think it builds character to stick things out when they have a definite end. After all, learning never hurt anyone, right? Sometimes I wonder if that's really the case, though.
I guess in the end none of that matters. In a few weeks' time it'll all be over and then next semester will be loads of fun with Zack and then it'll be off to actually do the program I should have done from the start.
Maybe I just think it builds character to stick things out when they have a definite end. After all, learning never hurt anyone, right? Sometimes I wonder if that's really the case, though.
I guess in the end none of that matters. In a few weeks' time it'll all be over and then next semester will be loads of fun with Zack and then it'll be off to actually do the program I should have done from the start.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Blag to the Basics
With an hour break to eat between Philosophy and Physics (why are the Ph- classes always either dreadfully boring or exceptionally awesome?) I should be conducting more consistent blogging. It's not really the hour break that's doing this, but the hour break with no one around.
That's been the anticipated biggest problem with going back to school; I am now on average 4 years older than everyone else. That's an entire presidency. Although I am an adult and 4 years doesn't seem like that much time, these kids are 19... Four years ago they were 15. When I started sleeping with girls, they started liking girls. How fucked up is that? Not that I'm interested in people who started liking girls, but think about the first girl you liked. Now think about the first girl you slept with. Now think about them at the same time. If this is arousing, I would kindly ask you to no longer be associated with me (that, or shit, dude, you were one academically focused little motherfucker).
But I can still get past that. What I can't get past is that all these girls here are in High School 2: I Can Do Who I Want, Mom! I thought Lethbridge was bad for being high school all over again, but we all seemed to grow up in our time there.
I feel like an amateur anthropologist in this food court, observing these ex-children/pre-adults (protodults, if you will). But I can't form any conclusions other than that I don't fit in at all. To boil it down, we have nothing in common. I'm not in a program, I don't know how long I'll be here, we come from many different places and live in many different areas and do many different things. That's what I miss about Lethbridge. People lived on the West Side. We were all in there for the long run. We ate at the same places, we drank at the same bars, we hung around on campus for hours on end because we had nothing better to do. I saw someone I knew every day at school down there. I've seen people here that I've seen before. So far, no one that I've talked to (save for Zack, who I came specifically to have lunch with) I have seen again. And I don't think I'll ever build those relationships with people here like I did in Lethbridge. Maybe it's who they are, maybe it's who I am, maybe it's just who they aren't.
That's been the anticipated biggest problem with going back to school; I am now on average 4 years older than everyone else. That's an entire presidency. Although I am an adult and 4 years doesn't seem like that much time, these kids are 19... Four years ago they were 15. When I started sleeping with girls, they started liking girls. How fucked up is that? Not that I'm interested in people who started liking girls, but think about the first girl you liked. Now think about the first girl you slept with. Now think about them at the same time. If this is arousing, I would kindly ask you to no longer be associated with me (that, or shit, dude, you were one academically focused little motherfucker).
But I can still get past that. What I can't get past is that all these girls here are in High School 2: I Can Do Who I Want, Mom! I thought Lethbridge was bad for being high school all over again, but we all seemed to grow up in our time there.
I feel like an amateur anthropologist in this food court, observing these ex-children/pre-adults (protodults, if you will). But I can't form any conclusions other than that I don't fit in at all. To boil it down, we have nothing in common. I'm not in a program, I don't know how long I'll be here, we come from many different places and live in many different areas and do many different things. That's what I miss about Lethbridge. People lived on the West Side. We were all in there for the long run. We ate at the same places, we drank at the same bars, we hung around on campus for hours on end because we had nothing better to do. I saw someone I knew every day at school down there. I've seen people here that I've seen before. So far, no one that I've talked to (save for Zack, who I came specifically to have lunch with) I have seen again. And I don't think I'll ever build those relationships with people here like I did in Lethbridge. Maybe it's who they are, maybe it's who I am, maybe it's just who they aren't.
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