Yes, really I do. I hate when pursuing personal pleasure
interferes with:
(1) Tasks that need doing
(2) Policies which should be implemented
(3) Improving access to a more level playing field
(4) Moving toward a more just society
(5) Realizing vital home truths, the first step
required to solve any of our resolvable issues.
At the bottom of all our ills is the culprit, fun.
That includes the drive toward evermore irresponsible
sex, producing disease and unwanted, mostly
maladjusted, maladaptive people, overpopulating a
planet that will not easily sustain such numbers.
The overemphasis of fun devalues serious teachers
("teach" has gotta be an entertainer FIRST, an educator
a distant second); sharply reduces workplace productivity,
as the office PC is used for personal perusal at the expense
of doing one's job; makes the lack of a sparkling personality
almost a federal offense in our "popular" culture.
All this negativity has worn me out, even if I must staunchly
adhere to such insights. But I do hate harmful fun, and you
can quote me.
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Viewers yes, commenters no. Are these posts that bad?
ReplyDeleteAn effective teacher, above all, needs to connect with her students. If she's unable to do that, it doesn't really matter how "serious" she is.
ReplyDeleteI can recall "serious" teachers who were downright toxic. A little entertainment never hurts as long as it's not overdone.
Likewise with the use of office PCs. Sure, workplace productivity is vital, but hey, the USA, overall, has the planet's most productive workers. It's a matter of balance.
OK, Dan:
DeleteSchool is a child's job. Absent true
mistreatment, I think kids need to take learning seriously, not demand to be entertained. Nevertheless, I partly agree with you--EXCEPT about the USA's productivity. THAT has been an-oft repeated LIE that defies historical fact and common sense.
Since 1982 when I started watching the phenomenon re: mergers, spin-offs, lay offs,buyouts, etc., many of the jobs lost to such processes never returned; the remaining workers have had to do the work of 2 or 3 or more previous employees. This is NOT true productivity, which would include an accurate performance of high quality. Look around: quality "ain't" what it used to be. TV news often gets it wrong now, customer service agents are frequently below par, etc. All this I have personally observed.
Viewers are tired too. I'm with you and so, it would seem, is a slowly awakening herd, or they would be if they weren't being bombarded with conflicting causation from seemingly every direction.
ReplyDeleteDistractions are delaying the inevitable necessary corrections. TV newsfotainment often deliberately gets it wrong, Often one-sided, nearly always hedged or slanted,
which conflicts with the real world experiences of just about everybody. Unless somebody has a way off of this rock, the disparate thinking will continue to collide.
This is not a new phenomena. See Pullman, See Beatrice Foods, See . Every end connotes a new beginning. Our present straits are largely paper and ideology and bookkeeping glitches based on faulty, but engrained, logic.
Our education psychosis manifests when what is taught cannot be applied under the current paradigms. Something will have to cede ground.
"If it don't fit; force it. If it breaks, it needed to be replaced anyway."
R,
ReplyDeleteGood to see you here again. (I think of the TV networks as the "scandal elite".)
Do you ever look at Common Dreams? I've linked it to my fb page; just read a trenchantly, mordantly important and informative piece by John Atcheson, "Dark Ages Redux, American Politics and the End of the Enlightenment". North Carolina and Virginia have now excised sea level rise from their state laws dealing with coastal development, among other cited current atrocities.
I'm going to try to include him in a new post--Best Wishes, A.