Violence and Stuff Like That

I'm always slightly bother by people bringing up the idea of desensitization of violence, as if such an idea is an undoing of morals and a bringer of our own doom. Now, that doesn't mean I don't believe it exists, but on some level it is an awareness of the violence, an acceptance that such violence exists, and I do not think that it is a bad thing. I am reminded of the viewpoint people had before World War I started, that it was going to be a romantic affair, glorified war, and it turned into one of the messiest, horrible wars we have ever had. Perhaps then, some understanding of violence can be an enlightening thing.

And then, perhaps in a cliche manner, history comes to my mind. I think most of the Romans, the gladiators and their fighting to the death. Yet, guns have made war messier and more horrifying than swords and shields, or perhaps we glorify that ourselves.

Of course, I see the way the world currently views violence, with more action oriented movies, more action oriented video games, clips of war and crime on the news every night. Yet, part of me feels like I lack the ability to comment on the world 10 years ago. I am young enough that I have matured with the way the news and movies and video games are today, and part of me views my desensitization of violence as growing up and accepting the world as it is.

The only thing that I fear such desensitization will do is create indifference. That is half the fear and distaste that people seem to have towards the idea, and I agree with them. Never should we lose our believe that we can do something, change something, making something better, or less violent. We should not become indifferent to the body count, to the faceless graves, to the people who die but we say they are only one out of so many, we should not care. If I had to define desensitization of violence, it would not be the getting used to, the accepting of such a violent world, but the indifference to its existence and the lack of desire to try and create change.

I do not know if my viewpoint really adds anything to you reader's viewpoints. Even though I wish people wouldn't be desensitized I easily see the symptoms in myself. I say it's easier to be indifferent because caring is hard when the world is so large. Or perhaps you are so exposed to it that you do not see how the world could ever be any different. Or you think that the best way to make your way in the world is to accept it as it is and work with the system, not against it.

Well, I suppose all I have to say is that we live in a desensitized world, and that when our lives can be neat little boxes were the television is as close to violence as it gets, we have to fight to care that we could change it. Yeah, I usually hate the person of interest stories on the nightly news, but they are there to keep us from being completely desensitized.

Accessibility and Such

I think the main problem with how desensitized our youth is, when it comes to violence,  how accessible it is. Let’s face it: violence in entertainment has been around for forever. But today, you can download it whenever you want and we just don’t really think anything of it at this point.

Kelsey covered the medium everyone seems to be most concerned about, video games. This is a big one. This is the one all the plastic surgery fixed, suburban mothers whine about all the time. And while it is a big issue, I don’t think those same mothers think much of it when they go home and watch the new episode of Grey’s Anatomy or when they buy their kids the second book of The Hunger Games.

Violence is pretty much everywhere. In the news, in your daytime Soaps, in that new book you picked up that everyone is saying you just have to read. It’s everywhere. That’s the problem: we are, as a generation, getting a lot more used to it. I mean, some of Shakespeare’s greatest scenes were fight scenes but you couldn’t download them in 5.6 seconds in 1520, could you? Today, you hear something on the news about a shooting or you want to know who died in this week’s episode, you can figure it out in pretty much no time. We have all the information someone could imagine wanting in a few clicks. That is really scary. Out of all the people I asked for opinions on this, I think the one quote that sums it all up is: “Convenience is a double-edged sword (which is a perfect metaphor in this context).” (Taylor, grade 11)

Another problem I thought about a lot during the outlining of this topic was: I think a lot of the times the media over glamorizes violence so that we like it. Because they aren’t going to produce something you won’t buy. So, is it our fault that it’s everywhere then? I will say, we as humans seem to almost thrive on violence in our entertainment world. Like, the gorier it is, the more we all flock towards it. I can't say if that is a result of overexposure or over-glamorization or just human nature. No matter what though, I think people blaming this big bad looming presence we call 'the media' for our desensitization is a little odd, seeing as they only give us what we are willing to pay for.

This post was extremely short and it sucks because I have so many opinions on this, but I do not want to over work this topic because I think it has to potential to be very clear and direct.

Kathleen, I cannot wait to hear what you have to say tomorrow. Hope everyone has a nice and safe Memorial Day!

I saw a deer today

When I think of violence in media, first off, I think of video games, because I work in a video game store and I'm required, legally, to have an adult's consent when selling rated M games to minors, and that happens a lot.

As I've mentioned before, I have a bit of a video-game-related bent on things so I might as well start there. Now, I've occasionally wondered why almost every game has combat as a core mechanic. I mean, there are exceptions that rely on escape or maybe running wind into flowers to grab petals, but for the most part, combat is a core mechanic, and something most games are judged on as much as (or more than) they're judged on aesthetic or writing.

I would watch that for a minute or so and then leave it playing while you read the rest of this entry. It's really a beautiful game.

So then are people really being desensitized to violence because of video games? Well, maybe. It's certainly expected of us in video games, and there's definitely a satisfaction to absolutely slaughtering someone. A lot of games display this moderately realistically (though usually with a bit more spectacle) with people emitting blood when they die as most people would if you slashed them with a sword. But what does that really mean? Does it mean I'm going to go out, buy a sword, and kill someone with it because I saw it on Skyrim? Obviously not. Killing people is wrong. Being desensitized to violence doesn't suddenly make you into a sociopath. I would never hurt another living being. That said, these Falmer on the other hand totally deserve it.

There are at least a couple professions I can think of that require desensitization to violence and those are military and medicine. You have to be able to stay calm under situations that would reduce some people to hysterical messes. You don't want your doctor saying "Oh god, so much blood." when you enter the ER. You want your doctor to calmly explain to you what's wrong and what can be done to fix it. I think the military actually uses video games and other simulations (that are probably not so different from Call of Duty) to purposefully desensitize people to violence. So what exactly are we worrying about?

Are we worrying that people not being emotionally traumatized by violence might make them aggressive? Well, personally, I think if it would, then you're too young to be playing these types of games. I strongly believe in the ESRB and it's rating system, and I have talked to parents and convinced them not to buy games for their young children. Of course I've had parents to say "Well, if I didn't buy it, they'd just play it at Jimmy's house" or "Yeah, that's fine, I don't care," and both of them are sad, but I've also had parents say "Let's go look for a game rated T" or "My daughter is a mature young woman and I trust her to make the right decisions regarding the games she plays," both of which are wonderful reactions. Like I said, even if I am desensitized to violence, that doesn't erase my concepts of right and wrong. At worst, it'll cause me to react less emotionally if I'm ever in a violent situation.

That said, I'm not 100% sure that the games I play are really enough to desensitize me to much. I don't really play shooters or games that use gore as a spectacle (I'm looking at you, Mortal Kombat), so the over-the-top intense violence rarely enters my PC and/or console. That said, Skyrim is a pretty bloody game. Not only did you kill a lot of things, but there were multiple instances of seeing bloody skeletons and corpses and sometimes their flesh was implied to be eaten. It was a really gross game at times, and the first several times I saw human bones covered in blood (or was it leftover muscle tissue?)  my stomach turned. That said, as the game went on, they showed up a bunch and eventually I stopped caring.

A few days later I was driving to a friend's house and I saw a deer on the side of the road. I was driving on a gravel road at the time, the kind that doesn't often get cleared of roadkill and this was particular deer was dead and highly decomposed. I've tried to block out the details, but this was every bit as bad as those skeletons in Skyrim, except this was in real life. I remember being really shaken and disturbed and honestly a little distracted on the rest of the drive.

There is a huge difference between being desensitized to textures on a wireframe model than being desensitized to real life that's happening in front of you, and I honestly think if the deer hadn't disturbed me as much as it did, I probably would've been driving more safely. It's hard to find good research about this issue for several reasons. First, the media loves any conclusion that could cause an upset. That's why you have to tune in at 11 to find out if wearing high heels will cause you to get cancer. Second, people are terribly biased. When I was doing research for this post, I came across this article and there was a point where one of the scientists behind the study said "Surprisingly, the amygdalas in the subjects as well as in the control group were similarly stimulated." Were they expecting the people who played video games to not react at all? Did they expect sociopaths with no reaction to other humans in pain? Video games are such a maligned form of media that people like to blame them for society's woes. Because of that, I really think that unbiased science is going to be hard to come by. People are going to be looking to either valiantly defend the world from video games or valiantly defend video games from the world and there is no valor in science (there is, however, science in science, and that's much more cool to focus on).

In short, I don't think desensitization is an innately bad thing; I don't think video games desensitize (at least not me personally), and if you play video games and now want to shoot people, you need to tell your mother and get some professional help.

But That's Entertainment

It seems like today we can't even watch the evening news without learning of an act of violence that occurred not very far from our own neighborhoods.  And while we sympathize with the victims of these violent acts, violence seems to occur so often that it would seem strange for there to be an evening where the only reports we hear on the evening news would be about charity events and sports.  Violence also plays a key role in the basis for numerous non-cable television shows such as the Law and Order franchise and one of my favorite TV shows, Southland.  And while the consequences of violent acts are almost always shown, we are still repeatedly exposed to/ exposing ourselves to violence through a media outlet that many families keep on in the background during dinner time.

While many of us hang our heads and talk about what a shame it is whenever an atrocious violent act is committed, for some reason there is something that still attracts us to entertainment media that contains fictionalized violence.  Maybe it is our desire to understand that draws us to media that portrays fictionalized violence.  I mentioned earlier that one of my favorite TV shows is Southland, which is about a group of fictional officers and detectives of various ages, experiences, and backgrounds who work in the LAPD.  The show prides itself on presenting a realistic image of violence and crime and how these issues are dealt with by law enforcement.  Besides the good writing, the main aspect of the show that attracts me is that different characters give their interpretations of why these violent acts were committed and why they continue to happen.  There's just something fascinating about hearing the different views each character has considering their background.  And while I have to remind myself that the show is fictional, many of the characters' thoughts on the reasons for continued violence in the world ring true to reality.  We as a society are fascinated by violence and the reasons for the perpetuation of violence, because even though we are often exposed to real life violent acts, we continue to flock to numerous other media outlets that contain fictionalized violence as forms of entertainment.  The search for understanding may not be the only reason that we are attracted to media, and in my case namely television shows that contain violence, but the more often we expose ourselves to situations containing violence, whether they be real or imagined, the more normative the actions, but not necessarily the severity of the consequences, become to us.

Looking forward to hearing from Kelsey tomorrow!              

Week of 5/27 - Desensitization of Violence

This week's worth of entries are going to revolve around the idea of desensitization of violence.  This is a fairly broad topic, and it'll be interesting to see what sources our different members observe in discussing it.  The common line of thought around this topic is that violence has become something ever-present in both media and everyday life, and something that people have come to accept as "normal".  I'm curious to see opinions on that idea as a whole, as well as any examples, concerns, or other musings that our bloggers might share.

Pendleton kicks this week off tomorrow, and I'll be back on Saturday to finish this week up.  Enjoy!

All They Want is Energy

Music. I love music. My taste in music is a little odd. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to characterize it. I usually just tell people that I listen to "a little bit of everything", but that's a blatant lie. I'm ridiculously picky about my music, but for a long time, I wasn't entirely sure what the deciding factor was in whether or not I would like something, and then it hit me: sincerity and/or energy. Wow, that sounds pretentious. Let me start with an example.

As anyone that I've talked to in the past few months will tell you, as a result of The Voice (freaking Jermaine Paul), I've been going through a bit of an Automatic Loveletter phase. This song isn't really representative of them at all, but it gets at the reason that I love them in a very pure manner. In every objective manner, this song is terrible. The lyrics are incoherent, the music is generic, and her voice is very technically bad here. That being said, there's so much power here, and you can practically taste the passion. There's a rawness there that I can't really explain, and that's what makes this song one of the most played songs in my iTunes library.

Ke$ha. A lot of people have reservations about this crap, and I understand why you might, but I'm here to tell you that those are stupid. The objections that people generally have are that she's indicative of everything that's wrong with pop culture today. Those people need to understand that that is the point. Ke$ha's entire purpose with her "music" is to be irreverent and fun and to not take anything seriously, and damnit, she does that better than anyone that's ever claimed to do such a thing, musically. That being said, she makes the list of things that I love because her songs epitomize that kind of unadulterated ridiculousness that you just don't see enough of.

What kind of blog post about music would this be if I didn't mention musicals for at least a brief moment? I really don't know how this ties into any of what I've been talking about, but having these songs with characters telling a story is just one of the most fun applications of music that there is, and I love it. Especially the fairly trashy ones. Chicago, Rent, Mamma Mia!, Wicked... The list goes on. I picked this song to represent this overarching category because... well, it's fun.

Ahh, P!nk. She is a tough bitch, and you don't fuck with her. She's kind of a badass, and despite the apparently contradictions in the message she puts out there with her music (see: 'Cuz I Can and Stupid Girls), there's one common denominator: she does not give a shit about what you think, and she's going to do whatever the fuck she wants. Love it or hate it, you have to respect that.

Last but not least, Paramore. This song is... this song. I love this song. You may recognize a line from it as the title of this blog, and that's because I fucking love this song and this album. Really, so do most of the people here. Brand New Eyes is definitely my favorite album of all time. Why? Well, it came at a point in my life where it was particularly poignant. The band that I was in was falling apart, and I was working through trying to be friends with my psycho bitch ex, and there was other stuff going on that I'm not going to get into here, and it sounds really stupid, but this album really helped with that.

Anyway, I'm not sure that I actually made a point with any of that. To sum up, a song needs to address some kind of realistic emotion in a way that's sincere in order to appeal to me. Hopefully there was at least one thing here that you hadn't heard before that you like. This week's been fun, and I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I have.

Play Me a Memory?

Favorite music, favorite music. I am not sure where to start. I cannot say I have a favorite band, at which I would jump at a chance to see in concert above every else. I am, for better lack of words, a creature of habit. I have the radio in my car, although I need to find myself a good Oldies Rock station. I have the music on my iPod, and I am too lazy to try and evolve that. I recently started using Spotify, and that has perhaps been the most useful to me in reaching all my musical tastes.

Music is my mood. I listen to what I listen too because I what I am doing and what I am feeling, and radio, internet or car, is always my first choice, because I love variety and there is very little I do not like. I propose two things for you this morning; a list of genres I listen to by mood, and an essay on the evolution of my personal music selection in the confines of a nonfiction essay. The second is to give you more depth if you so wish, and is from where the title of this post comes from. I do, though, have a favorite song, which I shall embed for you listening pleasure.

Music and my Mood (as I ungracefully list out moods and music for you reading pleasure):

Intense Work: Classical Music (I usually go for the classical music selections on internet radio)
Creative Work: I usually go for lyrical when I want to be creative. I have a playlist that includes songs by Adele, Florence & the Machine, Mumford & Sons, and One Republic. I am generally going for the softer tunes. I also love soundtracks. The Battlestar Galactica or Pirates of the Carribean (which has a good playlist on Spotify with all the selections from the four movies).
Driving: I like variety stations while driving, so anything that hits at least three decades. Or just plain old oldies rock. The 80s were the best.
Upbeat: This is when I hit the contemporary pop. Generally there is a lot of energy in today's songs, which gets your blood moving.
Uplifting: I hit the soundtracks again when I'm feeling down. Usually (as I said, currently PotC) some epic soundtrack music out there that will make you feel awesome.
Dancing: I am a sucker for a good beat. I love dancing to a little bit of techno or synthesized music.

I suppose the only things I don't enjoy are really heavy metal or pure rap. I do not listen to much country, but that's more that there is a lot for music I would rather listen to first. I know my whole list was not very specific, but there are very few artists that I listen to specifically, and I have a feeling some of them will the visited by other posters.

One suggestion if you are looking for new music, try looking for fanmixs of some of your favorite shows. You might find someone that has similar musical taste as you, and knows artists or songs you have never heard of. And now I shall leave you with my favorite song, and some words I wrote a year ago, when we were asked to examine ourselves and in relation a larger part of the world.

Music is Life.

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Yes, I just keyboard smashed for my title. Because, as most of us know, that is the universal sign of a fangirl. This is something I tend to avoid doing, but let's face it, we all do once in a while.

I grew up on a mix of P!nk’s Missundaztood, Bowling for Soup’s A Hangover You Don’t Deserve, and everything Shania Twain. Not to mention an abundance of Jimmy Buffet, Uncle Kracker and Aaron Carter. Both my parents are from Kentucky, so country music was always present and pop was just a normal thing for us. How this affected my current taste in music? I’m not sure.

I will say that I still love most of those bands/performers. But, nowadays, I don’t really listen to them as much as I do different genres. My taste in music has been described to me as “emo alternative” as well as “acoustic indie crap” (thanks for your opinion Brandon) but I don’t agree with either of those to sum it all up. I really like a mixture of different genres. I usually stick to country, pop, “alternative”, and the like. I don’t like the term alternative, or even pop for that matter, because neither are stationary descriptions of music, but it’s the best way to get the point across here.

My top twenty five songs in iTunes consists of a mix of: All Time Low, Bowling for Soup, Mayday Parade, Demi Lovato (don’t judge), Felicia Day & Neil Patrick Harris, Taylor Swift, Paramore, and Katy Perry. I will admit, that’s quite a mix. But, I really like all of that and it makes complete sense to me.

I like listening to complete albums at a time, sometimes even a single song repeatedly. That’s just how I like it and having Sick Little Games by All Time Low at number one does not surprise me, because I will play it five or six times in a sitting.

Some of my favorite bands/singers that aren’t in that group include (but are not limited to): Barenaked Ladies, Cartel, Dixie Chicks, Evaescence, Flyleaf, Green Day, He is We, Automatic Loveletter, Kelly Clarkson, Lady Gaga, Miranda Lambert, No Freaking Doubt, P!nk, Panic! At The Disco, along with an assortment of YouTube-inality and musical theater music. And by musical theater music, I really mean things of the musically theme. Things like: Once More With Feeling, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, RENT, Wicked, Chicago, etc.

I wanted to pick on group to talk about most, and for that I chose Rise Against. (Mainly because, at the moment, they are definitely number one on my list) I recently went to a concert of theirs and ADTR’s (in February) and it was… amazing to say the least. It’s really stupid, but I think I agree with Kelsey that the way lyrics hit me, I feel like most of the time I couldn’t relate more.

While this isn’t always the case with Rise Against’s music, I feel like there is always something there that makes it easy for anyone who knows the words to sing along and really mean what they are saying. When we all sang out the words to songs like Swing Life Away, Collapse, The Good Left Undone, Audience of One, Make It Stop, and wrapping things up with a song like Savior, you could hear how much everyone was pouring their hearts into those songs. It was insane. I don’t think I’ve had a better experience in my life.

And I think that’s why I like Rise Against so much, because no matter what they’re talking about, they are always so passionate. And, under most circumstances, someone’s passion can make or break a band for me. I think if I was going to fangirl about any band, it would be that one, for sure.

I want to say how sorry I am for my late posting and I hope you guys can forgive me. In all honesty, I just forgot. And I would have posted this earlier today, but between school, picking up Toby, driving all over creation, and still having a history project to do, I just now got around to it. I hope you guys had a wonderful Thursday (along with a great Memorial Day weekend) and I cannot wait to see what Kathleen has to say tomorrow. Cheer up everyone, it’s almost Friday!

And Hayley Williams is my effing idol

As I mentioned in my post on religion, music has pretty much always been a big part of my life. I live with depression and honestly, I'm not sure where I'd be without music in my life. A major part of my depression, at least, is feeling melancholic and like the weight of unresolved emotions is just pulling me down, and one of the most important skills I had to learn was how to try to dissipate some of that weight. Listening to music has always been one of the best ways to do this. If I hear a song and it resonates with me, I can identify some of the unspecified blobs of emotion, and if I can identify it, I can usually scream out the lyrics and cry and feel a bit better. The idea of musicians putting emotions into lyrics I can hold onto for support is something that I've honestly been eternally grateful for. This is why, in a lot of my personal blog posts, I'll punctuate paragraphs with lyrics. I understand that this is pretty much a stereotype of self-absorbed emo kids, but the way the lyrics resonate with me makes me feel like I could never express how I feel as well as that one line did. If that makes me emo, then I'm fine with that.

I could talk about the other ways music is important to me, or the ways it's influenced my life, but that honestly doesn't sound very fun to talk about or to read, so onto the meat of the post: music itself.

Obviously, not all music has to invoke emotional epiphanies. Some are just fun. To that end, I wholeheartedly recommend Ke$ha. Her combination of the vulgar and the trashy with the upbeat and the catchy is really disturbing at first glance, but if you can get past judging yourself for enjoying it, it's usually ridiculously fun. Pendleton has some valid reservations about auto-tuning, but I honestly find it a tool that can be used to great effect. An artist doesn't need to be a virtuoso to be worth listening to. Most of my recommendations are going to be based on my iTunes play count, so according to it, my favorite Ke$ha song is Grow A Pear. It's fun and shallow and meaningless that has been made infinitely better by evoking a mental image of hardcore gardening.

Favorite lyrics: But you cried 'bout this and whine about that. When you grow a pear, you can call me back.

No post about my taste emotional lyrics could be complete without a few requisite Taylor Swift lyrics, and I'm quite fine with that. She has a fantastic ability to write songs that are both specific enough to feel personalized while general enough to relate to. Yes, pretty much all of her songs are about love (either gained or lost) but she does what she does well. She also has plenty of songs about anger and revenge and there is nothing wrong with empathizing with those a little too much (better than actually being vengeful and vindictive).

Favorite lyrics: And she is yelling at a bridesmaid somewhere back inside a room wearing a gown shaped like a pastry.

The rest I'm going to sort of group together (probably unfairly): my assortment of pop punk bands with guy lead singers. This includes Forever The Sickest Kids, All Time Low, Mayday Parade, The Maine, The Cab and Every Avenue, just to name a few. Their songs vary wildly between heartrending sob stories (more like Mayday Parade) and shallow, Ke$ha-rivaling dance music (more like Forever The Sickest Kids), but I tend to group them together because 1) people who hate one usually hate most of them, and 2) though I have my favorites, few stand out as having a unique sound.

(Exceptions include Hit The Lights first two albums and Cute Is What We Aim For's first album. Hit The Lights because 100% of their songs are in some way angry, generally violently so, and CIWWAF for being very overtly sexual and sensual.)

That said, this particular brand of music has been labeled Kelsey music and, in general, tends to make me very happy. Since this has so many artists in it, I'm going to pick a few favorite lyrics from a few different points on the spectrum

Favorite lyrics: I'll have you know I'm scared to death that everything that you had said to me was just a lie until you left.


What am I supposed to do (oh oh) when she's so damn cold like 20 below?


I want the good life, spotlights fortune and fame. Make me rich, can't be poor, can't be broke anymore.


She'd sink lower than a body in the Hudson could ever do.


You got in my heart, you got in my head, and I believed everything you said

Rise Against gets onto another honorable mentions list with my post. I really like their sound and usually their lyrics are thought-provoking, but I don't have enough of a connection with them to really put them on my main list. Other honorable mentions are My Chemical Romance and Escape the Fate for pretty much the same reasoning.

Favorite lyrics: We've all been sorry, we've all been hurt, but how we survive is what makes us who we are.


You are so beautiful, you are the kind of girl who has the chemicals to make me fall in love


But you really need to listen to me, because I'm telling you the truth, I mean this, I'm okay (trust me)

Beloved Musicians

I have to say that I'm really excited about this weeks topic!  I could ramble on about my favorite music for days, but I'll condense my post to cover the music that has recently been in my most played songs.  As far as favorite musical genre goes, I like to listen to just about anything excluding anything that is synthesized or of the techno variety (just not my thing).  Also, anyone who knows me will tell you that I have an immense hatred for autotuning (despite the many possibilities it brings to the art of mixing, I personally think that it encourages singers to be lazy about vocal production.)  Okay, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'll share a little about my favorite kinds of music.

Both of my parents are big country and bluegrass fans, so I grew up listening to artists like Allison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, and Suzy Bogguss.  For anyone not familiar with these artists, just look up music from the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? to get an idea of what the genre is like.  Today, I still think that Allison Krauss has one of the most beautiful and pleasant voices to listen to.  Some of my favorite musicians from this genre today, to name a few include Allison Krauss, Dolly Parton, and The Zac Brown Band.  I already mentioned Allison Krauss' voice, and I also included Dolly Parton on my favorite artists list, not because I think she has the most beautiful voice, but because she can sing a duet with just about any other artist and make their version of a particular performance sound incredible, no matter what the song is.  Not to mention, she is also a really outstanding songwriter.  Speaking of really great harmony, The Zac Brown Band is one of my favorite country groups right now, primarily because of the groups distinguishing harmonies.  Do their songs sometimes seem repetitive? Sure, but I have yet to tire of listening to the tracks from their latest album.  So as of right now, the harmonies are winning.

In addition to country music, I'm a huge showtunes fan.  I'm not really familiar with all of the music from shows that have recently come out, but I'd say about half of the top 20 playlist on my iPod is made up of music from musicals ranging from Rogers and Hammerstein to newer works, most of which have rock/ popular roots.  Right now, Leonard Bernstein of West Side Story fame is one of my favorite composers to listen to in the car or when I'm doing things around the house.  I definitely don't know enough about music to really evaluate his compositions, but there's something about his music that I really love listening to.  Speaking of West Side Story, I also really appreciate Stephen Sondheim, although his compositions aren't my favorite to listen to on a daily basis.  Two of my favorite composers from this genre who are actively working today are Shaiman and Wittman, who are known for writing the music and lyrics to Hairsray and the musical within the TV show Smash.  For the lack of a better word, they're just nifty!  One of my other top played albums is the soundtrack from Next to Normal by Kitt and Yorkey  I got to see this show with my high school chorus/ theater group a few years ago, and I thought that the music was really outstanding.  This soundtrack has a kind of rock feel combined with the way that traditional showtunes have been written, which makes it seem more modern and accessible.  I think it's really interesting how much this genre of music has evolved over time, but that's a discussion for another time.  And I'd better move off of this sub-topic before I spend the rest of the night writing about all of these super-gifted composers!

I also occasionally enjoy listening to classical music.  I could listen to just about anything Beethoven wrote all day long, but I'm also a big fan of Mozart.  In addition to Mozart and Beethoven, one of my other favorite composers from the Classical/ Romantic periods is the less well-known Luigi Cherubini, who wrote one of my favorite operas, Medea.  I can't really do anything to touch on these composers besides giving my proper respect and saying that they're great.


To prevent this post from becoming a short (or very long) novel, I'll finish off listing my favorite musicians and composers here.  For anyone who couldn't tell, I can get a tiny bit enthusiastic over the topic of music.  I look forward to seeing what everyone has to post this week, and I believe we're hearing from Kelsey tomorrow!



           
      

Hybrid Theory

I've always had a fairly open mind when it comes to music.  I've never really focused in on any one genre, and there aren't many artists/bands that I regularly follow.  My only real dislike is country music, and that stems more from overexposure at my first job than anything else - there have been several country songs since then that I've enjoyed, at one point or another.  My original thought was to do this post kind of like a timeline, touching on what I listened to and enjoyed through recent years, but I think I'm going to go with a more traditional list instead, and just give some background information for each entry.  This should be fun, and with any luck, I'll rediscover some music that I like, and had forgotten about.  Ready?  Let's go.

First on my list of favorites is Eminem.  ... I know, it's a potentially debatable lead, but that's what I'm going with.  I get a lot of double-takes on the rare occasion that I talk about my music tastes to people, because... well, I guess, because I don't look like the kind of person who'd listen to rap?  An interesting point, though, is that I don't generally listen to a lot of rap in general - just Eminem.  There are a few non-Eminem songs that I've heard and enjoy, but rap as a genre isn't my thing, so much.  ... An interesting nugget of information is that I had absolutely no idea who Eminem even was until 2001.  Even then, I didn't listen to him or anything until late 2002.  My sister (or my brother-in-law, not sure which) bought his then-newest album, The Eminem Show, and they let me listen to it... and somehow, for some reason, it resonated with me.  I had previously dismissed rap as, essentially, people saying nothing but "I kill people, have lots of money and women, and I'm more badass than you".  Granted, my exposure to rap at that point was fairly limited, but it all sounded alike to me.  Eminem sounded... different.  I could listen to his songs and actually understand what he was saying - more than that, I could relate to a lot of it.  Sure, there were some songs like that on The Eminem Show, but that wasn't the entirety of the album.  There were also songs like Cleanin' Out My Closet, Sing For The Moment, and Hailie's Song (which features Eminem actually trying to sing, instead of rap, and mocking himself for the attempt).  For whatever reason, after this album, I was hooked.  I haven't listened to all of his old stuff, but that's something I intend to do when I have a few free days with no plans.  I did buy his most recent album (Recovery), even though someone had burned me a copy of it, because I wanted to support him.  Of the 17 songs on the album, I'm not crazy about two of them.  I think that's the best like/dislike ratio I have for any particular album, though I won't swear to that.  One of the items on my bucket list is to see him in concert.  ... I'd like to meet him, but I have no idea what I'd even say.  Maybe just "thank you", for everything he's provided the music industry with.  I'm really not sure how that'd go.  For whatever reason, however it happened, Eminem's at the top of my "favorite music" list.

Number two on my list of favorite music-related things is Linkin Park.  I debated for a while about whether to put them first, but they've become a bit less prominent in my listening tastes lately, and so Eminem beat them out for first mention.  As stated above, it's rare that I'll follow any particular group, but  they're the major exception to that rule.  I've purchased every album they've ever released, and they were the highlight of one concert I attended (out of two, total).  I feel like it became almost "uncool" to like Linkin Park at some point, because... well, I really don't know why, exactly.  I know that a lot of their fans were unhappy with their latest album release (A Thousand Suns), but for the most part, I really enjoyed it.  It was different, yes, but change isn't always a bad thing -- one of the songs on the album contains the line "... 'Cause once you got the theory of how the thing works, everybody wants the next thing to be just like the first...".  I've liked that line from the first time I heard it, because I think it's absolutely true.  Change, in the music industry, seems to be something that's criticized first and thought about afterwards.  I don't have a lot of experience in different examples of this happening to other groups, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was common.  If I scroll long enough through my list, I can almost always find a Linkin Park song to fit my current mood, and that's why they get second mention in my list.

Realistically, I think I need to make a mention of Nine Inch Nails here, because they're one of only two other bands that I can claim to have followed for any real length of time.  I went through a "phase" of liking the group in the early 2000's, and it lasted for several years.  Every Friday, when I worked at a bookstore, I'd be in the stockroom for several hours doing shipment, and every Friday, I would blast NIN for as long as it took my to finish unpacking everything.  The (conservative) staff complained for a while, but eventually just took it in stride.  I haven't followed them for a while (are they still even doing music?), but they were a big enough part of my music history that I feel they're owed a mention.  The one song of theirs that has always been one of my favorites is "We're In This Together".  ... I couldn't honestly tell you why.  It doesn't seem like anything special, really.  Potentially less screaming and craziness than other NIN songs, but... I dunno.  That one's a bit hard to explain.

I'm not going to devote a lot of room to the final group that I followed for a noteworthy length of time; partially because they're a group that likely no one has ever heard of, and partially because they're not a major part of my listening habits any longer (and I'm not trying to reverse that).  I didn't really have a "emo goth" phase (unless you count the one night I let people dress me up and take me out to a club, which... I don't), but I did listen to a band called The Cruxshadows for a long time.  Their songs were interesting to me, because a lot of them served semi-inspirational purposes, and also revolved around different topics that I found interesting (Troy, Egyptian gods, etc).  I bought (and still own) most of their CD's, but I stopped listening to them, and I haven't followed them for a while.  Still, they were a semi-significant part of my musical history, so I don't think I could do them the disservice of not even mentioning them.

Honorable mention for groups goes to Paramore and Rise Against.  I haven't purchased an album for either of the two, but there are a good number of songs that I enjoy by both groups.  I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail about either of them (mostly because I know Paramore will be discussed, extensively, in later posts), but they both deserve to be mentioned for awesomeness.  Kelsey gets a public nod here, also, for getting me into Paramore.

To wrap this entry up, I'll focus on a couple of composers that I particularly like.  The first of these is Koji Kondo.  He's best known for composing the soundtracks of two series - Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda.  I'd label the Mario theme as one of the most easily recognized video game themes in existence, and we have him to thank for that.  Not long after Zelda: Ocarina of Time came out in 1998, the soundtrack was released, and it quickly found a semi-permanent home in my CD player (... ah, CD players...).  The music was so well-done, so perfectly placed, that I could close my eyes and see the game world around me as I listened to the music.  He's done plenty of other work besides these two series, but I feel that these are his most notable accomplishments (to me, at least).

The second composer is Yasunori Mitsuda, who's done... well, a hell of a lot of soundtracks, but most importantly to me, the soundtrack for Chrono Trigger.  Anyone who knows anything about me knows my relationship with that game, and the soundtrack is a large part of it.  The music from Chrono Trigger is one of the best soundtracks that I've heard, and it's one that never gets old for me.  ... I really don't know what to say beyond that.

I think that's enough for this post.  It's interesting that my top three choices were rock/rap... I suppose I do have a slight lean in that direction.  There's more variety in my music, but I do feel it's notable that my list turned out how it did... so, this post helped me figure out something about my own tastes in music.  Isn't that awesome?  I'm really eager to see what the other posters will share for this week.  Thanks for reading.

Week of 5/20 - Breather Topic: Favorite Music

I don't know about you guys, but I feel like the bulk of this blog's content has been very serious. Don't get me wrong, it's been really great to see everybody's viewpoints on more serious issues, but we realized that we'll need to occasionally take a week off to talk about issues that are a lot more lighthearted and fun. Obviously, since the point of this blog is really to discuss the things that matter, these weeks will never occur more than once in any given month, but they will definitely pop up on occasion when we need it.

With that, I bring the first breather topic: favorite music. Music is in everything we do, and most of the people involved in this blog are at least mildly musically inclined. Hell, the title of this blog was inspired by music. We'll be talking about music that may have had a profound impact on our lives, music that not many people have heard of that we love and want to share with the world, or maybe just music that we really like and want to talk about at great length. With any luck, you'll stumble upon something this week that you may not have heard of or just never got around to listening to.

John will start us off tomorrow, and I'll be back on Saturday. Enjoy!

National Education

I suppose I shall start out this post by apologizing for what might be slightly incoherent. Maybe, maybe not. I have addressed this topic briefly in my college German classes, and my personal opinions on reform generally stem from my views on such European educational structures.

I am going to discuss the primary and secondary educational systems and why I think there should be a more national viewpoint towards education than a state one. Currently states can set their own curriculum; there are some national guidelines, but they are dangled in front of state school systems by offering funds for complying. At least that's how I view it. But I think education is one of the things that should be a national issue; if we are going to formulate a competitive, intelligent educational system that prepares students for making their way in the world, should the system not be standard across the country, while allowing for states to include some geographical material and history? It makes more sense to me than watching what the Texas School Board will decide about their curriculum and analyzing how it might affect the country.

More specifically, I think our educational system is broken in directing everyone towards the path of college. Sure, high school would quote how people could do other things after high school, but the emphasis was always on college. And here is where I really found myself liking the German system. While there are some schools that are becoming more general like the United States, mostly secondary schools are divided into those who are looking towards the college track and those that are going to more trade and vocational type professions. I am generally aware that other European countries have systems that are similar to that, but I do not know many details. Doing so would allow less people to go to college, a college degree feel more important, and clear up a clogged system. I have talked to people who have mentioned how they needed a degree to get a job that they knew how to do, but needed the degree to prove - I'm not sure, but it felt pointless and a waste of their time and money. When a degree and not experience can earn a person a high wage, it is sad. Or at least, I think it is sad.

And although I think that creating high schools that focused on trade and vocational professions would be extremely useful in improving our educational system, I do not think it will happen any time soon. Standing in the face of such change, as with many European systems are American cultural values. The American Dream, letting anyone be who they want to be, would not want such a divided system. And I think that is why we push everyone towards college, because we do not want to be seen as pushing anyway towards being second best.

But here's the thing; when we are promoting everyone to be future mathematicians and scientists and problem solvers, we are leaving behind the people that have to do everything else. I think our problems lie at a more administrative level than an educational one. I think we are still capable of coming up with new and better ways to teach, but it is the bureaucracy, the emphasis on showing skills a certain way, that will be our downfall.

I sit here and I am not sure what to say. I know I think that solving our higher level educational problems starts at examining how our primary education is run, and what exactly to we emphasis. But on some level I also think we are doing fine on our own, we are out there developing new teaching techniques. Ideas about the classroom are constantly evolving. I just worry the system is too slow to catch up. So perhaps at the heart of it, the way I feel is summed up by national control of our educational system. Not streamlining, but making the system more efficient so there is more time to focus on preparing people for a realistic future. My hope for the other side of education - the actual teaching is summed up better by this video by 60 Minutes. Perhaps it will work; perhaps it will not. I do believe on some level teaching will never be perfect because we are not all the same, but I did enjoy this video the first time I saw it on CBS. And it proves to me that people are always trying to work towards a solution.



I also say watch this Sunday's 60 Minutes, which is to have an interview, of the preview that I have embedded below, on an alternative to college.

Education and... Stuff

This post will most likely end up being extremely disjointed and won’t really seem like it makes sense, but sadly I 1) do not know much on the topic and 2) have become extremely busy all of the sudden for no real reason. This being said, I’m going to throw in my two cents from the high school perspective.

I am going to touch on three of the topics that others this week have already mentioned. Hopefully my 

opinion will vary some; however, I’m not quite sure that it will.

Let’s start off with the teacher: To be a successful teacher in my opinion, means doing everything you can to give your student the ability to be prosperous. Now, when I say give them the ability, I mean you need to supply them with things like this: all the knowledge they need to pass your class, how to use the things they learn in your class to their advantage in “the real world”, and every option to be a successful student within your class. As a teacher, you should help me if I need help (within reasonable hours for us both). If you have tried everything and can’t help me, then you should point me in the direction of someone/something that can. And finally, if I am failing you’re class then I really do find it your responsibility to at least try to do something about it, to some extent. That being said, I think as a teacher, you are not responsible for a student’s grade completely. I think the line between whether it’s the student’s job or the teachers to make sure you passes is a bit gray for most people.

Next, I’ll talk about that fine line between when it’s a problem with the teacher and when it’s a problem with the student. As a student, you have responsibilities too. You have to show up, you have to give it all you’ve got to get through every class (whether you like the class/think you’ll use it or not), and you have to speak up if you are struggling. You don’t need to be excited about school or even want to be there, you just have to accept that you are there and you need to take advantage of the free education. If you aren’t motivated by something/someone, then motivate yourself. Think of all the things you can accomplish if you actually tried. It’s insane, isn’t it!? Well, I think that’s where to draw the line. If the student is being given every chance at success by the teacher and still will not complete the work or try, then it is the students fault. But, when teachers say things like, “It really isn’t my problem if you fail” it’s all bullshit. Not only do your grades reflect you, but they are going to affect that teacher’s job standing. Maybe it won’t affect it a lot, but it will affect it somewhat. As a student you need to try, you need to know when to ask for help, and you will have to stay up extra late to do all those projects/study for finals. It’s a part of the “we’ll provide you with education” deal. You have to want to use that education to be successful.

Lastly, I’ll touch on the problem with teacher’s salaries. I agree a lot with John on this topic, so I won’t go too in depth. But, the way I see it (and I know people who agree with my opinion on this) is simple: raising the salary of a teacher will only improve our teachers. If the salary for teachers was higher, the demand would go down, and the qualifications would go up drastically. Because more is at stake for the school system, then they will try harder to find the best people to do the job. I think the lack of a decent incentive for teachers going into the field is extremely discouraging. The fact that, because of how much they make, teachers are still looked down upon because of their career choices is extremely annoying. Teachers make or break a child’s ability to succeed in most cases. If you have extremely bad teachers in one subject your entire education career, what are the chances you’re going to want to have anything to do with it? Zero. If we were paying the teachers more, they would want to do better and would want to be better. That simple.

“Out of 34 countries, the U.S. ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math.” (USA Today) That is sad. And it’s not all the teachers OR students fault. It’s not society or the media, either. It’s the people in change of herding us all around and making sure everyone passes the state standards. We need intervention from the school boards and government, now. We need to worry more about the future adults we’re producing because one day everyone in charge now will be dead and this generation will be in charge. What they teach us and how is vital. Right now, it’s looking like we’re going to be royally screwed.

Basically, everyone needs to do their part to make this countries education worthwhile. This post wasn’t really about education reform, I would say. But, it’s what I feel about the matters that have been presented previously this week. So, yeah. Can’t wait to see what Kathleen has to say in this week’s wrap up. Thank God it’s Friday. 

You think YOU'RE idealistic?

A lot of the posts this week have focused on money. Teacher's salaries and tuition are both very important things, but there's another crucial component to education: the student.

As you may have seen on the About Us page, I'm studying to become a game developer. This gives me an interesting view of things because when I learn things, I tend to tie it back to "How can I use this to make more awesome games?" When it comes to education, though, it's the other way around. Games can make education more awesome.

Video games have gotten fantastic at the psychology of play, trying to get the gamer to do something continually for months on end. Pay-to-play online games need this principle to survive. If you don't like the game, you stop paying them for it and they stop making money off of you. Games have perfected many psychological tricks such as skinner boxes and reinforcement schedules to make games rewarding for the player. I think the real challenge for video gaming is to use those techniques to do some good in the real world and I think that starts with education.

The first thing I'm going to talk about is Alternate Reality Games. The basic premise of an ARG is that it's a game, usually on a website, that implies that there's more to this world than we know, a secret that's just dying to get out, and you're the one it needs to be told to. There might be numbers at the bottom of a webpage that, when translated from binary to ASCII, code for a URL. Going to that URL might show you a countdown. You don't know what the countdown is for, but you figure out that it's for a couple days from now at 2PM. At around 2:10, you check the website again and find that the "government" has taken it down, but wait. In the source code, you find a comment that says the truth will be revealed and has a ten-digit number. You call that number and a recorded voice tells you they need your help decrypting a signal and...Well, I'm sure you get the point. It's exciting and makes you want to find out more. Perhaps more excitingly, with the combined power of the internet, codes way more complicated than converting binary to text could be cracked.

This has huge applications in education. What if, instead of having to write a paper on the Renaissance, you had to crack codes based on important historic facts? What if there's a secret hidden in history that you can only figure out by researching? The best part is that this doesn't even really rely on extrinsic motivators. The most powerful draw to this idea is the fact that figuring out stuff and feeling smart is awesome. Every time you enter the right password (which would hopefully be more interesting than "Name Henry VIII's fourth wife"), you get that rush of endorphins. That high that says you won. It'd give a sort of instant gratification that's rarely there in most school assignments. It would reinforce the idea that learning stuff for learning's sake can be awesome. Yeah, it would be for a grade, but once you got into it, it would be so much more than that.

Another game-related idea that I think could be implemented is a little more cheap: competition. Qwizdom is the first thing that comes to mind of this sort of thing already in action. The basic idea is that you get controllers for each of your students and program in the questions. After that, there are a bunch of pre-programmed games that the students can play. Maybe it's a racing game where the faster you put in the right answer, the faster your car can go. Maybe it's just as simple as grouping people into teams and playing Jeopardy in the classroom. Either way, the result is that kids have more fun and they have more of a desire to do well.

Or maybe you could have a review website where you upload homework assignments. Maybe you only assign 15 math problems out of the book, but you add in a bunch more from the same chapter. Maybe you even add in some for later chapters, but the key is that for every question they answer, there's a 10% chance they'll get a coin. Coins accumulate throughout the year and they can be redeemed for things like homework passes or extra points on an exam. They could even been redeemed for physical items like school supplies or maybe candy. I know I'd spend more time on assignments if going beyond the minimum actually had some sort of tangible (or at least measurable) reward.

There are a lot of things wrong with education today, but I think one of the main ones is focusing on creating a minimum knowledge base instead of focusing on cultivating a desire to learn. As a great philosopher once said "All the fun parts of life are optional." Teaching shouldn't be about getting you to memorize facts. It should be about getting you to go beyond and to realize what kind of awesome stuff lies out there if you have the motivation and intelligence to reach for it.

For more information on ARGs, feel free to watch Extra Credits' episode on the whole deal, which I admittedly stole a lot of the optimism from.

Education Reform in America's Colleges and Universities

I'm not even sure where to begin in discussing this week's topic of education reform.  I know many families who use this topic as a regular discussion topic around the dinner table, and even then, the discussion is varied, so I'll try to focus on one specific area of education, which is the evolving demographic of students entering and completing college.

As a student at a private liberal arts college, I've taken classes with many students who were incredibly intelligent and focused on learning, but there were other students who just seemed to be taking up space as they waited to graduate and shortly after, work in a nicely paying position in the family company.  I'm only vaguely familiar with how other education systems work around the world, but it seems like in the American system, just about anyone can go to college if they are willing to pay tuition.  I don't see any problem with system attempting to educate those who have a strong desire to learn, no matter what their capacities are.  I find it problematic when those who want a better education cannot afford it and these individuals with a greater desire to learn are unable to attend college, simply because they cannot afford tuition.

On a personal level, a number of people I went to high school with had received scholarships and financial aid to state universities, but many of them had to return home after one year or one semester, because they found that they could not afford to take out a loan for tuition.  This is very unsettling to me, especially when I look around the classroom and see so many students who aren't attending college for a rich educational experience; instead, many people are now attending college because they don't believe that they can get a career with a livable wage and benefits without a college degree.  For the majority of people, this is true.  But as the majority of individuals who can afford to attend college go, many people now view a bachelor's degree the same way they once viewed a high school diploma.  Because most Americans who can afford to go to college today can find an institution that will accept their money for tuition, bachelor's degrees in most fields are not as valuable as they once were, and in many ways, they are now viewed as a kind of stepping stone degree.

The demographic of students who are currently enrolling and completing college has greatly changed in  the past 50 years, and in many ways for the better.  While a greater educated youth should be beneficial to society, if nearly everyone who wishes to attend college, for reasons ranging from needing an education to work in a specific field to needing a degree in order to join a parent in the family law firm may, then schools must continue to keep their educational standards high, because a college-educated society isn't necessarily a more intelligent society.

Semi-educated Rambling

Honestly, I'm not even really sure where to begin with this topic.  I don't have a great outline of my post laid out, and so this may turn into an unstructured flow of thoughts more than anything.  Let's see how it goes!

I suppose I'll start with what I think is one of the biggest concerns about teachers, and that's their salary.  One of my friends is an elementary school teacher, and she's given me some detail (though not told me directly) how much she makes... and I'm shocked by how little it is.  In addition, my ex planned for years to be a teacher, but she eventually abandoned that idea because she just didn't think she'd be able to support herself on a teacher's salary.  I know that the debate over teachers' salaries has existed for a long, long time, but it still feels like a really important issue to me.  We have a lot of things in the US that feel like giant wastes of money, and I have to question whether that money could be used to better support the people that are supposed to be teaching the people that will eventually be running our nation.  How many athletes make millions of dollars for playing a sport (which doesn't even span an entire year)?  How much could we improve our school systems if even one of the major sports took a year off, and donated the money they would've paid the athletes (less enough for them to live comfortably, of course) to the educational system?  How much could we improve if this was a yearly thing, with the sports affected rotating through a schedule? ... I enjoy sports, for the most part, and I understand that a large portion of the nation follows them seriously (almost religiously, in some cases).  But this seems like a fairly simple sacrifice that would be a huge benefit to the concept of funding educational reform - not only increasing teachers' salaries, but making necessary improvements to schools in order to keep them competitive and efficient.

I can see people making the argument that if teachers get a salary increase, their students' grades should increase, but I don't think it's quite that simple.  It's been a long, long time since I was in school (particularly the non-college variety), but I'd imagine that one of the bigger challenges facing teachers is relating the material to students in a way that they can understand.  There's a lot of pressure on teachers to get the material across to -every- student, and that seems like it can be fairly intimidating.  I would imagine that class size is one of the largest contributing factors - I've always been a fan of smaller classes, where the students could get more individualized attention.  I haven't looked into the details, but I'm going to make the (possibly incorrect) assumption that the opposite is happening in schools, for the most part - classes are getting bigger as schools are closed and students are relocated, in an effort to save money.  Larger class sizes seem like they'd be detrimental to creating an atmosphere where every student can learn; from my years of management experience, I can share that a large part of the problem, sometimes, isn't in what you're communicating, but how you're communicating it.  Some people need things explained to them in different ways than "normal" in order to really grasp the concepts being presented, and that seems like something more easily accomplished in a smaller setting.

This isn't a problem that can be fixed just by throwing money at it, though.  I think that, somehow, the mentality of our nation needs to change to put more of an emphasis on education - from the teachers all the way down to the students themselves.  I'm not an expert on foreign education trends, but it seems like students in foreign countries have the mindset of wanting to not only attend school, but to excel.  To them, school isn't a mandatory exercise in frustration and futility, it's a real opportunity to learn and better themselves.  I don't think enough students in our country truly believe that the things they learn in school are beneficial to them and their adult life, and the truth is that they miss opportunities because of it.  The question of how to change the mentality of people is a tough one, though, and not one that I have a good answer to.  My initial thoughts include the idea of the government taking a more active role in schools and the curriculum taught, but there are a lot of inherent flaws and issues that would take ages to resolve.

I don't have too much to offer as far as the cost of college education goes.  My only real experience with it is knowing several people who got into debt from taking out student loans, and had to spend years devoting part of their income to paying those off.  I personally don't like the idea of having a long-standing debt, but I don't think it's necessarily a terrible thing - it seems like the easiest way to allow people access to higher learning, while still providing the place of education needed income.  The timely repayment of the loans (assuming such a thing happens) would help the credit of the loanee, and... well, I don't see much else that could efficiently replace the system.  I don't think that a college degree is a necessity, yet, but I definitely see things moving in that direction.  I'm at a point in my life where I can comfortably support myself, and I don't have a degree - however, in order to give myself the best opportunities I can at what I want to do, I'm going to work toward earning one.

Ultimately, I do think reform is needed here, in order to stay competitive with the rest of the world - but I don't think it's reform that can be accomplished quickly.  We need to change the core thinking that lies at the root of our educational system, and let the effects spread outward from there.  The unfortunate part about this concept is that it would take a lengthy amount of time, and a lot of money, to accomplish - but in the end, I feel that the results would be more than worth it.

Apologies if my post this week wasn't excellent - I'll try to do better next week.  Pendleton's up tomorrow, so everyone should look forward to reading what she has to say.

Too Idealistic? Maybe.

Approaching this topic is surprisingly difficult for me, for two main reasons. The first, though less relevant, is that being the person to really kick off this week's discussion is a little inherently challenging. The second is that, with education being my intended career path, this topic is one where I really don't know where to begin because I have so much to say, and parsing it down to something that would be interesting to read is a little overwhelming.

That being said, I'm going to try to address something that's not really a reform driven by public policy as much as it is driven by teachers simply doing their jobs more effectively.

Now, my sister's 3rd grade teacher sounds like one of the most terrible instructors to ever be allowed in a classroom. She is terrible at classroom management, she teaches topics in a disjointed manner, and she throws tests over material that she skipped over at them on a semi-regular basis without any warning. To top it all off, she's close to retirement and makes a point of saying how much she hates teaching and is ready to be done with it.

A less extreme example of a bad teacher, though still a seriously flawed one, is the teacher that a friend one of my teaching classes worked with this semester at a middle school. We had an observation task centered around motivation to learn, and at the end we had to interview the teachers. When asked about what we, as teachers, could do to address students that simply aren't motivated, her response was that there's nothing we can do.

In both of these examples, there's a critical flaw: attitude. Teachers cannot have this negative attitude toward their students. It sounds a bit clichéd, but teachers need to have faith in the ability of every single student to succeed, and their job is to do everything they can to make sure that their students walk away with the necessary content knowledge and belief in their own ability to succeed in future classes. I know that not every student that I have in the future will end up successful, but goddamnit, I will do everything in my power to help them get there.

That being said, attitude clearly isn't the only thing that needs to change. Elaborating on a point that I made before, content knowledge is a necessary thing to give students. The remainder of my discussion is going to be heavily oriented toward math classrooms, though honestly, I believe that the ideas at hand can be adapted to other classrooms to address similar issues in those fields.

I'm going to start with a sweeping generalization that is going to highly offend at least one reader: elementary school (and usually middle school) teachers suck at math. They don't understand how it works or why it matters. There are dozens of anecdotes out there about basic algebra tests being administered to them with abysmal results.

This is why so many people loathe math, even though it's the most beautiful and pure of the core academic subjects. They're being introduced to it by teachers that don't have the conceptual understanding that is needed to do well in high school and beyond. Instead of being taught to see patterns in how things work, students are thrown massive tables of numbers to memorize, a daunting task which turns most people off to the subject entirely. Occasionally, a student may actually be interested and ask a question like, "What if I want to subtract a bigger number from a smaller number?" to which a teacher will probably say, "YOU CAN'T DO THAT." This is terrible and not how math works. To quote Vi Hart (whose videos on YouTube you should check out immediately if you've never seen them):

The true mathematician takes 'You can't do that!' as a challenge. If you someone tells you that you can't subtract a bigger number from a smaller number, just invent negative numbers! If someone tells you that you can’t multiply a number by itself to get a negative number, then invent imaginary numbers. If someone tells you you can’t multiply two non-zero numbers together to get zero or raise one non-zero number to another and get zero, you should probably say, ‘I’ll do both at once! And in eight dimensions!’ And if you ignore them telling you that numbers aren’t eight-dimensional and that inventing fake numbers is a useless waste of time and actually figure it out, next thing you know you’ve got split-octonions, which besides being super awesome just happen to be the perfect way to describe the wave equation of electrons and stuff.

The more appropriate answer to the student's question would be, "Well, you can only do that with negative numbers, and those are a little too complicated for us right now, so we're going to stick with the numbers we're used to for now." It may not be the answer that the student wants, but it will help them to feel less lied to later on when they're told that negative numbers are real and have these strange multiplication properties that seem like more ridiculous arbitrary rules.

Instruction should focus on trying to develop a conceptual understanding of material rather than a procedural one. This more deeply instills a sense of understanding in students than simply throwing rules at them and saying, "THIS IS HOW THINGS WORK." It makes them feel like the subject is less stupid and arbitrary, and the fact that you're probably not speaking in all caps makes them respect the class far more.

To get to the underlying point I'm trying to make, teachers need to not suck. They need to be able to do their jobs well. Allowing crap like the teachers I mentioned earlier to continue existing in the schools is an abomination. I think that these issues could probably start to be addressed by US society treating teaching like a legitimate profession and giving teachers slightly more than minimum wage as a salary, but until that happens, the burden is really on teachers in the system to actually give a damn about what they're doing and try to fully understand the material they're teaching and why they're teaching it.

But most importantly, they need to never give up on their students.

Week of 5/13 - Education Reform

For our third week we will be discussing Education Reform.

Our group resides in the United States, so our experiences are all influenced by the American educational system. For any international readers, I will try to briefly summarize how our system works. We go to school from we are around five to about eighteen, although the age varies between states. Unlike some other school systems, people do not go to a separate high school depending on the occupation they are looking into; everyone attends the same school and takes similar style of classes until college. After finishing school at 18, people can go to college if they wish, or enter the military or some sort of trade school or just enter the workforce.

Here, most of the thoughts behind education reform try and address two problems -  the idea that our primary and secondary education system is falling behind the rest of the world, especially in poor urban or rural areas and that the cost of college education is becoming unsustainable just as a college degree is becoming practically necessary to holding a good, high paying job.

I am interested in reading how our group's experiences with education have influenced how they think it could be better. I am looking forward to how many of our posts address other country's educational systems, ways reform is being tried here, or perhaps their own, untested hypothesizes on how we could better educate our futures. But as with all opinions on reform, perhaps some will address whether it is actually necessary, and how plausible it is to try such reform, and whether such broad institutional change would actually be possible, especially in a federalist country such as the United States.

See you all this Saturday, as I weigh in with my own opinion on the topic.

Stuck in the Middle

So, as you know now after Brandon’s post on Tuesday, I am the middle child of three. In case you can’t remember, Brandon turned twenty in January and Laura will be turning nine in a little over a week.

I would like to make some big statement telling you exactly how being a middle child affected everything, but I really can’t; because I do not know anything else. Brandon mentioned he was interested to see what I had to say about this for a couple reason:

1.      I was a youngest until I was six

2.      I was a middle child until he moved out

3.      I now play the role of oldest while he’s away

Now, I wouldn’t say I agree with those things. While, they did happen, I don’t think I really played those roles.

In all honesty, I don’t have much to say about ever being a younger sibling other than I don’t really remember much of my childhood. I don’t remember anything from before I was five and only snippets from before I was eight. I remember events and random memories, but not an abundance of them. So, as far as being the younger child, I think my brother could tell you better than I could how I acted when that was my role.

And, I don’t really feel like I’ve taken over the eldest role either at this point. I think that went to my grandmother who moved in with us a year and a half ago.

I would say that I definitely think being a middle child affect how I acted and how I set my morals and such. As either of my siblings could tell you, I was a bit of a brat. (I still can be at times) I wouldn’t say this is me exactly defending my actions as much as explaining them.

Being a middle child is… difficult. Now, that’s not to say being a younger or older sibling is any easier, but since I don’t have as much experience there, I can’t say. Growing up in the middle child slot was so affective on me for two main reasons: my siblings. You have to realize this is how I see my parents seeing the three of us:

First we have my brother. Now, in the eyes of my preteen self my brother was something I really couldn’t be. My brother was the responsible, intelligent, and practical older sibling.

Second is my little sister, who for most of my life played the role of little angel to my parents. I felt like maybe, especially during the divorce, they overcompensated with her. They felt bad that we didn’t have to money or the family bond we had when me and my brother were growing up. While, this is true and I think they did the right thing making sure she knew how loved she was, it was a little disheartening to me.

The result of those two influences in my life lead to thoughts like: “Well, if he can pass all his classes and have nice friends, why in the hell can’t you? What’s wrong with you?” and “They love her, they love her so much more than they love you. Can’t you tell?”  Now, remember, I was in that angsty transition from annoying little person to even more annoying teenage person.

I always kind of felt left out because I felt like my parents were just so proud of my brother because of the things he did and they were so proud of my sister because they thought they had to be. While I know that my siblings don’t see my parent’s actions in the same light as me that was just how it felt at the time. I felt like they never noticed me and if I did something great it really didn’t matter. But, of course, if I screwed up it was the end of the world.

This being said, I was known to be a bit obnoxious and rude and stupid. I did those things because I really wasn’t sure if it was worse to be completely ignored or to be yelled at. At this point in time, I really think that I put myself at a disadvantage because I can’t take back any of those stupid things I did. I’ve been told that my entire purpose was to make everyone around me miserable and that kind of killed me inside. I think being ignored would’ve been better.

That’s not to say that I’m not so, so, so thankful for my brother and sister. They taught me great things. I don’t think I’d be who I am without the bar my brother mentioned setting. And my sister has really showed me a lot, and I think she can show me so much more about compassion and helping people as she gets older. I am blessed to have such amazing people around me and I’m really glad I’m a middle child.

With those two things in mind, ways that I think being in the middle affected me:

I am extremely quiet; I’m not known to particularly… anything really. I am really under the radar. I don’t know if that was because I kind of let Brandon and Laura do all the talking or just because I knew it being the center of attention wasn’t always a good thing.

It also made me extremely protective of both my siblings. I don’t think I can imagine anything happening to either of them. I think I’d walk in front of a moving train if it meant keeping them from getting hurt. As well as being protective of my siblings, I’m also extremely protective of the people that I’m close to.

I really like bottling things up because I don't like bothering people with my problems because after getting more in depth with how the things that happened in my family affected the other people involved, I noticed people really couldn't care less sometimes and they shouldn't have to worry about your problems as well.

I take things to heart a lot and I think it’s because of the neighborhood I grew up in as well as being the one in the middle and just being more sensitive then my siblings. I also really try to do right by everybody I know because I just hate hating people, because it never ended well for me with my siblings. Arguing is the reason me and my sister aren't close and my brother and I are only close because he's not here to argue with.

Lastly, I know it helped having a role model and having that high bar to have to rise to. I think it will also make me more conscious about my moves with my future because I know my sister will be watching.

So, that came out a little ramble-y and made a lot less sense then I would have liked, but maybe I’ll get better at this blogging thing. We’ll see.

Hope you guys enjoyed Birth Order Week and can’t wait to see next week’s topic opinions!