Something I really ought to do sometime soon is to go on a nice little lecture tour of the US. I could schedule myself at women's clubs, houses of worship, the odd Marriot; nothing too large, I think, as I'd want to keep the setting intimate. I've got a few skills as a speaker, and I don't despair of persuading a person or two. I'll title my lecture, "There Is No Such Thing as a "Best School"; There Is Only the "Best School for You"
Where I tutor, HarvardYalePrinceton is one word, and is usually the first answer when you ask "So where are you thinking of applying, if you have an idea yet?" I always have to ask,(because I do have a mean streak)"Why Harvard? What about it appeals to you?"
"Oh, well, it's the best. It opens doors. And you can network." This answer is so very common. I have never seen Harvard, so I amuse myself with a surreal picture of a campus done in Georgian Architecture in Technicolor with doors in the unlikeliest of places -- in a tree trunk, in a cloud formation indicated by nothing but a knob in crystal, between one building and the next -- populated by people who attach elastic strings to one another and yet are able to make it to a class or two during the semester.
Sometimes I do get a different answer. An occasional student will announce that a smaller, less known place is right for him or her. In those cases, the explanation goes, "Well, I had a chance to take a summer course there, and I liked the campus and the professor, and the students there were really cool." It might be a variation on that theme. The student might have spent a weekend. She might have done a search or read a brochure. Invariably, the student had an interest, possibly a passion, and that school loved her or him for her talent and spirit and wanted to do its best to nurture that talent, spirit, passion.
Oh happy student. I wish they all could be so lucky.
At no time did that student talk of the prestige, the familial legacy, the opportunity to meet the right sort of people. He spoke only of what he and the college could do together. She spoke only of how happy she was to be in such a place. When I think of my one alum, Evan, who did such a search and found such a place, I drop a tear or two. His mother knew that her son had learning differences and respected them. They found a school that would also respect them and my boy has straight A's and does wonderful things with that school community. No one dumbs a thing down for him, before you out with that little meanness. They just encourage him to use strategies that make the work as do-able for him as it is for anyone else.
I think of other families and their determination to have their children be in any prestigious school, regardless of fit, and wonder how they can treat children that way. A child strictly instructed to hide her dyslexia in shame so she can "network" at a private day school will not learn to cope, will not "get over" the differences that make a printed page a vision of hell for her. At a school designed and structured for children with learning differences, a specialist will teach her strategies and let her learn to love information and respect her own qualities and abilities, and thus she finds the path to "the best schools".
Maybe even to Harvard. I hear they do have some good courses there.
My lecture will be brilliant. I will dream out loud of a world where all talents and passions are given their due respect. I will exhort parents to look at the beautiful individuals they've been lent by Whatever Higher Power that Exists Out There, and to seek out the schools that will respect what they have to give back to the world. I will lance at one stroke the inflated blivvet of vanity, assumption and prejudice that says that there are a few "top tier" schools where only the elite may go, and that the rest are barely adequate institutions where one might maunder about fecklessly for a few years before trying to find a place in middle management.
If I am lucky, one or two people might listen. They might suddenly take a good look at their offspring and say "but what can he really do? what does she really want?" They might even watch a man walking along the side of the highway to his second (or third) job and say "Thank God, for without him I'd have nothing in my house or on my plate". Or they might look at a young woman behind a cash register and think, "God bless her, for she does a needed task and does it with a smile."
My lecture would be quite satisfying in one respect. I'd stop feeding that puffed-up blivvet with the vanity of a three digit number that is supposed to confirm that there is an inherent "something" about the student that makes him or her more worthy of better education. I'd at least be doing something to make it more possible that we'd really look at what better education is, and resolve to offer it to anyone who would like to have it.
My Daily Web Experience Project
GOB's Segway is up for sale on eBay. Currently at $3,500. Should I swing for it? Message me your thoughts.
Medical research now suggests that marijuana may delay and reduce the effects of Alzheimer's disease. My grandma died from Alzheimer's, and I just can't see her toking up. (Tangent: Do all the pot-smoking hippies have nursing home connections now?)
And in other drug-related news, poppy farming is even more popular in Afghanistan now than ever before. I was reading a report about Douglas Murray's new fanatical take on the rise of neoconservatism, and it really puts this all in perspective. Murray believes that neoconservatism is simply the correct life philosophy. He doesn't argue about any of the specifics (lower taxes, hawk stature, etc), but on one point he is crysal clear: pragmatism rules over idealism every time. And really, this explains so much about current US foreign policy, where the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and really, if the farmers of Afghanistan are better off by growing heroin flowers, then why should we get in the way? I can't tell if it's despicable or simply matter-of-fact. Pragmatism and idealism, contrasted ...
Being a conoisseur of horror, I'm enjoying all the quest posts this year. Bitriot is my favorite writer here, and We are trapped in the belly of this horrible machine, and the machine is bleeding to death is right up there with his best. (Also, check out its analogue, The only thing stopping us is the pressure. If your machine can withstand it, we are already on our way. by 256, which is equally oustanding.)
Scientists have named the mystery mammal they found 30 years ago. The mammal (now known as Horolodectes) was mostly known by its teeth, found primarily in Canada, which suggested both the flat choppers of cows and other ungulates, but also the sharp gnawing teeth of Rodentae. It's literally not on the evolutionary map as we know it. Always good to know that there will always be more mysteries for science to wonder at.
For cult film fanatics, Shock Treatment (the Rocky Horror Picture Show sequel) is getting a 25th anniversary release. If you've never seen it, you're not missing much, but if you have more than a passing interest in RHPS, you owe it to yourself to see it, to keep up on the canon. On a related note, may I suggest avoiding Short Bus, the new John Cameron Mitchell vehicle (no pun intended), which is just juvenile. Like its predecessors (Debbie Does Dallas and every John Waters movie ever), it wants to celebrate America's seething sexually repressive underbelly as the 60 seconds before a glorious eruption of liberation, but it's so unapologetic - where's the foreplay?
from the captain-obvious-awaaaaaay dept: Researchers have found that dynamic pricing (like that of eBay) is perceived as unfair when buyers consciously choose to enter bidding wars. It's also unfair when the sellers, not buyers, affect pricing, and when there's no price consistency. Who knew that people constantly trying to lowball auctions on eBay (and getting rebuffed) don't perceive the system as fairly as other people?
from the captain-obvious-awaaaaaay dept:
Researchers have found that dynamic pricing (like that of eBay) is perceived as unfair when buyers consciously choose to enter bidding wars. It's also unfair when the sellers, not buyers, affect pricing, and when there's no price consistency.
Who knew that people constantly trying to lowball auctions on eBay (and getting rebuffed) don't perceive the system as fairly as other people?
Slashdot had a report on UWB, the new wireless USB standard. Totally a solution in search of a problem. The #1 great thing about USB is that you can power the device through it as well. Take out the direct connection, and suddenly you need an adapter and $27 worth of rechargeable batteries just to use your flash drive/ printer / MP3 player. Until they come up with something smaller than your average battery with enough electricity to last you for at least a year (if not 2 or 3), this is pretty much worthless, except for connecting to things which are already run on their own power systems, like PDAs, cell phones, watches, maybe some cool keychains here and there.
Also, how come nobody has created an autoposter for all the hot topics of the Slashdot day and age? They just need one that instantly posts a topic stating that "Copyright infringement is not theft, artists are getting ripped off, what about Creative Commons?" etc every time anything ever comes up about music sharing, downloading, DRM, artists' rights, the RIAA, or Creative Commons. Just sum up all the very basic talking points covered in every topic one time, so we can at least go from there. Maybe we could eventually cull an actual manifesto from it. I'm sick and tired of reading the same "copyright infringement is theft" / "well, I'm a content provider, and it sucks for me" / "sorry, dude, but the RIAA is still a cabal" / "the word you want is cartel" blah blah blah.
I was pretty disappointed by Gizmodo's review of the T3MOTION (http://www.t3motion.com/). The title alone conjures up a wave of the future, and Gizmodo was drooling over all the bells and whistles (zero emission, good speed, better than a Segway) - they even called it "the future of mobility", which had me all excited, too - but it's basically just a green motorbike. Very cool without any context, of course, but where's my Gundam armor, dammit?
Great article on Slate abou the director of the ATF getting canned over abuse of public funds. The focus, though, is on how he used a bunch of ATF resources to let his nephew shoot a high school video project. What's scandalous is how mundane all the impropriety is. The death of society is in its bureaucracy.
And finally, our +3 Cloak of Invisibility is almost upon us, nerdlingers. Let us bask in its glow if we can remember where we set it down.
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