We're all told to be 'polite' about our students on the report cards. This means, usually, that we can't call a spade a spade when it comes to the students who are disrespectful little pricks all the time. We have to pussyfoot around everything; "uncontrollable" becomes "energetic," "constantly interrupts" becomes "enthusiastic," "disrespectful" becomes "independent," "loud-mouthed little asshole" becomes "high-spirited." And no mark can be bad. It's literally impossible to get an F in anything, for any student. The lowest grade I can give is "improvement needed." And even then I'm told by my boss not to use it, and to give "average" as the lowest score for any student in a category. How can "average" be the lowest?!? We're literally teaching our children that the only kind of success is being better than other people. It's this ridiculous...
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Why is it that high-level politicians always resign (or get pushed hard to resign) after cheating on their spouses? What's so special about politics? Imagine if every person in the world had to quit their job if they cheated on their spouse. Public service isn't really related to marriage fidelity. In fact politicians tout exactly the opposite! It is after all a founding principal of both Canada's Charter and the US Constitution that people have a right to personal privacy. And yet it doesn't seem to apply to the people in charge of executing these documents in the public name. I think politicians have just as much of a right to hate their marriages as everybody else does. "It's about trust." That's the jist of the argument against. If the SC Governor's wife (to use a topical example) can't even trust the dude, then neither can the electorate, right? What baloney. He wasn't elected to be a marriage counselor, or even a good husband...
I remember when I first saw The Lion King. I loved that movie, and still do. But I remember when Mufasa explans the circle of life to Simba in response to his question about the apparent unfairness between the predators and the prey. Mufasa, in short, explains that while the lions eat the wildebeast, the lions eventually die and fertilize the ground that the wildebeast eat to live. (Logically, on a molecular level we're all cannibals). In spite of James Earl Jones' deep and calming voice, and the clever harmony of it all, I still thought that was a pretty bum deal for the wildebeast. They have to die by tooth and claw, while the lions, presumably, die in a less terrifying way. It makes me wonder whether it's right to teach kids that the natural world is basically a fair place, because on the one hand you want to retain their innocence, and on the other you don't want to lie and set them up for too big a disappointment. Should I teach my future kids that Santa is r...
Drawing a blank. I'm procrastinating from writing lesson plans for the school's upcoming english summer camp. I'm in charge of "nature" day morning lessons (there are 10 themed days, and afternoons are devoted to games/activities), and I have to develop lessons for high-level english students, middle, and low-level. The low level kids (mostly younger) will learn about growth and life cycles. Middle level kids will learn about the above, plus kinds of climate (specifically Korea's). High level kids (mostly older, and very smart) will learn the above, plus a lesson on how ecosystems are balanced on evolutionary and climatic principles --- and the human effect on this balance. Why am I writing this here? This is the dumbest procrastination ever.
If there was one piece of advice I could give to men all over the world for how to get a woman really into them, it would be this: wash the dishes. If you're at her house and you've finished dinner together, just stand over the sink and do it yourself; tell her to relax for 10 minutes. It works like magic.
For the first time in my life I can confidently say I am beginning to have a worldview. That is to say, arguments I make on many different fronts and subjects are beginning to mesh together to form a cohesive kind of web of thought. My views about ethics, metaphysics, culture, and aesthetics are, I think, at the early stages of harmonizing with each other in my mind. Integral to this was the realization that university is not the highest place to be, intellectually. Nowhere is! Universities have cultures and subcultures and biases and strong financial influences just as every other organized institution does. I am so grateful to philosophy for teaching me methods of thinking, rather than teaching facts, or teaching me what to believe about the world. There were never any right answers when it came time to write an essay, only arguments more and less cohesive and compelling. This was to the incredible frustration of many first year phil. students, so used to the high-school style rig...
It's been pissing rain all day. I'm impressed with my clothes. I've bought no new clothes (other than hiking gear and undergarments) in 10 months, and they've been good to me the whole way. My washing machine mangles and ties them up pretty well every time, and they've been soaked by the acidic rain accidentally while hanging out to dry a bunch of times, and they've even been frozen solid on a few occasions in the winter. The truth is, my 215lb body and 36" pant size qualify me as morbidly, horrifyingly obese in South Korea, such that all major department stores (and smaller stores) don't carry any clothing that fits me. Let me repeat: a "34 pant waist is the largest size a human being can buy in SK without taking one of two other possible options. The first is the internet, and the second is going to Itaewon, the sleazy, hooker-laden westerner district full of loud-mouthed American soldiers and overpriced knockoff western pubs. There one can...
Please (don't) Eat Tasty Animals
I really loathe PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) these days. I loved Peter Singer's book "Animal Liberation," which, when it was published in the 70's, gave a philosophical groundwork for the entire animal rights movement. The ethics of animal welfare and utilitarianism are compelling and quite a lot more relatable than most people know. I think there is a very powerful case to be made on utilitarian grounds that animals ought to deserve sincere, detached, rational moral consideration and treatment, particularly the most developed and intelligent mammals. PETA is screwing all of this up, by, for example, saying that Obama should not have swatted a fly during a news interview. http://hamptonroads.com.nyud.net/2009/06/peta-wishes-obama-hadnt-swatted-fly People who simply like their steak are now given the impression that the only folks out there who really care about animal rights are a bunch of nutcases. PETA is simply not a representative of the c...
Ok let me get this straight. Everyone in the world is having a big snit about Iran's allegedly sham presidential election, but the real leader of the country, whose very title includes the word "Supreme," isn't elected at all! Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is out there, telling everyone what to do and personally deciding whether to validate the election results. Until that guy's office is up for election, I'd say this whole news story is a bit of a joke.
The crazy lady was at it again last night. She lives a few houses down... she's about 60 years old but it's hard to tell because she dyes her hair. She's about 4'11 and maybe 85 pounds, and she goes around the alley and adjacent alleys picking screaming matches with what appear to be random strangers. But, after 10 months of watching and hearing her, patterns have emerged. There are two ladies next door to me she screams at, as well as a tailor shop keeper and a chinese food delivery owner at the end of the alley. I have no idea what her beef is. I asked my girlfriend for a translation one time, but she said it was almost as much jibberish to her as it sounds to me. It's these tiny little apartments crammed with entire families, grandparents included. The claustrophobia and total lack of personal space or personal anything for that matter must drive everybody nuts. Not even the most loving and forgiving family could stand the living situation my neighbours have. ...
So there are two kinds of kids when it comes to doing crafts or building projects: there are the kids who want to make the creation better; to improve and perfect it to the best of their ability. Then there are the kids who want to vandalize it, or try to undermine the effort in some way. E.g. I once had kids making bridges from wood blocks. There was one boy who made an amazing bridge, with a lot of effort and detailed work (for a grade 4 anyway). There was one other boy who spent the whole time poking the bridge and threatening to tip it over. You could see it in their eyes. All one boy wanted to do was make it right, and all the other wanted was to watch it crumble.
So why is fire not a living thing? It breathes oxygen, reproduces, grows, dies, and consumes fuel. A few of the best/funniest student answers: "Fire doesn't carry a replication code; i.e. DNA." "Fire doesn't have skin." (I think the student meant a 'protective covering', which pretty much every living thing on Earth has in some way). "Fire doesn't require water, and all living things require water." "Fire is not a living thing because humans can't eat fire." "Fire is not a living thing because it can't live with other fires." And the correct answer, which nobody sumbitted in spite of them all asking their parents and homeroom teachers, is: Fire is not a thing. The trick is that when one hears the question, one goes into all the ways in which fire may or may not be living. But whether it is a "thing," properly speaking, goes without consideration. Fire is simply a process of oxida...
Odd day today. The whole school (at least among the teachers) is a bit somber because the mother of a grade 2 student died in an accident a few days ago. She was dropping her kid off in the morning. He saw his friend across the street waving to him and just he ran without looking for traffic first. The mother jumped out of her vehicle and pushed her son out of the way just in time to save him from an oncoming car. It hit her instead. What a tragedy. That poor child. But it's also, in my mind, an example of the best in humanity. Look both ways, people. ------- On the lighter side, I taught a science lesson on the difference between living and non-living things to the grade 2 students out of the english immersion text. The text (meant for grade 2) defines living things as things which grow, reproduce, and die. Their homework is to write a single english sentence explaining why fire is non-living. This problem goes back to ancient Greece, and it's an interesting case o...
The key, I think, to reaching a long-term goal is having a specific event at the end, the success of which depends on your reaching the goal. Forgive me for sounding like a diet book, but it's hard to lose weight when there's no particular specific reason to do so. We come up with general reasons, like looking better, getting laid more, pleasing the spouse, fitting into smaller clothes, and so forth, but those ends can easily be ignored or (more importantly) postponed. So set a real end at a specific time that will either be done or be cancelled. My end is another big hike at the beginning of august, through Jirisan National Park. It'll be like my Seoraksan trip (you can look back to older posts in February for the photos), but longer by about 15k and one more day. And the peak is 100m taller to boot! So that's my goal. When I go at the beginning of August, the less I weigh and the hardier I am, the more fun a trip it will be. My longer-term goals are to hike the West C...
It went well. About 100 people showed up, maybe half students and half parents/co-workers. I got a bunch of flowers from various kids at the end, more than I could comfortably hold... kindof made me feel like one of those figure skaters, sans the flower-getting assistants. I made mistakes here and there, but there were no significant lapses, and people seemed to really like the whole set. The kids got a little bored, but that was expected because the music was very mature in nature. Anyway, tomorrow I'm opening up a brand new lot of material for my next show! It'll probably be in a few months :-)
I'm playing a piano concert here in about 2 hours. I invited my students and coworkers thinking maybe 20 people would show up, and now it's looking more like 100, or more. I've been practicing after school every day for the last few months, sending muffled sound waves through the mostly-empty halls, and word got out that this Jared guy is pretty good. Anyway, I've got the jitters. I've never had my own concert. I've never played for more than 25 minutes in front of anybody. All my coworkers and some of the homeroom teachers are attending, as well as (probably) the school admins. This is not to mention a swath of students. The programme: 1. Chopin: Fantasie Impromptu 2. Chopin: Ballade No. 1 Op. 23 3. Beethoven: Sonata Op. 57, " Appassionata" - Allegro assai - Andante con moto - attacca - Allegro ma non troppo - Presto I've elected to play the 45-minute set without any sheet music... and I think it's about ready. There are mistake...
Ok seriously, the Air France jet didn't "disappear" or "vanish." Just today, finally, CNN reads "Air France jet probably crashed." Well no f**king shit, CNN. It went out of contact over the middle of the ocean, and then didn't land anywhere. This isn't Lost. A sane, normal headline would read "Jet goes down over the Atlantic; exact crash location unknown." But that's a lot less interesting. The networks are just taking advantage of the fact that we can't prove to an empirical certainty that it crashed, to get ratings. But what are the possible alternatives? The pilots turned off their electric functions, secretly landed on a desered island (with a jumbo-jet runway no less), and began a new blissful life? Did the jet turn on the afterburners and fly clear into space? Did it have a submarine function? Was it a transformer? I don't mean to make fun of a tragedy, but the coverage really is a joke. Jordan is sitting here, an...