Topic: Ideas and actions for a better world

Thanks to thenarrator I had the largest number of visits to my site ever.  It wasn’t many, but it was a big increase.  For those of you new to my site, and those who have been keeping up w/ me for a while, I want to give a quick update on the project I’m working on.

So…I wrote a book, College Daze, and it’s a book that has constantly changed in terms of meaning.  I am currently working on creating a course proposal to teach at Washington University in St. Louis this spring semester, and I’m trying to zero in on the main ideas from my book that I hope to bring to a class environment.

The course title I’ve come up with is called, “EDUCATOIN, THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS IN OUR CULTURE & CULTURAL CHANGE.”  I think that course title hits on 3 major themes in my book.  And, it’s also a course title that I chose because it mirrors a course being taught at Wash U. this semster called, “DISABILITY, QUALITY OF LIFE & COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITY” which is offered under the “general studies” department.  By basing my course title and course description on a course already approved by the university, I hope to gain legitimacy for my proposed course.

Here is my proposed course description so far:

“The increasing prevalance of students who to some degree are apathetic about their education, presents major problems for American society.  Opportunities to learn and develop personaly are often missed, limiting the number of students who are capable and motivated to bring about positive change in society.  This course will begin by critically analyzing concepts of education, the pursuit of happiness in our culture, and cultural change.  Classes will focus on giving students different experiences outside of the classroom that will cover topics including experiential education, lifestyle, careers, life skills, and activism.  As a group, the class will be required to come up with a group project that will bring about some form of positive change upon the university and St. Louis community.  Upon completion of this course, students will be equipped to analyze educational environments, and will have the skills to recognize and improve on problems within our culture in order to make the pursuit of happiness more accessable.”

The course description is roughly based on the descirption of the same class which I have used to pick a course title.

On Wednesday, I am meeting with Dean McLeod, dean of Arts and Sciences and Assistant Chancellor for students. I’ve been told he’s a very friendly and helping person, and he hopefully has the means to, “make me a professor.”  What I’m trying to do is very unconventional, and in all likelihood, unlikely.  However, I have several reasons to be optimistic. 

1) Students can get 1 credit in the physical educatoin department for playing tennis or racketball.  Students can get 1 credit for playing in pep band.  Surely, I can get at least 1 credit for my course.

2) The freshman English courses are taught by graduate students.  They hold no degree above their undergraduate degree.  I have an undergraduate degree, and I have one from Washington U., where I’m hoping to teach.

3) I have experience teaching the subjects I plan on teaching.  Since graduating, I have been an Outward Bound student on a 45-day outdoor leader course, and have been an Outward Bound instructor in South Africa for 3-months.  I have also written a book (though self-published) on the topic.

4) I’m passionate.  I’m looking to teach because I believe I can help students to get more out of their education in college, and more out of their lives after graduation.  I’m young and energetic. 

5) Students want to take this course.  Last night, I brought it up and had four people in under five minutes tell me they’d take a class if I taught it.

6) I’m cheap.  I’m looking to get paid a salary that would be a good amount for me, but would be willing to accept less than professors who have gone the traditional route.  This would be sort of like a trial basis.  Depending on the feedback of the course, would decide my future status.

Like most of my ideas, this just popped into my head yesturday, but it’s a natural progression of what I’ve been hoping to accomplish since graduating college.  If this excites the Dean, and they’re able to get this moving and through the college machine to the point where it’s listed as a course for the spring semester, I will have surpassed my wildest dreams.  I will have the opportunity to teach the material that I think can have dramatic benefits to students, and positive ripple effects throughout the school and community.  Some people call me a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.

The debate: President John Kerry

I’m not bothering to read the analysis on last night’s debate.  The media is going to show this things as a tie somehow, because they want to keep this race tight to the finish to keep people buying their papers and reading their tv shows.

I watched a unique version of the debate from the campus of Washington U., only a 2min. walk from where Bush and Kerry were actually debating, and from a camera feed that began 30min. before the debate began.  I got to see Charles Gibson, the anchorman of the morning tv show, “Good morning America,” speak to the audience.  For about 10min. he joked w/ them, he told them the highlights of the end of the Red Sox game.  What he did was, he built a relationship with the audience.  They were enjoying him being there.

A small, but large thing happened in the debate, that you might not see any commentary on.  I didn’t take notes, but there was one question that Kerry answered, that angered Bush.  Bush got up to respond, and Charles Gibson politely said, “Pres. Bush, the question is over.”  Bush continued to more forward.  Then, Mr. Gibson more powerfully tried to tell Mr. Bush, “i’m running the debate, you need to sit down.” 

Mr. Bush did not respect the moderator of the debate.  Certainly, everyone in the audience saw it, but more importantly, I think most of America who watched the debate probably picked up on it.  I remember saying out loud, “Oh my god, that’s how he does diplomacy.”  People say the debate was like seeing the emperor w/out any clothes on.  Without having a friendly audience, and without someone to explain what he was saying or doing, Pres. Bush showed his natural personality.  If he wanted to talk, he was going to talk.

I’m not going to talk too much about the policy differences between Bush and Kerry, but last night revealed their personality differences.  And for most Americans, that makes all the difference.  Kerry consistently showed respect, genuine respect to audience members.  I say genuine because it was in his tone (i guess i can’t explain it too much better).  Let me compare it to Bush.  He ended every comment with this awkward smile, and then a wink to someone in the audience.

Kerry made respectful comments to those he disagreed.  When asked about abortion, he said, “I know where you’re asking this question from.  Even I’m a Catholic, but as President, I have to do what’s in the interest of all Americans, not just imposing my own beliefs.”  Bush comes back talking about, “life, we need to preserve life.”  Bush was extreme, Kerry tried to reach out to both sides.  Bush openly attacked, “liberals,” Kerry said, “enough of these labels, because they don’t mean anything.” 

For once, I saw Kerry as someone Presidential.  He not only related to the people, but he didn’t have those obvious word blunders like Pres. Bush, who said, “there’s a lot of rumors about the draft on the Internets.”  I’m afraid there’s only one internet out there.  Bush also said something about “batting green eyeshadow.” 

Being Pres. is about being intelligent and thoughtful as much as about policies.  Last night’s debate finally showed the difference between the intelligence and thoughtfulness of Kerry and Bush.

The best question of the night, was, “Mr. Bush, how would you rate yourself as an environmentalist.”  Any person who is a true environmentalist will say, Bush is the worst person in the world for the environment.  And Bush answered the question the best that he could, and ended by saying, “you might say, i’m a good steward for the environment.”  This was definately the question of the night, because you could see the reaction of the questioner, who wasn’t going to be taken for a bullshit ride.  And you could see how Bush can use some policy and some rhetoric, but can be out of touch w/ reality.  Kerry showed the reality, “The Bush administration has been called by both Democrats and Republicans alike, the worst administration for the environment ever.”  He explained how Bush had flat out walked away from the Kyoto agreement, which Kerry said was flawed, but was certainly worth working on.  “You want to know why the world hates us, because we walk away from them rather than negotiating.”

Time and time again, Kerry showed he knows the reality of the world.  Time and time again, he hit Bush where it hurts.  He actually gave me belief that he could pull off some of his plans.  “How will i pull off my plans, I will roll-back the tax cuts that Bush so strongly fought for, for the top 2% of America, those making over $200,000 a year.  And that should only effect 3 people in this room, myself, the president, and Charles Gibson (the moderator).”  Bush had no defense for rolling back at least some of his tax-cuts.  He also had no defense for not passing Kerry’s test of “not just spending, but spending enough for homeland security.”  Kerry listed the areas where we weren’t doing enough, and Bush never responded.

Kerry through out the reality that Iraq won’t be ready for elections.  He painted the real picture out there, a picture that even Republicans said is, “a disaster.”  Bush could only be optimistic.

Oh…and if you’re still reading, this was my favorite.  When asked about Supreme Court judges, Bush made a sick joke, “I’ll apoint whoever will vote for me.”  In case you forgot, Bush’s presidency over Al Gore was decided by the votes of the Supreme Court.  Here was Bush, telling a joke w/ some amount of truth to it, saying, “The Supreme Court is the only reason why i’m president.”  Bush never gave a direct answer for who he would want on the court, but Kerry was able to answer for him.  “Four years ago, Pres. Bush said he’d appoint more conservative judges like Thomas and Scalia, and you can tell where that’s going to lead you.” 

You see, Bush has pulled the cloth over people’s eyes for four years.  The media has helped.  The fact that he’s held the least number of press conferences in American history has helped.  The fact that most Americans don’t follow the news (a problem that can be fixed through real education reform, as laid out in my book College Daze, which i still need to plug) has allowed people to not understand our President.  He can convince people with his words that he would “appoint judges who interpret the law not with their opinions,” when in reality, he would appoint judges who hold the conservative values he holds.  Kerry answered, “I’d put conservatives and republicans up there.” at least acknowledging some of the reality behind judge nominations.

Last night’s debate was a landslide victory for Kerry.  If you were undecided, you’re not anymore.  This is no longer a debate about Republicans vs. Democrats, it’s a debate about the person who should run the country.  Many Republicans will be voting for Kerry in this election.  Many non-voters in past elections (who are left out in all of the media polls) will be voting for Kerry in this election.  I may be naaive in calling for a Kerry landslide, but from now until election day, I will sleep confidently that unless Bush finds Osama, as we all joke he will, Kerry will be the next President of the United States of America, and in become so, will restore at least some feeling of what a president should be, something I, at 23, have never experienced.

-dan

Topic: Big day at Wash U.

So…I saw some the live taping of Crossfire yesturday, and then I watched Chris Matthews’ Hardball on tv.  One thing I realized from watching Hardball, was just how average Wash U can be.  There was more than a couple of inarticulate, and uneducated comments by Wash U. students.  I’m not saying I would have done any better.  It’s not very often that a major news program does such an exclusive get to know the students segment.  The show spent about 10min. of air time talking to students, and the problems I talk about in my book, College Daze, couldn’t be more evident.  When students were pressed by Chris Matthews to explain their views, most stuttered, and it didn’t appear to be just out of nerves, but more out of a lack of education.  My friend said it was an example of propaganda at work.  “Students can repeat the words they’ve been told, but they don’t understand the words fully.  They don’t understand the ideas.  It’s as if the ideas own them, not the other way around.”

I jokes that our Chancellor, (who has said that Wash U will not seek the 2008 presidential debate, because this event has not proven to be the PR event he had hoped for.  “On the news, they keep referring to this as the debate in St. Louis, and they forget to mention it’s at Washington University.”  Just goes to show how important a name is.) anyways…i joked that our chancellor would be flying in smart kids from Princeton to get on camera and try to convince anyone who watched lastnights program that we really are an intelligent school.

Matthews actually made a point of asking how much tuition is.  The students explained it was anywhere from 30 to $$$40,000!!!  He talked about the draft.  “Should rich kids like you be able to say it’s ok to have a war, and not fight in it?”  I was loving every minute of it, sticking it to Wash U.  I don’t want to say Wash U. is a bad school, anymore than they are free to market how wonderful they are.

Which brings me to a dilemma.  Obviously, no business is going to speak about their weaknesses.  They’re not going to tell students, “there’s a possiblity, based on testimonials from past students, that you won’t have a very good experience at wash U”

I’m going to share w/ you an idea of mine, although I hesitate to share w/ you an idea that i know i won’t get my act together and do, because i lack the resources to take it on.  but, i’d love to do a documentary about Wash U.  Showing the class environment, students bitching about the school, professors expressing disatisfaction w/ the school and the education students are actually getting.  Oh…it would be so sweet.  Nobody wants to do what I want to do, because it’s digging up dirt.  I see it as a chance to expose reality.  In the same way that the recent report on Iraqi weopons has exposed to everyone the reality of Iraq not having the weopons or capacity to build the weopons, which were the primary reasons that the public was told we needed to invade Iraq. 

So…Alexandra Robbins, who co-authored the book the Quarterlife Crisis, has gone on to publish a second book, called Conquering your Quarterlife Crisis. The co-author of the first book, Abby Wilner, graduated from Wash U., but I have not had any responses to my e-mails to her.  I just e-mailed Robbins today. 

This world, as you’ve all heard before, is about who you know.  It’s about being in the right place at the right time.  Robbins’ big break was uncovering George Bush’s grades at Yale.  Now she’s free to practically write about any topic she wants.  She’s in.  That’s where I need to be.  I need to be in.  Because my words and ideas have the potential to do so much.  It actually is an important book.  But, it’s all about getting it to the right contacts, who can help me to “get inside.”  So many books are just nonesens, meaning for purely entertainment value.  Other books, are for a purpose, but, more informative than anything.  My book is truly important.  I’m in the process of getting in touch w/ some of those people who might be able to “get me in,” I’m starting to open up to the idea of dedicating the rest of this year to that task.  I’ve always looked at one-year as a long time, but, to spend my 23rd year of life busting my butt to be heard, so that during my 24th year, I’ll have an audience to speak to, seems like a smart decision to make.

Topic: What if we got passionate about life like we did this election

As I look around campus, people are united in many ways.  People are wearing political shirts, buttons, stickers, carrying signs, occassionally cheering (actually, the cheering is saved for the tv cameras).  The big thing is, “you have to vote.”  And, the bottom line is, either Kerry or Bush is going to win, so “you have to vote,” really means, “There’s one guy we need to win, and we can only win if people vote.”

There is no such unity to change education.  No passion to have everyone educate themselves on the issues.  To discuss corporate corruption.  To discuss ways to save the environment.  Many of these people who are rallied up by politics and the election, are going to go back to normal lives of, “not making a difference” once the elction is over. 

Only continued passion about change will lead to change.  What will emerge after the election, I wonder?

I have an opportunity to make a sign and stand for a few hours to get on tv.  It would be cool, but i’m not sure i have the energy for it.  It obviously wouldn’t be a political sign.  I’d like to market my book, but i doubt that’d work.  Maybe a giant blue peter sign for Outward Bound.  I’m sure a lot of people who randomly see the sign would get a smile out of that, but again, probably not worth my time.

peace, i’m outta here.

-dan

Topic: Questions

My posts always seem to get more responses when I offer questions, so let me propose one here…

If you consumed just a little bit less each day, week, and month, (for example, if you went the whole year w/out buying a bottle of water, and instead re-filled your own water bottle, if you always brought your lunch to work and stopped eating out and eating fast-food, if you didn’t make one or two impulse buys on things that seem cool but you probably won’t use it much, like an extra t-shirt that costs $10+, or name any other of your own examples of consuming) what would be the effect on you, and what could be the possible effects on society, both bad and good?

Here’s my thoughts.  I’m working in the campus bookstore, and people buy things without thinking twice about it.  $50 for a Wash U. sweatshirt.  $10 for a mug.  $2 for a presidential button.  Sure, most of these are momento kinds of things.  But I realize how different life is for those with money.  So much money, that they don’t worry much about how they spend.  I’m not poor.  I’ve lived comfortably my own life.  But, I’ve become aware somewhat that the problems in this world are largely due to the difference between the have’s, and the have-nots.  And, I don’t blame the have’s.  I just realize that those who have, usually are un-aware that there are have-nots in this world. 

Part of my thoughts on education (and i’ll be honest, by the time i’m 40+, i hope to be running some sort of school) are that you need to expose people to things they don’t come across in their normal walks of life.  In my school, everyone would have pleanty of exposure to the have-nots.  And i wouldn’t have to tell the have’s how to live, or what to do.  Most people figure it out themselves.  They realize how lucky they are.  They realize that the poor don’t do well in school, not because of who they are, but largely because they’re poor.  They realize that the poor don’t commit crime because of the people they are, but largely because they don’t have what the have’s have.  They realize that the poor don’t fight in wars to defend our country, necessarily, but they do it because they need to.

I watched Fahrenheit 9/11 once again yesturday, and for those who haven’t seen it, you should.  And the reason you should, is because the movie isn’t all about why Bush shouldn’t be Pres.  The movie is about exposing people to things in life they won’t normally see.  When Moore films a man in Flint, Michigan, he points to the run-down houses, and says, “Mr. Bush, here’s the terrorism, right here.”  They show a scene where the army recruiters skip right by the rich mall, and go to “the other mall.”  We don’t understand the problems of poverty in this country, I don’t understand the problems, but I know that there are problems, and we can do better in our educational systems to expose people to the problems of poverty.

My project, which I lay out in my book, College Daze, is not necessarily to establish the causes of societies problems.  The book is primarily about how we can solve just about every problem in society.  How do we fix the problems of poverty?  Well…i’ve laid out part of it already.  How do we fix the problems of over-consumption?  We make it an issue to talk about in our schools. 

The math, science, english, and history that we study are outdated.  Their original purposes were for some forgotten reasons.  Actually, in colonial times, the reason for schooling on one level was to “civilize” Native Americans, as well as to break the spirits of children so they could be disciplines.

What is school for today?  Nobody is asking that question in a serious manner?  School is the most important issue, because it effects every single person, and it effects them till they’re basically 22 years old.  I’ll tell you what school isn’t for.  Right now, it’s not for helping kids to understand politics.  It’s not for helping kids to develop as people, or anything besides students.  It’s not for helping kids to understand the problems in the world.  My mom just retired as a math teacher.  I love her for what she did.  She worked so I could live, and be who I am today.  But there’s no question in my mind that students don’t need to learn math in the way that we keep telling students, “you need to learn this math.” The same goes for many other subjects.  I’m not asking to do away w/ the traditional curriculum.  But, we cannot have students learning academic subjects at the expense of being guided to understand the world we live in. 

I met w/ a Professor in the German dept. yesturday, an incredible guy.  We spoke for about 90min. (another boost for me to keep fighting the good fight), and his main concern was that students who graduate from Washington University in St. Louis, the #11 ranked school in the country, the school with a $1.5billion endowment, the school that’s hosting the Presidential Debate tom. night, is producing students who don’t read the New York Times, and aren’t able to analyze it.  “That’s frightening” he said.  Yes, there are many faculty who recognize the problems.

OK…time to go watch CNN crossfire in the quad.  Look for me on tv, i’m wearing a “Free Mandela” t-shirt. 

Topic: 13,000 dead

I will post on education and my project soon, however, this statistic has just been lodged into the “holy shit!!!” part of my brain.

‘At least 13,000 Iraqi civilians have died so far. (If the data for the Iraqi dead is incomplete, it is because the U.S. government has consistently refused to tally the civilian death toll.)’ 

from the website: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/20092/

I usually read articles quickly, and numbers fly by.  But, 13,000 civilians.  What started this whole thing was about 3,000 US civilians.  I saw that number 13,000, and I froze staring at it for a few minutes.  3,000 justifies our country going to war. 3,000 justifies our country to be afraid of terrorists.  3,000 justifies much mourning.  But 13,000.  What does that justify.  Now, I question more than ever.  I could be making the error in trusting this news source, but 13,000 innocent Iraqis.  Take away the connotation of what Iraq is, the country of evil, the country of Saddam, the country of terrorists.  That’s 13,000 people just like anyone reading this.  Children.  Parents.  Students.  I’m sitting in this beautiful first class library on campus, w/ superfast internet, and the freedom to do just about anything i want with the rest of my day. 

Bill Maher called this a “luxury war.” And it is.  I feel nothing of those 13,000 lives, and the 1000+ American lives.  George Carlin was on his show, and said “this war, like every war, is a war of rich men of an ownership society trying to protect what they have by sending the young to die.”  We’re starting to see how thin our troops are, and when the question was asked, how would America respond to a draft, the response by Maher was, “then we’d really see that people aren’t interested in this war.”  If i don’t watch tv, and don’t follow the news, the war is not a part of my reality.  For many, even following the war, does not make it part of their reality, because the only Americans who are really feeling this war are primarily the poor who have been sent over to fight this war, so the rich can maintain their lifestyle. 

If they found WMD, I wonder if the criticisms of Bush would be as strong.  If they found links between Saddam and 9/11, I wonder if the criticisms of Bush would be as strong.  If Iraq was actually transformed into a peaceful society by getting rid of Saddam, I wonder how liberals would still have a strong criticism of Iraq.  I sometimes think liberals would still attack Bush even if all these things were true.  But I guess it doesn’t matter, since none of them are.  If we’re to believe the media, this one’s going to be close.  Cross your fingers.

So…i’m fighting for a cause here.  And I’m confident that I can be responsible for things changing, but I’m also aware of the realities i face.  Because of those realities, I must constantly ask myself at what point I pick up a different project, not because I failed, but because I didn’t have the resrouces to succeed.  Right now, I’m lacking allies.  People who are as passionate as me for the need to improve Wash. u. in St. Louis.  However, it is still early in the game.  I have only been here for about 3 weeks.  And, if I extend the progress I have made in this short time, to what I can expect to see if I stay for a while, than I might expect to see things happen.

So, that’s where I am right now.  Frustrated that things aren’t materializing yet, yet more than happy w/ what I have achieved so far, the people I’ve met, the experiences I’ve had.  I am the type of person who is always thinking, what else could I be doing right now.  This afternoon, as I enjoyed a Tuesday Guiness, I thought to myself, “I could be in London or Dublin, where everyone does this everyday, and they don’t need to designate a special day for the occassion.” 

Why put myself in a place where I need to work so hard to find the things I enjoy?  Part of the reason is the challenge, and the fact that I am fighting for a cause.  I oftentimes forget where I came from and how I got here.  I forget the hours I spent dreaming and writing this book, imagining the impact that it could have.

Well…I’ll have to settle for the occassional highlights, and in reality, when I say settle, I really mean, “I’m fortunate to have the types of rewards that I’m getting as a result of my struggles.”  Through chance, as most things go, I sold a book last week to this girl Zoey.  Today, she comes into Blue Hill, and tells me she’s read the whole thing, and absolutely loved it.  That alone was inspiring.  It’s the reaction I’ve always been expecting, but until now, haven’t received.  It’s those one-per-day moments that keep me going.  What will happen tomorrow, I wonder?

 This Tues. I will be holding an event at the bar Blueberry Hill, famous for the Chuck Berry song and for his monthly appearnaces.  The event, called London Day, will be from 4 – ? and is a celebration of doing something fun that you don’t normally do.  For me, fun means getting together with friends and strangers for a drink on a random day of the week during the afternoon.  I’m hoping there’s a decent turn-out, especially of students who have just returned from studying abroad and now probably feel strangled in the system while they were completely alive and engaged by another culture whilst abroad.  

Tonight, met some interesting people at the Wash U Co-op, a group of people living together dedicated to promoting and living healthy community values.  Every sunday they have a pot-luck dinner.  About 25 people showed up, including two professors and a dean who have worked with the student in the Co-op to create a special year-long course for freshman about sustainable living.  The class involves students creating their own syllabus, and the professors involved all created it in an attempt to combat student apathy by getting students to think about real world issues, not just academic ones.

My goal now is to find a professor that I can team up w/ possibly in the spring semester to run a class that in some way deals with the issue of apathy in our society.  While on the surface, the university is not promoting these types of classes, if presented in an appropriate way, it seems they are likely to help you. 

Tom. I’m also being interviewed for the Wash U. student newspaper Student Life, www.studlife.com.  I’m pretty excited, although obviously afraid that what I say, and what gets written, won’t be perfect, but over the past few weeks I’ve been developing further my ideas, and I think i’ll be able to get to the main points, and hopefully take this project to the next level, by both letting 1000+ students know about my book and my presence in campus, as well as to let the university know that student apathy is a huge problem that affects students and society long beyond college, and that we all have a large interest in this process that I hope to start of beginning a dialogue about the educational problems students here face, and to start implementing the ideas that begin to surface. 

For those of you who have never heard of the school I am at, Washington University in St. Louis, you’ll probably here about us by Friday.  John Kerry and George Bush will be here battling it out in debate #2, a town-hall style debate.  I’m crossing my fingers that Kerry drops the gloves, because debate #1 really didn’t impress me.  I don’t want him to win by points, I think he needs to win by knock-out, and he should be capable of doing it.  Unfortunately, what I think doesn’t matter, since everything seems to be about catering to the undecided / unlikely voter.  So…all i hope is that Kerry’s advisors know what they’re doing however it is they advise him to debate.  If saying “we’re gonna kill the terrorists” and ending with “god bless this great country” are the tricks, than so be it.  I’ll give my opinions on policy and philosophy, but the whole campaigning thing is so warped, I don’t really know what to say. 

Another interesting thing.  Saw an interview w/ the writers of the Daily Show.  It was impressive to see the numbers of people watching the Daily Show as a way of getting news.  And oddly enough, they say about 75% hold college degrees, while only about 20% of those who watch Bill O’Reilly, the right-wing extremist on Fox News, hold degrees.  The number of people who watch Fox News and still believe Saddam was connected to 9/11 is also pretty staggering (stats courtesy of the movie Outfoxed).

All of this just goes back to my initial and grand-sweeping argument.  We need innovative education reform in America’s Colleges and Universities, because there’s too many stupid people walking around this country who are the ones responsible for the simple-minded President we find ourselves desperately trying to rally voters against.

-dan

oh yeah, and if you haven’t already, buy the book!!!

Topic: pinch me

I kind of wish someone was writing about my life right now, to give me some outside perspective.  I really need to write a long reflective post, because i’m living through what is proving to be a complete life altering stage of my life.  I’m equally a nobody, just walking around my roommates apartment, eating Life cereal for breakfast, sometimes dinner, watching tv, and at the same time, the guy whose book is now in hands of Chris Matthews, host of CNBC’s Hardball!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Topic: Anonymous…not for long

So, everyday, as I’ve shown, new networks are opening.  This afternoon, I sat in a circle in the quad, the ultimate college location, and help a 45 min. discussion w/ about 7 people who i had just met, about topics related to my book.  The way this came about was somewhat of a fluke, I called a guy that I had been told was a very activist students, and then heard someone shout his name, and realized the person I had been speaking to was 100ft. away from me.  So, I went over and introduced myself, we began chatting, his friends came by, we all started chatting, I sold two books, got invited to a screening of the movie “Outfoxed” on campus tom., a well-known poli sci professor will be speaking at it, and after they’re having a political party at their co-op (i’m going to wear my “free mandela” t-shirt that i made for an 80′s party i went to in south africa).  This little discussion I had was very inspiring.  First of all, it was the first group of people who I have had in depth discussion with, and the first group that I can count on having serious follow-up, and look to for support in further spreading the word.  Also, it showed me that I could be inspiring to others.  One girl said, “thanks for writing all this down.”  Clearly, many people are tired of apathy, but they are trying to fight it underground almost, because people feel safer in their apathetic worlds, and would rather not be bothered or confront issues.  Hopefully, I can help make the movement to combat apathy more mainstream.

After, I went w/ a friend of mine to an education class.  Lettersat3am would have loved it, as the discussion tore apart schooling as creating a “wheel in the head,” where people are controlled by ideas, instead of people controlling ideas.  Essentially, schooling was the governements way of maintaining thought control, and one of the alternatives someone through out there was homeschooling.  I kind of smiled at that thinking of my xanga homeschooling friend.

It was strange being back in a traditional classroom for the first time in about 18 months.  The first thing I noticed, being an outside observer, was the amount of classtime focussed on the “shit.”  25min. discussing the current grade distribution of the classroom, the highlighting of students who need to “see me” because their grades are low, the explanation of what the professor was looking for in papers, the q & a between student and professor about what the professor wanted in papers, students.  From the outset, it was established that grades were a major factor in the class, the grades were an indicator of how students were doing, and that students were expected to stay within the box constructed by the professor.  That one pissed me off the most, but hey, i’m out of the system already.  The prof. was a cool guy though, he did bring cookies into class, and was good at directing class discussion and pushing students to defend their positions, and not use “lazy talk.” At the end of class, I was a bit unsure what students were supposed to take away from the experience, and, since the class wouldn’t meet again till next thur., i felt pretty certain any energy that a student left class with, would probably be lost before the next class.  Also, at one point we were split into groups, and there was one kid who i labeled as “Dan in college.”  He was sitting w/ a blank stare, his mind obviously elsewhere.  And, he’ll probably get his 3-credits and do what he needs to do to pass, but he was so completely uninvoled in the class, that you felt sad that he had to be there because he was stuck on the conveyerbelt of getting a college degree, and probably needed these 3-credits in some way.

Anyway…my friend introduced me at the beginning of class.  I’m starting to feel more comfortable around strangers, my ideas about what my book is about exactly are getting stronger, my evidence for alternative and experiential programs is gaining, and i’m expecting a call this week from the President of “interim” programs, which is a company that helps high school students find meaningful gap year programs, and was founded because of all of the above reasons of why students need to take a break and re-focus before going running straight from high school to college.

Also got an e-mail from my book publisher friend in San Fran., who was impressed w/ my self-publishing a book.  I’m trying to get myself out there in mid-Oct., a 48hr. bus ride, but could possibly be my opportunity to get funded and get exposure in writing a second book, or to do something else with the first one.

Get pumped people, get pumped!!!

-dan