December 27, 2005

• Topic: 10cent wings, 99.5FM, learning, creative writing

  
  

  There’s a bar in my hometown called Croxley’s (there’s one in NYC too), that has 10cent wings on Mon. night and about 50 beers on tap.  My new beer of choice, Old Speckled Hen, a smooth English brew.

  
  

  I’ve discovered a great radio station, 99.5FM.  On the way home from wings last night, they had 15min. of uninterrupted Martin Luther King speeches about the Vietnam War.  This morning, they had my favorite news program on, DemocracyNow at 9am, I’d only seen it previously on the internet, so I grew slightly excited by that discovery.  Plus they play cool funky music.

  
  

  Starting to read essays from orgs. like the Brookings Institute (liberal) and Cato (libertarian), since these organizations tend to influence politicians a great deal, and they’re not written in the traditional CNN, Fox News style, so you can actually read and learn some things instead of being bombarded by crap.

  
  

  As I was dozing off a bit on the train ride home, I began to imagine a conversation between an educational scholar and Pres. Bush.  This conversation would be televised around the world.  The topic would be schools, and what we can do to improve them for all, for the poor, for minorities, and for the middle-class and above.  The education expert would begin talking about how the national mandate for standardized testing is actually harmful to students because it reduces their motivation to learn.  He’d go on to talk about how gov’t can hold schools accountable by having students use portfolios and exhibitions to actually demonstrate learning in a way considerably beyond what a test or essay can show.  Pres. Bush would probably respond, “your studies haven’t proved anything,” or “we need to stay the course,” or “grades are improving, so things are working,” or “you’re being too soft on education.”  The education expert would respond, “there are no studies that show that testing in any way reveals learning, and the best studies available along w/ our own common sense tell us and show us that kids are not learning any better because of grades,” and “the course we’re on is not leading us to where we need to go.  The course we’re on is causing schools to cut back on discussions, and the arts, and writing, to make more time for a curriculum that is almost 100% test prep,” and “the fact that grades are improving proves nothing.  In fact, we know that while some states have shown improved grades, the results of national tests have shown the opposite.  So we either conclude that the tests don’t tell us much, or we conclude that grades are not in fact increasing,” and “being soft on education would be keeping our eyes closed to what’s actually occuring in schools.”  President Bush (or any number of education policy creators) would then probably make a face, smirk, and laugh off all the comments.  He’d then go on to discuss things unrelated to education, “There’s a war going on, don’t you think I know what I’m doing?  I’m bringing freedom to the world, and I’m trying to bring freedom to students.” and he’d continue, “I appreciate your criticism.  Criticism is American, and I appreciate it.  People are entitled to their own opinions, even if their opinions are wrong,” and he’d conclude, “That was a fun conversation…you wanna go hunting?”

  
  

  Maybe the education expert would push further…”I believe in freedom too.  Which is why we need to give students more freedom in school.  We need to free them from a one-size-fits all curriculum,” and continue “I appreciate that you support criticism, but with that you need to actually listen to and respond to the criticisms.  You’re not doing that.  In fact, the ability to have a truly open dialogue without shutting off someone because of their criticism is a skill that is not taught in schools, and that’s why we struggle so much to communciate with and understand one another,” and would conlude by saying, “sure…let’s go hunting,” figuring, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

  
  

  I literally dream for this type of nationally televised conversation.  An unedited, unscripted, discussion between some of our most influential policy-makers, and your avg. citizen with eyes towards improving our society.  There’s obviously people that are addressing this right now somewhere, and while it’s frustrating to know that I may not see major developments in my lifetime, I am reassured to know that in a subjective way, things do improve over time.  Yes…despite the ugly history of the world, despite the scars and continued beatings of man-against-man today, we are moving forward.  In 150 years blacks went from slaves, to oppressed and discriminated, to equal beings in the eyes of the law, to today, where they hold seats in Washington D.C., they host tv shows on Comedy Central, and run the sidelines of the premier sports teams in the country.  The very fact that global issues such as addressing African poverty, are discussed by over 150 nations, is testament to the fact that we’ve progressed.  Imagine if all the monkeys in the world were trying to make headway to ensure that monkeys everywhere had access to bananas and the right to toss their shit whenver they felt (i’d imagine that would be the equivalent monkey utopia).  As a species, human beings have evolved from not knowing what on earth is going on, to working towards building the conditions whereby every human being might be able to live life into their 50s, 60s, 70s, and above, because they have adquate resources to do so.  Sure, there’s some bad apples in government, and sure, there’s some bad apples running businesses and roaming the streets, and sure, the threat of some of these bad apples to blow up part of the world, or simply to make life harsh for others, is as present now as it’s ever been, but we should not forget the work of those who have come before us such that we may be able to concern ourselves with such things, and those who continue to work on improving the conditions of this game of life that we’re all players in.

  
  

  currently eating: PB&J on rye

  • 12:52 pm
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