flavorful hookah….representin’ Queens

MAJOR: psychology and sociology
Course: Caring about the common good

I recently picked up a book called The End of Poverty, “Economic Possibilities for Our Time.”  A few things struck me about this title.  First, the idea of ending poverty sounds like the noblest of all things.  No more hunger.  No more people dying of thirst.  No more people lacking access to adequate health care.  The end of poverty.

Wow…right?  Seems like some pretty inspiring stuff.  I mean, who would be against ending poverty? 

Then I thought about the second part of the title, “economic possibilities for our time,” and the thought dawned on me how this book is just a small piece of a massive webbed together puzzle.  This book is simply addressing economics, or put another way, the allocation of wealth and resources on the planet.  Imagine the book was to become truth more than just prescription, and we were now living in a world where there was no poverty, a world where we could look back and say, “yup, and that was the end of poverty.”

I think what we’d quickly realize is that we can’t escape from some of our other human ailments.  What we need are books addressing, “The End of Depression: psychological possibilities for our time,” and “The End of Boredom and Loneliness: social possibilities for our time,” and “The End of Bad Writing: communication possibilities for our time,” and even, “The End of Irony: logical possibilities for our time.” 

On a different note, I began thinking recently how as we grow as human beings, we also shed layers.  I was recently updating my resume, and was relieved to learn that having secured some real life working experience, it’s no longer necessary to include my GPA on my resume.  In a few years, my resume will begin to drop off some of my less meaningful work experiences, while expanding on the more current and important ones. 

I feel like I’m finally stepping out of the skin of being a college student, and into this new skin as a working man.  The realization that I am now working to create money for my retirement, and in order to receive health insurance, and to save up so I can find affordable housing, are now ingrained in me.  With age, comes new feelings of confidence as I look back, as well as new fears looking forward.  To think, the world of raising a family is still on the distant horizon.

I sometimes look at the obituaries to see the accomplishments of those who have recently passed away.  One thing that struck me, was how the pictures used of someone who died at 78, might be a picture of them when they were much younger, for example, when they were 43.  It’s funny to me to think that a picture of someone at 43 can represent someone as a child compared to their real age.  Which makes me think we’re always children.  It’s impossible to be old, when in just a few years you will see how youthful you just were.

Right now, you’re the oldest you’ve ever been.
Right now, you’re also the youngest you’ll ever be again.

So waddya think about that?

To Do:

TO DO:

Major: Statistics 101, Sociology 101
Course: Trends in society

Assignment: Give an example in everyday life of how people misunderstand statistics, or, give an example of how your understanding of statistics helps you in some way. 

Many people invest money in a college education, because statistics say that college graduates make more on average than non-college graduates.  So, it would seem to make sense that by going to college, you assure yourself a high paying job upon graduation.  The question is, does possessing a college degree cause people to make more money than people without a college degree?

The answer, to my understanding, is that it does not.  The reason is that salary is dependent on the job taken, and there is a huge range of jobs and a huge range of salaries, such that a person with or without a college degree can find themselves doing jobs above or below what they ever thought they’d be doing, both in terms of the work itself and the salary.  Someone who has earned a masters in education can make up to 6-figures as a gym teacher in suburban Long Island, or up to $60,000 or $70,000 teaching English or Social Studies in NYC.  A lawyer can make 6-figures doing corporate law, or $35,000 doing criminal defense law.  Someone with an MBA can make 7-figures in investment banking, or $40,000 trying to start a business.  A high school drop-out can make $20,000 working in McDonald’s, $50,000 driving a subway car, or $80,000 moving up the corporate ladder at Starbucks, from the register, to store manager, to district manager, to regional manager.  A hair dresser might make $7/hr, a truck driver over $20/hr. 

So, the type of job one has is more important in determining how much money a person will make than whether or not they have earned a college degree. 

Still, people might say, “statistics show that someone with a college degree is more likely to make more money than someone without a college degree.”  Statistically, this would be true (i think).  But, it would not be true to conclude that possessing the degree is the cause of this statistic, rather, we could only conclude that there is a high correlation between those who earn a college degree and those who earn a high salary.  There could be many causes that we would have to look at, and ultimately speculate about.  For example, it could be the case that the type of people who pursue college degrees, are the types of people who are driven to make a lot of money.  Therefore, people who go on to work in high paying jobs tend to also have college degrees.  This perhaps speaks more to these people’s drives to accomplish things, than to the fact that acquiring the degree was actually necessary for their higher earnings.

In fact, if the aim of someone going to college was to make a lot of money, it could be argued that going to college is actually detrimental to this.  Unless you’re entering a field that absolutely requires a degree (law, medicine, teaching, psychology), the amount of money spent on a college education, compared to the potential savings from work and independent learning, could be a huge swing.

For example, compare a person who worked for 3 years after college, and spent 1 year travelling and doing independent learning.  By age 22, they have saved up some money, have some money invested, and have a decent feel for the real world of work.  They have real job skills, and may have already positioned themselves to move up from entry-level to higher paying jobs.  Compare this to many of today’s recent college graduates, who are in debt, and are unlikely to find a job, or even a field that they like until their mid to late 20′s.  The burden of college debt means many students are unable to begin putting away money for their retirement, to eventually buy a home, to start a business, or to start a family.  The lack of real world skills may mean that college grads are not given meaningful work, or are unable to put their education to use.

Like all discussions, this one is not complete.  I am not making an argument for people to not go to college, nor am I arguing that going to college is a financial mistake.  I am trying to provoke discussion, to stimulate critical thought. 

Final question: What are the jobs of the new economy, and exactly what are the skills that are needed???  We hear a lot that US jobs are being shipped overseas where labor is cheaper, and that we need a higher skilled workforce, especially in science (as Bush would say, for learning about things like intelligent design) and in math (remember a squared + b squared = c squared?) to make up for this gap.  Obviously, these aren’t the job skills we’re talking about, or the subjects to be learned…so what are they? 

Topic: Why I write

So…I took a day off from work on Friday to visit Fieldston, a nice little progressive school in the Bronx.  Met a guy named Joe, who teaches at University Heights, a public school in the Bronx, who brought some students along from his writing class there.  He’s a poet, and has changed the lives of a few students by getting them involved with poetry slams, where they perform their free-flowing writing on stage.

Three students from University Heights, 4 students from Fieldston, the Fieldston Dean of Students, my friend and fellow school critic Roger, a woman named Amy who runs a not-for-profit that goes into schools and runs writing programs, and myself, sat together and were asked by Joe to write for 7 minutes about this, “Why we write?”

I won’t go too much into what people wrote, except to share that after writing, everyone in the room, students, teachers, and myself, all shared and “gave feed” on each others writings.  It was a wonderful opportunity to see the barriers of student-teacher eliminated, and to see how this unique opportunity to write without any censorship, had quite literally saved some of these urban students from gravitating towards a life of crime and violence, instead of words.

I have also recently received quite a bit of feedback about the intro to my book.  My confidence in my ideas and writing has been raised by sharing both with people close to me who I was previously hesitant to share with.  There were certainly criticisms, some harsh, but even those have taught me valuable lessons, including how to remove emotional attachment from such criticisms, as well as to see where my views need adjusting, or clarity.

Ultimately, as I’m working on tightening my arguments about education, I’m recognizing that it’s important to be able to show how my arguments are beneficial for everyone.  In my writing I’ve made many efforts to cover all my bases, and although at times it takes me a while to dig them up, I believe I have covered most.  One part of my argument is to allow the positive aspects of school to remain, but to improve on those that are counterproductive to the goals of school.  For example, some have expressed concern that eliminating grades will also eliminate the benefits of knowing how to survive in the real world where people must compete in order to gain and keep jobs.  I can find common ground with those people, because I do believe people should have a drive to secure necessary opportunities in life such as work, but when it comes to grades, this is not the only way to motivate students.  Students have an innate drive to succeed, and when placed in a job environment will quickly learn how to swim or sink.  Grading shifts that motivation of surviving at work, to an artificial end of surviving in school, since grades in school are considerably less important than how one is evaluated at a job.  Those who support grades because they believe the pursuit of grades will ultimatley help students survive in the real world, should support something even more likely to help students, such as calling for less academic schooling, and more time interning on a real job site.  I received 2 classes worth of credit for a summer internship, but some schools like Antioch are 100% real-work based.  Maybe that’s a model to work towards?

 Another argument I’ve heard is that doing things in school that you don’t like such as sitting through classes you don’t like, doing the grunt work of studying and writing papers, and feeling the pressure to meet those obligations even if you don’t care about them, is all preparation for the real world.  When it comes to your job, you may be asked to spend your days filing, sitting in on boring meetings, working long and eratic hours, and working on assignments that you’re not all that interested in.  So, since that’s how the real world works, if you try to make school all about what students want, then you’re setting them up to fail in the working world.

There’s a couple of points to address on this argument.  The primary purpose of school is not to prepare students for the harsh realities of the workplace.  This is not to say that students should not be exposed to these realities.  To get off-track onto another idea for a moment, part of the problem with schooling is how schooling is “framed.”  What do I mean by this?  By framing I mean how the experience is put-forward to students.  For example, if on day 1 of college, students were told, “We expect that you won’t like some of your classes, and many of your assignments you may not want to do, and you don’t want to be graded, but, we will be requiring you to experience all of these things because we believe this will assist you in the working world,” I would be more likely to accept the notion of schooling.  The reason is, is that the mission of school and the focus of students would be in-line.

This is not the case.  Students don’t pay to go to college so they can prepare themselves for the stresses of the working world.  Students who want to acquire those experiences find them in jobs and internships. Most people I know worked various jobs during college, including myself.  So we got a taste of the attitude it takes to both secure and not get fired from a job.  Students pay to go to college in order to obtain what they believe will be the essential knowledge and skills to help them in the working world (although, ultimately, most students pay in order to put down “college graduate” on their resume)

So, I think I’ve addressed some of the concern of those who don’t like the idea of getting rid of grades, or allowing students more control over their own education.  Let me return now to the question, “what is schooing for,” or a different question, “what is the message students should take away from school?”

Clearly, there are mixed messages that students receive about schooling.  I need to work to develop my own clear message, although I hope that the various messages I write about come through to people.  But, on the whole, I would say that the general message that students walk away from school is, “School is boring.”  That’s fairly universal.  This is not to say that the ages up to 21 are boring years, but this is to say that formal education, is generally boring. 

Why is this so important?  It’s important not only because it turns students off to future learning, but it’s also important for the very reason some people say it is important, in that it prepares peopld to accept a boring life.  For those who don’t know, one of the reasons that students sit in rows and often do nothing but listen during school, is because in the early 1900′s, this model of schooling took off in order to develop a large number of people to be well-behaved factory workers.  To give students more control over learning, would be to allow them to truly develop their creative minds, which would benefit those individuals, but would be harmful to large corporations who need obedient and thoughtless workers.  If students began questioning those in control of distributing diplomas, they may begin to question those in control of distributing wealth or sending people off to war.  It’s not a stretch to see how the origins of our form of schooling were in the interests of corporations, not students (there was a great op-ed in today’s Times about the blatant power of faculty at Harvard over the interests of their $41,000/yr. paying students, which just further highlights how in almost every situation, schools fail to serve the interests of those they claim to serve). 

I don’t think it’s that deliberate anymore that corporations influence education to the detriment of students, although there is pleanty out there to read about this.  I say that because most jobs do require workers who can not just react like robots, but who can think and be creative.  Just look at how Google has taken off by hiring creative computer geeks, and how our automated factory and accounting jobs are getting shifted to cheap labor markets like India and China.  This issue of allowing students more freedom to control their own education and develop their creative and critical minds, is now in the best interest of all parties.

So, in conclusion, school should serve the needs of students by helping them to develop their intellectual and personal interests.  Schools should assist students in critically examining their own lives, their society, as well as critically examining the various assumptions they have about both.  Schools should empower students, so that they feel they matter, and that they have a voice.  Schools should also help prepare student for the real world, by educating them about their physical health, mental health, and financial health.  Avoiding teaching these things because of bureaucratic reason or controversy simply means we’re allowing the status quo of obesity, depression, and poor financial decision making to continue.  We do need activist schools who are working to advocate for the well-being of their students’ futures.  Schools should give credit for work and internships, because it is in those experiences that students will best be prepared for work after college, and because there is as much learning in those experiences as a classroom experience.  Schools should not grade their students, to ensure that students are instead focussed solely on learning and developing a love for intellectual success, rather than superficial grade and diploma success. 

To do some of these things, schools should all students to work with teachers to design classes.  Students should be free to take any classes they want.  Ultimately, this may “water down” the value of a degree, but the value of a degree is already so vague, that any efforts to strengthen or tighten the ability to obtain a degree, only serve to work against the interests of students.  For example, there’s currently talks of issuing national standardized exit exams for students to graduate college.  The motivation for this is to ensure that students are learning, but measuring learning can almost never be obtained through a test, and once again, making testing an issue only undermines what it is that schools should be trying to do, which is to foster critical thought and the whole laundry list of things I just mentioned.

MAJOR: Education
COURSE: Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Due to the fact that I work 40 hours a week, I haven’t had the pre-requisite free time that I’d like to sit for a consistant period of time and just read, and talk to people.  If I did, I’d be able to more clearly articulate the problems of education and how they prevent the develoment of a sweet-ass world, chock-full-of fun and creativity and community. 

Critical pedagogy…check it out on wikipedia

This phrase is the one that’s been just out of reach of my fingers for too long.  Critical pedagogy.  It goes hand-in-hand with critical thinking, which goes hand-in-hand with critically analyzing everything we take for granted, especially those human creations that work against what we as human beings want, and pay lip-service to.

The beauty of “critical pedagogy,” which basically means a way of teaching in which the students are actually critically analyzing their own reality, is that it ultimately leads to the realization that the opposite of critical pedagogy is un-critical pedagogy, and that’s the norm.  Either you’re in school to understand how your reality is built, and what your reality is, or you’re not.  And it’s beautiful because the very people who criticize education and society for being full of uncritical thinkers, are generally the supporters of uncritical pedagogy that maintains the status quo.

Critical thinking tends to lead to pessimistic and somber realizations, and I don’t believe all education should be this way, since despite any bad situations we should always seek to find joy and celebration in life (as Benjamin Frnaklin once said…beer is proof that god exists and wants us to be happy!).  But…there is no longer any doubt in my mind that there is an absolute shortage of critical teaching in education, particularly at my alma mater Washington University, and as a result, we have a critical shortage of critical thinking and thus critical action by young people. 

I doubt there’s too many alumni like myself who still read the school’s student paper, but to me that paper serves as a clear indication that something is seriouslly off balance.  Rather than seeing articles and opinion pieces critically disecting the school system or our larger culture, the large majority of the paper are just cliche student antecdotes about beer, sex, and chicken tenders. 

The beauty of aging, is that it gives a person an opportunity to see the reality of things that came before.  As a kid, college seemed to be a place full of intellectuals, but now looking back, each passing year as I become more of the college student I never was, I see just how ignorant and naiive college students are.  And this is no criticism of “young people,” as I ultimately still associate myself with college aged kids, as much as every age that I’ve been through.  Nor is this genearlize every student as being the general type of student who was either unknowing or unable to think critically about things like the school, community, and political world around us.  But, to me, the benefits of aging are that I have the credibility of having experienced a larger and larger number of developmental stages in life, from teenager, to college student, to twenty-something…and there’s many more to come.  But sadly, in society it requires age to gain respect, and I’m finally sensing that while I have not “aged” in the sense of shedding the skin of my younger self, I naturally receive more credibility because I am older.  I can not only talk about the irrelevancy of college to life after college based on external observation, I am now living proof of this gap.  And with that credibility, I hope to dispense of the notion that “age matters,” because the views that I will spend the rest of my hopefully long life expressing, are essentially the same views that I had at age 12, when I first got sent to the principle for being acting out in class, or as I now see such behavior, the beginnings of becoming a “critical thinker.” 

…..lastly, if you have not received an e-mail from me with the intro to my book “College Daze,” but would be interested, please e-mail me at dan_lilienthal@yahoo.com and i’ll send you the intro.  It seems the most progress I will be getting are from those still in their first few years of college or the end of high school, as my writing will probably benefit those people the most, and I can hopefully steal some of that youthful energy and natural desire to critically analyze how we live, to help spread this little project around.  thanks all.

-dan

MAJOR: Wriring 101, Sociology 101, Education 101
COURSE: Use a blog to write about something having to do w/ sociology and eudcation

So…I’m going to stick with this format of blogging for a while, because of its all encompassing flexibility, and because it allows me to focus on both the interests in my own little personal world, as well as relating it to something more tangible, such as college courses and thinking intelligently.

Anyways…I’m taking my first vacation days in ages.  Sure, it’s on a Sunday, but it’s the first time in a while that I’m spending an entire day in my pajamas, watching tv, writing, reading, reflecting, and eating.  It’s a vacation from having to deal with anything beyond my personal interests and needs for relaxation and time alone.

So…I’ve listened to a handful of Sunday news programs, been searching out and commenting on some interesting xanga sites, been thinking about how to combine my desire to be an education activist with the need to make enough money to have the freedom to be an activist.  My job today is to pamper to my needs, and it’s amazing.

Yesturday I went hiking up on Bear Mountain in Ct., the tallest “mountain,” in the state, under 3,000 feet.  It was a good hike though, had some fun scrambling up icy rock and inhaling lunch at the summit while getting blown over by freezing winds.  The best part was the company, 2 new strangers turned friends.  Part of my effort to create a strong community involving those involved with or interested in the outdoor organization of Outward Bound and NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) here in NYC.

This Friday, I have been invited to visit a well-regarded private school in the Bronx known as Fieldston.  A friend of mine, a former public school teacher and a big fan of my book, College Daze, has asked me to join in on a converstion that is beginning between parents, students, and the faculty, about the direction of the school.  Fieldston is considered a progressive school, but like many organizations, they are working to bridge mission and reality.

The school was featured on the front page of the New York Times on Friday for a controversy surrounding a proposed assembly about the Israel-Palestine conflict.  Although I’m not an expert on either the conflict or this particular controversy, I do consider myself to be an expert on education and what became clear from this particular controversy is that schools cannot provide a truly nurturing education so long as there are people who are interested in regulating content. 

It turns out some parents who were upset with the political views that were going to be presented in the assembly have had the effect of keeping certain ideas out of the school.  But, and this is the key here, the culture of this debate about schooling is more important than the content.  These kids all have access to unlimited books and information that they want.  In time, they will either learn about the conflict and pick a view, or simply be ignorant of it all together.  In the grand scheme, schools represent a tiny fraction of the knowledge people have. 

The problem, however, is the message.  The message is in our society we have a slow communication process.  The fact that knowledge and ideas are locked up in individuals, who then have to be contracted to speak, who then have to deal with school boards fighting over whether they can speak, attests to this.  The dialogue of ideas is slowed down by such bureaucracy, and the culture of controversy. 

To all my new readers, welcome….and as always…

“What do you think?”

-dan 

Major: Psychology 101
Course: Break the grain

There are no rules in life, besides the cultural rules that bind you.

Life can be full of any combination of jsut some of the following activities:

surfing, eating, writing, driving, building, voting, parenting, inventing, typing, complaining, creating, shooting, helping, cooking, talking…

your destiny can be altered if you break the grain, if you take on different cultures of thought and action. 

you can be a desk clerk or a CEO.  You can be a great CEO, or run your company into the ground.  You can go from business to politics, or into education.  You can teach, or study and research.  You can study medicine and become a doctor, or develop new medicines.  You can help sick animals, or treat sick Africans.  You can run a tour group in a foreign country, or run the PTA in your own community.  You can speak to people, or write letters.  Publish a blog, or a book.  Sell 150 books, or over a million.  Become famous, or become a forgotten star.  Spend your wealth on nice things, or live modestly.  Use your free time to grow personally and professionally, or to socialize with friends and family.  Read a book or watch TV.  Watch American Idol or watch The Daily Show. 

Choices…all choices.

You can accept your place in life, or work to change it.  Believe in yourself, or focus on your faults.  Commit suicide, or go for help.  Take medication, or change your thinking.  Learn about the mind, or rely on blind faith.  Believe in god, or not.  Go camping in the cold this weekend, or not.  Sleep through class, or not.  Go to the gym, or not.  Run away, or not.  Make that phone call, or not.  Establish goals, or not. 

i will be e-mailing my essays soon, sorry for the delay to all of you who have given me your e-mails.  Big things may come of this, or not…guerilla marketing, getting my hands dirty, pushing onwards, as they say…the future’s so bright, i gotta wear shades!  

hangin’ loose

-dan

Major: Fun w/ filing

I just spent the last 2 hours doing nothing but pure and simple data entry, entering about 580 individual invoices from a hotel bill we got from a conference of 200-300 attendees, and, despite the feeling of “i know i can do so much more w/ my life,” i suddenly realized, “who the fuck cares what i do w/ my life…enough w/ the god-damn pressure already,” and, after going back through the numbers several times to find every last penny, it added up.  Nice job office manager Dan…pat on the back for ya!

MAJOR: Psychology of attraction
COURSE: Hormones and hair

I know there’s research out there, but for now I can only write based on personal observation, and see what others think.  When asked what men find physically attractive in women, most will respond their eyes, lips, smile, breasts, perhaps the ol’ rump.  While few will say, “beautiful hair,” there is definately a preference people have for hair.  In fact, hair and breasts might be the top two features that men instinctively eye-in-on.  If looking at a woman from behind, many men will feel attracted or unattracted to a a girl based solely on their hair.  “Look at that blond, she’s hot” vs. “Is that chick even a chick?”   

I know girls have their preferences amongst guys as well, and many girls can also pick out an “attractive girl,” based on certain physical features.  So, everyone can feel free to chime in on this.

Image is so many things to so many people. 

http://www.in.aiesec.org/

If you get a chance, click on the link above.  It’s for my company’s office in India.  If you click on “About Us” and then “identity,” you’ll find these images:

Most of you don’t know a thing about my company, but those images, especially the top one of the interlocking hands, probably convey an image in your mind that makes you think or feel a certain way.  Without knowing anything about the product or service, you’ve already formed a judgement.

When selling something, whether it be yourself to an employer, your product to a customer, your case to a jury…image is so many things.  In order to get the things you want in life, you need to be aware of your image.  When people see how you look, hear how you speak, and take in through various senses how you think, what reaction are people receiving?

Recently, thinking about image, I’ve been thinking about the importance of clarity.  For example, in writing, a clear message is one that best passes an image or idea from my mind into the mind of my readers.  If the message is unclear or cloudy, readers might get a different message from what I had hoped for.

Along with clarity of image, comes the ability to eliminate clutter.  Clutter in writing, clutter in speech, clutter in image.  A clean room, a clean resume, clean dress.  Presentability…More to come, when my mind is a bit less cluttered.