Creating a Paper Trail
I finally got confirmation from the college bookstore today that my books are indeed ordered for the fall term. Despite my requesting notification at the online order site for all four classes (I have four different plannings this fall), I received only two - the Humanities I and World Religions books which we always use. The other two classes – Encountering the Humanities and Latin American Humanities (which is the first time I’ve taught this in 6 years) – produced no notification that the bookstore had received my orders or that the books were available.
Fortunately I had printed out copies of my orders from the online ordering site. Last week I sent the bookstore a copy of those orders with a note asking if they had been ordered or if there were any problems. As of today there was no response (despite my having included my business card complete with phone and email) so I went over to the bookstore to find out for myself.
Part of the problem with the bookstore is that it is run by students. Literally. This is not to say that students are inherently unreliable or incompetent. Indeed, several have been in my classes and I know them to be very good students with a strong work ethic. But I also know that students have other things on their minds besides school, much less their work study jobs. And so folks like me - with my puny little request to simply be informed if the books I’ve ordered are even available, much less ordered – generally fall through the cracks of student employee priorities. (Of course, given what Barnes and Noble textbook division pays these kids, it’s no wonder).
All of this would be simply annoying were it not for a recent decision to make ordering textbooks by the deadline set by the college a component of annual review (translation: salary). The college has bought into the consumerist presumption that having textbooks selected and ordered weeks, even months, before classes begin is necessary since consumers, um, students might want to order texts online. What this means for instructors is that they must stop whatever they are doing mid-term, often in the midst of teaching very different classes, and figure out what texts they are going to use the next term to meet the corporation’s, um, university’s deadline.
This all might be worth it if students actually took advantage of the lead time for textbooks and came to class with texts in hand. The reality is quite the opposite. The last two semesters I’ve asked how many students actually had their textbooks with them the first day. The average is about 10%. Indeed, most students don’t have texts by the end of the first week and increasingly request extended time for initial readings and the quizzes and assignments that flow from them. One young man was six weeks into the fall term and informed me he was “still waiting” on his textbook prompting my sputtering response of “How is it coming? By passenger pigeon?” (As it turned out, he had had to wait until financial aid was available to buy the book).
Thank goodness I had kept a record of my order. It’s my guess that the copy of that order is what prompted the bookstore to actually order the books. And, should there have been any question of me meeting the corporate requirement imposed by the university to order them by deadline, I could prove I had done so, regardless of what the bookstore did with that order.
I guess I should not be surprised by all this. Increasingly I find myself creating a paper trail for all my activities here at the university in order to protect my interests. It reminds me of my days practicing law where a paper trail (i.e., evidence) was a normal part of one’s daily practice.
But the legal system is based upon a presumption of an adversarial system. Frankly, I never thought the cut-throat competition of a no-holds barred adversarial system was a particularly good way to run a legal system, hence one of the primary reasons I no longer practice law. But I am completely convinced that a premise of an adversarial system within a university is counterproductive if not ultimately destructive.
Socrates said that the unexamined life was not worth living. As I watch the imposition of corporate imperatives and adversarial practice on what once was at least in theory an institution devoted to higher learning, I feel my once passionate love for teaching drowning in a sea of frustration. As my gentle partner reminds me, "It'd be one thing if somebody actually cared about it. But they don't." I am reminded of the concluding lyrics of Don McLean’s ode to another prophetic figure in human history, Vincent Van Gogh: “They would not listen, they’re not listening still. Perhaps they never will.”
There are now only 688 work days until retirement.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
We Judge Too Quickly ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The weekly discussion question I posed to my students in my online course was with which of the vows of Benedict’s Rule would they have the most trouble. The results were interesting to say the least. One of the comments, however, spurred this response from their instructor based partly in an article on the Rachel Maddow show last night.
The comment was:
We judge too quickly with material things and do not take the time to get to know people.
Here’s my response:
A good example of this has just occurred. An administrator of the US Department of Agriculture in Georgia who helps farmers get loans spoke to an NAACP banquet about 20 years ago. The speech was videotaped. In it, the black woman administrator said she had had to come to grips with her own racism as a lending agent. Initially she said she didn’t want to give loans to a white farmer who came in acting superior and condescending. She then went on to say how dealing with real live human beings with real problems had changed her.
Since that time, the woman has been promoted to a fairly high ranking position within USDA stationed in Georgia. Fox News and a Tea Party publicist took that first excerpt of the video and splashed it all over the news with the story that a racist black administrator in USDA was refusing white farmers loans. First Fox and then the USDA demanded the woman’s resignation. Under pressure, she resigned.
The problem is the excerpt was taken completely out of context. In the remainder of the video not shown by Fox, the woman spoke to her realization that her attitude was wrong and that she had come to believe that G-d had placed these people in her path to help her grow. She made the loan possible and the white farmer and his wife interviewed by CNN (but not Fox) said that they would certainly have lost their farm and their home without the loan.
These comments were not made by the woman in her capacity as administrator with USDA today but rather 20 years ago in a private agency. They were the preface to a story of redemption, not the admission of an abuse of power by a racist, the caricature that Fox intentionally created with its story.
So why were so many Americans willing to believe this concocted story which amounted to little more than a lie? Why was the woman not contacted before she was vilified by Fox? Why was the farmer not contacted before the story ran and the decision to fire the woman was made? Why are we so quick to believe the worst about others?
Might this be a good case of projection, seeing in the other that darkness we cannot face in ourselves? This story arises in the wake of the NAACP calling the Tea Party out on its racist (and, truth be told, fascist) fringe. Sadly, the NAACP was itself “snookered” (its own description) by the rouse and demanded the woman’s resignation. It was only after they discovered the deception that they apologized. USDA is said to be considering an apology as well and an offer to reemploy the woman. Rather than take the long hard look at ourselves that charges of racism – here directly on target – require, we find scapegoats.
I suppose that deception has always been a part of politics. And I suppose that all parties and candidates are subject to its allure. But I do find the increasing wholesale fiction cranked out by Fox to be untenable for anyone with a conscience developed beyond the level of a rutabaga. And I find it unsettling that so many Americans are more than willing to let themselves be deceived by such destructive deception. This does not bode well for a people and a world in crisis.
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The weekly discussion question I posed to my students in my online course was with which of the vows of Benedict’s Rule would they have the most trouble. The results were interesting to say the least. One of the comments, however, spurred this response from their instructor based partly in an article on the Rachel Maddow show last night.
The comment was:
We judge too quickly with material things and do not take the time to get to know people.
Here’s my response:
A good example of this has just occurred. An administrator of the US Department of Agriculture in Georgia who helps farmers get loans spoke to an NAACP banquet about 20 years ago. The speech was videotaped. In it, the black woman administrator said she had had to come to grips with her own racism as a lending agent. Initially she said she didn’t want to give loans to a white farmer who came in acting superior and condescending. She then went on to say how dealing with real live human beings with real problems had changed her.
Since that time, the woman has been promoted to a fairly high ranking position within USDA stationed in Georgia. Fox News and a Tea Party publicist took that first excerpt of the video and splashed it all over the news with the story that a racist black administrator in USDA was refusing white farmers loans. First Fox and then the USDA demanded the woman’s resignation. Under pressure, she resigned.
The problem is the excerpt was taken completely out of context. In the remainder of the video not shown by Fox, the woman spoke to her realization that her attitude was wrong and that she had come to believe that G-d had placed these people in her path to help her grow. She made the loan possible and the white farmer and his wife interviewed by CNN (but not Fox) said that they would certainly have lost their farm and their home without the loan.
These comments were not made by the woman in her capacity as administrator with USDA today but rather 20 years ago in a private agency. They were the preface to a story of redemption, not the admission of an abuse of power by a racist, the caricature that Fox intentionally created with its story.
So why were so many Americans willing to believe this concocted story which amounted to little more than a lie? Why was the woman not contacted before she was vilified by Fox? Why was the farmer not contacted before the story ran and the decision to fire the woman was made? Why are we so quick to believe the worst about others?
Might this be a good case of projection, seeing in the other that darkness we cannot face in ourselves? This story arises in the wake of the NAACP calling the Tea Party out on its racist (and, truth be told, fascist) fringe. Sadly, the NAACP was itself “snookered” (its own description) by the rouse and demanded the woman’s resignation. It was only after they discovered the deception that they apologized. USDA is said to be considering an apology as well and an offer to reemploy the woman. Rather than take the long hard look at ourselves that charges of racism – here directly on target – require, we find scapegoats.
I suppose that deception has always been a part of politics. And I suppose that all parties and candidates are subject to its allure. But I do find the increasing wholesale fiction cranked out by Fox to be untenable for anyone with a conscience developed beyond the level of a rutabaga. And I find it unsettling that so many Americans are more than willing to let themselves be deceived by such destructive deception. This does not bode well for a people and a world in crisis.
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Friday, July 16, 2010
Gay Friendly?
Reflexiones de Cuba – Reflections of Cuba – I
The young American couple seemed a bit anxious when they sat down next to us in the Jose Marti Airport in Havana. We assumed they were worried about the same thing we were dreading – going back through American customs in Miami after having been to Cuba, albeit legally in our case (presenting a paper at an academic conference). They asked if we were also heading over to Cozumel on the next flight. We weren’t. We were headed home via the Caymans. And then came the rest of the story.
They were a young couple from Dallas on their honeymoon. They had just discovered from their taxi driver as they approached the airport departures drop-off that Cuba requires a $25 per person departure tax payable only in Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUC, essentially = $1 US). No US money is accepted in Cuba, in part in retaliation for tightening of sanctions against Cuba under the Bush administration. The young new bride said she should have known better, having lived in Panama for a couple of years (which also pops people with a surprise tax at the airport but does take American dollars – Panama's official currency – and credit cards). So they were in a bad place – needing to borrow $50 to get out of Cuba.
My sister and I didn’t really have to think long about it. We quickly decided to give them the $50 CUC from our own remaining CUCs that we were trying to get rid of before departing Cuba. The conversion rates for CUCs to dollars is poor – one of the many way’s Castro’s regime rips off American visitors. I found myself saying that “In Cuba, the government runs the businesses and they rip you off. In America, the businesses run the government which allows them to rip you off. Either way you get ripped off.”
We also decided not to tell them who we were for purposes of repayment. It was not big thing we were doing there from a monetary standpoint. It was simply the right thing to do under the circumstances. I could feel Saint Marge, our late mother, smiling on us as we lived into the values she and our father had taught us. As my sister said, “Just pay it forward.” What kind of world might we live in if people did?
As we waited the four hours we had given ourselves to get checked in and through customs in Cuba (I wanted to avoid being bumped from the flight as I was my first time in Cuba having arrived a mere three hours early) we talked with the couple about their lives and careers. Both were athletes and coached children’s sports teams. Both spoke about the sea of mindless conservatism they experience in Texas even though both were quick to add they weren’t liberals. Perhaps they were worried about Texas customs upon return.
But what struck me was a comment the young woman made about having lived overseas for three years and returning to the US and American television again. She commented on how heavy handed the consumer advertising appeared to her. And then she observed that “Suddenly everything was gay friendly. They just suppose that we all know gay people and have gay friends.” Insisting that she had “no feelings about this one way or the other,” a statement belied by her immediate need to look away from my apparently astonished reaction, she continued that television advertisers and programming simply shouldn’t assume that everyone is gay friendly.
I thought about her statement that afternoon as I gulped down the two Bucanero beers on which I had spent the remaining CUCs we had after the departure tax. It was one of the clearest - and most thoughtless - statements of heterosexism I’d ever heard. What is the alternative to gay friendly? Gay hostile? Gay neutral? When in western history has the latter EVER been the case?
I also thought about my own impending marriage to Andy. Unlike this young heterosexual couple in darkest Texas, we cannot simply go down to our local courthouse and apply for a license. We must travel 800 miles to the closest venue which will issue such a license, perform the marriage rite away from family and friends, and then return to a state where legal recognition of that legal status is going to take a class action lawsuit to accomplish. This gay man who with his sister had made possible an exit from Cuba for the straight honeymooners will not be able to travel abroad as a married couple with his spouse. America is hardly a gay friendly culture. And if that appears to be the case in our media, it is more likely a reflection of those who work in the media than the rank and file American, as our Dallas honeymooners readily reflect.
I saw the couple on the other side of customs, ready to catch their plane just before we left. It crossed my mind to tell them that it was a gay man who made their escape possible. I weighed my options and decided against it. Causing whatever small amount of cognitive dissonance such a revelation might spur would probably not change this woman’s mind or make her any more thoughtful. And on a honeymoon already marred by thoughtlessness, I figured they were already dealing with enough stress.
Maybe I’m just trying to be human friendly.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Reflexiones de Cuba – Reflections of Cuba – I
The young American couple seemed a bit anxious when they sat down next to us in the Jose Marti Airport in Havana. We assumed they were worried about the same thing we were dreading – going back through American customs in Miami after having been to Cuba, albeit legally in our case (presenting a paper at an academic conference). They asked if we were also heading over to Cozumel on the next flight. We weren’t. We were headed home via the Caymans. And then came the rest of the story.
They were a young couple from Dallas on their honeymoon. They had just discovered from their taxi driver as they approached the airport departures drop-off that Cuba requires a $25 per person departure tax payable only in Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUC, essentially = $1 US). No US money is accepted in Cuba, in part in retaliation for tightening of sanctions against Cuba under the Bush administration. The young new bride said she should have known better, having lived in Panama for a couple of years (which also pops people with a surprise tax at the airport but does take American dollars – Panama's official currency – and credit cards). So they were in a bad place – needing to borrow $50 to get out of Cuba.
My sister and I didn’t really have to think long about it. We quickly decided to give them the $50 CUC from our own remaining CUCs that we were trying to get rid of before departing Cuba. The conversion rates for CUCs to dollars is poor – one of the many way’s Castro’s regime rips off American visitors. I found myself saying that “In Cuba, the government runs the businesses and they rip you off. In America, the businesses run the government which allows them to rip you off. Either way you get ripped off.”
We also decided not to tell them who we were for purposes of repayment. It was not big thing we were doing there from a monetary standpoint. It was simply the right thing to do under the circumstances. I could feel Saint Marge, our late mother, smiling on us as we lived into the values she and our father had taught us. As my sister said, “Just pay it forward.” What kind of world might we live in if people did?
As we waited the four hours we had given ourselves to get checked in and through customs in Cuba (I wanted to avoid being bumped from the flight as I was my first time in Cuba having arrived a mere three hours early) we talked with the couple about their lives and careers. Both were athletes and coached children’s sports teams. Both spoke about the sea of mindless conservatism they experience in Texas even though both were quick to add they weren’t liberals. Perhaps they were worried about Texas customs upon return.
But what struck me was a comment the young woman made about having lived overseas for three years and returning to the US and American television again. She commented on how heavy handed the consumer advertising appeared to her. And then she observed that “Suddenly everything was gay friendly. They just suppose that we all know gay people and have gay friends.” Insisting that she had “no feelings about this one way or the other,” a statement belied by her immediate need to look away from my apparently astonished reaction, she continued that television advertisers and programming simply shouldn’t assume that everyone is gay friendly.
I thought about her statement that afternoon as I gulped down the two Bucanero beers on which I had spent the remaining CUCs we had after the departure tax. It was one of the clearest - and most thoughtless - statements of heterosexism I’d ever heard. What is the alternative to gay friendly? Gay hostile? Gay neutral? When in western history has the latter EVER been the case?
I also thought about my own impending marriage to Andy. Unlike this young heterosexual couple in darkest Texas, we cannot simply go down to our local courthouse and apply for a license. We must travel 800 miles to the closest venue which will issue such a license, perform the marriage rite away from family and friends, and then return to a state where legal recognition of that legal status is going to take a class action lawsuit to accomplish. This gay man who with his sister had made possible an exit from Cuba for the straight honeymooners will not be able to travel abroad as a married couple with his spouse. America is hardly a gay friendly culture. And if that appears to be the case in our media, it is more likely a reflection of those who work in the media than the rank and file American, as our Dallas honeymooners readily reflect.
I saw the couple on the other side of customs, ready to catch their plane just before we left. It crossed my mind to tell them that it was a gay man who made their escape possible. I weighed my options and decided against it. Causing whatever small amount of cognitive dissonance such a revelation might spur would probably not change this woman’s mind or make her any more thoughtful. And on a honeymoon already marred by thoughtlessness, I figured they were already dealing with enough stress.
Maybe I’m just trying to be human friendly.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A pain in the ass?
Overheard As I walked across campus week five of the first summer session:
The young man walked his bicycle past the construction zone on campus. As he passed, he said to his classmate walking with him, "I dunno, I just haven't gotten up the drive to post anything to discussions yet. I find the stuff interesting and all but..." he trailed off. The young woman, without looking up, replied "It's a pain in the ass."
OK. Here’s a little context: Posting to Discussions means the students are using the Webcourses technology either as an adjunct technology to a real class or as a means of “delivering services” in an online course (the description provided us by web services in our online training). Either way, if the course was a summer long Session C course, the students were now 5 weeks into it. If they were taking the summer half-term Session A, they were in week 5 of 6. Either way, that’s a bit late to be talking about whether one should “[get] up the drive to post” to a Discussions assignment.
Of course, dealing with Webcourses is a pain in the ass, for certain. It’s flakey on a good day, no doubt in part due to the fact that 54,000 students are trying to crowd into the technological infrastructure designed for the 35,000 students we had just a few years ago. Bigger is not always better.
But Webcourses would be a pain in an ideal infrastructure. It is hard to decipher, loaded with the various security features created by paranoid programmers and their corporate overlords, and prone to fail under heavy use. The grade reporting function is essentially impossible to use. And that’s just the student side. The instructor side is essentially user hostile. It’s “Help” function adds insult to injury. It is a necessary evil that stretches the sense of necessary to the breaking point. Of course, it was ultimately free to the university, the legacy of a free WebCT system given UCF to develop which was subsumed by Blackboard in yet another swallowing of corporate smaller fish by corporate sharks. You do get what you pay for.
But a Discussion post is not that difficult. While flakey and unreliable, Webcourses does provide an HTML editor that works about half the time where one can actually format the posts and preview before posting. There’s even a spell check function though the posts evidence that this function is rarely used by students.
The reality is that the pain in the ass is being required to actually think about the topics one has supposedly read and come up with an intelligent response to the material. In my own classes, I provide students with a series of contextual considerations and some pointed questions (e.g., Given the average voter’s general lack of being informed, is democracy really a good idea?) and a format to follow in writing their posts. A handful write some fairly thoughtful posts and spur their classmates to think about the points they raise. The majority write posts that I would be embarrassed to have appear in public with my name on them due to writing and reasoning deficiencies. But in my current summer classes up to a third of the class simply produce no posts at all. Clearly, it’s such a pain in the ass they can’t even spend the 15 minutes a decent post requires.
But to put this into even sharper focus, consider the fact that a student taking an online course is already excused from attending classes. That means for the average summer term student, they have between three to 10 hours of time each week in which they are not required to actively engage the class materials and their classmates that real classes require. That also means they are spared class activities such as watching and reviewing films, participating in discussions and working in groups.
In my summer courses, I require a 10 minute content quiz daily to insure the students read the materials and stay current with the schedule. There are three exams which are closed book in theory (but which students regularly blurt out that they cheat on) and four formal papers which require about an hours worth of reading and another hour of composing and uploading the paper. That’s the context in which Discussion posts are such a pain in the ass – the ordinary requirements of a class minus anything one might be required to do when attending class.
A little more context: For the past year, I have surveyed students using the Webcourses survey function which allows for anonymous responses. I give students up to 20 participation points to simply complete the survey. I created it to provide some context for the otherwise useless Student Perceptions of Instruction which confuses students for consumers. About 85% of all students come into my classes expecting at least an A-. When queried about the time they devoted to the class, about 3/4 say they spent less than the two hours outside class preparing for each hour in class. And about 80% say the two hour prep time is unrealistic or outrageous. So the entering expectation is that students will make at least an A- in the course but not spend even average reasonably expected prep time engaging it.
I also calculate the time needed for all my course requirements each semester. Even with the slowest reading time as part of the calculation, my course requirements have never exceeded the 2 hours prep/1 hour class barrier. Indeed, in summer courses without a classroom component, students are being asked to meet only 2/3 of the requirements of an ordinary class to begin with. So where is the pain?
I guess I wonder why students even bother to take courses they are not willing to engage even at the most minimal level. Of course, that raises a larger question about whether many of them are really ready to be in college in the first place. However, raising such a question is tantamount to heresy if voiced publicly at a factory process state university. G-d forbid that the professional middle class’ children should not get their middle class bona fides by the cheapest, shortest and easiest means possible.
What’s really a pain in the ass is having to listen to privileged kids with an enormous sense of entitlement whine about minimal requirements in a college class. It’s bad enough to work for a pittance in a professional sweat shop and its overloaded classes with ongoing threats of being cut due to insufficient state funding because we have to give wealthy people tax breaks. And it’s bad enough to work like a Trojan and receive little appreciation for one’s hard work in the process. But to have to endure the whining about Discussion posts, particularly in an online course where students already are relieved of any obligation of engaging a real live classroom, is really beyond the pale.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Overheard As I walked across campus week five of the first summer session:
The young man walked his bicycle past the construction zone on campus. As he passed, he said to his classmate walking with him, "I dunno, I just haven't gotten up the drive to post anything to discussions yet. I find the stuff interesting and all but..." he trailed off. The young woman, without looking up, replied "It's a pain in the ass."
OK. Here’s a little context: Posting to Discussions means the students are using the Webcourses technology either as an adjunct technology to a real class or as a means of “delivering services” in an online course (the description provided us by web services in our online training). Either way, if the course was a summer long Session C course, the students were now 5 weeks into it. If they were taking the summer half-term Session A, they were in week 5 of 6. Either way, that’s a bit late to be talking about whether one should “[get] up the drive to post” to a Discussions assignment.
Of course, dealing with Webcourses is a pain in the ass, for certain. It’s flakey on a good day, no doubt in part due to the fact that 54,000 students are trying to crowd into the technological infrastructure designed for the 35,000 students we had just a few years ago. Bigger is not always better.
But Webcourses would be a pain in an ideal infrastructure. It is hard to decipher, loaded with the various security features created by paranoid programmers and their corporate overlords, and prone to fail under heavy use. The grade reporting function is essentially impossible to use. And that’s just the student side. The instructor side is essentially user hostile. It’s “Help” function adds insult to injury. It is a necessary evil that stretches the sense of necessary to the breaking point. Of course, it was ultimately free to the university, the legacy of a free WebCT system given UCF to develop which was subsumed by Blackboard in yet another swallowing of corporate smaller fish by corporate sharks. You do get what you pay for.
But a Discussion post is not that difficult. While flakey and unreliable, Webcourses does provide an HTML editor that works about half the time where one can actually format the posts and preview before posting. There’s even a spell check function though the posts evidence that this function is rarely used by students.
The reality is that the pain in the ass is being required to actually think about the topics one has supposedly read and come up with an intelligent response to the material. In my own classes, I provide students with a series of contextual considerations and some pointed questions (e.g., Given the average voter’s general lack of being informed, is democracy really a good idea?) and a format to follow in writing their posts. A handful write some fairly thoughtful posts and spur their classmates to think about the points they raise. The majority write posts that I would be embarrassed to have appear in public with my name on them due to writing and reasoning deficiencies. But in my current summer classes up to a third of the class simply produce no posts at all. Clearly, it’s such a pain in the ass they can’t even spend the 15 minutes a decent post requires.
But to put this into even sharper focus, consider the fact that a student taking an online course is already excused from attending classes. That means for the average summer term student, they have between three to 10 hours of time each week in which they are not required to actively engage the class materials and their classmates that real classes require. That also means they are spared class activities such as watching and reviewing films, participating in discussions and working in groups.
In my summer courses, I require a 10 minute content quiz daily to insure the students read the materials and stay current with the schedule. There are three exams which are closed book in theory (but which students regularly blurt out that they cheat on) and four formal papers which require about an hours worth of reading and another hour of composing and uploading the paper. That’s the context in which Discussion posts are such a pain in the ass – the ordinary requirements of a class minus anything one might be required to do when attending class.
A little more context: For the past year, I have surveyed students using the Webcourses survey function which allows for anonymous responses. I give students up to 20 participation points to simply complete the survey. I created it to provide some context for the otherwise useless Student Perceptions of Instruction which confuses students for consumers. About 85% of all students come into my classes expecting at least an A-. When queried about the time they devoted to the class, about 3/4 say they spent less than the two hours outside class preparing for each hour in class. And about 80% say the two hour prep time is unrealistic or outrageous. So the entering expectation is that students will make at least an A- in the course but not spend even average reasonably expected prep time engaging it.
I also calculate the time needed for all my course requirements each semester. Even with the slowest reading time as part of the calculation, my course requirements have never exceeded the 2 hours prep/1 hour class barrier. Indeed, in summer courses without a classroom component, students are being asked to meet only 2/3 of the requirements of an ordinary class to begin with. So where is the pain?
I guess I wonder why students even bother to take courses they are not willing to engage even at the most minimal level. Of course, that raises a larger question about whether many of them are really ready to be in college in the first place. However, raising such a question is tantamount to heresy if voiced publicly at a factory process state university. G-d forbid that the professional middle class’ children should not get their middle class bona fides by the cheapest, shortest and easiest means possible.
What’s really a pain in the ass is having to listen to privileged kids with an enormous sense of entitlement whine about minimal requirements in a college class. It’s bad enough to work for a pittance in a professional sweat shop and its overloaded classes with ongoing threats of being cut due to insufficient state funding because we have to give wealthy people tax breaks. And it’s bad enough to work like a Trojan and receive little appreciation for one’s hard work in the process. But to have to endure the whining about Discussion posts, particularly in an online course where students already are relieved of any obligation of engaging a real live classroom, is really beyond the pale.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Logical Possibilities of Education in a Corporate Sports World
From Friday’s USA Today, this little story tucked in the bottom of the last column of the Sports section:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/sec/2010-07-08-alabama-thursday-classes-canceled_N.htm
Alabama students to get day off for rare Thursday game in November
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Alabama’s first weekday football game on campus in 59 years means a day off for students. The Crimson Tide moved its game with Georgia State up two days last week to Thursday, Nov. 18, prompting administrators to cancel classes for the day with thousands of fans descending on campus.
"It is not logistically possible for the campus to continue to operate in a 'business as usual' manner," Provost Judy Bonner told The Tuscaloosa News in an e-mail. "We must operate as if it were a game-day Saturday."
The students will get one day off instead of two for the fall break at the end of October to make up for the lost class time. They might have to miss a little sleep on game night, though. "We expect that students will be on campus and will attend class on Nov. 19," Bonner said. Alabama has not played a weekday game on campus since 1951, when Villanova visited on a Friday night.
Bonner said she and President Robert Witt "strongly support" Moore's decision to switch up dates."We agree that this change is in the best interest of the student athletes and the university," she said.
What is striking in this article is the use of the imperative in the statements by the college administrators: “It is not logically possible…We must operate….” One would get the impression that these folks had no choice in the matter. ESPN execs came storming into the Halls of Kudzu there in Birmingham brandishing AK47s and held guns to the heads of the Provost and President to make them agree to cancelling classes so alums could come get drunk on the campus before a game between last year’s national champions and a team just above local high schools in its capabilities.
What’s even more striking is the rationalization that follows: “We agree that this change is in the best interest of the student athletes and the university." The priority of the players is instructive: Student athletes and only then “the university.” In other words, the jocks, as always, are the primary concern. Everyone else – students, faculty, et al – is little more than a distant consideration.
Of course, this is not surprising. College sports programs have increasingly become the primary considerations on many college campuses addicted to the corporate moneys and television exposure that such games provide (though few make enough for them to break even on the costs of producing those games) and the tribal ego that such “games of the century” provide. Colleges have been recruited to provide yet one more form of mindless entertainment for the masses of consumers who desperately attempt to find identities in the teams they loyally support, many of them at colleges their fans never attended.
My own employer, which felt the need to build a stadium on campus a few years ago to accommodate its own testosterone driven compulsions to pretend it could compete with in-state multimillion dollar programs at UF, FSU and Miami, recently informed the university staff that it would be cancelling classes on a Thursday this season to accommodate a game moved to that day for television purposes. No doubt the president and provost were able to rationalize this as being in “the best interest of student athletes and the university” without much coaxing. This may well be a bone tossed to local alumni who complained that the university restriction of tailgating parties on campus before night games could only begin at noon. Lord knows, eight hours to get drunk in public is hardly sufficient. We have our rights, they claimed.
Of course, the key missing consideration here is merely the purpose of a university – education. College sports arose as an extra-curricular activity. Once the educational concerns had been met, competitive sports were seen as a valuable completion to a well-rounded education. But college sports, particularly football, have long since stopped being extra-curricular adjuncts to a college education. Many jocks emerge from college with barely a dent in the hard (and often empty) heads with which they entered and increasingly many are jumping from the college semi-pro ranks to the pros before graduation. Colleges have become the summer leagues of professional football whose auspicious praying, coporate logo-clad gladiators provide entertainment for America’s couch potatoes throughout the year. Colleges serve corporate imperatives.
So it’s not surprising that college administrators like those at ‘Bama feel the need to rationalize their decisions to preempt an entire day of their fall term for an opportunity to engage in a little ego-driven pounding of a second rate team on national television while providing a safe haven for their alums to get pounded before the game. The problem is, education is still occurring even amidst this self-deception. Students are being taught that education is secondary in importance to money, ego and business imperatives. And the public is being taught that it’s possible to rationalize even the most preposterous lie with a straight face.
But, hey, Roll Tide!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From Friday’s USA Today, this little story tucked in the bottom of the last column of the Sports section:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/sec/2010-07-08-alabama-thursday-classes-canceled_N.htm
Alabama students to get day off for rare Thursday game in November
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Alabama’s first weekday football game on campus in 59 years means a day off for students. The Crimson Tide moved its game with Georgia State up two days last week to Thursday, Nov. 18, prompting administrators to cancel classes for the day with thousands of fans descending on campus.
"It is not logistically possible for the campus to continue to operate in a 'business as usual' manner," Provost Judy Bonner told The Tuscaloosa News in an e-mail. "We must operate as if it were a game-day Saturday."
The students will get one day off instead of two for the fall break at the end of October to make up for the lost class time. They might have to miss a little sleep on game night, though. "We expect that students will be on campus and will attend class on Nov. 19," Bonner said. Alabama has not played a weekday game on campus since 1951, when Villanova visited on a Friday night.
Bonner said she and President Robert Witt "strongly support" Moore's decision to switch up dates."We agree that this change is in the best interest of the student athletes and the university," she said.
What is striking in this article is the use of the imperative in the statements by the college administrators: “It is not logically possible…We must operate….” One would get the impression that these folks had no choice in the matter. ESPN execs came storming into the Halls of Kudzu there in Birmingham brandishing AK47s and held guns to the heads of the Provost and President to make them agree to cancelling classes so alums could come get drunk on the campus before a game between last year’s national champions and a team just above local high schools in its capabilities.
What’s even more striking is the rationalization that follows: “We agree that this change is in the best interest of the student athletes and the university." The priority of the players is instructive: Student athletes and only then “the university.” In other words, the jocks, as always, are the primary concern. Everyone else – students, faculty, et al – is little more than a distant consideration.
Of course, this is not surprising. College sports programs have increasingly become the primary considerations on many college campuses addicted to the corporate moneys and television exposure that such games provide (though few make enough for them to break even on the costs of producing those games) and the tribal ego that such “games of the century” provide. Colleges have been recruited to provide yet one more form of mindless entertainment for the masses of consumers who desperately attempt to find identities in the teams they loyally support, many of them at colleges their fans never attended.
My own employer, which felt the need to build a stadium on campus a few years ago to accommodate its own testosterone driven compulsions to pretend it could compete with in-state multimillion dollar programs at UF, FSU and Miami, recently informed the university staff that it would be cancelling classes on a Thursday this season to accommodate a game moved to that day for television purposes. No doubt the president and provost were able to rationalize this as being in “the best interest of student athletes and the university” without much coaxing. This may well be a bone tossed to local alumni who complained that the university restriction of tailgating parties on campus before night games could only begin at noon. Lord knows, eight hours to get drunk in public is hardly sufficient. We have our rights, they claimed.
Of course, the key missing consideration here is merely the purpose of a university – education. College sports arose as an extra-curricular activity. Once the educational concerns had been met, competitive sports were seen as a valuable completion to a well-rounded education. But college sports, particularly football, have long since stopped being extra-curricular adjuncts to a college education. Many jocks emerge from college with barely a dent in the hard (and often empty) heads with which they entered and increasingly many are jumping from the college semi-pro ranks to the pros before graduation. Colleges have become the summer leagues of professional football whose auspicious praying, coporate logo-clad gladiators provide entertainment for America’s couch potatoes throughout the year. Colleges serve corporate imperatives.
So it’s not surprising that college administrators like those at ‘Bama feel the need to rationalize their decisions to preempt an entire day of their fall term for an opportunity to engage in a little ego-driven pounding of a second rate team on national television while providing a safe haven for their alums to get pounded before the game. The problem is, education is still occurring even amidst this self-deception. Students are being taught that education is secondary in importance to money, ego and business imperatives. And the public is being taught that it’s possible to rationalize even the most preposterous lie with a straight face.
But, hey, Roll Tide!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A Song for Simeon
[Message to friends and family sent Saturday afternoon, 7-10]
Friends,
Please join Andy and me in saying a little prayer of thanks for the life of Simeon, my big black cat. He died this morning after giving us 15 years of life and love.
Simeon adopted me at the Humane Society in Tallahassee quite literally. I had gone there to adopt an orange tabby only to find out she had been taken to be euthanized only minutes before. As I stood there, tears welling in my eyes and wondering what had possessed me to come to Tallahassee in the first place, Simeon reached out of the cage and grabbed me several times, loudly meowing, finally prompting me to ask the young teenaged volunteer to let me see him. When she opened the cage, Simeon leapt out of the cage into my arms and purred so loudly potential adoptive parents in the hallway could hear him over the barking of the dogs there and turned around. The young girl smiled and said, “I think that’s your cat, Mister.” And, indeed he was, though, as with all cats, it was more like I was his human. Dogs have masters but cats have staffs.
At the time I already had one cat I had adopted in California who was still there with Andy who stayed behind an additional year when I began my doctoral program at Florida State. Our California cat’s name was Magnificat, not terribly surprising given that she was given to me by
one of my parishioners in San Jose when I was a seminarian. The Magnificat, or Canticle to Mary, is sung as the first canticle in many Evening Prayer services and the Nunc Dimittis (also called the Song of Simeon) is the canticle sung after the last lesson. I figured naming a cat Nunc Dimittis or one or the other of those two words was a bit cruel. Simeon, on the other hand, was a musical name and fit this affable tuxedo cat who quickly grew to the size of miniature Hindenburg blimp and loved to lie in the pools of morning sun coming through our front windows.
Everyone who knew Simeon remarked upon how beautiful and how amiable a cat he was. He was prone to engage in silent meows in which he’d open his mouth and nothing would come out. And he was a mellow cat, willing to nap with any of the living beings in the house, dogs, other cats and humans.
I figured he’d be the last of my three elderly animals to go. His buddy, Julian the black and tan mini-dachshund, came home the same day as Simeon there in Tallahassee and the two of them were prone to wrestle and play, rolling across the floor in a spinning black ball,
pausing periodically like the Tasmanian Devil to reveal that there were actually two animals involved. Julian is now 15 and Magnificat, the part Abyssinian grey tabby (whose blood line comes out of the cats imported from Egypt into San Jose, CA by the Rosicrucians there
who quickly sprang the joint from the museum complex to mix with neighborhood cats) has never weighed above 7 pounds and is now 16. Simeon was being treated for hyperthyroidism but he was also carrying a secret time bomb, a cancer which had enveloped his lungs and avoided detection until this week when he stopped eating and began to have problems breathing. He went from appearing fairly healthy to dead in less than one week as cats are prone to do.
The last few months Simeon has been fairly insistent upon being close to me, often leaping up onto my desk to lie on the desk top between my monitor and my keyboard. He had done that while I was in grad school and Julian, Simeon and I would often curl up in my papasan chair to study together. We also took naps each afternoon with Simeon under one arm and Julian under the other. Just before I left, I began to wonder if Simeon’s clingy behavior was not indicative of something I was not able or perhaps willing to see. I sensed he might be trying to tell me goodbye though I had no reason to believe he was in any trouble health-wise. I returned from my conference in Cuba, clearing customs about 9 PM last night, to the news he was ailing. Leaving Miami at 7 AM, my sister and I rushed up the Turnpike this morning to see him but he died while I was enroute. Today has been a very long day after a very long week in Cuba. The vet spent some time explaining all the problems he was battling, most of which we were unaware, and returned his body to us in a cloth wrapped box with a heart drawn to indicate where his head is
located.
We’re going to bury Simeon in the corner of the yard very shortly under the bamboo stand next to the bodies of Charlie, our beagle, and Ratzinger, our six-toed orange tabby. No doubt he will be joined shortly by his two centenarian siblings. There is already a large hole in our mixed species family here in New Coverleigh and in our aching hearts. We will miss him greatly.
So please join us in giving thanks for the life of a wonderful big, fat black cat whose presence helped his Daddy endure the monastic life of graduate school in Tallahassee and brought warmth and joy for 15 warm years to a home of two humans, two dogs, three cats and three tanks full of fish in this reconstructed dwelling amidst the jungle we call New Coverleigh.
Nunc dimittis (Song of Simeon)
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace : according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen : thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared : before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles : and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
Book of Common Prayer, 1662, taken from Luke 2:29–32
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
[Message to friends and family sent Saturday afternoon, 7-10]
Friends,
Please join Andy and me in saying a little prayer of thanks for the life of Simeon, my big black cat. He died this morning after giving us 15 years of life and love.
Simeon adopted me at the Humane Society in Tallahassee quite literally. I had gone there to adopt an orange tabby only to find out she had been taken to be euthanized only minutes before. As I stood there, tears welling in my eyes and wondering what had possessed me to come to Tallahassee in the first place, Simeon reached out of the cage and grabbed me several times, loudly meowing, finally prompting me to ask the young teenaged volunteer to let me see him. When she opened the cage, Simeon leapt out of the cage into my arms and purred so loudly potential adoptive parents in the hallway could hear him over the barking of the dogs there and turned around. The young girl smiled and said, “I think that’s your cat, Mister.” And, indeed he was, though, as with all cats, it was more like I was his human. Dogs have masters but cats have staffs.
At the time I already had one cat I had adopted in California who was still there with Andy who stayed behind an additional year when I began my doctoral program at Florida State. Our California cat’s name was Magnificat, not terribly surprising given that she was given to me by
one of my parishioners in San Jose when I was a seminarian. The Magnificat, or Canticle to Mary, is sung as the first canticle in many Evening Prayer services and the Nunc Dimittis (also called the Song of Simeon) is the canticle sung after the last lesson. I figured naming a cat Nunc Dimittis or one or the other of those two words was a bit cruel. Simeon, on the other hand, was a musical name and fit this affable tuxedo cat who quickly grew to the size of miniature Hindenburg blimp and loved to lie in the pools of morning sun coming through our front windows.
Everyone who knew Simeon remarked upon how beautiful and how amiable a cat he was. He was prone to engage in silent meows in which he’d open his mouth and nothing would come out. And he was a mellow cat, willing to nap with any of the living beings in the house, dogs, other cats and humans.
I figured he’d be the last of my three elderly animals to go. His buddy, Julian the black and tan mini-dachshund, came home the same day as Simeon there in Tallahassee and the two of them were prone to wrestle and play, rolling across the floor in a spinning black ball,
pausing periodically like the Tasmanian Devil to reveal that there were actually two animals involved. Julian is now 15 and Magnificat, the part Abyssinian grey tabby (whose blood line comes out of the cats imported from Egypt into San Jose, CA by the Rosicrucians there
who quickly sprang the joint from the museum complex to mix with neighborhood cats) has never weighed above 7 pounds and is now 16. Simeon was being treated for hyperthyroidism but he was also carrying a secret time bomb, a cancer which had enveloped his lungs and avoided detection until this week when he stopped eating and began to have problems breathing. He went from appearing fairly healthy to dead in less than one week as cats are prone to do.
The last few months Simeon has been fairly insistent upon being close to me, often leaping up onto my desk to lie on the desk top between my monitor and my keyboard. He had done that while I was in grad school and Julian, Simeon and I would often curl up in my papasan chair to study together. We also took naps each afternoon with Simeon under one arm and Julian under the other. Just before I left, I began to wonder if Simeon’s clingy behavior was not indicative of something I was not able or perhaps willing to see. I sensed he might be trying to tell me goodbye though I had no reason to believe he was in any trouble health-wise. I returned from my conference in Cuba, clearing customs about 9 PM last night, to the news he was ailing. Leaving Miami at 7 AM, my sister and I rushed up the Turnpike this morning to see him but he died while I was enroute. Today has been a very long day after a very long week in Cuba. The vet spent some time explaining all the problems he was battling, most of which we were unaware, and returned his body to us in a cloth wrapped box with a heart drawn to indicate where his head is
located.
We’re going to bury Simeon in the corner of the yard very shortly under the bamboo stand next to the bodies of Charlie, our beagle, and Ratzinger, our six-toed orange tabby. No doubt he will be joined shortly by his two centenarian siblings. There is already a large hole in our mixed species family here in New Coverleigh and in our aching hearts. We will miss him greatly.
So please join us in giving thanks for the life of a wonderful big, fat black cat whose presence helped his Daddy endure the monastic life of graduate school in Tallahassee and brought warmth and joy for 15 warm years to a home of two humans, two dogs, three cats and three tanks full of fish in this reconstructed dwelling amidst the jungle we call New Coverleigh.
Nunc dimittis (Song of Simeon)
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace : according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen : thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared : before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles : and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
Book of Common Prayer, 1662, taken from Luke 2:29–32
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Things that make you go Hmmmmm……
Occasionally I see an aging,dirty white pickup truck with a camper on the back covered with bumper stickers here at the local Starbucks. Some of the stickers suggest the owner is a Vietnam veteran, a beer lover, A Gator fan and a motorcycle rider. The other stickers suggest this is someone I might not want to spend much time with. To wit:
• “Welcome to America. NOW SPEAK ENGLISH.” – Right. I think it’s reasonable to expect that the moment a person crosses a national boundary they should instantly be proficient in that country’s language. Certainly has been my experience – NOT!
I have struggled for three decades to master Spanish and still have only a limited proficiency. My recent trip to Cuba has reminded me of my limitations in language and as a human being. I understand the desire for Immigrants to assimilate – which generally occurs within one generation of immigration – and the need to speak a common language. But I also recognize that America is one of the few first world nations in the world whose ethnocentrism has prevented its school children from learning other languages (and thus other cultures) leading to a deepening of the natural xenophobia most human beings experience upon encountering those from other cultures.
There is no small irony in the Know-Nothing movement of the mid 19th CE in its self-naming. While they called themselves Know-Nothings because that was the politically correct party line when asked about their anti-immigrant activities – I don’t know nothin’ – the reality is that their suspiciousness and irrational fear of the newly arrived Americans preventing them from knowing much about the other, thereby resulting in an impoverished experience for both parties.
Which is why the bumper sticker next to it is so ironic (no doubt, unconsciously)….
• “Póg Mo Thóin – Kiss My Irish” - Well, not exactly. It’s Gaelic for kissing one’s posterior portion. If one is Irish (as I am to a large degree), then I suppose one’s posterior would be just as Irish as any other part of one’s Erse anatomy.
But the irony is that this non-English exhortation appears immediately next to the one demanding that people speak English only now that they are in the United States. Does that include Vietnam vets with chips on their shoulders? Does it include modern day Know-Nothings?
More importantly, does this really reflect a pure nationalism that Know-Nothings would have demanded? The next bumper sticker made me wonder.
• Confederate Battle Flag – I grew up in a Jim Crow border state nearing the end of its stranglehold on fractured social relations. As a child I was taught the Confederate Battle Flag was the symbol of a fallen South we should respect. Our high school mascot was the Rebels and our school song was Dixie. It all seemed pretty normal until integration when all those presumptions came into question and serious cognitive dissonance set in.
As a history major at the University of Florida, I came to realize that the Confederate Battle Flag stood for a lot more than Southern heritage, the simplistic (and largely disingenuous) argument made by many in the Deep South today. It stood for slavery, it stood for a state’s rights approach to law that often serves only to protect regressive legislation and the vested interests it reflects.
But most of all, it stood for the ultimate opposition to the United States – opposition that came from within its own ranks. Hence the irony of such a symbol pasted right next to a sticker reflecting a xenophobic nationalism. One wonders how the displayer of such sentiments is able to so clearly compartmentalize their thinking.
Hmmmm………
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Occasionally I see an aging,dirty white pickup truck with a camper on the back covered with bumper stickers here at the local Starbucks. Some of the stickers suggest the owner is a Vietnam veteran, a beer lover, A Gator fan and a motorcycle rider. The other stickers suggest this is someone I might not want to spend much time with. To wit:
• “Welcome to America. NOW SPEAK ENGLISH.” – Right. I think it’s reasonable to expect that the moment a person crosses a national boundary they should instantly be proficient in that country’s language. Certainly has been my experience – NOT!
I have struggled for three decades to master Spanish and still have only a limited proficiency. My recent trip to Cuba has reminded me of my limitations in language and as a human being. I understand the desire for Immigrants to assimilate – which generally occurs within one generation of immigration – and the need to speak a common language. But I also recognize that America is one of the few first world nations in the world whose ethnocentrism has prevented its school children from learning other languages (and thus other cultures) leading to a deepening of the natural xenophobia most human beings experience upon encountering those from other cultures.
There is no small irony in the Know-Nothing movement of the mid 19th CE in its self-naming. While they called themselves Know-Nothings because that was the politically correct party line when asked about their anti-immigrant activities – I don’t know nothin’ – the reality is that their suspiciousness and irrational fear of the newly arrived Americans preventing them from knowing much about the other, thereby resulting in an impoverished experience for both parties.
Which is why the bumper sticker next to it is so ironic (no doubt, unconsciously)….
• “Póg Mo Thóin – Kiss My Irish” - Well, not exactly. It’s Gaelic for kissing one’s posterior portion. If one is Irish (as I am to a large degree), then I suppose one’s posterior would be just as Irish as any other part of one’s Erse anatomy.
But the irony is that this non-English exhortation appears immediately next to the one demanding that people speak English only now that they are in the United States. Does that include Vietnam vets with chips on their shoulders? Does it include modern day Know-Nothings?
More importantly, does this really reflect a pure nationalism that Know-Nothings would have demanded? The next bumper sticker made me wonder.
• Confederate Battle Flag – I grew up in a Jim Crow border state nearing the end of its stranglehold on fractured social relations. As a child I was taught the Confederate Battle Flag was the symbol of a fallen South we should respect. Our high school mascot was the Rebels and our school song was Dixie. It all seemed pretty normal until integration when all those presumptions came into question and serious cognitive dissonance set in.
As a history major at the University of Florida, I came to realize that the Confederate Battle Flag stood for a lot more than Southern heritage, the simplistic (and largely disingenuous) argument made by many in the Deep South today. It stood for slavery, it stood for a state’s rights approach to law that often serves only to protect regressive legislation and the vested interests it reflects.
But most of all, it stood for the ultimate opposition to the United States – opposition that came from within its own ranks. Hence the irony of such a symbol pasted right next to a sticker reflecting a xenophobic nationalism. One wonders how the displayer of such sentiments is able to so clearly compartmentalize their thinking.
Hmmmm………
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Of Evangelicals, Presumptions and Being a Jerk Online
I ran across a CNN blogspot called Belief Blog today. It’s an interesting site. I’m not sure how I came across this piece by Jonathan Acuff but his title caught my eye given the research I am doing on the dehumanizing aspects of 21st CE technology. Jonathan was writing about “Why Christians are jerks online.” It’s a fairly thoughtful discussion. But like many young evangelicals, he makes a lot of presumptions about Christianity per se based in his own experience. Here is my response to his blog:
You raise some good points here, Jonathan. A couple of responses:
“We follow a Christ who very plainly told us what to do.” Perhaps. This does assume an evangelical approach to scripture which does not speak for the majority of Christians. Many of us don’t see the Bible as a book of instructions. Perhaps more problematic is the notion that what Jesus said (noting the Christ is any number of interpretations of that figure) is somehow plain and clear on its face.
The parable of the Good Samaritan suggests otherwise. The lawyer (of course!) asks: Who is my neighbor? To whom do I owe the duty of respecting their dignity? Who should I love as myself? The answer was unexpected: the despised outcast. For evangelicals that might mean gay people (not the smarmy love the sinner hate the sin bit but actually loving the human being as oneself, i.e., unconditionally without reserving the right to judge their experience which you probably don’t share). Or it could mean Muslims. Or liberals. Or Mainline Protestants. How plain are Jesus’ words here?
Moreover, the assertion that “grace is the antidote to being a jerk online” seems to miss the point of the Good Samaritan parable. Expecting G-d to save us from ourselves is irresponsible. At the end of the parable, Jesus told the lawyer who posed the question, “Go and do likewise.” Don’t’ wait for a rescuing deity, be responsible to your neighbor. Here. Now. No excuses.
This is not to say grace plays no role. The responses to the promises made in the Episcopal Baptismal Covenant express a healthy relationship between human effort and divine grace: “I will with God’s help.” Our action with G-d’s grace.
Evangelicals are probably no bigger jerks online than anyone else. The detachment of cyberspace has made all of us increasingly uncivil and insensitive to the human being at the other end of the internet. But the presumptions that evangelicals often bring to their interactions with others generally can readily lead to arrogant behaviors. That includes presuming one’s own understanding of Christian believing is somehow normative for everyone else – everyone believes as I do or they ought to.
Jonathan, you spend a bit of time hand wringing over the destination of Bono's eternal soul. So, if folks like Bono are not in heaven, it won’t be much of a heaven, will it? But ultimately, that’s none of our concerns. Fortunately for Bono - and all of us - that decision lies in the hands of a G-d whose wisdom surpasses all human understanding and whose mercy is everlasting.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ `
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law University of Central Florida, Orlando http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I ran across a CNN blogspot called Belief Blog today. It’s an interesting site. I’m not sure how I came across this piece by Jonathan Acuff but his title caught my eye given the research I am doing on the dehumanizing aspects of 21st CE technology. Jonathan was writing about “Why Christians are jerks online.” It’s a fairly thoughtful discussion. But like many young evangelicals, he makes a lot of presumptions about Christianity per se based in his own experience. Here is my response to his blog:
You raise some good points here, Jonathan. A couple of responses:
“We follow a Christ who very plainly told us what to do.” Perhaps. This does assume an evangelical approach to scripture which does not speak for the majority of Christians. Many of us don’t see the Bible as a book of instructions. Perhaps more problematic is the notion that what Jesus said (noting the Christ is any number of interpretations of that figure) is somehow plain and clear on its face.
The parable of the Good Samaritan suggests otherwise. The lawyer (of course!) asks: Who is my neighbor? To whom do I owe the duty of respecting their dignity? Who should I love as myself? The answer was unexpected: the despised outcast. For evangelicals that might mean gay people (not the smarmy love the sinner hate the sin bit but actually loving the human being as oneself, i.e., unconditionally without reserving the right to judge their experience which you probably don’t share). Or it could mean Muslims. Or liberals. Or Mainline Protestants. How plain are Jesus’ words here?
Moreover, the assertion that “grace is the antidote to being a jerk online” seems to miss the point of the Good Samaritan parable. Expecting G-d to save us from ourselves is irresponsible. At the end of the parable, Jesus told the lawyer who posed the question, “Go and do likewise.” Don’t’ wait for a rescuing deity, be responsible to your neighbor. Here. Now. No excuses.
This is not to say grace plays no role. The responses to the promises made in the Episcopal Baptismal Covenant express a healthy relationship between human effort and divine grace: “I will with God’s help.” Our action with G-d’s grace.
Evangelicals are probably no bigger jerks online than anyone else. The detachment of cyberspace has made all of us increasingly uncivil and insensitive to the human being at the other end of the internet. But the presumptions that evangelicals often bring to their interactions with others generally can readily lead to arrogant behaviors. That includes presuming one’s own understanding of Christian believing is somehow normative for everyone else – everyone believes as I do or they ought to.
Jonathan, you spend a bit of time hand wringing over the destination of Bono's eternal soul. So, if folks like Bono are not in heaven, it won’t be much of a heaven, will it? But ultimately, that’s none of our concerns. Fortunately for Bono - and all of us - that decision lies in the hands of a G-d whose wisdom surpasses all human understanding and whose mercy is everlasting.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ `
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law University of Central Florida, Orlando http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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