Hope

Some of the people who read my blog will already have heard me talk about this. Some may not know me well enough to tell what the hell I'm talking about. None the less...there is a powerful message in here I think. I often find translation of my own thought in the words of others. People often say I have no creativity...that everything out of my mouth is a quote. In some ways that's fair but in others it’s only because when I actually hear what I'm thinking from someone else it becomes much more real. Recently I've found my own words in writing with other peoples quotes (I call it my MSc thesis :P), so let’s keep it going...without actually citing my sources of course

So a little background here of where this is coming from....an introduction if you will...

There were great turn-a-rounds that happened in my life in 2008 and a majority of them occurred because of my ability to let go of hope. This may sound counter intuitive at first but just bear with me here. I gained the ability to say to myself at some point along the way...there is no glorious tomorrow in this world I'm living. 

In Derrick Jensen’s book Endgame, I found the answer to how I felt about some of my old realities...I felt despair, but "despair is an appropriate response to a desperate situation. [It is important to realize that] sorrow is just sorrow and pain is just pain and it’s not even so much the pain or sorrow that hurts but it is my resistance to it.” That is to say, if you can stop resisting despair you can stop hurting yourself. It’s OK to be lonely, it is OK to be afraid, and it is OK to be angry. If a person knows this then they can face personal despair and perhaps even overcome it.

I asked a friend of mine (Dave Ihme) to tell me what he thought of me at a time when I resisted sorrow and pain. And he said, "you just seemed disinterested in anything." Truth is, I refused to give up on my ‘dream life’ and chased the hope of something greater than I already had. However, I had become overcome with hope as it is defined in the dictionary as a noun: “A feeling of desire for something, usually with confidence in the possibility of its fulfilment."

That’s all fine and dandy and all but desire and confidence are nothing without action. Interestingly, I found dramatic divergence in the definition of hope within Derrick Jensen’s book where he defines hope as “a longing for a future condition over which you have no agency” or control over.  I personally have recently defined hope in my own words as pessimistic inaction.

We can all hope that we will find our soul mates / life partners,

We can all hope that the people of the world act together to prevent racism/global warming, etc.,

We can all hope for a better life for the next generation of children,

We can all hope that there is a greater power (a God).

Every time we hope for these things, are we being pessimistic rather than being confident? Are we self defeating and giving up desire to act or search for the answers? What if every second we spend hoping for a reality to come true, we waste a second where we didn’t act to make it come true?  What if you could look at your own life and say, I’ve given up on hope, and I’ve turned to faith and personal action? 

The result might look more like this....

I’m going to do whatever it takes to find my soul mate/life-partner and I have faith I will.

I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure those around me act together to prevent racism/global warming etc

I’m going to do whatever it takes to provide a better future for the next generation and I have faith that I can.

I’m going to do whatever it takes to support my faith in God

Feel free to insert whatever it is you desire or hope for...ESPECIALLY if you are confident it’s going to happen.

Challenge your own words when you hear yourself use the word hope...because when you say the word hope you are passing power away from yourself to ‘some other power’ that you have no control over.

With that being said, I’m not a cynic, hope does have a place in the world; prayer does have a place in the world. But too often we leave things to chance and for others to control. We give this standpoint of inactive pessimism much too often...and the result is personal stalemate.  

Have faith in yourself; take the time to act for yourself, to achieve with your own control the things you want.

Stop Hoping! You’ll find new passion in doing whatever it takes!

I wish you all the best in 2009,

Dan

All I ever really needed to learn I learned in grad school

ALL I EVER REALLY NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT MYSELF I LEARNED IN GRAD SCHOOL
I need to keep it simple
I know how to live off the bare essentials of survival
I need to care about what I am doing, because whatever it is, it’s worth finishing
I have the right to free speech and the right to be heard
I don’t need someone to tell me what to do; I have the ability to make my own decisions
I don’t need to be evaluated or told what I’m worth, I already know
I need to be accountable for myself
I need time for myself, to pursue my interests
I need to play an active role in my community
I deserve to be and can be trusted
I know there isn’t always someone watching me,
I have nothing to hide
I don’t have a set place in society; who I am and what I do could change tomorrow if I want it to
I’m just one person in the world, but I know that what I am doing can make a difference
I know what I believe in and I’m passionate about it
I know that if I don’t do it myself, no one else is going to do it for me
I am in control of my future

Everything you need to know to be a self sustained adult is in there

Think of what a better world it would it would be if we kept life simple, were accountable for our own actions, and didn’t always look over our shoulder to see if anyone was watching. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world make sure you are an active part of your community and know that you can make a difference.

The obsolete grading system

How many highly intelligent and creative people fail to complete a formal education because of the tedium? How many students ‘slide through’ the system without having an understanding of the material or developing critical thinking skills?
the problem......tedious lectures, tedious assignments and without question, the grading system. The grading system in high schools doesn't work because the amount of actual learning/development and preparation for adult life is not something that can be evaluated with a number...

best example I can give is looking at the grades on assignments during a unit that progressively builds on concepts

student a)......35%, 58%, 79%, 97%----grade = 67%

student b) same unit 88%, 89%, 93%, 87% -----grade = 89%

who's performance warrants a better grade? Did student B actually learn ANYTHING?

The undefined problem is 'the untold story'. In the end both student A and B had nearly the same understanding of the material when the unit ended....their experiences were different but the goal was accomplished in either case...most likely the student who failed off the start will have learned more about 'learning', problem solving, and would as such be MORE adjusted in a university and work setting then someone who simply drags there ass through the motions and gets it all off the start....

curriculum's are set up such that each course has 'specific tasks' for the teacher to deliver. I certainly have had several experiences as a student where all of these 'specific tasks' need only be understood well enough to achieve a cumulative passing grade on average with all the content....one could get 100 in one section and 1% in another and sufficiently pass the course if only 2 tasks are outlined.....but that means they only understand 1/2 of the course content.......is that sufficient.....because according to the grade system......IT IS!!! This is how I passed Math 111 at the UofR. It always bothered me, and I always wanted to do that class over again, I guess now I know why.

My ideal situation would be one in which the student must prove in any way possible that they can individually perform EACH task as the term progresses....this need not require a grade or an examination......but via student and teacher interaction or some form of independent assignment that was performed by the student to do so....

Core curriculum is shrinking in size as much of the material becomes outdated and other aspects are deemed trivial in nature.....delivery of this curriculum is often done by rote with tedious lecturing.....this is OK for building the framework to a certain extent....but the process of learning is via EXPERIENCE....it then becomes my job to FACILITATE and INSPIRE those EXPERIENCES for the student.....not simply provide assignments and ensure they do their assigned work.....this process cannot be evaluated via grade distribution for performance on regurgitation of material on examinations

If for advanced students the curriculum is met in a shorter period of time then the course entails, then you guide them in applied assignments that meet their specific personal interests and to areas that may aid them in future material (university/workforce) and helps them continue to grow and develop as functional LEARNING and ADAPTIVE members of society......for the not so accomplished student should it be the teachers responsibility to ‘push through’ the student into the next level is the required tasks were not completed in the allotted time…. I would hope not, but it becomes our job to facilitate that this be achieved.

Number grades are removed and it becomes what is called......a learning assessment....is that harder then marking a multiple choice test.....you are DAMN RIGHT it is!! Is EVALUATION AVOIDED.....absolutely not.....it is just evaluated without a number value.....education become goal oriented...a quest of knowledge, not a quest for a number.

does that not sound better on a universal scale then simply listening to a lecture, being assigned something that you may or may not understand, getting a grade, and then moving on whether you understand or not? All in the hope that you reach the end of the year with an average understanding of the topics that equals 50%...
There are other alternatives to removing ‘grades’ of course. There has been substantial evidence that the pass/fail system works very well and also something called criterion referenced assessment (which is a lot like what I’m talking about here but still with a number assigned). There is also, negotiated marks, where the student and the teacher actually discuss what mark they receive at the end of the term.

Either way, the grade system is obsolete. It may not seem so because many are successful because of it, but those that are, are minorities…

A New Thing For Me

So I'm not making this blog to update anyone on my life or to provide my day to day thoughts. This blog will be intended to discuss the deep dark dirty stuff that apparently is not acceptable at 'the dinner table.'

I will attempt to provide a blog entry about once a week on my thoughts in regards to politics, religion, financial / economic concerns, first nations issues, science and scientific discoveries, experiences with health care and issues in regards to health care...and undeniably issues with the education system. Just for the hell of it I might throw something in about sports, travel and photography if it I am so inclined on that day and have nothing else to talk about.

I hope not that people only read my posts but respond to them in a critical manner so that people can talk about the issues. If we talk about them maybe we can all learn something...the best thing about a blog is that you can say whatever you want...I won't judge you on your view...even if I express that I thoroughly disagree with you. :)