Hail fellow travelers! Ol' Professor Crackpot Caractacus has been off tending to family and friends for the past few days, and is glad to be back to share a few thoughts with the assembled faculty and student body. BPI is the place to be, and during my time in Houston, it has been much missed, but more on that after the fold.
Until then, the decade is winding down faster than ever. One of the expectations of educators at the end of the naught(ie)s is to be reflective. So, for the "What We Learned This Decade" special edition of Morning Feature's Tuesday special feature series TWLTW, a little reflection may be in order. Let's grab our mirrors, and share with each other what we have learned this decade.
Things We Learned This Week
- Christmas morning in Houston, Texas. My father-in-law gives my mother-in-law copies of Sarah Palin's & Mike Huckabee's books as his "featured" gifts to her (unwrapped, but in a shiny gift bag). Thumbing through Huckabee's, I learn that in his childhood, he (and his siblings) would find their gifts early, unwrap and play with them, and then rewrap and replace them, acting surprised Christmas morning. Until one year when he unwrapped a muddy football on Christmas morning. Reminds me why I found Huckabee likeable: funny, self-effacing, great story-teller (Colbert appearances showed a guy not afraid to laugh at himself, the opposite of what Palin's SNL appearance ended up being). Also reminds me why I'd never consider voting for Huckabee: simplistic, one-dimensional, LCD.
- Haven't found either the courage or the interest to thumb through Palin's book yet. Haven't really been able to, anyway, as it has been on the in-law's nightstand since its unveiling, while Huckabee has been sitting on the kitchen table.
- Later Christmas morning. The fam treks off to Christmas Day Mass. Lil' C. is as wound up as a tight yo-yo from the fact that Santa Claus actually brought her not only a blue airplane (her only request of Santa at 34th St.'s Macy's the week before) but a new baby doll as well. She does well for the hour away from the toys however. The funny comes as we exit and she goes to the potty. In the hallway, with a dozen other Catholics I have never met, we suddenly hear a very full-throated children's voice coming from inside the lady's room, singing, "Dreidle, dreidle, dreidle, I made it out of clay..." A couple of smiles, a couple of double-takes, and me just radiating warmth and love like the sun itself. Big hug when she comes through the door.
- 3 minutes later, maybe 4. A Catholic tradition (there are a few) of shaking the priest's hand on the way out the door is observed. Back home, Lil' C. gives hugs, every time. This time, she offers her hand and gives a hearty, "Happy Kwanzaa!" as she walks by. We are all still laughing days later. That my daughter put together a few of the traditions of the season that we have told her about, and expressed them that morning instead of just being quiet, or conforming to what she knew was expected by the situation has rung in my ears. It could be completely random and meaningless, all that, but I prefer to think that what we are teaching her about diversity and respect for multiple points of view may just stand a chance after all.
- Julie & Julia, Gran Torino, District 9, & It Might Get Loud. It's been two good days of movies. The one I was most psyched to see was not as loud as I wanted it to be. The Edge looked kind of unsure of himself as he played with J. Page and Jack White, and looked lost without his guitar tech. Never been a Zeppelin fan, so much, but Jimmy Page just burned through the screen like a natural musical genius (as did J. White, really). If Mozart had been born in the mid-1940's, his initials may well have been JP.
- Reading Jerome Kagan's book on emotions, discovered some real information about what emotions are and what scientists consider to be evidence of their existence. A lot of very interesting stuff here, to be explored in more detail next Tuesday, I suspect.
Things We Learned This Decade
Green Tech Dominates The Future
I won't pretend that this decade didn't begin with the most devastating terror attack on American soil and isn't ending with another nearly successful one. Nearly 10 years ago I was in a classroom with almost 60 students watching a building collapse on television, trying to think of answers to questions for which there were no answers. "Why did they do this?" "What do we do now?" "Did all those people really just die?" That last one was both the toughest and easiest to answer that day. Now, it's just tough. I was very proud of my students, and still am, for having asked these questions when other people were already looking for who to kill in retaliation.
What I have learned from this? We are in a different kind of world than my grandfather was when he fought for Patton in WWII. There is a theoryof political hegemony that argues every 100 years (more or less), a new hegemon emerges to dominate the global political-economic system. Venice, Denmark, Portugal, Great Britian (twice), and the United States are the recognized leaders of the last 500 years. Each had a primary rival, Portugal/Spain for example, or US/USSR. After 50 years or-so of dominance, the rival emerges to challenge, and the hegemon is either so weakened that a new leader takes over, or in the case of GB, repeats due to technological innovation (industrial revolution helped a little).
Thomas Friedman and Al Gore, among others, have spent part of this decade arguing that green tech and independence from fossil fuels it promises, is the technology of the next hegemon. That international terrorism seems very linked to oil economics, means it may also play a role in defeating a very active, but untraditional rival. That being green has not been packaged more successfully as a national security issue in this debate is, I think, one of the great missteps of the decade. If we allow others (China, primarily) to overtake us in alternative energy technology our shortsightedness and self-indulgence may prove to be our undoing. I feel other countries have been getting their energy infrastructures into fighting shape while we are Monty Python's "one thin wafer" man when it comes to fossil fuels.
Paul Krugman Quote
Not to be too negative in this section, but I did notice this nugget in yesterday's NYT:
It was a decade in which nothing good happened, and none of the optimistic things we were supposed to believe turned out to be true. P. Krugman
Politically, this statement is central to what I have learned this decade. It is not that I agree with the statement, I don't. I do appreciate a well-crafted provocation, though, and that the thought behind this one gives me a chance to dive into some assumptions and the related idea of expectations.
Expectations (Assumptions)
Expectations are really just a special kind of assumption. I expect the sun will rise this morning. I expect the advanced degree I am working towards will open doors for me to help more students than I could reach as a classroom teacher. I expect the government to step in and help citizens of a city that gets rocked by a hurricane, or to protect my child from poisonous toys and tupperware, or to regulate financial markets so they don't wreck our economy. I expected Catholic priests (and Michael Jackson) to not betray the trust put in them in their dealings with children, and if they betray that trust, to be brought to justice rather than shuffled along to the next way-station. I expect that celebrity is not the same thing as integrity. I expect health care. For everyone.
I've learned that in politics, unquestioned expectations can be especially dangerous. For example, it was assumed that GWB didn't stand a chance in a debate against the far more experienced and intelligent Al Gore. Gore smirked and gritted his teeth, and lost the debate. Those who supported GWB then expected to get smaller government (how did that work out for you, Republicans?), smaller taxes, stronger defense (we know how that worked out, Republicans), and better jobs/bigger incomes. When none of these things happened, rather than question their assumptions, GWB was recast as a failed non-conservative.
GWB himself (I believe) genuinely expected to find WMD in Iraq. When we didn't, he made a fool of himself and ridiculed our military by pretending to look for them in the Oval office, under his desk. And people let him get away with it.
Hillary Clinton supporters expected the presidential nomination to be hers. She had earned it. She had survived Monica-Gate. She became a successful Senator. She had the backing of the full Democratic leadership and money-changers. When her campaign flailed and then failed because it had believed these expectations itself, a lot of those who shared their assumptions cried and pouted and threatened to deny any Democrat their support because their expectations of a clear and easy Hillary win had been violated.
New Orleans residents from certain neighborhoods expected the govt. to not come and help them, before, during, and after Katrina. They were right. Some also assumed the levees had been opened on purpose, to flood them out so rich White people could claim their land. They were wrong. But I understand why they assumed it.
Recently, some of us assumed Barack Obama would walk into the Oval Office and sign executive orders and push through federal legislation to create public health care options, end sexual apartheid in this country, and create government policies favoring the creation and growth of green energy industries. Again, reality intrudes. (My assumptions, personally, changed immediately upon learning that Rahm Emmanuel would be the WHCOS. What could have been accomplished with Howard Dean in that pivotal role, and Robert Reich as head of the Fed! I can dream.)
Questioning Assumptions
So, while Krugman calls this decade the Big 0, while I think we may have lost more opportunities than we have capitalized on, it is far from nothing. I have learned to question my assumptions. I have learned to reevaluate my expectations on a day to day, and monthly, and yearly basis. I have not completely figured out how to do the hard work of adapting to new realities, or even figured out what to do when I discover my expectations are no longer aligned with my reality. But, I get closer. I get better at it, the more I try. Blind allegiance to a person, an idea, or an expectation has led to trouble and disappointment this past decade, and I have learned to resist the teabag mentality as a result.
While I believe in Barack Obama as an infinitely better choice than his Republican opponent(s), I no longer live in the fantasyland that my responsibility to act ended with his inauguration.
What was truly impressive about the decade past, however, was our unwillingness, as a nation, to learn from our mistakes.
And, I've learned how utterly committed I am to making absolutely sure that when Krugman writes his decade summary for the 2010's, that he can in no-way-whatsoever simply copy and paste that last sentence. And that neither can anyone else.
It wouldn't be good form for me to say I expect to be successful, given all I've just written. But, I do hope enough people share the goal to make it more likely than not.
What Have You Learned This Decade?