What is the truth? It's near the end of the semester and once again I see students who leave the lab with a lie rather than a grade. As the final deadlines near, students who: slept in class, surfed the net, shortcut or skipped the tutorials, and rushed into multiple attempts guessing mastery test questions, begin to see the consequences of their choices looming. They then begin to exhibit elaborate rationalizing behavior.
Girls who have 100% attendance begin to talk about child care conflicts, sick babies, or suddenly uncooperative parent or grandparent babysitters. These comments increase in frequency as it becomes more obvious they cannot pass the class. Coming down to the wire they are absent, perhaps even missing a final exam worth the points needed to pass.
People who have insisted on absolute independence throughout the semester, suddenly cannot do anything without a teacher at their elbow, approving their every choice, suggesting possible answers--a mental/emotional equivalent of guiding their hand as they write. This behavior is most often followed by comments or gestures suggesting they are not being helped if the teacher is not at their side immediately or does not have a ready list of suggested answers for each question.
Possibly the worst behavior, at least most disturbing to the learning environment, is the student who begins to push his behavior boundaries, possibly even pushing the "teacher's buttons" to create conflict in class. Students are very adept at detecting what behavior they can exhibit that will draw the teacher towards his own worse behavior.
Without conscious intent, these students build reasons, rationalizations, to which they ascribe their academic failure. I'm not sure whether they truly believe these constructs themselves, or whether they perceive the lie while they avoid it.
I still believe the real apocalyptic battleground of this age is within our individual hearts. If it is so easy, if it is perhaps an innate ability, to construct rationalizations to avert responsibility of and consequences for our own behavior, then the battlefield of the heart is lost. The defeat we avoid facing is "not our fault, beyond our control," and we secretly claim a kind of victory, but the victory is a lie. While we believe the lie, we are lost to the truth, defeated utterly, and a path back to the truth is less possible.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Friday, June 10, 2005
Only Sith Deal in Absolutes
Struck a nerve!
As of this date and time, a Google search gets 10,000 hits, on that phrase or it's many permutations, i.e. "Only a Sith. . . Only the Sith . . . Only a Sith Lord" etc. etc. "deals in . . . deals with" etc. etc.
A bumper sticker is available with some permutation of the phrase, your choice of style: "with or without a picture of George Bush."
Some of my favorite phrases recalled from looking at way less than 10,000 hits: Philosophy, who needs it? * What an absolute thing to say. * It's just light and sound! Stop trying to make it into something else!
Of the ones I read, many were apparently honest reactions to the movie, the phrase, the ideas they present.
Some of the reactions followed what I believe may be an inherent human tendency for many of us, to make meaning. Our minds eschew meaninglessness, so we seek to make meaning out of all stimuli. It's possible we sometimes try to make meaning where there is none.
More disturbing than individuals on a quest for meaning where there may be none, are those with an apparent agenda who latch on to any popular event and spin it to mean what they want it to mean.
I wonder if Blogging merely increases the quantity of spin in the universe. Is entropy possibly each atom becoming so absorbed in its' own perspective that it spins off into the icy black isolation of deep space, ultimately unaware of anything else? Talk about going over to the Dark Side, wow.
As of this date and time, a Google search gets 10,000 hits, on that phrase or it's many permutations, i.e. "Only a Sith. . . Only the Sith . . . Only a Sith Lord" etc. etc. "deals in . . . deals with" etc. etc.
A bumper sticker is available with some permutation of the phrase, your choice of style: "with or without a picture of George Bush."
Some of my favorite phrases recalled from looking at way less than 10,000 hits: Philosophy, who needs it? * What an absolute thing to say. * It's just light and sound! Stop trying to make it into something else!
Of the ones I read, many were apparently honest reactions to the movie, the phrase, the ideas they present.
Some of the reactions followed what I believe may be an inherent human tendency for many of us, to make meaning. Our minds eschew meaninglessness, so we seek to make meaning out of all stimuli. It's possible we sometimes try to make meaning where there is none.
More disturbing than individuals on a quest for meaning where there may be none, are those with an apparent agenda who latch on to any popular event and spin it to mean what they want it to mean.
I wonder if Blogging merely increases the quantity of spin in the universe. Is entropy possibly each atom becoming so absorbed in its' own perspective that it spins off into the icy black isolation of deep space, ultimately unaware of anything else? Talk about going over to the Dark Side, wow.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Verities Sans Eternity
I was reading "Making Ethical Decisions" from the Josephson Institute of Ethics web site. Stumbled onto it doing research for curriculum writing at school. I was drawn to it for some reason. Perhaps it was the apparent certainty of the views, a longing for the certainty of my fundamentalist upbringing, or even curiosity. I perceive a disconnect when someone is earnest about abstract values but absent a view of eternity. The disconnect reveals my own narrow perspective I know, but it persists.
"Not all lies are unethical, even though all lies are dishonest. . . . Occasionally, dishonesty is ethically justifiable, as when the police lie in undercover operations or when one lies to criminals or terrorists to save lives."
This reasoning is the first tell that the highest value of the writer is human life. Later he goes on to say, "But don't kid yourself: occasions for ethically sanctioned lying are rare and require serving a very high purpose indeed, such as saving a life . . ."
In the choice between doing good or doing evil, this is doing good by doing evil, it could be called dry water, or bright darkness.
I know what you're going to say: "Only a Sith would speak in such absolutes." Well, perhaps you weren't going to say that. It's hard to imagine any situation, or movie even, in which that statement makes sense--certainly no situation or movie in my experience.
In the battle against evil, when good steps onto evil's battleground, picks up evil weapons, and begins to wage war, the war ends. There is only one side. Evil has won.
"Not all lies are unethical, even though all lies are dishonest. . . . Occasionally, dishonesty is ethically justifiable, as when the police lie in undercover operations or when one lies to criminals or terrorists to save lives."
This reasoning is the first tell that the highest value of the writer is human life. Later he goes on to say, "But don't kid yourself: occasions for ethically sanctioned lying are rare and require serving a very high purpose indeed, such as saving a life . . ."
In the choice between doing good or doing evil, this is doing good by doing evil, it could be called dry water, or bright darkness.
I know what you're going to say: "Only a Sith would speak in such absolutes." Well, perhaps you weren't going to say that. It's hard to imagine any situation, or movie even, in which that statement makes sense--certainly no situation or movie in my experience.
In the battle against evil, when good steps onto evil's battleground, picks up evil weapons, and begins to wage war, the war ends. There is only one side. Evil has won.
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