The Curmudgeon Speaks

I had this view while sitting on the lanai a few days ago. Cindy brought her iphone and captured the image. The normal bunch of nenes and a snow goose.

This seems the type of photo that might be the subject of a contest of some sort – “label this photo”. I told Cindy I would call it “one of these is not like the other”, but she thought this was too predictable and I could do better. She thought there must be a message in there somewhere. I did come up with an alternative, but I am not certain my alternative has a deeper meaning.

Given recent world events perhaps “we are all in this together” would be good. 

As I understand the problem of identity politics, people are willing to ignore facts that contradict what they see as a party linked position because party affiliation is part of their personal identity. Like religious affiliation, gender identity, and perhaps even sports fandom, political identity is something that somehow trumps (no pun intended) challenging facts. We somehow ignore or reinterpret evidence that would perhaps persuade us if not challenging to core beliefs.

Presenting information in a less threatening way may be helpful. This is my interpretation of Andrew Zimmern’s “What’s eating America.” You may be familiar with Zimmern as a foodie who eats weird things. Like the late Anthony Bourdain, Zimmern has an interesting way of using food to examine other cultures perhaps in a way we all find interesting and he has a new series in which he explores political issues. The series is from MSNBC so you can anticipate that Zimmern is at heart a liberal.

There is a local connection for me in the example from this series I include here. Zimmern has a restaurant in Minneapolis. I am fairly certain I visited the Apple orchard depicted in the episode on climate change this Fall. If you would normally have access to MSNBC and identify your provider, you should be able to watch back episodes – https://www.msnbc.com/whatseatingamerica

The label of “socialist” is being deployed as a political weapon despite the lack of sophistication in having an understanding as to the meaning of the word. Fighting a pandemic must be a “socialistic” effort. It is essential to protect and if necessary treat each individual to control the spread of the disease. It doesn’t matter if they have insurance or not. It doesn’t matter if they can afford to be tested or not. This is the meaning of the role of government as a safety net. I just want Republicans who like to use the word socialist to refer to those supporting specific roles for government and to accept this this country needs to support and rely on the government to meet the needs of all to benefit all. There is a great object lesson here and I hope the political ignorance of some does not endanger us all.

I read in the Tribune that the Minneapolis area housing market is the fourth hottest in the country. I can believe it. For the past several months we have been constantly bombarded by offers to purchase our home. The requests pour in by mail, phone, and text. No need to paint. No need to repair. We will give you cash.

We have no interest in selling and we keep telling them that, but the offers keep coming. I received a phone call and a text today. I think they may have given up on Cindy. I wonder just what about us in some data base must encourage this interest. I can’t imagine some poor lackey sits around a real estate office day after day going through the phone book and calling people. What are the odds anyone would be interested?

It must have something to do with our age What other data could they have about us. Ready to head for the nursing home and need money for a room? We can help. It must be something like that.

A cash deal would offer a big chunk of change, but then what. In a sellers market, you don’t want to become a buyer. Surely, they don’t think we don’t understand that. We do have a lake home and I suppose we could live there, but the desolation would get to us eventually. Maybe I should actually act interested once and just see if they would explain what it is about us that has generated this interest.

A recent study suggests these classes could be increasingly important. Researchers at Princeton and New York universities found that Facebook users 65 and over posted seven times as many articles from fake news websites, compared with adults under 29.

Fellow old people – review this NPR story. The quote above captures the key point. You (we) are passing on too much false information. At least read the articles and not just the headlines. Take a look at the source. If you haven’t heard of it before, see if you can find more about the claims that get you mad elsewhere. The kids call this lateral reading.

Who knows. Your grandkids may be watching what you post.

I wrote this three years ago. Facebook recommends you of past posts and this is what came up today. I continue to hold this position and may be even more concerned that others see the country and world in a different way.

We seem to be entering a period of time when existing moral principles are being discarded to increase rather than decrease inequity. These inequalities have long existed, but those struggling to gain equality seem to be making many nervous.

Males are advantaged over females.
Christians are advantaged over other religions.
Rich are advantaged over less well off.
Whites are advantaged over other races.
Those who already have a place in this country are advantaged over those who like to make this country great.

This movement is so selfish and so out of the long-standing character that made American great. The notion that Americans or those who are presently privileged work harder, are more intelligent, or are special is not only a myth but a convenient way to discriminate. The system we built promoted trying to make the country a fair playing field and then to promote achievement through competition. It now seems we are afraid we can no longer compete so we are resorting to isolation and provisions that protect those who present have a privileged state.

Once you are afraid to put your skills and your work effort on the line, those who do will eventually surpass you. If you are great as you say, prove it.

So much regarding the future of this country seems to come down to who it is we are willing to trust. The execution of many government functions depends on employees who work across different administrations and are there to do a job and not work for a party. This is being challenged by Trump who seems to have brought a belief from his business experience that all employers of an organization work for him. Perhaps he can be forgiven for this misguided assumption as the business experience he touts was not leading a publicly traded organization. Being responsible to an organization is very different from assuming the organization is responsible to you. The danger is rather than adapt Trump seems trying to change the organization which in this case is the country. For all the concerns with what is democratic socialism, we should be more concerned with an emerging dictatorship.

When you spend two months away from what you describe as your home base, it is a little different than taking what most would describe as a trip. You have decided to live somewhere else for a while. You do many of the same things you would do when at home because seeking new adventures on a daily basis is not the way most of us live our lives. Cindy might disagree as she sees daily life as an adventure, but I am not the same live each day to the fullest type person.

I spend about the same amount of time here reading and writing I would spend at home. The coffee shop changes and the route to walk there is different and warmer, but the core activities are very similar.

I have been listening to Blue Highways a book by William Least-Heat Moon I first read several decades ago. There are so many books I want to read that I have already purchased that rereading a book from “the early years” is very rare. Blue highways refers to secondary roads which at the time the book was written were blue on paper maps. My appreciation of the book is based on the quality of the author’s ability to write very interesting prose telling the stories of his adventures linking to my own interest in travel by car for extended trips. Finding the book again as an audiobook available from one of the libraries I frequent was great.

One of the interesting things about my second exploration of this book is the addition of all of the life experiences I have accumulated since I first read this book. Least-Heat Moon’s route roughly followed the perimeter of the country and he describing passing through some of the territory I have experienced. During this listen I appreciated his description of his journey through northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. I have walked across the origins of the Mississippi at the location he described and the town of Danbury is northern Wisconsin is the closest town to our Wisconsin lake home. He describes Danbury as dismal, but he may have passed through at night this time of year when he should have been in Hawaii.

I highly recommend this author’s writing. His capacity to tell stories about the places he travels through is a gift I greatly admire. He has a way of describing people tied to their places in the country that offers many lessons. 

Once in a while, I decide to repost something I wrote previously. Some content does not seem to become dated and this is a way of brining this material to what may be a new audience. This one is from 2013.

I may be too easily annoyed, but “insider speak” annoys me. Educators should know better than use unique terminology as part of their mission is to communicate with a broad audience. When they constantly refer to PD, SAMR, NAEP, and CCSS, I am guessing the commentary that follows has little impact on the general public.

However, maybe my attitude is functioning as a personal liability. You must set yourself apart to gain recognition. Perhaps I should try to create my own “in group” and see if I can generate an acronym that I can claim as a special insight.

[pause for 5 minutes of thinking time]

I have it. I call my new education model LOYO. I considered for a moment calling my model PPD, as in personal professional development, but decided that I am a fan of the vowel. LOYO encourages individualization, personalization, and differentiation. These must be really good things because I keep reading that these are important processes. LOYO is Learning On Your Own. Because I am a tech guy, I will first emphasize a unique version of LOYO that will hence be referred to as OLOYO (online learning on your own).

For those of you interested in becoming OLOYOs, you need to develop tools that feed you information for REFLECTION (another one of those insider terms). I kept thinking reflection was some kind of STEM term related to mirrors and physics, but it turns out after some OLOYO that it means thinking. See how well my model works for LOYO.

When engaged in LOYO via OLOYO, it is important to recognize that you are likely to have personal biases and these may limit the content you access for REFLECTION. To overcome this known bias, I recommend you both follow some folks who say things you find helpful (see Feedly) and also seek broader input in case your selection of experts runs to those I would refer to as a DOOFUS (not an acronym, but you can access a definition through Webster. To protect yourself from the DOOFUS effect, I recommend Google Alerts.

Follow this blog for further LOYO developments. Become a LOYO promoter. Become LOYO certified so you can add another honorary to your email signature block. You do not have to seek my approval or attend one of my workshops to secure this certification. In keeping with the spirit of LOYO, you are encouraged to certify yourself. I am working on some rubrics to guide your SE (self evaluation), but until I have another five minutes to develop the SE model and associated rubrics, you are on your own.

So much of what I read lately concerns trying to understand the spread of disinformation and possibly what educators can do about it. I thought a recent Wired article on the topic could be helpful to members of the general public trying to understand the issue.

The Wired writer compared the issue of misinformation to the trafficking of illegal drugs and used this comparison to illustrate why the decision some make (go after Facebook or Twitter) may not achieve a long term solution.

My take on the logic of the Wired piece was not that the online companies or their top executives are not responsible for some portion of the problem, but the comparison identifying the multiple parties to the issue was helpful. Like drug lords and drug cartels the tech execs seem an easy target. Like the war on drugs, elimination of the drug execs and their organizations do not eliminate what has become a demand. Another company is likely to rise up to provide for the need. Such companies are not intentionally evil, but open to how people seem to want to use social media.

A total solution will require an effort to address those who consume and encourage disinformation through their likes and shares. The mechanisms here are difficult to address. Confirmation bias in the general case is involved and in the case off some categories of disinformation a particularly damaging form of confirmation bias based in personal identify. In the most difficult cases we function somewhat like fans of a particular sports team or perhaps practitioners of a specific religion. Our commitments are biased by what is an important component of how we have come to understand ourselves. Changing a structure of understanding at this core level is very challenging.