Monthly Archives: March 2013

Lessons Learned

It’s no secret that I really don’t feel my age. I mean, sometimes I physically feel my age, but, at the end of the day, I really don’t act or think as though I’m nearly 40 years old.

Still, there have been events over the last seven years that have seriously altered my engagement with life, namely getting married and having a daughter. Each step brings this entire set of experiences that I previously had not known, and that, having lived through, made me more of an adult than I had previously been. These have often been the difficult things, the things that I would never have thought that I would be able to do.

And I don’t just mean changing diapers.

It’s interesting that many of these growing experiences happen while I’m in school. I’ve heard it said that most of the lessons you learn in school don’t happen in the classroom. I suppose, also, that this is all tied to the fact that I’m no longer functioning primarily for myself, but functioning for three of us. In any case, I’m doing things right now that I really never thought that I would be doing.

Like killing creepy crawlies.

You see, I’m afflicted with the truest form of arachnophobia. When I encounter one of those wretched things, the higher functions shut down and I go into an extreme fight-or-flight response.  Or, at least I did, until a few weeks ago. Karen and I moved into a new apartment at that time…a quick, three month lease to get us through the end of school. I’m not certain if the problem existed before, or if we unwittingly brought it with us along with some things that had been in storage before we moved in, but our “kill quota” for the creepy-crawlies has been upwards of 3 nightly. At first, I was reduced to a trembling ball on the sofa. Now, I’m able to engage the things head on with a bit of bravado and vacuum cleaner in hand.

The really interesting part of the progression is that it has come with exposure. Karen and I have really not wanted to involve an exterminator in this process because we don’t want unnecessary chemicals around our daughter. So, we’ve been researching a host of more natural ways to deal with these things. First, of course, came research into the kind of the little buggers we were dealing with. With that research, I learned a lot about these things that had previously led me to horrific nightmares with the briefest sighting. The more that I learned, the less I feared. The adage of “know your enemy” apparently carries a lot of wisdom.

So, at nearly 40 years old, I’m finally able to confront this phobia successfully, or at least functionally. Another learning experience behind me.

I really hope the next one is easier…

Libraries Before Profit

I remember the first time I received a check in the mail for writing. It was a beautiful thing. I still hold no delusions that its easy in any way to make a living as a writer, but we don’t really do it to make a living in any case, and the payoffs of hearing someone discuss your work or seeing your words in print for the world far outweigh any monetary benefit.

Still, being paid is nice. Particularly nice when you’re being paid to do what you love.

All that to say, I’m a huge fan of artists being compensated for their creation. It’s something that happens far too infrequently, and at far too small a scale.  I needed to say this up front, because its important to preface what I’m about to say with those thoughts.

What is it that I’m going to say? I will always believe that the public should be able to access our culture’s literature for free, and I will always believe that viewing and reading and listening to our cultural heritage is a right, not a privilege. For exactly those reasons, I’m a big supporter of the local library. I believe it to be a very worthy use of tax money, because it contributes to an educated and culturally aware country. These are things from which everyone benefits.

So, when I read opinions about how libraries should essentially be cast aside with technological evolutions, and that only people who want to pay for books should be able to read them, I become very frustrated with what I can only perceive as an elitist attitude. If you have the money to purchase a book that you love, then do so. Support the author. Whatever you do, don’t pirate the book, because that’s a crime and you deserve to be arrested if you do.

However, there are always books…important books…that you want to read and don’t quite have the money to spare, and there are always those who are truly passionate about books and who just cannot afford them in any case. That’s why we all buy these books for the common good, to be read by our local communities. That’s what libraries do.

To insinuate that such a critical public good be done away with in the name of profit for the artist is beyond reprehensible. The artist…if (s)he is truly an artist…isn’t creating for profit, in any case. Their work is there for the sake of everyone, and for everyone. So let everyone read it, or hear it, or see it.

And let’s continue to do everything we can to keep this art available.

A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Program

During my travels and some of the unusual positions I’ve held in my professional life, I’ve gotten to spend a few years working inside of the public school system. One of the phrases I’ve heard repeated many times by educational professionals to their students is that “education is the one thing that no one can take away from you.” The goal, of course, is to assist students in recognizing the value of the education that they are receiving, which is sometimes a considerable challenge, especially in some areas of our country.

There have been many studies of late that reveal that the United States is not doing so well in our educational pursuits…that is, our students perform below students in several other countries in critical areas. Now, let me push aside for a moment the interwoven issues of the unreliability of objective test scores, and the fact that our press for education seems to rely solely on math and science and not on literature or the arts. Permit me to just focus on the fact that, legislative titles notwithstanding, we are, in fact, leaving our children behind.

I’ve seen technology used to great effect in the realm of education, and I’m a huge fan of using whatever means are available to assist students in learning and educators in doing their jobs. Still, with the education of our children and their futures at stake (an especially important consideration for me in my new adventure as a father), I think that placing education dominantly in the hands of technology is a huge mistake.

And letting the students simply see to that education themselves? That sounds like a train wreck.

Yet, apparently that idea seems to be all the rage at this year’s TED conference.

Permit to avoid a long and verbose diatribe about how many ways I see this going wrong, and simply reinforce a lesson that America seems intent upon avoiding, but that I witness to be undeniably true over and over again, both professionally and as a father: We are the adults, and our children are just that: our children. Taking care of them…an endeavor of which their education is only one small but critical component…is our responsibility. Let us use all of the tools at our disposal, but let us make certain that we do it instead of letting our tools attempt to do it for us, and make certain that our children aren’t attempting to do something themselves that they aren’t capable of, nor prepared, to do.