"It"

Sorry, Heather, you've tagged a slacker. It's been like a month since you told me I'm supposed to write 8 things about myself here and I'm just now getting around to it. I probably won't even pass it on after this. Fun game!

Oh, who am I kidding...I love to talk about myself (who doesn't!?) and this is a great excuse. Right then: If you really knew me you would know...

1. I'm very gullible. Though I'll pretend to talk back to you just to find loopholes in your own argument, I actually believe almost everything I hear. Ask my family if I once thought that Michael Crawford was dead. (I'm not entirely sure I even knew who that was at that time!) This especially applies to - yes, I'm about to reveal this - INFOMERCIALS. They just...work on me. All their little ploys and selling tactics sound so agreeable, then desirable, then necessary. My thoughts:

"What?? They're throwing in three quality cookbooks with the QuickChop?!"

"Wait...there's more: If I call within the next ten minutes, I can get TWO Amazing Rotisserie Chicken Grills for the price of one! It's a great gift idea!"

Usually after the program ends, I'm fine and the marketing scheme ceases its gruesome power over me. Though I have convinced my mom to buy me several amazing gadgets As Seen On TV. Our Magic Bullet Blender and FoodSavers are both safely broken on the storage shelf in our basement.

2. Bandwagons: I jump on them. Well, ok, at the beginning. Once they start to fill up, it gets really crowded and many times I'm shoved over to the side so I just jump off. There are a lot of things that sometimes I just like because they're popular - American Idol, In 'n' Out, Facebook...

Speaking of jumping, I also enjoy following various TV shows just until they "jump the shark."


3. I think movie spoofs are the greatest things ever.

4. Cats rule, dogs drool. Cats are much cuter, softer, cuddlier, and cleaner. Dogs...I enjoy like grandchildren: fun to play with, fine at other people's houses, but not for me to take home.

And I used to have an imaginary pet white Siberian tiger.

5. I want to change the world. No, seriously, I do! (I'm a closet idealist.) I want to teach kids to love writing, I want to read books to them that make them as excited as I was when I read them the first time, I want to get them as into history as Mr Felt did for us in 10th and 12th grade. Good teachers are heroes and heroines! What you learn in school can affect you for the rest of your life! Children are the future!!

6. I have a high tolerance for repetition. Conversation-wise, sometimes it's even necessary; to get me to really understand something, I may need to hear you say it over and over and over. I can re-watch movies - good ones, anyway - endlessly, and it's like starting with a blank slate. I love to go back and re-read my favorite books. Even in music: I can handle those almost-annoying techno or dream-mo songs that get like 4 minutes in and haven't started yet, or live jam-sessions that seem to go over the same part again and again. New things are great, but I can handle repetitiveness. (Guess it's a good thing Ima be a teacher then, eh?)

7. I love correcting others' grammar, but not necessarily speaking correctly myself. It's way fun being the annoying Simpson's "Linguo" robot, while at the same time purporting the idea that language changes, evolves, and never has one true, "right" answer. Ha. The privileges of an English major!

8. I haven't thought that far ahead.

Ok... Now that it's come down to it, perhaps I do wish to send the tag along.... Alan, you're it.

Everyone else, get a blog already.

SCED: Where Brevity Dies and Education Languishes

"Education: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the fool their lack of understanding. " - Ambrose Bierce

The above: a trait readily applicable to and found in significant amounts in my university's Secondary Education program, in which I am currently enrolled. Also known as: A waste of time and good money. Sure, I know they mean well, and there really are many good teachers working hard for the preparation of us preservice teachers. But as a whole...the program itself is tedious, repetitive, and incredibly dull.

Take today for instance: carefully extracting myself from the comfort of my warm bed, hauling up to campus, entering the classroom...and our teacher, alas, is not there. Of course, that's not a big surprise, since in this course, our teacher is literally never there - it's a Distance Education class, which meets here in Logan but the professor lives and broadcasts from Vernal. What's also not a big surprise, though, is that she's not even broadcasting today. Even the TA doesn't know why, acts nonchalant, and informs us we are to present our "problem-solving activity ideas" for class today and then we're free to leave. We look at each other in disbelief but act it out anyway, "presenting" what we'd written in five minutes last class. (Incidentally, our last class was the previous Wednesday, since we've already been informed that class is permanently canceled every Friday for the rest of the semester.) There aren't that many ideas to present - only half the class even bothers to show up anymore... Because when we do have class, it's usually to listen to lectures about how lectures shouldn't be used in classrooms anymore, in favor of more active, group-oriented, hands-on activities. Not even the irony can keep me awake anymore!

Were this kind of situation restricted to one or two classes, I suppose it would be bearable. But, ever since I finished the English program to move over to the Education one, the quality of classes, professors, coursework, and education has decreased significantly. Instead of analyzing literature or creating and comparing essays, or studying history and interpreting facts, classroom discussions are little more than opinion-sharing, not unlike how I might envision a group counseling session. We're all a little long-winded and love the sound of our own voice. And it's not that I don't care about everyone's experiences.

It just seems we're so intent on talking about education that we don't really get...educated.

It's been a long while since I really felt challenged in these classes. This doesn't mean that I'm overly smart; on the contrary, I feel like many other students are more prepared than I, which makes it that much more pathetic that we're not being pushed to our full potential. One of my teachers doesn't even give deadlines - she just lets us turn it in whenever we'd like, cancels class all the time, etc. Not that I mind her cancelling class - without fail, every time I'm there I ask myself why I even bothered to show up. So oppressively dull....

Yet in a way, it makes me want even more to become a teacher. Sometimes learning from bad examples motivates you all the more strongly.