Anonymous Lost. Does that even exist any more? I prepared a survey for my students on how they are viewing my course so far. Simple innocuous questions they are. And it is really anonymous. But will any of them actually believe it is anonymous? With so much data piracy, scanning, recording, and peeking these days, the whole idea of anonymous may be vanishing.
This variation on Milton's Paradise Lost is simply an update. Clearly paradise is lost, but it may be that anonymity is gone as well. I use to believe I could live under the radar, thinking whatever I said would be too unimportant for anyone to take note of. But today with big data and unlimited storage, I feel that whatever I say will be scanned or read with an eye to key words - most revealing about the message.
Importance. You know how important you are by the hierarchy of how many people stand in line to introduce your speech. Most of us have just a single person make the introduction. "Here's our speaker..." and that's it. Big-shots get two, one to introduce the introducer. Super-shots get three. Anyone that gets four introductions, must be of celestial dimensions.
Intellectuals. Being an intellectual does not make you smart.
Ted Cruz. I might be willing to book passage on the Ted-Cruz-line. I know there will be a lot of time to explore one corner of the world, and I will know the destination. While he is ridiculed by both parties, he does stand on principle - rare these days.
Nancy Pelosi. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, Pelosi has a moderate intelligence, and much to be moderate about. Her latest confusion is between the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. I am simply amazed that someone with her apparent intellectual difficulties can rise to such heights within her party. Many Democrats (e.g. Chris Van Holland) seem far more erudite, more able, and far more intelligent. Oh well, the Republicans have at least their fair share of the same. Perhaps we should create a Pelosi Club with delimited extremists of all flavors admitted. The criteria for admission should be misquoting facts, misstating events, and misrepresenting constituencies.
The snub. For days, it was argued in the press the "What if" of President Obama meeting or even shaking hands with the new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani. But, Rouhani deftly turned the table by simply rejecting any encounter. The upshot must be that the one regards the other as essentially irrelevant. One thing is to be rejected. This is of the everyday for us all. It is quite another to be relegated to the lower status - irrelevancy. You just have to feel a little sorry for our President.
Boring. I just completed a YAW, yet another Webinar. It was boring, though boring may be the best attribute one can give to a particular event. Less flattering comments come to mind.
Wisdom. It was recently suggest to put my wisdom in a bottle. I responded by saying that if I did so, there would be plenty of room remaining for more interesting contents.
Formal. You may have attended your formal senior prom. Great. So you know what formal means. Dressing up and looking good. In the educational world the word is flung about everywhere. We have formal and informal knowledge - that learned in classroom or without, formal and informal learning - classroom or without, and also formal and informal space - in the classroom or not. The word "formal" seems to be reserved for what happens in the classroom, and is to an extent diminished by "informal" meaning that which is not. If educators are required to account for individual informal anything, their classes explode from twenty students to multiples of that. Teachers need, therefore to account for a multiplicity of understandings, to account for misunderstandings, and worse, to account for misconceptions. This is not good within any system, not just our educational example. Our teachers may be asked to achieve what we ask of no others - ourselves included.
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