learning

I think one of the saddest things I have witnessed in the past several years that I have been teaching and supervising at the university, and most recently during the process of homeschooling my brother, is that people just don't want to learn or think for themselves anymore. There seems to be no craving for problem-solving, no infatuation with the mystery of it all, no critical thinking...

I don't know if this is a new thing. It feels like it is, but it could be just that my perspective has shifted as I add the job of "educator" to my lifelong career of learning. But, it seems like there is a utensil-virus spreading, in that students want to be spoon-fed everything. "Just tell me the answer, tell me where to find the information, tell me what you want me to do with this client, tell me what I should do next, tell me where I should look, I looked at this passage for 2 minutes and I don't understand so I give up..."

This is so frustrating! And so sad. When pushed, many of the students have to learn how to ...well, learn. Hopefully they appreciate it and take this skill and apply it to other areas in their lives. Yet others say, "whew, that class is over and I'll never have to do that again!"

Will this get better or worse as I continue along my career path? What can I do to ensure the former?

Hmmm...Something for me to think about and figure out.

conscience

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe?
Expediency asks the question, is it politic?
Vanity asks the question, is it popular?
But conscience asks the question, is it right?

There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor popular,
but he must take it because his conscience tells him that it is right.

~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

the 3 miles

In the previous post, I fantasized about running 3 miles.
It was as wonderful as I thought it would be.
Thanks B for speeding me up a bit, for keeping me under my goal time for all 3 miles.
And thanks Jonathan for not complaining too much :)
Back to work...

you know you're tired of working ...

when it seems every muscle, every joint, every bone aches from sitting for 16 hours straight, working...

when your mouse hand refuses to click anymore...seriously, I'm not in full blown dystonia yet, but I'm close...

when your eyes can't stay still to focus anymore...the muscles required for that activity are too fatigued...

whey you try to measure voice onset time (VOT) for fricatives in a spectrogram...just trust me, they don't exist for fricatives...

when you start dreaming of activities and errands to do that require you to stand...

when you start fantasizing about how wonderful a 3 mile run would be right now...

the first thing to go...

Isn't this the truth!

"Usually, when the distractions of daily life deplete our energy, the first thing we eliminate is the thing we need the most: quiet, reflective time. Time to dream, time to think, time to contemplate what's working and what's not, so that we can make changes for the better."
~Sarah Ban Breathnach

My Deep Thought

Hey everyone, I haven't been on here in a while, so I thought I would visit to add a quote of my own. I have read all of Jess' quotes (she loves the quotes) and it made me think about the one that I just randomly threw out one day when we were watching something on t.v. Here it is:

"When a difficult decision is presented that could ultimately shape the rest of your life, don't rush to decide...fall on your knees, not on your face."

Brent

perspective

"I am not qualified to comment on what has happened in the last week where this city has changed shape, certainly psychologically, and in terms of some people's wallets. And I'm not qualified to comment on the interventions that have been put forth. I presume these people know what they're doing. But it is extraordinary to me that you can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can't find $25 billion to save 25,000 children who die every day of preventable, treatable disease and hunger."
~Bono, on the bail out

trust

I'm trying to learn more about trust and forgiveness, and ran across this...

"When we trust others, we reveal that we trust God and that we trust ourselves. We have not placed our hope in others' trustworthiness. We have placed our hope in a Savior who is completely able to come through for us. We do not demand demonstrations of others' ability to be trusted, because our ultimate trust is not in other people. That is not to say that we don't want others to do what they say they will or strive to honor their word, but it is to say we know that, ultimately, there will be times when others will let us down. They wil disappoint us and frustrate us, but we can choose to believe that their hearts toward us are good. We can bring trust to our relationships to enrich them with action and endow them with meaning."
~Nicole Johnson

planets

I am just wrapping up with the work, and am a little too wired to go directly to sleep. Today has been incredibly hectic with doctor's appointments and research, and to add to that, there have truly been some women v. men, Mars v. Venus occurrences over here in the ATH, even more so now that I have two males under my roof. I continue to be amazed at the differences between the genders. The challenge for me is that, though now I can use the word "amazed", that several hours ago it would have been "angered by", "ticked off", "baffled by", etc.

I just pray for the ability to get to that "amazed" perspective much sooner. Staying in those latter states really doesn't do anyone any favors.

snow

"The Eskimo has fifty-two names for snow because it is important to them: there ought to be as many for love."
~Margaret Atwood

my theme song

As I'm working on my prospectus one paragraph, one page, and one table at a time, this Johnny Cash song keeps popping in my head. I guess its my theme song :)

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAxdo5itr0I

brain in the sky

Took a late night walk with Brent and the pup, trying to work out this pinched nerve in my lower back. Walking back down the hill, almost to the house, looking at the night sky and the bright stars. I see in the clouds a nice brain - a good posterior-superior view, with a clear longitudinal fissure, nice convolutions, a brain stem in the back, and unfortunately a lesion in the right hemisphere. I'm describing this to Brent as I'm so excited to see the brain, and I'm free to be the total nerd that I am around him. Lovingly, he did not laugh or roll his eyes. He just listened, and actually, after so many years of marriage, knew most of the words that I was saying.
Finally in the driveway, the clouds have drifted, the brain is no more.

character

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved."
~Helen Keller

failure and success

"Nothing fails like success because we don't learn from it. We only learn from failure."
~Kenneth Boulding