What's Happened to our Educational System (cont'd)?: Quantitative vs Qualitative

      All parents want their children to attend “good” schools. “Good” or “bad” is an answer to a set of questions that we would like to have quantifiable. And that isn’t easy to do. In the first place, all schools do not teach the same things. Secondly, they may not all evaluate the students’ progress in the same manner or use the same scales. Lastly, there are many types of educational achievements and many of them do not have “scores” associated with them.

     So, it was “decided” (in a rather arbitrary manner), in the US, to make schools comparable. Require schools to teach the same materials, in the same ways, and evaluated in the same way. And just eliminate (from the scoring at least — possibly completely from the curriculum) all of those “messy” areas that are difficult to assign numerical evaluations to. “Messy” areas like art, music, physical education, creative writing, and such. In addition, there are many “messy” areas that CAN be evaluated to a score but, in order to do such, much time and effort is needed. Such areas include non-fiction essays, book reports, topical research papers, and such.

     The “No Child Left Behind” Act had admirable goals but, in order to achieve much of it, all schools needed to be comparable. Doing such required the above methods. Teachers had to start “teaching to the test”. Things that would be on the standardized national tests were important to know — everything else was not.

     “No Child Left Behind” still might have worked — but not in conjunction with reduced resources and exploding class sizes. (I think around 12 to 15 students per teacher would be optimum — but those numbers are certainly up for debate.) The quantifiable “teaching to the test” stuff could be a part of the day’s curriculum. But most of the time should be devoted to material that fosters the creative, analytical, and investigative sides of their education.

     The “whats” and “whens” have become even less important in these days of information access. It is those “hows” and “whys” (and whether it is true or not) that humans most need to be able to do.

     Back to reality, however. Class sizes are NOT reasonable. Teachers are not well rewarded or recognized. When classes overflow, “teaching to the test” is what survives. The teacher is considered “good” if their students get good test scores. The school is considered “good” based on their test scores. These numbers affect school funding and teacher retention. Great teachers can lose their jobs in a manner that is parallel to the situation of dedicated school cafeteria cooks being replaced by less healthy pre-processed foods.

     Great teachers teach for the benefit of the students and not for the benefit of a numerical score.

     Being able to check the correct box on tests becomes more important than being able to write — or to read beyond recognizing the questions and answers. The numbers become more important than being able to create the next important “widget” for a future business. The numbers become more important than being able to research, and verify, what is correct and what is a falsehood. The numbers win. Education loses. Society loses.

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Unfocused: Are you doing what you want to do?

     I continue to be an old-style “classics” cartoon person. In spite of the extreme predictability, I love watching Scooby-Doo. But one aspect calls out to me more and more. If they are trying to protect something, why do they hold it up in the air to be grabbed? If I were to want to protect something I had, I would put it under may shirt and hold on to it with both arms — make it as hard as possible to grab. It’s not just Scooby-Doo, of course.

     Or watch a movie. Someone is driving along and they turn their head and talk to the passenger (or someone in the back seat) for a couple of minutes (even if it were to be ten seconds, it would be way too long). Shoot! They SHOULD be in an accident. If not, it is definite proof of someone, or something, watching out for them. If they do get in an accident one can only say — “of course. Why did they want to behave that way?

     It doesn’t have to be as brazen as looking a different direction while theoretically in control of a 2500 pound cage of metal. It can be walking along on the sidewalk while looking at the little box that society seems to currently mandate we all be manacled to. Crossing streets? Walking on a sidewalk with potential open personhole covers? Approaching an unsafe area of town? Walking onto, or off of, a wharf and into the water? Whoops.

     Once upon a time, in the modern “dark ages”, I was called by a survey person who wanted to know how much I would pay per month to carry a phone around with me to be in constant contact with the world (this was before anyone envisioned a mobile computer as part of that phone). I replied that I was willing to pay $20/month to be without that “privilege”. I could (and did) look into that and see an invasion of work into my everyday life and a disconnection from society and possible privacy. Not that this situation HAS to be — but avoiding it while possessing a “smartphone” requires a much greater degree of self-control than most have (and I will admit to personally taking out my phone at the table, while eating out, to check an incoming message or settle a question on a topic of the table).

     If you ask people to write down a list of things important to them — and the priorities thereof — they will probably be able to do such. But, if you then ask them if they actually follow that list, they may well look “sheepish” — even more so if you start asking for specifics.

     In a novel (or movie), the characters are told that “time is of the essence” and then they spend minutes talking among themselves about things which are not central to the time-restricted thing. Have you ever watched a movie where they had five minutes to disconnect the bomb and then spent 15 minutes of film time doing other things before they disconnected the bomb with seconds to spare? Of course, this is a problem with the continuity monitor on the film but a similar thing happens in real life where focus is lost in time-critical situations.

     If you are supposed to protect something, protect it the best you can. If you have a small amount of time to do something, do it — do other things after the time- critical item. If your focus should be on one task (with penalties involved for not focusing), then focus and isolate other non-critical items. If conversation and social interaction are truly important, don’t let other items get in the way.

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Going where you aren't looking: nature's triage?

 

     Once upon a time, I was driving along and allowed myself to be distracted. I took my eyes off of the road and got into my most severe driving accident. No doubt it was my fault, and responsibility, as it is the responsibility of the driver to keep their eyes, and other senses, on what is going on outside the car -- the road, the people, deer, and so forth. But, even more so than before that accident, I became hyper aware of people going one direction while their attention is going another direction.

     In my situation, this only happened for a few seconds -- but that was too long. How many times have you watched a scene in a movie where the driver turns their attention away from the road and talks with their passenger for ten seconds, twenty seconds, maybe thirty seconds without ever looking back at the road? We all know that that just isn't real -- people can NOT do that without severe, perhaps fatal, problems. But, that's just part of the movie offset from reality. It's very similar to the fact that restroom breaks never seem to happen even though we know they must.

     This is the phenomenon behind the greatly increased accident, and fatality, rates of people who text or use a phone hands-on while driving. Driving a 3000 lb. moving object requires focused attention. Any distraction must be kept firmly in the background. In computer science jargon, they must be kept as low priority interrupts. AFTER all necessary items, needed for safe driving, have received attention then some time and attention can be diverted elsewhere.

     This doesn't happen only while driving, of course, though it is thankful that it is rarely fatal or even very serious when not driving. How many people have run into you when they are walking while looking over to the right or left while still walking forward? Perhaps you have even done such. Except when you are crossing the street while doing this, it is usually not too dangerous -- but still can be awkward and embarrassing.

     This also happens within the business world. The business plan has us working towards a particular objective and that objective has specific needs to be handled in a timely way. How often does something else divert us and has us continuing on automatic concerning what we have chosen to be our most pressing focus? Much more often than we would like to acknowledge. We "walk" one direction while looking elsewhere. Note that this is different than recognizing an emergency or a needed change of direction -- it is a matter of not paying attention to the "most important now" task.

     And the longer that attention is diverted from the "most important now" tasks, the more likely there will be problems. Perhaps even fatal ones.

Concert Syndrome: A shift of focus

 

     There are always times when a person is supposed to not be noticeable. This may be during a concert, a theater movie, a play, or some other place. In addition, at present time, extra noises may be a cause for concern as potential indicators of illness.

     So, I am in a concert. I haven't coughed, or sneezed, or had my nose itch all day. But when the lights go out, all of a sudden I start wanting to do all three -- maybe at the same time. Or perhaps I am at the blood center, giving blood, with tubes attached and my arms unable to move -- yes, that nose starts itching. The exciting, revealing line in a play is about to be given and here comes that desire to cough. I call this the "Concert Syndrome".

     This is similar to the period when you start becoming aware of something that is always present. Linus, in the cartoon Peanuts, has a period where he starts to become aware of his tongue.  You could also become aware of a stray eyelash or, perhaps, a minor injury that is healing. Itches are particularly susceptible to becoming hard to ignore.

     Every day, there are lots of sensations that are happening with us that we "tune out". Perhaps it is a lot of traffic noise or a neighbor's dog that barks a lot. That flashy billboard advertising a product that you go by every day on the way to work -- it disappears. This is an ability that is very important to our everyday lives in order to prevent sensory overload.

     It is not always benign -- you can start not hearing the conversation of someone who talks non-stop with a stream of consciousness kind of flow. They might be saying something important and, certainly, they deserve to have some attention. While driving, it is important that you constantly keep awareness of the surroundings as the unexpected is something that can easily occur.

      A lot of this seems to center on focus. Once the movie, or concert, is going (if it is interesting) then we focus on that and the extraneous coughs and itches disappear. If I am driving someplace that I normally don't have as my destination, I need to pay close attention or I will automatically take the exits and turns that are used for more frequent destinations.

     A shift in focus can be activated internally or externally. If a person starts a conversation with you, and prefaces the speech with your name, attention usually switches immediately to the person speaking. A tap on the shoulder can either get your attention or make you jump out of your chair -- depending, in part, on just how focused you are on other matters.

     Meditation can often be used for improving internal focus. It may seem that focusing requires rigid discipline but, in effect, it often makes use of relaxation much better (not quite to the point of sleeping). Time organization can be helpful to prioritize items in terms of what comes first but it does not, in itself, help to focus.