Day 57, May 12, 2020

Pride

After last night's failed blog post, I thought I might set up a series of meditations, so I started coming up with possible topics. I remembered how when I was in college, Thomas Pynchon did a series on the 7 Deadly Sins that were published in the New York Times, if I remember correctly. I did not even remember what the deadly sins were... pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and sloth.

If I remember correctly, I think Pynchon started by giving the dictionary terminology, and a quick Google search gives some theological epistemologies, but for now I stay off of that track... except for what my eye did catch, which was that pride is the sin from which all other evils emanated. 

I suppose the inverse of pride is shame, so there must be some relationship between the two. 

In my mind, I always had the capacity to imagine myself as I wished I appeared. When I was in grade school I used my mother's old college Smith Corona and typed out my autobiography, but it was a really an experiment in fiction even though I didn't really know the difference between non-fiction or fiction, or how to create either. I just started writing the story of my grade school life in Woodland Grade School as I experienced it, but then I played with how imagination impinged on reality. As a fourth or fifth grader, the playground games were easily subsumed in struggles for survival. The playground was a proving ground where endurance and tolerance for pain were only resolved with by tears or the bell calling everyone back into the building. 

There was a game we played with one of those red playground balls called rush and schmuck. I think that's what it was called, but I often heard things differently as a kid and interpreted meaning from my misunderstanding. For much of my life, until high school, I thought that when someone made a mistake in gym class, they called out, "My bag." As in, that is my baggage that I need to carry for making such a bad pass. That is my baggage to carry that I can not throw a ball into a hoop. When someone in high school corrected me, I thought, that makes no sense! "My bad." I enjoyed the metaphorical image of us all carrying all the luggage of our failures and inadequacies.

So, for all I know, the name of the game may exist in some other form, particularly as the game was the kind of pure and simple game that only grade school children can inflict upon one another. One person had the ball, and kicked it as hard and high as they could. A red playground ball has a wonderfully pleasing potential to absorb the full energy of small child and convert it into a projectile that could soar far above the tops of the basketball hoops, swing sets, and reach the heights of the nearest flag pole, it seemed. The potential was there, but I was never successful at games involving balls, and physical coordination, and a red playground ball is also a fickle thing that can absorb the entire focused energy of a small child and convert it to something like a flat banana, a dropped ice cream cone, or a misshapen paper airplane, and without a doubt, any opportunity I had to kick a red playground ball resulted in emasculating humiliation, as much as can be endured by a small child. But what I relished was the other part of the game.

Once the ball was kicked, all the kids ran in a mad scramble to retrieve the ball and start to run. If for some reason, one of the taller, more athletically prodigious children was tying their shoe, or distracted by some act of God, then someone like me might just happen to be at the right place at the right time and in a moment of sheer luck, a child might embrace the sun-warm orb of forgiveness, and for a delightful moment there was the exhilarating rush of twenty or thirty children swarming together as a lone child ran for open space before being subsumed by the collective of the whole. That was the moment I craved the most, the instant when all the children were pressed close and we were all locked in a frozen embrace that was not falling, not moving, but this perfect balance of push and pull that embodied life, excitement, and glory... and then inevitably we would fall in a tumult until the ball was ripped away and all the children would dash away in pursuit.

That was glory. To survive that tumult...  embodied in that was a kind of pride.

Goodnight,

Leo

From Our Friends:

From the NYT:

Back when I used to get the NYT delivered, I loved the odd little articles you would come across (which happens much less online), like this one: "What’s the Sweetest, Crispiest Way to Stay Safe in a Car Crash? Rice Krispie treats are brick-shaped snacks manufactured by Kellogg. A report by the Tariff Classification and Marking Branch, a part of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, describes them as “moist, gooey, sticky, easily malleable, and very sweet like a marshmallow,” which makes me wish food manufacturers were allowed to use only descriptions from government inspection reports in their marketing."

From Mass Creative:

The Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture for the City of Boston designed a survey in partnership with MASSCreative to ensure that artists and creative workers are getting the support they need.

From the W.K. Kellogg Foundation:

Last month, as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated in the U.S. and the disproportionate tolls on communities of color continued to emerge, we were fortunate to speak at length (via Zoom) with renowned public health scholar and researcher Dr. David Williams. For more than 40 years, Williams has studied how race, racism, and other forms of discrimination shape individual and community health. Joining us on the screen, the Harvard professor assessed the coronavirus crisis, its impact, and the potential for appropriate and healing responses. Williams has been part of W.K. Kellogg Foundation networks since the 1990s. Today he is a member of the foundation's Solidarity Council on Racial Equity (SCoRE).

From Desire2Learn:

We are running a free webinar to discuss the future of liberal arts education and want to invite you to join us. We will examine what makes liberal arts colleges unique and how they need to pivot in order to prosper in the current uncertainty surrounding many higher education institutions’ economic future.

On Tuesday, May 26, 2020, D2L’s Director of Academic Affairs, Dr. Christopher Sessums, will be speaking with Bryan Alexander, author of Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education. Chris and Bryan will dig deep into the best path forward for liberal arts colleges and explore how to position your institution for the future. 

Join us to hear from these two subject matter experts and have the chance to get your questions answered live.

Today's Online Teaching Tips:

From the GCC Library:

Our Moodle page for you is now available! Many thanks to Gary for getting the structure and access for you all. In the future, you can find it under the “GCC Links” dropdown menu at the top of Moodle, just under Gary’s site.

The first time you use it, you will need to self-enroll (ask a librarian for the password). Once you have access, you will be able to import anything from our Moodle page to any of your own courses.

From Tim Dolan (for GCC faculty):

We're offering a Zoom training entitled "Open Educational Resources in the COVID Era." If you attend the session and agree to write a review of an OER textbook in your discipline, you'll be eligible for a $200 stipend. By reviewing, you don't make any commitment to use that textbook in your course, though of course you'll have that option. 

A flyer with more information and a registration link is attached to this email, and the 2-hour training will be offered on two dates in May: 

• Wednesday 5/20, 2:00-4:00
• Thursday 5/21, from 10:00-12:00

From Alyssa Arnell:

[I (Leo) went to this conference in person years ago and thought what California was doing really pushed the envelope of what we could teach online. I'm sure we can learn more from them! Thanks, Alyssa!] The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and TechConnect have decided to move the premier face-to-face 2020 Online Teaching Conference to an online event. Although we regret not being able to come together in person, we are excited to present OTC’20 as a multi-day event at no cost to our attendees. Register Now for OTC’20)

From the AAC&U:

Let’s Start with “How Are You Doing?”: How Resilience and Hope Can Shape a New Normal for Learning and Teaching

May 15, 2020

Online, 2:00-3:00 p.m., ET

REGISTER

The ongoing disruption of higher education has provoked significant anxiety in students and faculty. It has also presented new challenges and opportunities to support students’ and faculty members’ social-emotional learning and psychosocial needs. As campus leaders at all levels anticipate the implications of the “new normal” for the fall semester, how should they be thinking about the intersections of learning, well-being, and resilience? What are the mechanisms for encouraging hope and resilience inside and outside the classroom, and across stakeholders? This discussion-based webinar brings together national and international experts to explore ways campuses can support students and faculty not merely to survive in challenging times, but to thrive.

From Pearson:

"Moving labs out of the laboratory" When teaching a science class, we often use experiences in the lab to foster critical thinking skills and reinforce the concepts we introduce in lectures. But with campuses closed, students cannot access the lab. 

So what do you do? This is what one study published by the Journal of Formative Design in Learning tells us.