First let me preface this with a disclaimer:
I am not really the bar hopping, trolling for girls type. I never really have been but always wind up doing such things with friends.
As many of you know, I am a middle school teacher. Let me tell you, there is nothing more unattractive than a male middle school teacher. Many of you are now thinking, "But Brandon you are an attractive interesting guy. What's not to like?" Yes. I am an attractive interesting guy but I am also a middle school teacher. Let's think about this practically...
You, an attractive female, are out at the bar with a friend. Two guys, one of them being my doppelganger, approach you and your friend and ask if you would like to dance. Slightly flattered by the offer, you and your friend say yes. There is that awkward moment where no one is sure who is going to dance with who, then finally someone makes the move and you and the other pair walk out on the dance floor and begin dancing. Now inevitably, unless you are really uninterested (you've taken one for the team...), there is a discussion that happens. Names are exchanged.
"Where are you from?"
"Austin. You?"
The discussion continues. You know small talk stuff. And it seems to be going well.
"What do you do?"
"I'm a student at UT."
"What are you studying?"
"Pre-Law. Philosophy."
"Cool."
"What do you do?"
"I'm a teacher."
"Oh cool. Where do you teach?"
"A middle school in Kyle."
Then the record scratches, the music stops and the rest of the dance is painfully silent. Now this actually happened to me. Not that I was trying to pick her up but seriously did it have to be that I was a middle school teacher? I have to assume that this was it because she was all sorts of talkative before I mentioned the word "middle." Many of you (all four of you) are saying "Brandon, seriously, maybe she just ran out of things to say." Maybe, but this is not the first time I've gotten this reaction. Now this got me thinking. Why?
It takes a special kind of person to teach. Not everyone can do it. Hell, sometimes I don't feel like I can. Every where I go, when people ask me what I do and I tell them that I teach middle school they shake my hand or pat me on the back saying things like, "You must be a saint..." or "I could never teach, I'm so glad you can..." or my personal favorite, "God bless you!" I hear the platitudes of the profession all of the time. I agree. Teachers are extremely important. Education is extremely important. But dammit it is horrible to be a single male teacher.
-I will have to work for 20+ years to make more than $50,000
-On any given day I could be at school from 7:30AM to 7:30PM
-Everyone has their preconceived notions about what a teacher is supposed to be so after the girl hears "teacher" she's got you pegged and there is nothing more to talk about.
-All teachers everywhere are settled down (Married). At least it sometimes feels that way. All of the male teachers are anyway.
-Really, though, do teachers want to date teachers... There's no time!
-Teaching is a female dominated profession. I'm supposed to do things like business, NASCAR racing, or contracting.
I occasionally get bonus points in the above discussion because I teach theater but those bonus points usually don't even bring me up to passing (see I even use teacher metaphors).
From here on out when people ask me what I do, I am going to say "Teaching Artist." Maybe that will make me interesting enough to dance with twice. Maybe.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
The paradox of the Prison system
I don't hold myself in such high regard to think that I am the first to have ever written these thoughts down. I just thought them. So here they are.
The prison system in this country has two functions, to hold criminals to protect the greater good of society and to rehabilitate criminals so that they can return to society. There is the punishment element. Commit a crime, deal with the consequence. And there is the education element. Commit a crime, learn why it was a crime and resolve to not commit a crime again.
One of my new favorite shows is Life on NBC. The show is about Detective Charles Crews. Crews, at the beginning of the first season, has just been released from a life sentence due to new evidence in a murder case. After wrongfully serving twelve years in prison part of his settlement is $50 million and he is reinstated as a detective in the LAPD. The most recent episode, called A Prison Education references the Stanford Prison Experiment, which studied the effects of being a prisoner or being a prison guard. Twenty four male students were chosen to participate, told they would be part of a mock prison. Twelve as guards and twelve as prisoners. The experiment went totally awry. It ended after 6 days, not the intended 14, due to the effects of the students being in those scenarios.
Even though each participant was told it was a "mock" prison, one third of the guards exhibited "genuine sadistic tendencies." Keep in mind these are under graduate students at Stanford University.
I believe in the intrinsic dignity of all human beings, even those who commit heinous acts against society. I also believe that no matter how low someone goes, it is my responsibility never to let myself fall to that level. Just simply as an American following the ideals that the Framers of the Constitution held, we are to hold ourselves to a higher standard. This is why the CIA torture news is such an issue. If we drop our morality to the level of those against which we are fighting then what are we fighting for? Aren't we just two sides of the same coin?
When I read about things like the Stanford Prison Experiment, or even things like the Civil War and the issue of slavery, I try to put myself into that situation and based on the time period, where I am at personally, what side of the issue would I have been on? I can be honest with myself. I honestly don't know, based on the fact that most of my formative years were in Louisiana, if I would have been an abolitionist had I been born in 1850. Of course, we know slavery in all forms is wrong. But still we see racism. I still see it in my own family on occasion and it is just as ugly as the first time I was exposed to it. If I were a guard in the Stanford Prison Experiment, would I have been violent? Would I have let that side of my human nature show itself? Or would I have, feeling as deeply as I do about the dignity of ALL humans, been able to stand up to those who were abusing their power?
To be a prison guard you have to hold that position with two faces. On one side you have to believe that the prisoners are human beings and that no matter what they have done, simply because they are human beings, there is some good in them. On the other side you have to maintain a level of control over the prisoners. To maintain a level of control over anyone is to believe them less than you, less than human, almost an animal. How then can one believe that the prisoners on their roll are human but maintain the kind of control needed to keep peace? This is the problem.
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely." When anyone is in a position of power the temptation to abuse that power is there. The greater the power the greater the temptation. What the Stanford Prison experiment shows us is that even in a situation where all the participants are aware of the pretend nature of the game, the power can be exploited and abused, even if only for the sake of the game. It is not my intention to paint prison guards in a bad light. Not all prison guards abuse their power. I would even go as far to say that no prison guards abuse their power. But the profession of guarding (notice that guard is a synonym of protect) prisoners is a difficult job. And to do that job for any length of time will cause your mind set about the people that hang around that profession to change.
The prison system in this country has two functions, to hold criminals to protect the greater good of society and to rehabilitate criminals so that they can return to society. There is the punishment element. Commit a crime, deal with the consequence. And there is the education element. Commit a crime, learn why it was a crime and resolve to not commit a crime again.
One of my new favorite shows is Life on NBC. The show is about Detective Charles Crews. Crews, at the beginning of the first season, has just been released from a life sentence due to new evidence in a murder case. After wrongfully serving twelve years in prison part of his settlement is $50 million and he is reinstated as a detective in the LAPD. The most recent episode, called A Prison Education references the Stanford Prison Experiment, which studied the effects of being a prisoner or being a prison guard. Twenty four male students were chosen to participate, told they would be part of a mock prison. Twelve as guards and twelve as prisoners. The experiment went totally awry. It ended after 6 days, not the intended 14, due to the effects of the students being in those scenarios.
Even though each participant was told it was a "mock" prison, one third of the guards exhibited "genuine sadistic tendencies." Keep in mind these are under graduate students at Stanford University.
I believe in the intrinsic dignity of all human beings, even those who commit heinous acts against society. I also believe that no matter how low someone goes, it is my responsibility never to let myself fall to that level. Just simply as an American following the ideals that the Framers of the Constitution held, we are to hold ourselves to a higher standard. This is why the CIA torture news is such an issue. If we drop our morality to the level of those against which we are fighting then what are we fighting for? Aren't we just two sides of the same coin?
When I read about things like the Stanford Prison Experiment, or even things like the Civil War and the issue of slavery, I try to put myself into that situation and based on the time period, where I am at personally, what side of the issue would I have been on? I can be honest with myself. I honestly don't know, based on the fact that most of my formative years were in Louisiana, if I would have been an abolitionist had I been born in 1850. Of course, we know slavery in all forms is wrong. But still we see racism. I still see it in my own family on occasion and it is just as ugly as the first time I was exposed to it. If I were a guard in the Stanford Prison Experiment, would I have been violent? Would I have let that side of my human nature show itself? Or would I have, feeling as deeply as I do about the dignity of ALL humans, been able to stand up to those who were abusing their power?
To be a prison guard you have to hold that position with two faces. On one side you have to believe that the prisoners are human beings and that no matter what they have done, simply because they are human beings, there is some good in them. On the other side you have to maintain a level of control over the prisoners. To maintain a level of control over anyone is to believe them less than you, less than human, almost an animal. How then can one believe that the prisoners on their roll are human but maintain the kind of control needed to keep peace? This is the problem.
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely." When anyone is in a position of power the temptation to abuse that power is there. The greater the power the greater the temptation. What the Stanford Prison experiment shows us is that even in a situation where all the participants are aware of the pretend nature of the game, the power can be exploited and abused, even if only for the sake of the game. It is not my intention to paint prison guards in a bad light. Not all prison guards abuse their power. I would even go as far to say that no prison guards abuse their power. But the profession of guarding (notice that guard is a synonym of protect) prisoners is a difficult job. And to do that job for any length of time will cause your mind set about the people that hang around that profession to change.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Give me 20 minutes of your life...
I like this guy. He has a book called Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative. It is probably number 11 on my book suggestion list.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
I run.
So I know that some of you, maybe all four of you, are sick of this being a dumping ground for my running stuff. Oh well. It's my blog and I'll run if I want to.
I have to say this nike+ thing, while initially I was concerned that it was over priced, is an awesome motivator. This blog entry ultimately sold me on it. I bought it on thursday and then sprained my ankle at the last summer season soccer game. That benched me for running soccer ...everything. Now that I can run, I love nike+. I don't have the cool nike+ shoes so I had to doctor my shoe a little by cutting a hole into the insole but it works great. I can set short term goals like this ...
Or I can set long term goals for the month like this ...
My current "Resolution" is
If I don't run 100 miles by the end of '08 I will give up beer until July 1st.
This is completely do able since thats about 30 miles a month. Plus I am part of a few individual challenges where I am competing against other people for the "most miles in October" or "First to 50 miles." I think I like the Nike+ because I am a stat person. I like to see all of the nifty graphs but I don't want to have to do all of the math or the programming in excel. I do wish there was a little more flexibility on the website. I wish I could change the x and y axis on the graphs. I would like to see more as far as profiles go. Right now it is just a small icon type picture and the stats of your last run. All in all though I do recommend this to those who need a kick in the ass to get out and run. Posting here just keeps me honest. It makes me feel like I'm not running when I don't run...sort of an accountability thing.
On other phys ed fronts. I am taking the 100 pushup challenge care of 100pushups. I was going to be corny and put up monthly pictures of me getting RIPPED!!!! But I decided against that. I just finished the first week. I think I might need to do the first week again though the 2nd day and the third day I crapped out on the last set of pushups. When I did the test I did 22 pushups so that put me in the third column. I don't think I am that strong. Really more than 50 pushups in about 5 minutes??? So week 1 again for me. I'll get there.
So theres all that.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Cirriculum Vitae
So I'm constantly looking online for things I can do in my classroom. I was googling "Designing a curriculum" and all of these curriculum vitae cites came up. It made me think about where I am at right now. What is my curriculum vitae? What would go on it? I haven't the foggiest.
-Graduated from IUP with a 3.2
-Taught theater arts 2 years
-will hopefully be completing a MS in Educational Media Design and Technology
Right...um... I suppose that's okay. I am only 24.
On a slightly different note...I really enjoy teaching. I was hesitant to allow myself to like it. It was "the necessary diversion from acting and directing to pay the bills." But I really think this is what I am supposed to be doing. It's nice to have that kind of peace. I'm pretty sure that I would like to leave middle school for a high school program, but I really enjoy what I'm doing.
I was planning some kind of political tirade here but meh... I'm pretty sure Obama is going to win. The McCain camp has gotten me down. They just keep making dumb decisions. Both parties keep talking about each other instead of issues. These are the two best that America can hope for... seriously ... seriously? I am disappointed America. I expected better.
-Graduated from IUP with a 3.2
-Taught theater arts 2 years
-will hopefully be completing a MS in Educational Media Design and Technology
Right...um... I suppose that's okay. I am only 24.
On a slightly different note...I really enjoy teaching. I was hesitant to allow myself to like it. It was "the necessary diversion from acting and directing to pay the bills." But I really think this is what I am supposed to be doing. It's nice to have that kind of peace. I'm pretty sure that I would like to leave middle school for a high school program, but I really enjoy what I'm doing.
I was planning some kind of political tirade here but meh... I'm pretty sure Obama is going to win. The McCain camp has gotten me down. They just keep making dumb decisions. Both parties keep talking about each other instead of issues. These are the two best that America can hope for... seriously ... seriously? I am disappointed America. I expected better.
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