More on education and politics

Tim Connolly and Rep. Jim McGovern

The other day, Rep. Jim McGovern spoke at our WISE politics and media class. Tim Connolly, communications director for Worcester County D.A. Joseph Early, Jr., is leading the class. McGovern took questions for the full 90 minutes. As you might expect, topics ranged widely from Worcester politics to the pile of rubble that is the Washington political process. “If you wanted to chose any time in history to be president,” said McGovern, “this is not the time you would choose.” (Ref The Onion’s on-point headline in November 2008, Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job .)

We talked redistricting. More than half of his district is new to him, now anchored to the west by Amherst and Northampton. (I corrected him on the pronunciation of Amherst, with a silent h. The townspeople notice such things.) The discussion about education included the usual topics of improving STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) as we try to prepare young people for jobs in the emerging green economy and medical technology.

In a bit of topic drift, we noted that a 20% turnout, coupled with Joe Perry’s 48% plurality, means than fewer than 10% of Worcester voters chose their new mayor. “We are ultimately responsible for whom we elect,” noted McGovern. By comparison, 40% of Fitchburg electorate voted. They re-elected Lisa Wong as mayor.

In addition to the usual concerns about civic detachment, the class agreed that civics should also be included in any education reform.

I know that it’s comparing apples and dump trucks to relate my personal educational experiences with the practices and people of these times. There are a few dynamics about growing up, however, that are somewhat enduring. So, here are a couple of points:

• I loved history, social studies, and political science. I even got an award as best social studies student in my graduating class. My first college course, taken when I was 16, was political science. I grew up in a household where both parents voted regularly, where my mother campaigned for Ed Brooke as senator.
  I didn’t vote until I was 30.
• There were several classes – Shakespeare in freshman English, shop, and gym, notably – that caused me not only not to learn the subjects but also to hate them later in life. Part of it was bad teaching, more of it was due to an inept student forced to display his ineptitude for the world to see.

These are notes of caution about what we can expect from education of any type, be it our public schools or even a parent to a child. We can give skills and knowledge, knowing that some of that will land on fertile ground and some will land on the rocks. The skill of the teacher and the aptitude of the student are the major factors here.

Much, much harder, though, it teaching people how to care when they don’t. Even if we can identify root causes and remove those impediments, our successes are less than hoped for. It’s pretty easy for people who are passionate about a topic to share why they’re excited. The stories that are most interesting and, I think, most instructive, are the ones where someone once didn’t care and now does. What happened? Is there anything transferable from those life lessons?

I voted for the first time because I was friends with people who were active in politics and who voted. The friendship preceded the act of voting. (This, by the way, is why social networks can be so compelling.) It’s not about trust in the political arena or in the classroom, perhaps, but in the coffee shops and living rooms and other social places, where change happens. I voted not because I trusted the politicians so much as I trusted my friends.

That third place

The stuff that shows up on the Intertubes over the weekend seems to address more social issues than technical ones. Political topics sometimes get stirred up by events in the nation and world and by the Sunday morning talk shows. Mostly, though, the articles, blog posts, and tweets tend to show how people are living their lives.
One post, Why Teens Don’t And Won’t Tweet, gave a view about social networking that’s lost in the breathless rush to the Next New Thing. Twitter isn’t useful to teens because teens, for the most part, want to hang out with their friends. Facebook gives them that. Twitter is something else. It can be a way to hang out with your friends, but that’s not really what it’s designed to do best. Twitter is about broadcasting to the world, giving everyone a chance to hear what you can say in 140 characters or less. Again, teens generally don’t want to talk at everyone, even if it sometimes seems like that. They want to talk with their friends, hear their friends, trade inside jokes, and experiment.
Facebook becomes that important “third place” in their lives, a place that while often overlapping with home and school, is something essentially different, something close. Nearly 30 years ago, Ramon Oldenburg and Dennis Brissett authored a key analysis of American culture titled The third place. In it, Oldenburg and Brissett describe an America that is increasingly time-bound. “Most individuals, except in unusual situations, seem able to estimate the time of day within 15 or 20 minutes when they are at home or at work,” they write. In the third places, time easily gets away from you.
The third places can get wild as people step out of their typical roles and often play against them. 

Often third place participation is loud and boisterous. It is reassuring to observe that the average person, given the opportunity to let off steam, rarely will be vulgar, obnoxious, or spiteful in the presence of his companions.

Yes, people can appear to behave badly, but it’s relatively rare for people to cross that line into bullying. (If abusive behavior was the norm or even something frequent, Facebook wouldn’t have a half billion users.)
The authors wax wistful, often idealizing the purpose and performance of these third places, but they’re onto something.

Third places provide enabling, not escapist, experiences for their inhabitants.They are a forum for “play” in a society interfused with a stubborn commitment to work and purposiveness. Association in third places envelopes individuals in a temporary world within their ordinary worlds.

More on Twitter followers

So, I get an email saying that ValBloomberg is following me on Twitter. Getting a new Twitter follower is sometimes a good thing, so I click the link to learn more about my new friend.

I learn that it’s a local person, which is a good thing.

via ValerieBloomberg (ValBloomberg) on Twitter

I click the link to check the person’s web site.

Aw, come on. At least fill the placeholder text on your blog home page.

via brenaris-bloomberg.com

And, on your About page,*really* don’t leave the placeholder text there.

via About : brenaris-bloomberg.com

Look, if you want to be taken seriously as a social networking force, show like you care.