Jan/09©Chris Farley
Questions
What does it say about a country when a fairly elected senator is told that he won’t be seated, but a senator appointed by a likely felon is?
What does it say about the power of religion over reason when people put bumper stickers that say, “Wherever I stand, I stand with Israel” on their car? Are people so blind to the reality that nothing is black and white?
Does the fact that a president is much freer to make good, if not politically popular decisions when he doesn’t have to be reelected mean we should reevaluate our electoral system?
Is it possible to defend freedom and liberty by taking it away? How far down that path can one go before there’s no freedom or liberty left to defend? Once one freedom or liberty is taken away and is in some way philosophically justified, is there anything to prevent any remaining freedoms or liberties from being taken away?
What does it say about society when MTV feels the way to save itself is to add 16 new reality shows to its lineup? If they go bankrupt, should the CEO fall through a trapdoor in the platform, have to live on an island for a few months, or be made to eat a live scorpion?
If all information is meant to be free (as some proponents of repealing copyright legislation argue), then what incentive will publishers and creators of everything from web content to music to books to movies have to continue creating new things? Wouldn’t there be much less quality information?
If new media is the future, why is old media still the gold standard, even for bloggers?
If the war on terror and Islamic extremism is so important, why are we only partially engaged? Are we just prolonging an end? Don’t we have to decide if we’re completely committed or just dangling our feet in the water? Is the only way to end this either to leave or take control of every country harboring Islamic extremists?
Would it be a good idea to return the electoral college to its intended use and have individual voters vote for a trusted individual to vote on their behalf, instead of voters voting for electors who they know will vote for a certain candidate? The average voter isn’t well informed, so doesn’t it make sense to distance them?
Why do we ignore Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations, but Bush Administration officials are quick to point out that part of the reason for invading Iraq was their human rights violations?
How can someone have a 69.4% job approval rating before they’ve actually taken the job?
Just a few questions. I’m sure there’ll be more. Let me know what you think in the comments.
Jan/09©Chris Farley
Pre-Macworld Thoughts
Since the iPhone was announced at the historic Jobs keynote in 2007, the Apple community has swelled to several times its previous size. We now expect a great deal from an Apple keynote: a new product release isn’t good enough – we expect to be amazed. And it just isn’t a quintessential keynote with Steve Jobs and his “one more thing.” I think it has been for those reasons that the past few keynotes have lacked the magic that they once had.
This keynote (for me, at least) promises to be better than any keynote for a while. The Apple community doesn’t have high expectations. We have a vague idea of what’s going to happen and we’re mostly saddened that this will be the last Apple Macworld keynote, but that’s very liberating. It’s no fun to have your expectations raised so high than anything short of a miracle is simply unacceptable.
So this year, I’m looking forward to Macworld. With no presumptions of amazing, shiny new products, I can just enjoy the show. Sure, I’ll miss Steve, but I’m excited about Macworld because it’ll be purely fun. And maybe Apple will surprise as all; you never know.
Jan/09©Chris Farley
The Ideal School
Whenever I think about how to solve the world’s problems (as I do frequently, with limited success), I realize that education is the most important tools to combat a plethora of issues. On a national scale, proper education would have, I believe, prevented the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Part of the blame for the crisis falls to consumers who accepted loans they shouldn’t have and lived beyond their means because they didn’t understand basic economics. Voters’ susceptibility to the various misinformation campaigns in the recent election (particularly those perpetrated against then-Senator Obama) underline how better education might focus voters better on real issues.
Then I thought more specifically about schools. My school does many things right, but like most students, I’m constantly thinking of ways things could be better. I eventually want to be a venture capitalist and, assuming I’m wildly successful (which is admittedly a lot to hope), I figure that I want to donate money to education.
So what would be in my ideal school? It would be an independent school (public education, at least at the moment, is fraught with complications) and the facilities would be state-of-the-art. Schools with amazing facilities, however, are not unique.
The standards for both students and teachers would have to be stringent, but at the same time I believe that teacher salaries should be very high. The culture of standardized testing in public education has reduced teachers there to babysitters instead of trained professionals. The ideal school would pay teachers like pros because they are pros. All contracts would be year-to-year. In the time I was in public school, I saw far too many teachers who worked hard until they got tenure. Job security should be tied to job performance.
Students should also have tough academic requirements. Schools are responsible for creating well-rounded people, but academics should always be the primary focus. In addition to disciplinary measures, the school should expel students for failing to meet academic standards. Students shouldn’t live under the constant threat of being expelled, but there are a few students in my grade who clearly do not live up to basic standards of academics. In the ideal school, they would be given the chance to improve and, if they didn’t, they’d be expelled.
Of course, it should be difficult to get in to the school to begin with. Ideally, an entrance exam would not only cover the subjects that you need to study for, it would include problems that require reasoning. It’s more important that people know how to think than it is that they remember things, particularly in a time when information is so easily obtained. Oxford and Cambridge do this really well. Admissions should also be blind – students shouldn’t be admitted because they’re likely high donors.
As far as the curriculum goes, ethical and moral reasoning should be featured prominently. Independent schools attract wealthy families and produce the next generation of important people. It’s important that ethics is introduced very early on. There’s a class at Harvard called “Justice” that would ideally be the model for the Upper School ethics curriculum. I also believe that writing should be a big part of the curriculum. My school’s most glaring curricular failing is not having a good writing program. We simply do not do enough writing and we don’t do enough long writing. Students should have to write papers of considerable length frequently. The result of the lax writing program has been students viewing writing as traumatic and poor writing quality.
Those are the few building blocks of an ideal school that I was able to brainstorm in a few minutes. My observations and conclusions are based on my time in both public and independent schools. My ideal school is based on my current school which is as close to ideal as possible. That said, there are always improvements to be made.
Happy 2009 everyone,
CF