From one of my students, Jesseca about another one of my students who fell ill this week...

Tree Frog Science: "These stories show us that hope can go a long way and can be exhibited in many forms. Meredith deserves our hope and our support every waking moment, so I challenge you. All of you 8th graders, and any other griffins or friends alike, to take a stand and join me in folding a thousand cranes to send to Meredith to remind her that even though we are not physically with her, we are with her in spirit."

Let's fold cranes indeed.

Tears:

Science teacher: The Bambification of Dr. King: "Read 'Letter From a Birmingham Jail.' Take a walk outside and watch the grace and agony of life around us. Yes, it's complicated. Life is complex, Bambi's just the celluloid illusion of a corporation that owns a good chunk of the airwaves today, including ABC. I'm betting you won't hear much about King's letter from jail Monday."

As always, do something that won't compute and practice resurrection.

Guilty!

Portrait of an INFP: "INFPs are usually talented writers. They may be awkard and uncomfortable with expressing themselves verbally, but have a wonderful ability to define and express what they're feeling on paper. INFPs also appear frequently in social service professions, such as counselling or teaching. They are at their best in situations where they're working towards the public good, and in which they don't need to use hard logic."

Prepping us for a cashless future...

"When they want you to buy something they will call you. When they want you to die for profit they will let you know. So, friends, every day do something that won't compute." - Wendell Berry

I joined Twitter in the summer of 2006 (when it was still called Twittr) and immediately fell in love. I encouraged all of my friends, colleagues and students to hop on board because I thought it would change the world and become a standard (like POP or IMAP email or HTML). Then I made a video in early 2007 called "How To Use Twitter" (that still ranks first for that term) because I was so hopeful about the platform's future. I was wrong. Twitter stayed proprietary. Twitter is now looking to monetize by leveraging user data with inserted ads and more cookie-based "optimization." The whole scenario is incredibly frustrating. The whole "social media" or web2.0 scene is blood-boiling to me because instead of creating open spaces (or a web), we're locking ourselves and our data down into proprietary walled gardens that are much more interested in making money by observing our behaviors to maximize "relevant" advertising than creating sustainable platforms for human development. So, I killed my Facebook, Google and Twitter accounts last night. Don't get me wrong... I don't blame them. Twitter, Facebook, Google, Apple etc are corporations. Corporations are inherently out for themselves and their stock holders. I blame myself for falling into the trap of shiny and nifty free/freemium services in exchange for my data and my online identity. I want my children and students to grow up in an era that includes an open web that isn't based on advertising or 3rd party cookie data mining. I'm doing what I can to make that happen.

I sincerely believe there is a coming backlash against Google/Facebook/Twitter style companies that have business models primarily based on advertising to user data with limited user control of that data:

Teens Want More Privacy Online Too | Fast Company: "A whopping 92% of teens surveyed believed they should be able to request the deletion of all their personal information held by a search engine, social network, or marketing company. "

The "Privacy Is Dead, Embrace Transparency" meme does have its valid points. Yet I don't hear many of the 13 and 14 year olds I teach (or the 15-18 year olds I've previously taught) sounding very comfortable with the idea of handing over their identities in order to have a social network. Instead, when I do get to approach the topic of sharing and transparency on places like Facebook, my teenage students frequently share the same concerns about their online identities, offline ramifications and uneasiness about advertising that I do (I'm 32). Even though the current crop of teens is "growing up digital," I have faith that they are not growing up swallowing the blue pill of tracking cookies.

Read the whole thing, it's worth the 4 minutes...

The Smart Set: The Metaphysics of Cutting Grass - August 5, 2010: "Perhaps I yearn too much to hear my echo in the world. Yes, occasionally, I do hear from a former student, several years out, that something I said or did has assumed some meaning in their lives. And certainly I understand that students are with me only for 50 minutes three times a week, and that the results of instruction oftentimes reveal their value only in the fullness of time. Still, I find it troubling when, over the course of a semester, I see no palpable impact; I begin to doubt myself, feel vaguely fraudulent. Thus the satisfaction I find in cutting grass: When I’ve finished, I can see, clearly see, a genuine accomplishment, a consequence of my contact, a change in the physical, ‘out there,’ external reality wrought by my expended effort."

Selfishly, I'll say exactly.

These are all my tweets. I stand by them:

Science teacher: Twitter is creepy: "We wield phenomenal power over students. We forget this at our (and our students') peril."

Caring is creepy. So is teaching, really. Life is pretty creepy if you think about it. Maybe I should stop being offended when Michael calls me creepy. Or maybe "...this is way beyond my remote concern of being condescending." Rock on.

Thomas and I have rebooted the Thinking Baptists podcast:

Thinking.FM - ThinkingFM - Thinking Baptists 10: Tent Pole in the Temple

Here is the mp3 (btw, when is someone going to make a good HTML 5 enabled podcast player? I don't want to waste time/resources on a Flash player since they aren't iOS supported and you can't play them on iPhones or iPads in the browser). We'll be doing the show on a weekly basis (looks like Monday or Tuesday night) again, so head over to the still-developing Thinking.FM site and grab the RSS feed if you'd like to subscribe. We should be back in iTunes shortly. I'll keep you posted.

You all realize you're just egging these folks on by making videos, tweets, etc right? I know it's good for smiles and yells (or clicks if you're a "news" org), but as a Baptist with a couple of Seminary degrees under my belt, it always frustrates me to see the level of Biblical (and religious) illiteracy on both sides. Of course Jesus didn't want us to fear "Him" or him. Of course these people have a vested political and financial interest. The issues of "righteousness," "sin," "love" and especially God have been debated by intelligent, compassionate and level-headed folks for millenia. So let's do our best to create an intelligent citizenry that realizes the ever-present existence of extremism in all cases. Confronting these folks and giving them more exposure is just silly. Thomas and I will be doing a podcast tomorrow. You all should listen. Then you should all do this.