A Teachable Moment – or Why I Love Defiance

24Nov/1010

A Teachable Moment – or Why I Love Defiance

The protests? The long lines? Outstanding in my book.

This Civil Disobedience is, frankly, just what the Doctor ordered. I love it.

Nothing quite like poking a finger in the Eye of Sauron.

I'll give you an example of what I mean.

A certain 13 year old I know is quite good at math. In fact, she is spookily good at it. It's a borderline Rainman sort of aptitude.

Her teacher became furious with her for doing her homework in pen instead of pencil. She reminded the child that her work ought be done in pencil. "Why," asked the child. "Because math homework is to be done in pencil," said the teacher. "Why," asked the child. The teacher should have seen she was being set up. But did not. "Because you can't erase ink." "What would I need to erase?" asked the child. "Mistakes," said the teacher. "But I don't make mistakes in math."

The child persisted in using pen. The teacher called a conference with the parents. The parents thought it was a funny situation. Unnecessary? Maybe. Good for this particular teacher? Absolutely.

Another lesson strikes me. It is something I have imparted to my children. I think it makes sense. It is this:

If someone pushes you, hassles you, or tries to intimidate you, tell them to stop. If they do not stop and persist in their behavior, issue another warning warning and let them know the repercussions you have in mind should they fail to leave you be. If they cannot help themselves still and you feel you must, by all means slug them. And, if the situation warrants slugging them, make sure to pop them in the nose. As hard as you are able.

I think I know where We The People are in the continuum... And we are not children. Quite the opposite is true.

Spare the rod, spoil the child. And our child is very fat and sassy indeed.

Long live the Spirit of Independence and contempt for "authority."

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As for my position on Airport Security: Profile first. Lower cost, more effective. If some are inconvenienced, I am okay with that... for safety's sake of course... which seems to permit all sorts of irreverent behavior.

Enoch_Root

Person with kids,a beautiful wife, a job. Catholic of the Latin Rite.

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Dan Collins
November 24th, 2010 - 12:24

Yes, that’s good advice. If you decide to hit someone, make as sure as possible that they won’t be getting up right away.

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Bob Reed
November 24th, 2010 - 12:36

You know, I had the very same trouble with doing math in Pen in college. My professors all came around after a couple of exams/quizzes, when they saw my work wasn’t a jumble of scratch-outs that would make an abstract artist jealous. The only exception was this Turk who taught a structures class which is a math intensive subject. He actually penalized me for using a pen! And the administration wouldn’t entertain my complaint about it, so I had to bend to his will or fail the course; I barely recovered from my point defecit to ace the grade-a metric that was important to me since I was paying my way through school.

And I agree with you about the civil disobedience protests to TSA screenings. It’s far better than the student in CA or the UK rioting over their tuition increases. And it’s time we reminded the tail that it doesn’t wag the dog!

They need to profile, a la Israel, and use the scanners/searches on the appropriate folks. I mean, for all the talk about the innefectiveness of the metal detectors, the underwear bomber’s flight originated in a foreign locale…

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Christopher Taylor
November 24th, 2010 - 14:04

In this case the proper response of the parents is to say “obey your teacher” because this little girl isn’t just learning math, she’s learning skills like obeying authorities and trusting people who are older and wiser.

No matter how good you are, everyone makes mistakes. The teacher was right.

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Enoch_Root
November 24th, 2010 - 14:28

Christopher – I hear what you are saying… sort of. Children should respect people who are worthy of respect. But they should be willing to question “why”. In fact, I would posit that challenging authority is important. Especially when “authority” is worthy of contempt (which is very often the case).

Do not think we did not instruct good child to obey her teacher. But the reasons we gave for that had to do with choosing battles wisely and had little to do with “trusting people who are older and wiser.”

In the case cited, the teacher – specifically her demonstrable inability to manage and history of making mountains of molehills indicated the real lesson here was for Teacher. Not for child.

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brendan
November 24th, 2010 - 15:06

I agree, very good advice, and authority must be challenged. I also think that you should call me Enoch so we can figure this stuff out.

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Dan Collins
November 24th, 2010 - 16:35

CALL BRENDAN!

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enoch_root
November 24th, 2010 - 17:34

Done. Picking him up at bus w Luke tonight.

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Dan Collins
November 24th, 2010 - 17:37

Thanks, Enoch.

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Adriane
November 24th, 2010 - 22:58

Pencil spears.

Pen doesn’t.

If you make a mistake when using a pen, there is white-out: liquid and roller-tape form both available.

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Meep
November 27th, 2010 - 06:39

Generally, teachers learned to leave me alone and let me do what I wanted [which was usually just to sit there reading books if I wasn't interested in the lecture]. As long as they did that, I would leave everybody alone.

The moment teachers started messing with me, I messed back, and it was in a way they -really-didn’t-like- — to wit, showing to everybody around how stupid the teacher was in a way they couldn’t complain about. I was always polite, and behaved “properly”.

Well, that was in K-12. In college, I was far more pointed because I really shouldn’t have to put up with bullshit in a physics class.

By the way, there’s a compromise writing implement: the Sharpie Liquid Pencil [just search for it] I’ve been recommending this to all my professional exam students.

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