Well if you ask me...

Should Everyone Learn to Code

Jeff Atwood, a programmer I respect a great deal, posted a thought provoking piece last week entitled “Please Don’t Learn to Code.” I’ve followed Jeff’s work and writing for many years. I normally agree with almost every word he writes, and I very much enjoy his sense of humor. On this particular point, I found myself agreeing and disagreeing all at the same time.

Two other bloggers whose work I’ve followed for just as long posted in follow up to Jeff’s post. As I read through Jeff’s post, the 200+ comments, the other two posts, and several other responses online, I found myself thinking very carefully about something which I thought I had decided long ago.

I’ve been teaching programming to high school students and directing technology education programs for K-12 students for many years. As a programmer, I always assumed the lessons learned by programming were valuable to all students. I’ve written curriculum and scheduled classes around that very idea. Programming teaches problem solving, and everyone, in my opinion, could stand to learn more about problem solving.

On the other hand, I agree that the recent flood of people learning to code following tutorials of one flavor or another is not all good. I frequently find myself explaining to clients and students that there is a difference between a programmer and a code monkey or script kiddie. My success as a programmer has come from my ability to speak real words to real people and translate problems into solutions and then those solutions into code. In many cases, I could let someone else write the code. It’s the solution that matters, the code just makes it happen.

This is why I take an academic approach to teaching computer science. I don’t care so much if my students intend to become programmers someday. I want them to learn the discipline in such a way that they understand what is going on. The goal is not for them to make something happen with a computer. The goal is for them to learn how to make something happen, AND to learn that they can make something happen, AND to learn that they can learn how.

I also agree that learning to write is even more important. I remind my students frequently that learning to communicate with people is more important than writing code. But if I have to choose sides, I’ll side with the dissenters.

In the comments, a lot of discussion centered around the plumbing analogy.

Look, I love programming. I also believe programming is important … in the right context, for some people. But so are a lot of skills. I would no more urge everyone to learn programming than I would urge everyone to learn plumbing. That’d be ridiculous, right?

Well, yes and no. The analogy is not a perfect one for a lot of reasons, but I would say that understanding what plumbers do is probably something we could all learn from too.

Bottom line for me is that everyone could learn something from trying to learn how to code. Perhaps not everyone can code, but they can try – and that is valuable.

Trying to learn programming can help one …

• learn problem solving and analytical thinking
• understand how computers work
• understand general computing and the danger of the war against it
• understand what programmers do

So, what do you think? Should everyone learn to code?

Hair Metal Mondays: Rainbow in the Dark

Rainbow in the Dark was the second single released by one of the greatest metal bands of all time – Dio – and is considered by many to be one of the greatest metal anthems of all time.

There is considerable debate about the meaning ( and quality ) of the lyrics, but very few question the song’s place in metal history. Even fewer question Ronnie James Dio’s status as one of the best frontmen in the history of heavy metal. Whenever we hear him at our house, someone always chimes in with “second greatest rock and roll singer of all time” ( second to Freddie Mercury ).

There are fans who believe the song is a “gay anthem” about a closet homosexual, perhaps Dio himself, perhaps a friend (Rob Halford). I think that interpretation is forced. In a 2005 interview with VH1, Ronnie James Dio stated that the lyrics were based on his feeling of isolation after having left Black Sabbath. I am not alone in thinking that the lyrics better fit the relationship Dio had with another former band – Rainbow.

When there's lightning
You know it always brings me down
'Cause it's free and I see that it's me
Who's lost and never found

I cry out for magic
I feel it dancing in the light
It was cold, lost my hold
To the shadows of the night

No sign of the mornin' comin'
You've been left on your own
Like a rainbow in the dark
A rainbow in the dark

Do your demons
Do they ever let you go?
When you've tried, do they hide deep inside?
Is it someone that you know?

You're just a picture
You're an image caught in time
We're a lie, you and I
We're words without a rhyme

There's no sign of the mornin' comin'
You've been left on your own
Like a rainbow in the dark
Just a rainbow in the dark
Yeah

When I see lightning
You know it always brings me down
'Cause it's free and I see that it's me
Who's lost and never found

Feel the magic
I feel it floating in the air
But it's fear and you'll hear
It calling you beware
Look out

There's no sight of the mornin' comin'
There's no sign of the day
You've been left on your own
Like a rainbow
Like a rainbow in the dark
Yeah, yeah

You're a rainbow in the dark
Just a rainbow in the dark
No sign of the mornin'
You're a rainbow in the dark

There is a Storm Coming

Take Shelter

Is anyone seeing this?

Roger Ebert calls this film “masterful filmmaking” and I could not agree more. I am such a fan of Michael Shannon and this is one of his finest performances. The film expertly examines every man’s fear of losing the “good life” he has. Highly recommended.

Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol

Next time, I get to seduce the rich guy.

Not as good as the first or the third films, but a great film and a lot of fun to watch. There are several sequences that are perfect action film. There are a lot of references to the third film, so I wished I had re-watched that first ( which I would not mind doing since I loved that one ), but it didn’t have any effect on my understanding of this film. If you like fun adventure films, I highly recommend this one.

Captain America: The First Avenger

I can do this all day

A great film. Like most startups in the genre, it was slow at the beginning during the set up of the hero, but the action picks up midway through and it turns out to be an entertaining film. Nothing is better than Captain America fighting the Nazis.

Thor

I have no plans to die today.

A few action sequences made this fun to watch at times, but it didn’t really work on any other level. A bad film.

Flushing Friday: It’s Fun Again

I was having a conversation with a fellow Mets fan the other day ( they are few and far between here in Phillies territory ) and I mentioned how it really is fun to be a Mets fan again. There is, no doubt, still some trepidation about their performance. It seems every time they lose a game, or even play sloppily, I begin to wonder what might happen next. Worse, when they lose two in a row, I start to wonder if this is the beginning of their certain plunge into last place. Aside from that, it is fun to be a Mets fan.

Mets fans, more than fans of most teams it seems, have learned the old baseball adage “there’s always next year.” But this year feels like it could be the year. Do I think our teem is destined for a world championship based on what I’ve seen so far? Of course not, but it’s fun to be a Mets fan again. I’ve enjoyed watching the games, reading the box scores, and once again I feel like there is hope for a winning season.

A few losses this week, a bit of second guessing by the fans, and the “non issue” between David Wright and Terry Collins has made for a week not quite as positive as last week, but the Mets are still performing offensively. If we can keep that up, it should be a good season.

Inerrancy and Infallibility

Inerrancy and infallibility are difficult topics to address in a single blog post, but it is a necessary place to begin the weekly posts I promised last week on the intersection of faith and science. Fortunately, my intent is not to provide an exhaustive treatment on the subject. I simply want to state my position on the issue, not because my view is what is important, but as a foundation for future posts.

Though my religious background is varied, it is decidedly evangelical. As such, I had very little question about the inerrancy and infallibility of the Scripture. I no longer consider myself an evangelical, and many would consider my views “liberal” but I am still rather conservative in my view of Scripture ( or maybe I’m the only one who thinks so ).

Let’s start by trying to define both inerrancy and infallibility.

There seems to be some debate among theologians about the terms. I always understood that inerrancy meant that the Bible did not contain errors, and that infallibility meant that it could not contain errors. I was never particularly pleased with those definitions. Today, most understand the terms as follows.

Inerrancy – Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact. ¹

Infallibility – Scripture is completely trustworthy as a guide to salvation and the life of faith and will not fail to accomplish its purpose.

Essentially, the Bible is infallible if all of its claims about faith and practice are true. It is inerrant if all of its claims, including those referring to history and science, are accurate.

For the purposes of my posts on science and faith, I have no issue accepting both the infallibility and inerrancy of Scripture. I would point out that in my opinion, inerrancy still allows for proper interpretation of Scripture. For example, when the Bible claims that a bat is a bird, I don’t see that as proof of errancy. Tim Challies has a great series of post that examines passages like that ( this is a good place to start ).

(NOTE: I am not convinced on the issue of inerrancy, but for the purposes of this series, I am going to agree that Scripture is inerrant and I will attempt to use only arguments that would not violate that assumption.)

What do you think about inerrancy and/or infallibility? Do I have it all wrong?

Next week, I plan to address the topic of Special Revelation vs. General (Natural) Revelation.

Thought Crimes

I’ve never really thought about this before, but hate crime penalties really amount to punishments for thoughts. Shouldn’t the law be concerned with actions and deeds, not with thoughts?

I know a lot of people think judging someone’s motives in a hate crime is no different than classifying a murder as premeditated, but really, I’ve never been a big fan of that either, much like I’ve never liked “not guilty by reason of insanity” or of crimes of passion or similar qualifications of crimes. Sure, there are mitigating circumstances, and I agree flexibility in sentencing is desirable, but a crime is a crime. All the mitigation leads to a system that is easily “played” and one that consistently frustrates everyone.

A while back I wrote about a young man who ran a stop sign and killed someone in a traffic accident. People were calling for a charge of murder. I could not disagree more! The kid didn’t kill anyone, he ran a stop sign. Why should he be charged with murder when someone else may have run that same stop sign just minutes before and been charged only with a traffic violation, and what about the many who run the stop sign every day with no penalty at all. My house sits on the corner of a four way stop, so I can attest to the number of people who simply ignore stop signs. The number is **much** higher than I ever imagined.

I know why people want this kind of treatment. Running a stop sign is a very risky thing – not to be taken lightly. Someone could be killed. So, perhaps the law should punish it severely. Perhaps the penalty for running a stop sign should be almost as steep as the penalty for murder. That would be “fair,” but it doesn’t make sense since most people who run stop signs don’t kill anyone. Seems like that would be going overboard. As sad as this may be, the other driver in that case was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Life is full of tragedy. I wish there was some legal recourse, but in my mind, there is not.

If we take the same idea and apply it to hate crimes …

A lot of people hate, but not everyone kills people over it. We can’t punish people for hating. We know that. We live in a free society where we don’t want to be punished for our thoughts and feelings. So, the only way to handle this kind of very sad tragedy is to more severely punish the killer when it can be proven that he acted out of hate, right?

Wrong! Where do we draw the line, and who decides what is a good reason to kill someone?

I detest bigotry. If someone like me, someone who hates bigotry, were to kill a bigot – out of hate – perhaps that would be a good service. What if that killer were willing to take the penalty for killing the bigot in the name of the greater good. If a case like this were left to the jury, many jurors might side with the killer. And that, in my mind, is the problem. Instead of deliberating on the demonstrable facts of the case, the jury is left to judge someone by his or her motives. We simply should not go down this road.

The law needs to be about what I did or did not do – not about why I did what I did or what I was thinking when I did it or why I wanted to do it or what I might have read or listened to that made me think it was necessary to do. Those things should not be a matter of law. Those things are my business.

Keep your laws out of my head.

Laws should be written to protect one individual from the individuality of others. Laws should be written specifically to keep me from taking away your freedoms. Murder is a great example of a necessary law. Killing you is against the law because it infringes on your freedom – in a big way. Why I kill you, on the other hand, isn’t a matter of law.

Hair Metal Mondays: Something to Believe In

On Friday, I posted that I would start doing some fun stuff on Fridays on my blog. One of the things I mentioned was Hair Metal Friday. The idea was inspired by my favorite room at TurntableFM – hair metal fridays @ bracketlabs

I’ve decided to change things up and make this a Monday feature. I’m not ready to commit to doing it every week, but I suspect I will want to do it more often than Fridays will allow. Monday works best in my schedule for a lot of reasons.

So, we’ll kick off Hair Metal Mondays with the song I posted on Friday – Something to Believe In by Poison.

Poison is the quintessential hair metal band, and this song is one of my favorite songs of all time. The story goes that Bret Michaels received a call on Christmas Eve 1990 and was told his best friend, a Poison bodyguard, had died alone in his Palm Springs hotel room. Friends say went into hysterics and locked himself in his hotel room until he finished this song. The song also touches on other issues – a Vietnam vet struggling with his time at war and his reception at home ( believed to be inspired by one of Bret’s cousins ), televangelists ( Jim Bakker is shown in the video ), and the gap between the rich and the poor.

Like any man my age, all of the issues are familiar to me, but the song really hits home for me in the first and last verses. The disparity between the rich and the poor, and the degree to which the rich take advantage of the poor – even in the name of God – is something I will never be able to comprehend.

Well I see him on the TV
Preachin' 'bout the promise lands
He tells me believe in Jesus
Steals the money from my hands

Some say he was a good man
Lord I think he sinned, yeah

Twenty-two years of mental tears
Cries a suicidal Vietnam vet
Who fought a losing war on a foreign shore
To find his country didn't want him back

Their bullets took his best friend in Saigon
Our lawyers took his wife, his kids, no regrets
In a time I don't remember
In a war he can't forget

He cried "Forgive me for what I've done there
Cause I never meant the things I did"

Chorus:
And give me something to believe in
If there's a Lord above
And give me something to believe in
Oh, Lord arise

My best friend died a lonely man
In some Palm Springs hotel room
I got the call last Christmas Eve
And they told me the news

I tried all night not to break down and cry
As the tears rolled down my face
I felt so cold and empty
Like a lost soul out of place

And the mirror, mirror on the wall
Sees my smile it fades again

Chorus

Sometimes I wish to God I didn't know now
The things I didn't know then
Road you gotta take me home

Solo

I drive by the homeless sleeping on a cold dark street
Like bodies in an open grave
Underneath the broken old neon sign
That used to read Jesus Saves

A mile away live the rich folks
And I see how they're living it up
While the poor they eat from hand to mouth
The rich drinkin' from a golden cup

And it just makes me wonder
Why so many lose, and so few win

Chorus

You take the high road
And I'll take the low road

Yes Sometimes I wish I didn't know now
The things I didn't know then

And give me something to believe in, yeah

Fridays

I’ve been thinking a lot about changing things up around here.

One new change I wrote about earlier in the week is posting weekly about the intersection of and potential conflict between science and faith.

Another thing I thought I would do is change up what I do on Fridays, Sundays, and Mondays. For quite a while I’ve not actually written anything on those days, but I’ve occasionally posted a collection of those links. I still plan to post those (well, at least my “two cents each” links), but I’m not going to reserve certain days for it.

So, I was looking for something on the lighter side to do on Fridays – family of fun. I’ve decided on several possibilities and I think I’ll switch between them from time to time.

Today, let’s do a little of each.

Family Fridays

I’m headed to NYU tomorrow to help Billy pack up his things and bring him back home for the summer. He is headed to Germany in June for a couple of weeks, and Becky has a couple of trips planned to. We’re looking forward to a good summer.

Flushing Fridays

How ’bout them Mets! We swept the sillies for the first time since 2006, and we are the winningest team in NY right now.

Football Fridays

Still looking forward to a great season for Gang Green. J! – E! – T! – S! Jets! Jets! Jets!

Hair Metal Fridays

Framing the Issue? You Got that Right!

I try to ignore National Review Online, I really do!

But I stumbled onto some real nonsense today and I can’t let it go.

How we talk about an issue affects how we think about it. Consider the language we use about marriage. A Fox News headline reads: “North Carolina voters take up amendment banning gay marriage.”

So what’s the problem? Framing. Today’s vote in North Carolina is not about banning anything. Nothing will be made illegal as a result. In all fifty states across the nation two people of the same sex can live together, have their religious community bless their union, and have their workplace offer them various joint benefits — if the religious communities and workplaces in question so desire. Many liberal houses of worship and progressive businesses have voluntarily decided to do so. There’s nothing illegal about this. There’s no ban on it.

What’s at issue is whether the government will recognize such unions as marriages — and then force every citizen and business to do so as well. This isn’t the legalization of something, this is the coercion and compulsion of others to recognize and affirm same-sex unions as marriages.

On Sunday, Vice President Joe Biden declared his support of same-sex marriage: “I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly, I don’t see much of a distinction — beyond that.”

But this isn’t really about civil rights or civil liberties. No one is suggesting the state deny people who self-identify as gay or lesbian their rights to free speech, religious liberty, free association, or any other traditional civil liberty. The question is whether a new “civil right” — the right to have the government and private citizens recognize your same-sex sexual partnership as a marriage — ought to be created, redefining marriage in the process.
North Carolina, Biden, and Same-Sex Marriage

So many things bother me about this article that it is hard to know where to start.

First of all, don’t pretend it is only about the rights and benefits of marriage. Sure, that has something to do with it, but if that were the only issue, I think we would see more creative solutions. Why not two gay couples of different sexes teaming up to live together in sham marriages? The answer is obvious – the issue is about proper recognition, and the right to grow up, fall in love, and get married. The convention of marriage means something to people – it’s not just about legality.

In addition, the argument is ludicrous when applied like this. If this is a valid argument against gay marriage, why not apply it across the board?

No one would deny that marriages are about love, but notice what Biden has left out: children. One of the most important things marriage does is attach a man and a woman, as husband and wife, to become father and mother to any children their union brings forth. Marriage is one of the best anti-poverty programs for kids that exist, but it does this because mothering and fathering are two different phenomena, and kids need both the attention and role modeling of their mothers and fathers.
North Carolina, Biden, and Same-Sex Marriage

The clear implication is that a “real” marriage is between a man and a woman who plan to raise children. So, why do we recognize couple who cannot have children – and those who choose not to?

We could carry it even further. I firmly believe that a common faith should be part of a solid marriage, yet I don’t feel “coerced” into “recognizing” marriages between people of vastly different faiths. I know that people have different opinions than I do, and I recognize their rights to marry whomever they wish.

Perhaps gay marriage was not technically banned yesterday, but it was effectively.

The “Silly” Things

My life has been shaped by many great and important things – my parents, my siblings, my wife, my kids, my high school economics teacher, the Bible and other great books, etc, but more often than not, the most dramatic positive changes to my attitude and behavior have come from the silliest of things. Things that might seem insignificant to others. In some cases, even things I detest.

I thought it might be interesting to write about some of these things in the coming weeks.

So, let’s start with a list.

• Twitter
• Amway
• My Bike
• Star Wars
• KickStarter
• The Walkman
• Video Games
• Seinfeld (TV)
• The Game of Risk
• The New York Mets
• The Apprentice (the TV show)
• The Clash, U2, and The Police

What are some of the silly things that have changed you?

Science and Religion

I recently found myself in another debate about the age of the earth, and it occurred to me that I should write a series of blog posts on the subject.

I know some who think the debate isn’t worth having, but I disagree. I agree with fellow Christians that it’s not an essential “salvation issue” but I think it does raise questions – important ones – about the nature of reality, the reliability of science, and our ability to believe or know anything.

I know some will think I’m overstating it, but I firmly believe the debate over the Earth’s age is a symptom of a bigger problem.

So, I’ve decided to post weekly on a topic related to science and religion. Right now I plan to do these in series, with the first being about the age of the Earth. Obviously, I may stray into other issues of faith and practice – politics, economics, ethics, etc. We’ll see how it goes.

I haven’t decided on a particular day for this, but he plan for someday next week is “Possible Interpretations for Genesis Chapter One” (and maybe I’ll do chapter two also).

Duck Duck Go

I’ve been using DuckDuckGo as my default search engine for several weeks now and I am very happy with it.

I started using it mostly because I was displeased with the relevancy of my Google results. My skill at crafting the right query is certainly not perfect, but I’m sure that is not the problem. I understand Boolean logic and I’ve been keeping up with how to craft Google queries since Google launched. The problem is NOT my searching skills.

I stayed with DuckDuckGo so far, for three reasons …

1. My results are better. I do still check Google and even Bing occasionally to make sure I’m not missing anything.
2. Their privacy policies!
3. I like the new kid on the block.

Today I stumbled onto DuckDuckHack. Now I am even more excited about the direction they are going. It’s not world changing stuff, but I like the community driven nature of it all.

I’m planning to work on a few plugins myself.

The Wall of Shame

This month’s 12er challenge was to write 750 words a day at 750words.com. I’d seen the site a while back and never tried using it. I write almost every day and over the course of the day I certainly compose more than 750 words, but I’ve never tried to adopt the practice of “morning pages.” So, I decided to do it as April’s 12er – and I enjoyed it very much.

April was the best 12er month yet. Not in terms of my commitment. That honor goes to January. To date, I have stuck to my January goal every day except for February 1st. In April, I missed four days. I’m not sure, but I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I’ve always wanted to write a substantial amount every single day and for the first 25 days of April, I did that – and now I know I can do it every day.

It was very valuable long term. About halfway through the month, I wrote this as part of my entry for the day.

I’m finding this 750 words thing very valuable. I am not sure how happy I am with the exporting of ideas thing, but I like the exercise of writing^*. I have found, though, that I find myself looking for ways to pad my writing, which is the exact opposite of the way I’ve always learned to write. On the one hand, I love the ” just write it down and think about it later approach ” ( I’ve always tried to write like that anyway ) . On the other, I find myself writing more ” on purpose ” which is , I think , a very bad habit. I also find myself thinking of ways to cheat too much – like surrounding punctuation marks , with spaces so they count as a word . ( see how I am doing it here ) . and that is another trick – not using contractions. I tend to use contractions when they are natural, but I think I normally use fewer than most writers ( I do not know , how would I know ), but I find myself deciding not to use them here because they only count as one word ( unless of course , I add spaces – then they count as three .

Seems like a lot of smiley in there, but they counted as one word each.

It was a great month. I loved every minute of it – except for Friday morning when I woke up and realized I had not written on Thursday. I was so disappointed I missed the next three days.

In addition to the positive of keeping up with the 12er, there is a lot about the website I really like. I signed up for the monthly challenge in April, so now my name is on the Wall of Shame until I successfully do a whole month. I’m not sure that motivates anyone else, but it does me.

I also love the badges. They are interesting enough to have got my attention. I plan to earn all of them.

Actually, I am so keen on getting some of the badges that it almost caused a fight with my wife. She called one day just as I had started the writing. It was incredibly frustrating because I was not going for the before 9a.m. badge so I could have written any time. As a matter of fact , I had thought about it a couple of times, and then decided against it. Then I started – and she called. Long story – but she understood what I was trying to do. No big deal , crisis averted , writing done – no distractions ( or none longer than 3 minutes anyway ).

Finally, I thoroughly enjoy the emphasis on stats and metadata. The site analyzes your use of words, mood, etc. It’s a real blast. Highly recommended.

I did write this post yesterday, but I used 750words.com to write the first draft – so it’s not cheating. Is it?

* I use the sites export feature at the end of the month to save my writing. I also had planned to export every Monday and peruse the last week’s entries for ideas for my blog. This sentence was me wondering out loud if I liked that idea. In the end I did not. I’ve already found a more efficient way to harness the ideas.

Great Ideas – 4/30/2012

• Homepage

  Freerice.com – link

• Short term mobile phone storage for NYC students – link
• The Project – SFpark – link
• Here It Is, Your Lineup For Worst Company In America 2012! – The Consumerist – link
• Continuations : 45+10=1 hour (Getting Things Done) – link
• Israeli invention: Writing on sewage – link

• Fix UC: UC Student Investment Proposal – link

  Actually, I’m not sure this is such a great idea. Will colleges neglect programs that don’t contribute to the bottom line?

• The Book of Romans in 45 Tweets – Desiring God – link

see more great ideas

Great Sites – 4/29/2012

• Education

  Project Noah – link

• turntable – play music together – link

see more interesting sites

Two Cents Each – 4/27/2012

The Definitive Christian Review of The Hunger Games « YINKAHDINAY

"Was the violence gratuitous and overly graphic?  That depends what you’re measuring it against.  Compared to the Berenstain Bears or the Hardy Boys, yes, it was way over the top.  Compared to Ehud’s exploits in Judges, not so much." Very well said.

The devaluation of everything: The perils of panflation | The Economist

I never really thought about how all of this is a symptom of the same problem. It is happening in every area, and we don’t notice.

Spirit Airlines, Where "Dying Of Cancer" Equals "Not Following The Rules" – The Consumerist

I absolutely hate it when companies hide behind policies and the "if we do it for you …" defense. Policies exist to protect the airline from unpredictable loss, but they can be broken on a case by case basis. Give the guy his $197 back and get back to important business.

more

No More Bullies!

Teaching is hard. There are few things harder – and I can’t think of what they are.

The majority of teachers are good, decent, well-qualified people who care deeply about the students they teach. Then there are the bullies.

Today I watched a very disturbing video created by the single father of a ten year old boy named Akian. Akian has autism and struggles with a bit of anxiety related to his shared custody situation. I won’t try to tell you the story – you should watch the video and sign the petition yourself.

No More Bullies

I am furious and sad all at the same time. How any human being could treat a ten year old like this is beyond me. Forget that Akian has autism, he is a ten year old boy – a child! Boys and girls shouldn’t accept this kind of abuse at the hand of other children. The bullies in this case were adults, and teachers, and presumably, teachers trained to work with autistic children.

But the story gets worse. Only one of the “teachers” participating in the events detailed in the video was fired for her behavior. There is no excuse for this. None.

Part of the reason this upsets me so much is that I think there is more of this in schools then we choose to admit. I have written about education before, and I’ve admitted that I can’t really even pinpoint the problem, let alone propose a solution. I do know, however, that some bad teachers exist. I know because I’ve had bad teachers, my siblings had some bad teachers, my wife had some, my kids have, and most of all because I’ve been a bad teacher myself from time to time.

I had a teacher when I was in fourth grade who belittled us, told us we were bad, told us we were the problem, etc. I’m not talking about in a tough love kind of way either – we were put down and abused. It started early in the year too. In late November she started to use our Christmas party as motivation for our behavior. Eventually, she decided to cancel our party because “we didn’t deserve it.” Then on the day when all other classes were having parties, she brought in all kinds of treats from other parties so that she could eat them in front of us.

I know some of you will not even be able to believe a story like that, but what’s worse, if you ask me, is that many of you will have no trouble believing it because you know someone who has lived through a similar situation. It’s sad to think that adults who choose education as a career, train for years to teach, turn out to behave like this.

Children should not be put through this kind of abuse. Bullying students should never be tolerated – not at all. As a matter of fact, teachers who are in the same room with bullies should be reprimanded as well. If we held each other accountable, this would not happen.

I know this is one of those stories where some teachers will speak up and say things like “we don’t know the whole story” or “you don’t know what it’s like working with autistic kids” Nonsense! We know the whole story. The story is about behavior. I don’t care how the teacher feels, I care how she acts. We all get frustrated and irritated, but most of us don’t take it out on innocent ten year old boys.

Tweeting the Sermon

Today I stumbled onto “Don’t Tweet that Sermon!” by Tim Challies. I have to admit that when I first read the title I thought “yawn, we’ve discussed this before” but the discussion in the comments turned out to be very thought provoking.

I do want to comment briefly on all of his points, but first I want to point out what this tells me about the power of blogging. Though Tim is a gifted a thinker and writer, the real impact of his blog comes from the engagement around his thoughts. I am not taking credit away from him at all – quite the opposite. He was the one to realize that starting this conversation on his blog so that his readers could contribute, was a smart move indeed. It doesn’t matter that others have weighed in on this. It doesn’t matter that Tim himself might have covered some of this before (I’m not sure he has). The point is that we can all learn something from the discussion about it.

Tweeting suggests that the sermon is as much for the global church as the local church.

There was quite a bit of discussion in the comments about this one and a call for Tim to explain what he meant exactly. I can’t pretend to know what he was thinking entirely, but I know why I tend to agree with this point – so I’ll explain that. I am a big fan of the Internet and the larger communities that introduces for us, but I am also a big believer in local church (and the local community in other areas). My pastor discerns a word from God for my local church (not God inspired – actually working on a post about that too). My responsibility is to listen to that word. If I’m listening to some other pastors message, I might miss “mine.” In order to respect that dynamic, I need to seriously question whether it is smart to tweet my message out to others – especially during the sermon.

Several commenters have asked about how this principal relates to sermon podcasts? Good question, and it leads nicely to where I disagree with this point. While a sermon might be intended for the local church, it certainly will contain truths applicable to the universal one, at least it should.

Tweeting changes your focus from yourself to others.

This is the biggest point, by far, in my opinion. As a matter of fact, this is a major problem with social media in general. We become journalists who simply report the events around them instead of simply learning from them, engaging in them, and/or learning from them. At least one comment points out that social media didn’t create this problem – “my neighbor should hear this sermon” – but it certainly adds to the temptation. This is exactly why I don’t tweet sermons, even though I have been documenting the events of my life and my thoughts on things on and off for more than fifteen years.

Tweeting reduces a sermon to it’s tweetability.

A real danger, to be sure, but I see both sides to this issue. Reducing an idea to 140 characters can be a good exercise to help crystalize an idea.

Tweeting is two-way.

There are several issues at play here …

1. Discussion of the sermon with others – a very good thing in my opinion.
2. Discussion of the sermon with others DURING the sermon – not a good thing.
3. Discussion of other things. This is the reason I only open my email twice a day – there are a lot of distractions in there.

Tweeting distracts people around you.

I’ve always been concerned about this, but the reality is that people learn to live with distractions. I’ve attended churches where children making noise were just the norm. At first it bothers people, but most people learn to adjust to that as part of that community. I have no problem with an environment where we trust our fellow congregants to engage in tweeting or whatever and not be distracted by it.

May The Odds Ever Be In Your Favor

Minutes after finishing the book, I saw the Hunger Games last week.

The movie was not as good as the book. Of course, right? The movie never is.

I enjoyed it. Going into the movie I had read a little about the cast and was looking forward to seeing which actors played which characters. I knew Jennifer Lawrence was Katniss, and I’d seen on IMDB that Elizabeth Banks was Effie, and I had guessed (and my daughter confirmed) that Lenny Kravitz was playing Cinna. Just as we were seated to see the film, it occurred to me that Harrelson would probably portray Haymitch. I like the casting choices, but noone turned in a briliant performance if you ask me – not even Lawrence, who I think is or will be a real movie star.

The movie was shot too “tightly” for my tastes. Combine that with the fast camera moves and our ” close to the front ” possition in the theater and I was a littls sick from all the action and motion.

Otherwise, it was good. I’m not sure why they added the riot in district 11, or why they changed the details of the mocking jay pin, but I can live with both, I guess.

The bigget plus of the movie, if you ask me, is that it really drives home how much the culture of the games resembles our culture of fast food and reality TV. The point is not completely lost in the book, but seeing the games on the big screen moderated by a flamboyant, purple-haried Stanley Tucci made it all seem so real – yet it made the gamesmaker part of it less believable.

I read a review of the movie by Roger Ebert and he mentioned that his conservative friends interpret the wealth vs. poverty in the film differnetly than he does. They see the capital as the elitists and the “good guys” of the districts as the tea party people. I don’t see it that way at all and one scene added in the movie (fairly, I think) reinforces my interpretation.

President Snow (Donald Sutherland) is meeting in a garden with Head Gamemaker Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley) and he explains that the games have a victor because it gives the people hope. The parallel to the Republican rhetoric is astounding to me. If we can convince poor destitute peole that they have the opportunity to one day make it or become a sucess or have a lot of money, than we have them convinced our agenda is a good one. It’s a sinister thing and I wish it would stop.

Sure, America is, and has always been, the land of opportunity. That’s great. But let’s face it – we don’t all have the same opportunity. Perhaps theoreticaly we do – but not in practice , not in the real world. In the real world, some people have more opportunity than others. Some are born rich, or good looking, or white. Some are born with no talent, or possibiltiy for rising above their circumstances. To ignore this reality is unfair – to everyone.

I cannot pretend to understand how to deal with this reality – but I know one way not to deal with it. We can’t ignore it. We can’t pretend something else is the case. We can’t simply convince those who have no chance, that they do have a chance – just because we want them to support us.

It all reminds me of multi level marketing. Convince enough people that they can make it so they prop up a system that relies on them “at the bottom” so those “at the top” succeed – and continue to succeed. It’s a terrible system. It’s unfair and it preys on the week. I used to hear an Amway speaker who said “we need poor people” (to clean toilets and such) and I’ve hear my share of Christans remind me that even Jesus said “the poor will always be with you.” If you ask me, these are just excuses to turn a blind eye to injustice.

Anyway, it wasn’t a great movie but it got me on a rant here, didn’t it?

*The movie was approved by the author of the book and I’ve been told that this scene is in harmony with the events of the subsequent books

Two Cents Each – 4/20/2012

Making simple connections

ESR makes several excellent points here. Our connectedness in the 21st century boggles the mind. His best point, if you ask me, is this – "Sometimes the most important connection of all is just knowing that a given thing is possible."

Freakonomics » Markets in the Air

Am I the only one who doesn’t really see the market here? Do I really need someone to watch my kids when I’m right there? I don’t really get it. And, yes, I have flown with kids – many, many times.

Climate and the culture war – The Washington Post

Something is really going on here when this debate reaches the level of religious fervor. I’m dumbfounded by the way this issue has risen to this level. It’s nonsensical.

The Rise of the New Groupthink – NYTimes.com

Very excellent points indeed. I see the value in collaboration and I especially think schools should not label all collaboration cheating (that doesn’t prepare them for the real world at all), but the danger on the other extreme is too much groupthink – no question about it. Solitude is more valuable than people realize.

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