Stop being so damn lazy!
The first action of beingness is to assume a viewpoint. The second action is to extend from viewpoint points to view, which are dimension points. Thus space is created. Not a tough concept. Very neat and tidy logic, easy for any high school freshman, with any investigation skills, to verify with reality and find true. Yet during the course of one day, one can encounter such a lack of real inquisitiveness as to prove the pandemic of illiteracy catastrophic. My sister comes home one day from school with an assignment that just appalled me. She was to read a paragraph, and interpret from the context the meaning of certain words. Now, I’m sure to most this seems an entirely logical thing. Look again with a critical eye and you’ll realize how wholly unworkable this idea is! This concept assumes many irrational things, not the least of which is that the writer was a competent individual and actually knew what the word meant, and used it correctly!
Then you come to the possibility of having an ambiguous sentence. For example: “It was found that when the crepuscule arrived the children were quieter and when it was not present, they were much livelier.” HOW would you figure out the meaning of crepuscule by means of extrapolation? Until the meaning is cleared up, you’re left with nothing but confusion. I don’t want to do that to my readers, so crepuscule means twilight or darkness. I think the most dangerous effect of this philosophy is that it teaches students laziness and to take someone else’s word for things. Honestly, how much effort does it take to pick up a dictionary and look up the damn word! Taking someone else’s word for things is the rudiment of giving up control. When you’re content to let someone else make your decisions for you, you’ve become a puppet.
In the example of my sisters homework assignment, the paragraph said “The storm pounded against the ship rakishly.” The correct answer when it was graded was something to the effect of “harshly, or roughly,” which is not even close to the meaning! Rakish means “having a streamlined appearance, with reference to ships, or dashingly or sportingly stylish.” Close, but not quite. This now means that there are about twenty-five students that have a misunderstood word. What makes this sad is that it’s undoubtedly far from the first, making one wonder what else he really doesn’t know. Take this figure, and multiply it by the number of classes in that school. Damn. Then multiply it by the number of schools in the US. THAT is the result of accumulated laziness. This creates a country whose citizens are minimally functional, if at all. A country where 36% of *college graduates* have trouble interpreting a bus station time table.
It only takes a small bit of curiosity to extend from your viewpoint a few other points to view. Confront those points without shying away, one will become more astute. With a little perspicacity one realizes that, in order to learn something new, he need only move in space to another viewpoint. Yet all I see are people who, by conditioning, are too lazy to observe more than one point at a time. These are the people who call customer service to demand that their late fee be removed, because how dare we charge them a fee for being two weeks late in their payment. Worse are the people who throw an absolute fit when they’re assessed a finance charge on their credit card, and insist that we waive it. Mind you, these fees are seldom more than $1.50.
The remedy for this problem is simple. Get off your ass and take responsibility for your education, the rest is sequitur. Stop teaching children, the future of this race of mankind, to cut corners, sweep the mess under the rug, that someone else will handle the consequences for you, or that one person doesn’t matter and can’t make a difference. A person taking responsibility for himself, as well as his sphere of influence, is what will save us all. As each person follows suit the problems of the world become more and more solvable. All it takes is to stop being so half-assed about things, and quit relegating blame.
Then you come to the possibility of having an ambiguous sentence. For example: “It was found that when the crepuscule arrived the children were quieter and when it was not present, they were much livelier.” HOW would you figure out the meaning of crepuscule by means of extrapolation? Until the meaning is cleared up, you’re left with nothing but confusion. I don’t want to do that to my readers, so crepuscule means twilight or darkness. I think the most dangerous effect of this philosophy is that it teaches students laziness and to take someone else’s word for things. Honestly, how much effort does it take to pick up a dictionary and look up the damn word! Taking someone else’s word for things is the rudiment of giving up control. When you’re content to let someone else make your decisions for you, you’ve become a puppet.
In the example of my sisters homework assignment, the paragraph said “The storm pounded against the ship rakishly.” The correct answer when it was graded was something to the effect of “harshly, or roughly,” which is not even close to the meaning! Rakish means “having a streamlined appearance, with reference to ships, or dashingly or sportingly stylish.” Close, but not quite. This now means that there are about twenty-five students that have a misunderstood word. What makes this sad is that it’s undoubtedly far from the first, making one wonder what else he really doesn’t know. Take this figure, and multiply it by the number of classes in that school. Damn. Then multiply it by the number of schools in the US. THAT is the result of accumulated laziness. This creates a country whose citizens are minimally functional, if at all. A country where 36% of *college graduates* have trouble interpreting a bus station time table.
It only takes a small bit of curiosity to extend from your viewpoint a few other points to view. Confront those points without shying away, one will become more astute. With a little perspicacity one realizes that, in order to learn something new, he need only move in space to another viewpoint. Yet all I see are people who, by conditioning, are too lazy to observe more than one point at a time. These are the people who call customer service to demand that their late fee be removed, because how dare we charge them a fee for being two weeks late in their payment. Worse are the people who throw an absolute fit when they’re assessed a finance charge on their credit card, and insist that we waive it. Mind you, these fees are seldom more than $1.50.
The remedy for this problem is simple. Get off your ass and take responsibility for your education, the rest is sequitur. Stop teaching children, the future of this race of mankind, to cut corners, sweep the mess under the rug, that someone else will handle the consequences for you, or that one person doesn’t matter and can’t make a difference. A person taking responsibility for himself, as well as his sphere of influence, is what will save us all. As each person follows suit the problems of the world become more and more solvable. All it takes is to stop being so half-assed about things, and quit relegating blame.
posted by Blink at 11/04/2004 10:25:00 AM
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