This is so weird

I got an email from Livejournal about 25 years since the creation of my LJ which is absolutely insane, but it's not quite as insane as the things that I've posted. Especially as a teacher of high school kids, I was basically these kids well into my late 20's! Wow!

But, it did spark a little bit of nostalgia. I've been trying to write more lately, and even though, the majority of what I wrote in here was sappy, crappy, unparagraphed junk, it at least fairly accurately shows my voice in a way that I did not quite expect.

Livejournal, itself, has gone through some crazy upheaval, and while it's so nice that they were able to actually recover all of my old journals, it's certainly not something that I want to support in any way shape or form.

So thus, here's dreamwidth! (is it stylized with lower case? the d has that dreamcatcher vibe, but it's definitely lower case)

I'm importing all of my old LJ entries. I'm still friends with some of the people that I talked about in the past, and most are still in the general orbit of acquaintances that I haven't talked to in years or decades. But it's still history, and it's part of my past and it's part of who I am now.

I'm torn on whether I want to make them private or not. I don't plan on advertising this to my general orbit in any way, but I think there's an outlet here that I could use right now. I imagine I'll have some thoughts on the state of education that I've been mulling over and considering turning into more in depth-- and real -- pieces. But I imagine this would be a good sounding board for that type of thing.

So, we'll see. Day 1 of dreamwidth.

Musings on Grit

About 10 years ago, the big word in education was Grit. Grit was roughly described as the ability to overcome challenges.

I've never had a lot of grit. I've been able to get where I am and to float by and to sometimes succeed by a combination of beginner's luck, intelligence, and just an ability to pick up things and understand basic concepts. It kinda works out for me sometimes.

Where I've failed has been because of a lack of grit. I would start a new skill or hobby, and I would be fairly quickly pretty good for a beginner. When it comes to small roadstops or small challenges, my journey would either end or get sidetracked. Over the years, I've gotten better at this, but I'm a flighty pick up something and move on type of person, and I've shown a big resistance to working on my lack of grit. I don't have enough grit to get more grit?

Anyways, back to education. Ten years ago the word was Grit. Today, education has completely abandoned grit, and I'm trying to build up enough grit to put into words how dangerous and how horrendous this is.

( I should probably use cuts, right? Read more... )