Valuing people

This is a combination of three things, so may be disjointed.

One is that -- of course -- while Republicans are dismantling the government, leftists are criticizing Democrats. The criticism is for only wearing pink and holding signs during Trump's address, even though they were asked to do that and there are people made at them for that too

While it is possible that the people who requested those actions are not the same people criticizing them, the trend of always having more to say about Democrats than Republicans holds. 

(Also, it's weird that Al Green got expelled when Joe Wilson didn't. Almost like there is some kind of double standard.)

I know I say this all the time, but if all you have is criticism and you are directing it in the safest possible direction, I remain unimpressed and uninspired, just irritated.

You can't aggravate people into agreeing with you. Even if that could work, if that resulted in a bunch of people who wanted the same things but did not have any experience in constructing them, that's still not very useful. It's better than glee in wanton destruction, but not enough.

Back to thinking about boycotts, I know I have some writing coming up about withdrawing somewhat from capitalism. Something that makes me remember goes back to the mid-90s, though I don't know that things would be any better today.

One of my coworkers was in this group that was bartering services. She offered house cleaning, and she wanted a massage. There was a masseur in the group, but he thought his service was more valuable than hers. He thought she should clean the house three times for his one massage.

I don't know what current house cleaning rates are. A cleaning might cost more than a massage, but the cleaning almost certainly takes longer. Obviously, you can clean your own house in a way that you cannot give yourself a massage, but given his demands, he obviously was not interested in doing so. That should give it some value right there.

I promise you that while you may not need certification and licensing to clean houses they way you do for massage, it is not unskilled labor, especially if you want your house to actually be clean.

As it is, my mother did clean houses. She charged low rates for many years, and her clients were fine with that. Only one of them ever thought of giving her a raise over a ten year period. They weren't bad people, but they were satisfied with the service they were getting and the rate they were paying; why change? Except that as people who were better off financially they had more power. It also made them far less likely to think about what it was like to not have that power.

Finally, yesterday I read an old conference talk, "Until Seventy Times Seven" by Elder Lynn G, Robbins, April 2018.

He mentioned a physics professor he had at Brigham Young University, Jae Ballif:

After finishing each unit of the course, he would administer an exam. If a student received a C and wanted a better grade, Professor Ballif would allow the student to take a modified exam covering the same material. If the student received a B on the second attempt and was still unsatisfied, he or she could take the test a third time and a fourth, and so on. By allowing me numerous second chances, he helped me excel and finally earn an A in his class.

He wanted to be on the side of the students.

That was very interesting to me for two reasons. 

In my studies now, part of instructional design is seeing what is needed for the students to learn. If the schedule is the same for everyone, but their learning pace is different, you will have students who don't really learn the concepts and just get further and further behind.

(Personally, I went through pre-Calculus, but it did not go through me.)

I think about it more because when you have conservatives trying to take over the school boards, one of the things that really offends them is that students can complete assignments late and re-take tests and still get credit, as if re-taking tests and catching up from behind is not more work.  

While I haven't known most of the candidates personally, I do know one of the voters who was very angered by that. She went to BYU.

It happened at your own school, lady! 

Part of her frustration was that it bothers her that less attention is given to her "gifted" daughter -- like sometimes she gets a good grade but there are no comments to tell her why it is good. Then these kids who aren't even on schedule still get to pass, possibly at a rate that means that they actually learn the content rather than never catching up.

That sounds like a failure of compassion, and it is, but it is also something that is supported by a scarcity mindset. There is competition for resources. If someone is going to lose it has to be these other kids. If they are more likely to come from poorer households, and if by complete coincidence they happen to have darker skin, well... this is a big part of DEI being the current enemy.

I also agree on the importance of positive feedback, but if we do not give teachers endless resources then it may be more important for them to focus on helping the students who are not up to speed yet get there, rather than stroking the ego of the parents of the kids who are at the head of the class.

(I could spend a lot more time on gifted programs, but this is already a long post.)

What I do know is that as long as we prioritize the ability to feel superior and dominate, in our own ways we are not that different from Trump.

Also, as long as I am being repetitive...

DOMINATOR CULTURE!