Posts Tagged ‘optimism’

Cynical about Political Cynicism

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

I have grown weary of whiny journalists and pundits who have such a limited understanding of history and narrow appreciation of things in this country that have worked and worked very well.

Point One: wholesale political changeover equals waste in terms of training new politicos to do a job that takes (by my own estimation) at least a year to acclimate into (and that’s if all you plan to do is be an ideological rubber stamp for the national party). Cynical about my cynicism? If you think that being an elected leader is so easy – then get going and be one. I spent one year as the elected president of our  school PTL; a school with only 150 kids. It was almost a full-time job holding meetings, balancing budgets, soothing feelings, negotiating policy and working out compromises. Doing a job like that at the Congressional level should be a million times more difficult. If it isn’t, something is wrong.

Next point, I’ve grown weary of the cynicism of “the other side.” This country has a 200+ year heritage of working out differences; people who are willing to compromise their ideologies for the sake of good statesmanship. The fact that this country has stood for 200+ years with representative governance should be seen as something of a modern-day miracle. So when “the other side” claims that “the other side” is turning the country to ruin, something is wrong. Strong partisanship never produces good governance.

Final point, there isn’t a road made in this country that wasn’t paid by taxes. There isn’t a single inch of our distributed networks (telephone, electricity, water) that doesn’t owe its existence to taxes. All of our public infrastructure – first responders, schools, military services, et al – are paid for with taxes. Our society is wholly and completely supported by the will of the people to pay taxes.

Until somebody comes up with a better way to valuate effort and commoditize resources without money, then we’re stuck with taxes. True, some federal institutions are enormously inefficient, but that’s where the will of the people comes in. Elect professionals who can look beyond partisanship and ideologies – and we will solve problems.

No cynicism needed. -HP

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Why Print Lingers

Friday, March 12th, 2010

What was it that they said when the “information super-highway” was first launched? Oh yeah. Print is dead. And it almost died. But then something fabulous happened.

A great sea change occurred. People who use computers found that they longed for the smell of newsprint, the portability of a slick magazine to tuck under their arm. They’re clinging to their print magazines!

Do you doubt?

For the first time since the Great Recession began, both total magazine pages and rate-card-reported revenue have posted gains, according to Publishers Information Bureau (PIB).

Magazine audiences are growing — and young adults are becoming heavy readers. The number of young readers (18+) has grown more than 4% over the past five years.  Meanwhile, older audiences (50+) grew by almost 11% in the same period.

As of this year, 93% of adults overall and 96% of adults under age 35 now read magazines.

I grok these stats.

I read untold thousands of words per day. My eyes simply cannot keep it up. I need a break from the glare and the lumens. There’s the computer at work, the computer at home, the flat panel TV, the cell phone, cameras, iPods, e-Readers, camcorders. Ouch.

More than one doctor has commented to me that I should take a break from my electronic world. To ward off carpel tunnel, I use a left-handed trackball, a strange curved keyboard, a special chair, special angles for monitors and keyboards. And yet I suffer from tension headaches, blurry vision, stiff necks and back pain.

I am less patient with trolls and thumpers these days – people who pose as authoritative and knowledgeable sources. I especially despise political bloggers – cannot fathom why anybody should spend that much time ‘commenting’ about the opinions of other commenters. I know. I tried at MIXX – lead a brave fight to stay factual. But to what end? I verify everything before I repeat a single word of what I read online – especially blogs – and I never repeat a single word of what I read in comments. The product from so-called “socialization of publishing” – in my humble opinion – as thus far been less than impressive. Moreover, I think it is one of the destructive forces that are now at work in our society.

I miss professional reporters who know how to unwrap a feature story; who organize and at least try to find corroborating facts. I miss the blend of critical thinking with excellent authorship and professional presentation; a noninteractive print environment that’s easy to read with no animation, no pop-ups, no videos, podcasts or cookies. I miss discovering wonderful tidbits by accident while thumbing through my favorite magazine. Instead, I spend most of my browsing sifting through the guano. Yes, I find the gem or two; sometimes I find things that would have never found its way into a magazine, but the effort takes a toll on me physically.

There’s also the issue of portability. I have a laptop – two actually – but what’s the point? What about the ultimate portability of human-to-print interfacing with good old fashioned ink? Do you really take your laptop everywhere?

I could go on.

Print lingers because it still meets the basic marketing paradigm: it serves a useful purpose. I suppose there will come a day when 100 perfect bound pages of 80 pound gloss stock will be as rare as a rotary phone, but it hasn’t happened yet. And if the stats are correct – it’ll be quite a while yet before we will truly say that print is dead. - HP

Source: Magazine Publishers Association

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Well Rising

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

I was rummaging through some notes and rediscovered this wonderfully written poem – quite possibly one of my favorites. It is called ‘The Well Rising’ by William Stafford; featured by NPR in its coverage of John Felstiner’s book “Can Poetry Save the Earth?”

The well rising without sound,
the spring on a hillside,
the plowshare brimming through the deep ground
everywhere in the field —

The sharp swallows in their swerve
flaring and hesitating
hunting for the final curve
coming closer and closer —

The swallow heart from wing beat to wing beat
counseling decision, decision:
thunderous examples. I place my feet
with care in such a world.

-HP

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Optimism

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

I am a skipped needle on the grove of optimism. I’m tripping on the streaming beams of silver light that is emanating from the end of the tunnel of despair. I am the ‘control V’ of great news and ‘control C’ of great expectations. I bring faith reinstated, hope inflated, and love remunerated!  Rejoice ye weary souls and prepare to be rejuvenated. Hallelujah!

So, yeah. I’m interested, engaged, and indelibly, incurably optimistic. Why?

Because Cynicism and negativity won’t get you a new job, but they may make you sick. At least if you are optimistic, you’ll be healthy enough to a job, when one comes along. Most important – you can see your options more clearly when you have an open mind. After all, the power of optimism is clarity.

Take the optimism of sailors and foot soldiers during the Victorian/Elizabethan times. They knew that there was little to be gained by ducking and diving for cover; you might very well be hit cowering behind the binnacle as you would standing stock straight at your station with dignity and honor intact. Well, okay. Maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but you’d better have an ounce of optimism facing a maelstrom of musket and cannon fire lest you shrivel and do something distasteful in your boots. Optimism means facing your challenges with an open mind to success, survival.  What sense is there in worrying about how bad things may get? Might as well bear up the armor of optimism and prepare your soul for the better future. Yes?

The power of optimism is that it breeds dignity and honor. Without it, people tend to throw over the hood of despair. And what does despair do, but lead us to disillusionment. In its own part, disillusionment has a far more nefarious role. When mixed with the rhetoric of cynicism and anger, it causes people to say and do stupid things. -HP

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Heavy Homework is Good for Kids

Saturday, August 29th, 2009

A million kids groaned when researchers from the University of Nebraska announced their finding earlier this month: homework is good for you, the more the better.

"Awww, man!"

Contrary to popular mythology (perpetrated mainly by teary-eyed anti-homework pundits, but also by aforementioned students), there’s no such thing as "too much homework." And here’s a newsflash: most parents are actually happy with heavy homework loads. Apparently "heavy homework" parents know what the research has revealed: heavy homework does not produce a negative impact on either child or family life.

This new finding flies in the face of "de-educators" who say that heavy homework gobbles up free time that could be spent with family, friends and extra-curricular activities, they say.

The caveat, of course, is that while parents stay the course (no matter how many complaints they hear), they should always be involved and supportive. As students increase time completing homework, parents are should follow up their effort by showing their support for good study habits – e.g., a quiet home with minimal distraction (television, video games). This and past studies show that no matter how much time a student spends on homework, parental involvement is essential.

Ken Kiewra, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Nebraska and an expert on learning strategies, homework and study methods, observes that the findings should ease parent’s sense that homework robs children of free time. "Parents [in the study] generally report that children spend ample time playing and socializing and report that homework workloads are reasonable," says Kiewra.

The study, which involved nearly 400 parents of middle school scholars, was published in the latest issue of Scholarlypartnerships.edu. Researchers examined four key issues: how long it takes students to complete their daily homework, how parents feel about their child’s amount of homework, how much parents are involved in it, and how well schools communicate with parents about homework levels and expectations.

The key results :

  • Students are not overburdened by too much homework. Most middle schoolers spend 60 to 90 minutes a day with homework — slightly higher than what previous research in the area had shown — and parents in the study did not believe it interfered with their children’s recreational or social activities.
  • Daily homework does not create family stress and infringe on family life. Most parents reported that they thought their kids’ amount of daily homework was appropriate and did not encroach upon family activities. In fact, most parents surveyed were either indifferent about or thankful for homework.
  • Most parents said they were involved in their child’s homework, but in general their involvement was minimal but positive. They focused on motivating their children or checking their answers.

Says Kiewra, "although findings cast a softer light on the homework battle that has raged between families and schools, it does not extinguish it. Twenty-five percent of parents still contend that excessive homework practices infringe on family life."

He also observes that although most parents help children with homework in positive ways, about one-quarter sometimes completes assignments for their children who they feel are overburdened. Moreover, homework communication between schools and parents is a dead-end street.

"With better communication, homework loads are more likely to be manageable and parental assistance more likely positive," he says.

In short, load ‘em up – but make it a family effort. -HP

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