Category 5 - Universal Truth: Read About Some Moral/Ethical Issue Related to a Field of Interest

So this Universal Truth response is probably a little different from what you might be expecting. This was an idea I ran across the other day and realized that it gets at the heart of a conceptual idea in our society: time and punctuality.

First, take three minutes to watch this short Vlogbrothers clip by John Green which is what piqued by thinking:

The reason this idea immediately jumped out at me is because, like John, I place an absolutely inordinate value on punctuality. If I have to be somewhere important at a certain time, chances are I will leave myself so much extra time that I actually arrive half an hour early. And then I'll need to find a place to hang out for 20 minutes so I don't look like a freak showing up way ahead of time (true story: every teaching interview I went on, I had to find a shopping center nearby to park and wait until an acceptable time to arrive). To this day, I'm always at school a half hour before my contract calls for; I just like to be on time so I don't have to worry, which in my mind equals "early."

My mind immediately goes to something one of my communications professors, Steve Koehn, used to say about his experience working in the movie industry: If you're five minutes early, you're on time; if you're on time, you're late; if you're five minutes late, you're fired. 

I might like to attribute my obsession with punctuality to Steve's expectations of us in class, because it's the first time I can really remember it being verbalized. But if I think about it, it was probably a huge part of who I am long before that. I can remember in high school rushing to my locker after the final bell, panicked that I wouldn't be able to get my stuff and make it to the bus on time; there was no dawdling or talking with friends: I just had to get to the bus (and get this: my dad worked at the school. If I missed the bus it would've been no big deal at all!!).

John talked about how it's tied up with identity, your self-image and subsequent projection of your self as the kind of person who is punctual. I never really thought of it that way, but it makes sense. How much of it is really just pompous self-congratulations at your achievement or leering disdain at people who fail to meet your expectations (my friends.... ugh, they are never on time, it drives me crazy)? I am so proud of the fact that I'm punctual, and everyone who knows me knows it; ask Ms. Carroll sometime about what it was like to carpool with me to work!

I think the idea of it being part of your identity is because it feels like it's something you can *control* that makes you look good (at least in your own mind). Maybe it's a little bit about being a control freak. Having the type of personality who likes to evaluate the situation, consider possible circumstances, and attempt to exert control over the situation by making choices based on that reasoning, it's no wonder that timely arrival is something I value.

Our society does seem to send a lot of signals about timeliness being a moral equivalent of "good." Our schools run by a clock and bells with punishments for tardiness; professionals and tradesmen bill by the hour; the doors to Barnes and Noble get opened and locked at exactly the posted times. We don't even question the inherent values communicated through phrases like "The early bird gets the worm."

But what makes timeliness "good" other than the fact that our society, perhaps in its Puritan and Enlightenment roots, has deemed it such? (For some interesting reading, check out Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, specifically the chapter where he outlines his 13 virtues and how he set about to methodically track his adherence to them. It says a lot about the same things we still value today.) Other cultures certainly don't place such a value on time as a resource... I mean, in Spain they shut down every day to take naps, can you imagine!! In our society, if you're late to something because you're napping, you're automatically discounted as lazy and unreliable.

But the final conclusion John came to in his video was essentially, "Does it really matter?" Will anything drastic happen if you're 86 minutes early to the airport instead of 90? John says that those of us who are such control freaks about time, end up doing so to our own detriment sometimes.

I agree with that, especially in the example he uses of yelling at his family. I can see how sometimes my obsessive desire to be punctual causes me anxiety. At the same time, however, I feel that taking extra steps to be early can alleviate my anxiety by relieving the pressure. So I'm not quite sure how I feel about the overall virtuosity, but I love how John ended his video with a reminder: ""Even when what you worship is good and noble, it doesn't always make you better or nobler" (3:02).

As for me, my focus on punctuality has really been tested in the past year or so. I see a therapist each week for issues related to anxiety. Before my first appointment she told me, "Now, I only have one parking space for clients, so I need everyone to arrive exactly on time so they get here after the previous client has left." Y'all, I had a serious anxiety attack over this. She was telling me I could arrive no more than 5 minutes early for my appointment. What if traffic on 22 backed up after I got on the road and made me late? What if I hit every green light and still arrived 10 minutes early? How could I possibly time it to arrive exactly on time?? What if I messed up? It seems like a little thing, but I had to learn to deal with so much anxiety until I convinced myself that it'd all really be okay if I showed up a minute or two late. I had to trust in google maps' prediction of 17 minutes, and force myself to leave school at exactly 3:41 so I would arrive at 3:58 for a 4:00 appointment. So far, I've only been late once and you know what happened? I said "Sorry, there was some construction just down the road" and she said... "No big deal."

Category 1 - Longer Reading: Read a Full Length Work of Nonfiction

On Saturday, June 21st, I read Don't Make Me Pull Over: An Informal History of the Family Roadtrip by Rich Ratay. Yes, that's right. I read nearly 300 pages from cover to cover in one sitting.

I discovered this brand new book a few weeks ago when I read a book review/interview with the author. I don't think I'd even finished reading the article when I decided that I needed to read the book, and it quickly moved to the top of my to-read list. It was on subject matter that I knew would interest me, and I was itching for a fascinating nonfiction book to get lost in.

Ratay creates something that is a hybrid of narrative memoir and informative nonfiction. He interweaves stories of family roadtrips he took as a child with research on topics related to his stories.

That was the first thing that captured me about this book: the sheer diversity of related topics. The table of contents gives you a pretty good preview of the path of ideas: the history of developing paved roads and interstates in the US, roadside attractions and dining, highway safety, travel accommodations,  cars themselves, and ultimately the way airline deregulation and progress changed the concept of the family roadtrip forever. I was fascinated by all of these topics that were so common, but that I'd never really thought of in much depth before. And his research was peppered with funny stories to make it enjoyable while informative.

I also loved it because it held so many memories for me. Growing up, my parents couldn't afford to take us on airplanes. But we drove across the country four times before I turned eighteen, thanks to friends and family who moved out west that we wanted to visit. Reading Ratay's book, I couldn't help but remember the Super 8 motel we stayed at in Springfield, MO in 1991 on our way to Phoenix. Or the side trip to Mount Rushmore, which was wholly unimpressive to a 15 year old. Or the 2,400-mile drive home in the back of a Honda Accord with my brother, sitting atop rolled-out sleeping bags and pillows, our Walkmans and boxes of cassette tapes and car games at our feet, a cooler full of soda and lunches on the seat between us, and on top of the cooler a full size Mexican sombrero souvenir that my brother had bought in Nogales.

The trip down memory lane was the point of Ratay's book. His book seems to be a love story to the nostalgia of a bygone era, the classic road-trip days of the 1960's through 1980's. He makes a compelling case for how life is fundamentally different now, which changes the way we vacation and even the way we experience those experiences.

I agree that many people today prefer flying because it gets them more time at their destinations. In fact, a quick google maps search of our first roadtrip even showed me, unasked, how much time I could save by hopping on an airplane.

But I question whether the days of the family roadtrip will ever truly be behind us. I think there will always be families that can't afford to fly, but who still want to give their kids the experiences of seeing the USA. And I hope that kids of Ratay's and my generation, who had these experiences, value them enough to give their own kids the same opportunities. I know I am so thankful that I had parents who, though relatively poor, valued vacation enough to show us the country; my family roadtrips are a huge part of who I've become. In fact, next week my husband and I are taking a roadtrip down south to West Virginia and Tennessee, opting for hours in the car rather than our initial, more expensive, plan to fly to Seattle.

However, one point he makes in his last chapter does seriously concern me. He talks about how, while family road trips today may still exist, they're fundamentally different due to to the nature of today's technology. Almost wistfully, Ratay points out the demise of "the license plate game" or "I Spy" engaging the whole carload. Nowadays, it's more likely that on a long car ride, each child will have his/her own iPad with a movie or game, mom will have on headphones listening to an audiobook, while dad hums along to the radio in isolation. He iterates that today, even when we spend time together as families, we don't really spend time together the way he remembers so fondly with his brothers in the backseat of their Lincoln.

I think he's definitely onto something. Even parents who try to give their kids the experiences of seeing the countryside from a car will need to go the extra mile to make the most of their time together and combat the side-effects of 21st century life.

A post about reading...

This started out as a post about a book I've recently read, but I realized my intro turned into a tangent about reading. I decided, however, that what I was saying about reading was too important and I should make it into its own post...

My summer reading this year has admittedly been a little slow. I've noticed my reading patterns each year follow the same trajectory: I'm hard-core from January-April, and then I typically get into a slump during May and June, and pick up a little bit in July and August. I will slow down a bit in October, but then end the year strong in November and December.

I use the Goodreads app to track my reading, which helps motivate me because I can see my progress through their annual Reading Challenge. In 2017, my goal was 30 books... and I reached that mid-November, ultimately reaching 37 before year's end. So this year I set my goal at 40, but when I hit 25 by April, I upped my goal to 50. Currently I've made it through 36, so I'm well on track to the finish line.

I want to tell you about my most recent read, but first I want to address the elephant in the room. You are probably right now thinking "How on Earth does she have time to read that much??" or "Boy, I'd like to read too but I just don't have the time."

One of the saddest things I've discovered about teaching AP English: my students often tell me about how they used to love to read in Elementary or Middle School. Honestly, at some point most of you must've been voracious readers; if you weren't, you wouldn't have built your skills enough to be in AP English. My students always say, "I used to read all the time but now in High School I've just got too much else to do between homework and sports and extracurriculars and my job."

I used to feel that way, too. I've always been a reader, but during college and during my first few years teaching, I didn't read anything for fun anymore. And at one point I got really sad because I realized I never got to do this thing that I loved. I realized that reading for pleasure was so important to my mental well-being and I longed to be able to get that joy again.

And there is a simple, honest answer to how I started reading more again: I decided to. I made a very conscious, very deliberate decision to allow myself time to read. I knew it was important, as important as anything else I was doing, and it warranted allowing myself time to do it without feeling guilty.

I think that I had been thinking, and I bet you do too, that reading wasn't as necessary as everything else on my plate. I was viewing it as this "want to do" instead of a "need to do." Once I convinced myself that there was value to doing it, I never looked back.

It's not that I have more time than you, or fewer responsibilities. I just decided that I would make time for what I valued, even if it was only 15 minutes a day that I spent with a book instead of mindlessly scrolling through the day's social media updates. And from that, I built it back into a habit, something that I just do automatically whenever I can.

I can't describe how happy I've been since I started reading regularly again. My brain is always active, and I'm always wanting more. I get excited about what I might discover, whether that's pushing the boundaries of my understanding of the world, or just pure brain-candy.

This is such an English-Teacher-y thing to say, but reading widely is truly the single best thing you can do to get better at reading, writing, and thinking. It doesn't always have to be "the classics" or something super difficult; heck, I've read several graphic novels this year and each one of them pushed me out of my comfort zone and taught me something despite being considered by some to be "only a comic book." I read YA, I read nonfiction and memoir, I re-read Harry Potter, I read professional development books, and I read horribly-written romance novels. Anything that engages your brain will help you become a stronger thinker and build your background knowledge, which will lead to success in this course and college.

I've been trying for years to figure out how to encourage more independent reading among my AP students because I truly believe it's the most important thing we can do. Unfortunately, I refuse to give "points" on mindless assignments just to ensure you do it. That's not my style. I will continue to struggle with this, and maybe will implement an idea or two during the year, but consider this blog post to be my first nudge to you, that will hopefully get one or two of you to pick up more books than you usually do.

Category 2 - Shorter Reading: Read an Article of Your Choice

Spoiler alert for our year together: I read a lot of articles. If you see me on my phone while I'm eating lunch, chances are I'm reading something, not just mindlessly scrolling through updates.

This is a good habit for a Student of the World to get into because you will unwittingly encounter ideas and perspectives and situations which are completely outside your realm of experience. A good outlet to follow for this is a website called Longreads which posts longform journalism on so many different topics that you never would have thought about otherwise.

I read this article the other night called Targeted: A Family and the Quest to Stop the Next School Shooter. It was published on Oregon Live on June 24, 2018, and it follows the story of a family whose son was the subject of his school's "threat assessment investigation" due to his attire and his fascination with weapons, rather than any specific threat.

Photo from the above-linked article

There's obviously a lot more to this story than I could possibly capture in a short reflection, but a few things stood out to me.

First, they brought up the idea of this boy's clothing:

"It was easy to figure out why the teen’s attire worried people. Sanders’ signature piece of clothing was a big black trench coat.... 

Years ago, Mark gave Sanders the riding coat he picked up on a youthful adventure in Australia. Sanders loved the weight of the coat. As a person on the autism spectrum, he welcomed the heaviness. It provided comfort in a world that often overwhelmed him. He wore it no matter the weather....

Instead, they saw a symbol, another kid in a trench coat, whose hair could be a little greasy some days, who was blunt and impatient when he felt others weren’t following the rules. 

A kid who maybe fit a 'profile' that evoked the moment in American history that everyone remembers each time a school shooting makes the news: Columbine. The two angry young men who killed 13 people at their Colorado high school had worn long black dusters, and rumors flew that they were part of a 'Trench Coat Mafia.' While the lore around the trench coats was later debunked, it became a key part of the myth that surrounds the tragedy. Ever since, there has been inevitable unease about any male student viewed as a loner who wears a long dark coat." 

This reminded me of a book that I've admittedly never entirely read due to personal anxiety, but that I always put on suggested reading lists. Columbine by Dave Cullen is considered the authoritative investigation on the subject of that event. Many Lang teachers include this in their curriculum, including a good friend of mine. As I understand it, much of Cullen's investigation explored the aftermath of the incident, including the erroneous assumptions made by the media which became pervasive in the public lore. It's interesting to realize that decades later, even after they've been debunked, such assumptions are still very much in the public consciousness.

Another thing that struck me about this article was the fact that this student was on the autism spectrum. That adds a whole other level to the conversation. Was this student targeted because of behavior associated with his disorder (social difficulties, bluntness, obsessive interest in a subject, in this case weapons and video games)? I don't think anyone would admit to deliberately targeting him for his diagnosis. But it makes you wonder if our hysteria and fear sometimes cause us to unthinkingly jump to conclusions without seeing the big picture. Research has shown that there isn't a direct link between autism and violence, but sometimes it's the easy connections, even wrong ones, that take hold and become societal beliefs.

The family, and the author of the article who framed it this way, believe that the school's actions have harmed their son; they assert that the school's actions have "created a dropout."

While it is heartbreaking that this student may have been unfairly "accused" on unfounded fears rather than rational evidence, I also have to admit to understanding why students, parents, and schools feel the need to "be safe rather than sorry." When I was in school, pre-Columbine, school shootings were never even a possibility in our minds.

In 2018 we live in a different reality and I, as much as anybody, want to ensure that the people in charge are doing everything they can to keep us safe. But I think we always have to ask ourselves, at what cost? Where is the line between "rational measures of precaution and prevention" and "allowing security to run amok"? When does our precautionary fear lead to more harm than good? There was a great AP Lang Exam argument prompt about this a few years ago; maybe we'll try writing it this year.

I haven't really come to a conclusion, and I understand that school safety is rightfully a very sensitive issue, about which everyone has very strong opinions and anxieties. That's what I liked about this article. It addressed the subject from a different perspective and let you see a side you might not have considered before. The best way to become a more critical thinker is to surround yourself with ideas that you wouldn't otherwise have encountered.

Category 3 - Entertainment: View/Listen/Read/Attend something else in the entertainment realm: music, theatre, movies, dance, etc.

So, one thing that you may already know about me is that I'm a huge theatre fan. Up until last year, I ran front-of-house for the NAHS Theatre Troupe, selling tickets and organizing everything that happens for a production that's not on stage. I also listen to Broadway cast albums almost exclusively. And one of the advantages of living in eastern PA is that I go to NY to see shows whenever possible.

The past few years, my theatre-going habits have become... well, some might say a little overboard. To give you some idea, in 2016 we saw thirteen shows, in 2017 we saw twenty-five shows, and in 2018 we've seen fifteen so far. Now, that is including local community and high school productions as well as professional ones in NY, but it still amounts to a LOT of shows.

All of this to say that seeing live theatrical performances is nothing unusual or new for me. However, I did see one on Sunday that was new to me so I thought I'd write about it here.

My brother Randy is my prime theatre-going enabler; we always enter online Broadway lotteries, and he has this unique habit of winning. On Sunday, July 1st he won the Wicked lottery so we hopped in his car and drove into the city. After Wicked was over, we realized that Once on This Island was right next door and it's a show my brother has been dying to see. That show doesn't do an online lottery so we're never able to enter for discounted tickets; however, they do an in-person lottery, and since we happened to be standing in front of it, we were able to enter it... and of course with Randy's luck, we won again! So there we were in NYC for a two-show-day on one of the hottest days of the year!

Once on This Island is a unique show. The story is pretty simple: it's basically kind of a Romeo and Juliet or Little Mermaid tale. It's the story of a girl, Ti Moune, who is part of the dark-skinned peasant class on her island, and she falls in love with Daniel, a member of the lighter-skinned and wealthier grands hommes class from the other side of the island. As Ti Moune ventures out to find Daniel, she is assisted by the gods of water (Agwe) and love (Erzulie), Mother Earth (Asaka), and the demon of death (Papa Ge).

One of the things that makes this story so interesting is how it's framed. Ti Moune's story is actually a legend on this island.  So in addition to her story which is the main plot, we're actually seeing islanders telling her story to a little girl. It ends up having a point about the power of both love and storytelling.

However, the most interesting thing about this show are its production choices. It's at the Circle in the Square theatre, which is what they call an arena stage, which means the stage is in the middle and its surrounded by the audience on all sides. In this particular theatre, the audience is actually raised and looking down on the action (think of it like a college athletic stadium, only on a much more intimate scale).

Circle in the Square Theatre, empty

The choice of an arena setting really immerses the audience in the production, because you are right in the middle of the action. I've seen several shows now in this space (Fun Home and In Transit, previously) and it's totally unique. Each show has its own way of dealing with the surrounding audience and ensuring that the actors play in 360, rather than facing one direction.

In Once On This Island, however, they took scenery to a new level. Guys, the entire floor was sand (this is, after all, a Caribbean island). One whole corner was a pool of water that the actors actually went in and out of. Real water fell from the lighting grid as rain, and they lifted up an entire telephone pole to 90 degrees to simulate a tree. And, then there was a live goat. The cleaning-crew at the Circle in the Square have their work cut out for them because when we left, there were even sandy footprints in the lobby carpeting from where the actors ran through it to make entrances at the top of the auditorium.

I will admit that Once on This Island is not among my favorite shows. Neither the story nor the music have ever really grabbed me, though of course I enjoy seeing it in the moment. However, I'm really glad that I was able to see this one-of-a-kind production of it simply for the spectacle of seeing some really cool theatrical choices.