tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294499213897153104.post4960778650449471658..comments2024-03-27T09:00:32.195-05:00Comments on The Signal Watch: The Giant Eyes of Dr. T.J. EckleburgThe Leaguehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04836241071795980225noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294499213897153104.post-33639189883016010442011-07-21T11:02:49.507-05:002011-07-21T11:02:49.507-05:00I don't talk about it anymore because it seems...I don't talk about it anymore because it seems to upset a lot of people, but 10 years ago I was struck by how much press coverage the Academy Awards were receiving (a FILM academy that's really just a made up mailing list) and the Nobel awards were getting little blurbs in the paper and on TV with almost "news of the weird" type coverage. <br /><br />Its not that I don't want to read who won the awards (and I do online the next day every year). Its that I find it ridiculous that a billion people tune in to watch awards handed out to people who spent a year or two on something that, 9 out of 10 times, will be forgotten within 3 months. Also - while acting and directing isn't exactly easy, its also nothing like countless hours in a lab pushing the boundaries of human knowledge to make the world a better place.<br /><br />Yes, sports are overblown. The benefits of throwing a good pass are ridiculous, but it does also get kids into college and, in good programs, get them educated. But I also sat with a kid whose parents owned a tire recycling something or other. None of them had ever been to school, they didn't really know why this guy wanted to go to school. And they absolutely had no money to send him to school.<br /><br />This guy carried a 4.0 at UT Austin and loved the fact he was 3rd string so he wouldn't get injured and could go on and have a career after college. I can't speak to your colleague who went to Rice, and it is unfortunate. I'd never argue that one at all.The Leaguehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04836241071795980225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294499213897153104.post-58785014349143788592011-07-21T10:44:14.612-05:002011-07-21T10:44:14.612-05:00JS, I would highly recommend a re-read of The Grea...JS, I would highly recommend a re-read of The Great Gatsby. Or at least as Ryan did, find a great audio-book of it. There are so many dimensions to the novel and Fitzgerald is just a great writer. His prose is miles better then so many writers. I learned to "write" by reading and re-reading Fitzgerald and T.S. Eliot. The light came on when I read The Great Gatsby because Fitzgerald was like a great fencer, his technique and style in prose alone was fantastic. You can see his influence in American writing through contemporary fiction like John Irving and David Foster Wallace. <br /><br />I apologize for my rant about education but it really gets to me when society, in general, is so two-faced about education. Sure, we have honors programs and magnet schools and all that but in the end our valuation system is whacked. Let's just be honest about it. In high, as a poor immigrant student who realized the only way I was going to get out of my podunk town and make something out of myself was to study as hard as possible to get an education. My school district did a great job of providing an honors program to help teach AP and accelerated students. Even then, I realized the real dichotomy of the world. The varsity running back in our D1 football team had a full ride scholarship offer to Duke. Our valedictorian in a D1 school who was a National Merit scholar did not get a full ride to Rice. She had to file for some loans. Kids realize the dichotomy. Parents talk about how valuable education is and how you should get good grades and all that. Kids know it doesn't matter if you're good looking enough or can toss a football 75 yards. If we really valued the engineers, scientists and great scholars of our great country we would celebrate them more than we do but we don't. I always pose this scenario to people: Poll any ten people in any room you encounter. Ask them who was the last 2 Dallas Cowboy starting quarterbacks. Then ask them which 2 invented the TCP/IP protocol or packet-switching technology for the Internet? See which question they can answer. (Answers are John Kitna & Tony Romo; Vint Cerf & Bob Kahn).<br /><br />-NTTAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294499213897153104.post-51933028940901998802011-07-21T10:22:22.618-05:002011-07-21T10:22:22.618-05:00I think it will be best if at every opportunity, y...I think it will be best if at every opportunity, you imagine Gatsby is really NTT.The Leaguehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04836241071795980225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294499213897153104.post-13348163570191735832011-07-20T22:28:29.063-05:002011-07-20T22:28:29.063-05:00I barely remember this book, either. I definitely...I barely remember this book, either. I definitely need to read it again. Interesting post.J.S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/03903186469796595837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294499213897153104.post-78318590664670068302011-07-20T22:14:13.372-05:002011-07-20T22:14:13.372-05:00And to Shouting Hippo: Thanks for the article. I...And to Shouting Hippo: Thanks for the article. Its an interesting read. I have worries about our ability to overcome what we were taught about America's place in the world as children and our inability to fight for that place rather than believing its divine providence that will right itself. And its going to take more than people working out their grudges about high school by way of cutting education.The Leaguehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04836241071795980225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294499213897153104.post-55761957097719358032011-07-20T22:11:20.175-05:002011-07-20T22:11:20.175-05:00I don't have children (especially children in ...I don't have children (especially children in school), and I haven't been in a high school classroom since 1993. And even then it was AP English, so it was a crowd that WANTED to be reading the books in front of us. But given what I know about TAKS testing, and the needs for standardized AP testing, I'm not sure what's going on in the modern classroom. All I know is that the teachers I had would have looked at you askance had you tried to slide some Easy Reader version to them as a teaching tool.<br /><br />I also think the sports budget argument is a tough one, and we should save that for another day. But, yeah, it shard not to feel education in general is devalued, and not replaced with no-how, experience or anything useful. Camera-time and photgeneity, yeah.<br /><br />In the end, I think I DID understand the book the first time around, but it was almost taught in a way that suggested that no matter what I said, I would keep being told I didn't REALLY get it. But, at the same time, there's a difference between understanding the story and experiencing its resonance, and I don't think any amount of short essays or skits were going to convey that upon me so much as 20 more years of hanging about this rock we call home.The Leaguehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04836241071795980225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294499213897153104.post-47896151693029997362011-07-20T15:33:45.042-05:002011-07-20T15:33:45.042-05:00I love, love The Great Gatsby. It is in essence on...I love, love The Great Gatsby. It is in essence one of the best examples of American literature. I've read The Great Gatsby all the way through about 20 times and hundreds of times looking up passages from the novel for some reason or another. People are always down on literature because they think it's high-falutin' and has no application in life. The Great Gatsby and Chinatown, the movie, taught me more about society and life than football, videogames and reading actual historical events.<br /><br />I don't think you should beat yourself up too much for not appreciating The Great Gatsby. When F. Scott Fitzgerald finally got it published, it was a slow seller and was basically viewed as a failure not approaching his first novel This Side of Paradise. Fitzgerald essentially died broke and considered his life a failure. The novel wasn't recognized as the work of genius it is until much later after his death. Society rediscovered Gatsby in the 50's and Fitzgerald didn't get consideration as a "Great American Author" until the 60's. Which goes to show you the perceptions on what is good art evolves and the really good art stands the test of time. <br /><br />Fitzgerald's greatest gift is that his prose is incredibly poetic yet still very easy to understand. He's not Prouse and that's what makes him better. <br /><br />I could write passages about The Great Gatsby but wanted to touch on Ebert's critique. He's right, absolutely right. If you as a high schooler can't read The Great Gatsby and understand what it's trying to do, a concise "reader" isn't going to give you the proper understanding of the novel. If we want our education system to resemble the Chinese where everyone just memorizes bullet points and formulas lets have at it. But our academic system is based off of Western learning principles from the English university system. It emphasizes scholarship, logic and research. These principles drive innovation. It teaches students how to tackle a problem. <br /><br />If American education is now to the point where we need a powerpoint presentation for The Great Gatsby then just run up the white flag now. I went through the exact same public education system as everyone else. If society deplores the state of our education system, it's not the students that are the problem essentially, it's society itself. Society has made it absolutely clear that education is not needed or nor is admirable for success. We celebrate and pay ungodly sums of money to reality TV stars, New Jersey illiterates, professional athletes and so-called "musicians" that sample other people's compositions to create a rap. Please, maybe if we actually valued English literature then students would actually pay attention. We created a valuation system that anyone can look on TV or out the window and see. Education is not valued no matter what politicians and parents say. Look at the money spent on football as opposed to an English literature program in high school.<br /><br />-NTTAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294499213897153104.post-28806646444008566842011-07-20T10:55:35.856-05:002011-07-20T10:55:35.856-05:00It's like synchronicity. Or serendipity. Or so...It's like synchronicity. Or serendipity. Or something. Meaning that I found a relevant link that you might like to read. Jason Heath's <a href="http://doublebassblog.org/2011/07/how-finland-became-an-education-leader.html" rel="nofollow">Double Bass Blog</a>, no less. But to the point, Heath points to a Salon article, "<a href="http://tinyurl.com/4ylthls" rel="nofollow">How Finland became an education leader</a> (how the nation achieved extraordinary successes by deemphasizing testing)."Shouting Hippohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02709113315345046623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294499213897153104.post-38647413422233318102011-07-20T08:50:23.067-05:002011-07-20T08:50:23.067-05:00Happily - or sadly - I just like to read. High sc...Happily - or sadly - I just like to read. High school and college literature studies were lost on me. While I rarely take the time to disect and intellectually analyze a book, I am lucky enough to really enjoy the solitude, relaxed concentration and personal engagement involved in reading a good book. If the author is making moral or philosphical points in the story, they better be pretty obvious, because I am not going to dig for them. {I guess that makes me pretty shallow :-)}<br /><br />TAAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com