My final Restoration exam is tomorrow!!!
I've been studying all week. Hope it was worth it.
Wish me luck!
Thursday 8 December 2011
Wednesday 7 December 2011
Interesting article
Is it still wrong if another culture says it is right? A teacher’s surprising discovery
By: Denyse O'Leary
Recently, a Canadian high school teacher broke the silence about where cultural relativism really leads.
When we celebrate “diversity,” what exactly are we celebrating?
We are told that it means that everyone will accept people of other faiths and sexualities. But what can that mean when it is unpacked?
In “Moments of startling clarity: Moral education programming in Ontario today,”* Stephen L. Anderson recounts what happened when he tried to show students what can happen to women in a culture with no tradition of treating women as if they were fellow human beings with men:
I was teaching my senior Philosophy class. We had just finished a unit on Metaphysics and were about to get into Ethics, the philosophy of how we make moral judgments. The school had also just had several social-justice-type assemblies—multiculturalism, women’s rights, anti-violence and gay acceptance. So there was no shortage of reference points from which to begin.
I decided to open by simply displaying, without comment, the photo of Bibi Aisha. Aisha was the Afghani teenager who was forced into an abusive marriage with a Taliban fighter, who abused her and kept her with his animals. When she attempted to flee, her family caught her, hacked off her nose and ears, and left her for dead in the mountains. After crawling to her grandfather’s house, she was saved by a nearby American hospital. I felt quite sure that my students, seeing the suffering of this poor girl of their own age, would have a clear ethical reaction, from which we could build toward more difficult cases.
The picture is horrific. Aisha’s beautiful eyes stare hauntingly back at you above the mangled hole that was once her nose. Some of my students could not even raise their eyes to look at it. I could see that many were experiencing deep emotions.
But I was not prepared for their reaction.
I had expected strong aversion; but that’s not what I got. Instead, they became confused. They seemed not to know what to think. They spoke timorously, afraid to make any moral judgment at all. They were unwilling to criticize any situation originating in a different culture.
They said, “Well, we might not like it, but maybe over there it’s okay.” One student said, “I don’t feel anything at all; I see lots of this kind of stuff .”
Another said (with no consciousness of self-contradiction), “It’s just wrong to judge other cultures.”
Anderson reflects,
While we may hope some are capable of bridging the gap between principled morality and this ethically vacuous relativism, it is evident that a good many are not. For them, the overriding message is “never judge, never criticize, never take a position.”
One reason might be this: For thousands of years, most thinkers assumed that virtue was something specific; it could be described, and could be distinguished from not-virtue (vice). Courage, for example, was a virtue—a cardinal virtue. Cowardice was a vice. One ought, they said, to aim for courage because it is intrinsically worthy, and avoid cowardice because it is intrinsically a disgrace. Those thinkers are—in the students’ terms—judgmental!
In recent decades, a new view has taken root. The new view is that courage and cowardice have no intrinsic reality. Neither does the classical virtue of justice or the vice of injustice. It all depends on how you feel about things, which in turn depends on your culture. That underlies the students’ inability to move from “I feel bad” to “This is wrong.”
One outcome has been the popular convention that all cultures are of equal value. If Afghan men see their treatment of women as just, then it must be so. We lack any legitimate basis for saying it isn’t. One common way of putting it is that our ancestors were bigoted imperialists who didn’t see the worth of other cultures.
How would a traditional philosopher respond to that? Well, if he believes that virtue and vice (right and wrong) exist in some sense, even as abstractions, he would likely say that most cultures excel in some virtues but not in others.
The Afghan culture, for example, excels in the virtue of courage; it produces many brave suicide bombers. But it falls behind in the virtue of justice, especially where women are concerned. The traditional philosopher would insist that this is an objective assessment, based on evidence, and that no one who makes it can properly be called a bigot.
A different culture may excel in justice, but fall behind in courage. That is a particularly unfortunate combination because people vaguely understand that when a woman is mutilated for running away from an abusive husband, a terrible wrong has been done. These students, after all, were not a Taliban mob, cheering the mutilators on. They do not speak up for fear of criticism for the one remaining sin—passing judgment. Again, from the traditional perspective, it is not bigotry to say that their cowardice is a vice. It is a vice.
The students could not go from their vague discomfort to a rational ethical conclusion because they have never learned traditional philosophy of ethics. Therefore, their objections have no force and, for all that they sense injustice, they will likely do very little good in the world. And the “accept everyone, accept everything” assemblies they attend unwittingly feed the problem: They learn to accept gay rights in North America and stoning gays in Afghanistan.
Theirs is an education to avoid at all costs.
From: http://thebestschools.org/bestschoolsblog/2011/12/03/wrong-culture-right-teacher%E2%80%99s-surprising-discovery/
By: Denyse O'Leary
Recently, a Canadian high school teacher broke the silence about where cultural relativism really leads.
When we celebrate “diversity,” what exactly are we celebrating?
We are told that it means that everyone will accept people of other faiths and sexualities. But what can that mean when it is unpacked?
In “Moments of startling clarity: Moral education programming in Ontario today,”* Stephen L. Anderson recounts what happened when he tried to show students what can happen to women in a culture with no tradition of treating women as if they were fellow human beings with men:
I was teaching my senior Philosophy class. We had just finished a unit on Metaphysics and were about to get into Ethics, the philosophy of how we make moral judgments. The school had also just had several social-justice-type assemblies—multiculturalism, women’s rights, anti-violence and gay acceptance. So there was no shortage of reference points from which to begin.
I decided to open by simply displaying, without comment, the photo of Bibi Aisha. Aisha was the Afghani teenager who was forced into an abusive marriage with a Taliban fighter, who abused her and kept her with his animals. When she attempted to flee, her family caught her, hacked off her nose and ears, and left her for dead in the mountains. After crawling to her grandfather’s house, she was saved by a nearby American hospital. I felt quite sure that my students, seeing the suffering of this poor girl of their own age, would have a clear ethical reaction, from which we could build toward more difficult cases.
The picture is horrific. Aisha’s beautiful eyes stare hauntingly back at you above the mangled hole that was once her nose. Some of my students could not even raise their eyes to look at it. I could see that many were experiencing deep emotions.
But I was not prepared for their reaction.
I had expected strong aversion; but that’s not what I got. Instead, they became confused. They seemed not to know what to think. They spoke timorously, afraid to make any moral judgment at all. They were unwilling to criticize any situation originating in a different culture.
They said, “Well, we might not like it, but maybe over there it’s okay.” One student said, “I don’t feel anything at all; I see lots of this kind of stuff .”
Another said (with no consciousness of self-contradiction), “It’s just wrong to judge other cultures.”
Anderson reflects,
While we may hope some are capable of bridging the gap between principled morality and this ethically vacuous relativism, it is evident that a good many are not. For them, the overriding message is “never judge, never criticize, never take a position.”
One reason might be this: For thousands of years, most thinkers assumed that virtue was something specific; it could be described, and could be distinguished from not-virtue (vice). Courage, for example, was a virtue—a cardinal virtue. Cowardice was a vice. One ought, they said, to aim for courage because it is intrinsically worthy, and avoid cowardice because it is intrinsically a disgrace. Those thinkers are—in the students’ terms—judgmental!
In recent decades, a new view has taken root. The new view is that courage and cowardice have no intrinsic reality. Neither does the classical virtue of justice or the vice of injustice. It all depends on how you feel about things, which in turn depends on your culture. That underlies the students’ inability to move from “I feel bad” to “This is wrong.”
One outcome has been the popular convention that all cultures are of equal value. If Afghan men see their treatment of women as just, then it must be so. We lack any legitimate basis for saying it isn’t. One common way of putting it is that our ancestors were bigoted imperialists who didn’t see the worth of other cultures.
How would a traditional philosopher respond to that? Well, if he believes that virtue and vice (right and wrong) exist in some sense, even as abstractions, he would likely say that most cultures excel in some virtues but not in others.
The Afghan culture, for example, excels in the virtue of courage; it produces many brave suicide bombers. But it falls behind in the virtue of justice, especially where women are concerned. The traditional philosopher would insist that this is an objective assessment, based on evidence, and that no one who makes it can properly be called a bigot.
A different culture may excel in justice, but fall behind in courage. That is a particularly unfortunate combination because people vaguely understand that when a woman is mutilated for running away from an abusive husband, a terrible wrong has been done. These students, after all, were not a Taliban mob, cheering the mutilators on. They do not speak up for fear of criticism for the one remaining sin—passing judgment. Again, from the traditional perspective, it is not bigotry to say that their cowardice is a vice. It is a vice.
The students could not go from their vague discomfort to a rational ethical conclusion because they have never learned traditional philosophy of ethics. Therefore, their objections have no force and, for all that they sense injustice, they will likely do very little good in the world. And the “accept everyone, accept everything” assemblies they attend unwittingly feed the problem: They learn to accept gay rights in North America and stoning gays in Afghanistan.
Theirs is an education to avoid at all costs.
From: http://thebestschools.org/bestschoolsblog/2011/12/03/wrong-culture-right-teacher%E2%80%99s-surprising-discovery/
Monday 28 November 2011
Wednesday 9 November 2011
House sitting and asteroids
Free rent, privacy, quiet. These are just a few things that house sitters enjoy. When I hear that someone is going on a trip and needs a sitter I jump on the rare opportunity like a fat kid on butterfingers. This temporary change is welcome to someone like me who has tasted the freedom of independence but can't afford to live on his own. I've been here for two days and I love it.
I'm a block away from the Corydon area. I love the fact that my bank, a comic book store and a falafel restaurant are right around the corner. Joy :)
In other news a 400m asteroid came within 200,000 km of our planet, closer than the moon's orbit! It was traveling at 30,000 mph.
I wonder what kind of impact it would have had if it hit Earth.
I'm a block away from the Corydon area. I love the fact that my bank, a comic book store and a falafel restaurant are right around the corner. Joy :)
In other news a 400m asteroid came within 200,000 km of our planet, closer than the moon's orbit! It was traveling at 30,000 mph.
I wonder what kind of impact it would have had if it hit Earth.
Tuesday 8 November 2011
Sunday 30 October 2011
Be careful what you post on Facebook
If you're a facebook user or a social network junky I highly recommend that you watch this documentary. Very eye-opening.
Facebook Follies Documentary
"Love it or hate it, Facebook is the world’s most successful social networking site. And whether you use it or nohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gift, it is fundamentally changing the way people connect and communicate. Facebook is easy to use and so far, more than three-quarters of a billion people all over the world have signed up. Our relationships, our thoughts, our pastimes, our memories, our lives and deaths - all are now routinely recorded on Facebook. It represents a paradigm shift in communications as significant as the printing press, or the telegraph, or the television. Inevitably, mishaps, embarrassment and trouble accompany such change.
Facebook Follies is a one-hour documentary that takes a look at the unexpected consequences of people sharing their personal information on social media. Viewers meet people who lost their jobs, their marriages, their dignity, or who even ended up in jail - all because of their own or someone else’s Facebook posting. To give a broader context to the events, these stories are intercut with reflections from experts in the areas of social change, internet security and contemporary media."
- CBC docZone
STATS
Total # of Canadians that are on Facebook : 16 908 380 (Ranked 13th against all other countries – As of October 2011)
Total % of Canadian population that are on Facebook : 50.08% (Ranked 17th against all other countries - As of October 2011)
Total of Facebook users as of September 2011 : 800 Million
Country with highest # of Facebook users : USA - 155 981 460 people (As of October 2011)
Country with lowest # of Facebook users : Vatican City - 20 people (As of October 2011)
Canadian average # of Facebook friends: 190 friends
Global average # of Facebook friends: 130 friends
Average amount of time Canadians spend on Facebook each month: 400 minutes
Daily active Facebook users in Canada : 9 Million
Minimum legal age for Facebook users : 13 years
Fastest growing Facebook user demographic : women 55 years +
Number of photos uploaded to Facebook daily : 250 Million (as of October 2011)
TIPS
You should never post anything on the internet that you don’t want becoming public. (Cyber Security Expert: Graham Cluley).
Limit the amount of personal information you post on Facebook because once it’s on the internet, you can never get it back.
Funny or embarrassing photos posted by yourself or someone else on Facebook might seem funny now, but they can have serious negative consequences in the future.
Un-tagging yourself from embarrassing photos posted on Facebook doesn’t make them go away, it only removes the direct link to your profile. To remove the photos permanently you’ll need to ask the person that posted them to delete them from Facebook.
Always verify that you actually know the people you are friending on Facebook. Accepting a friend request, especially from a stranger, could provide a hacker with access to all of your personal information and increases the risk of identity theft.
Become familiar with how to set your privacy settings on Facebook. The default privacy settings allow everyone to see all of your information. Changing your privacy settings only takes a few minutes and allows you to decide how much and with whom you’re sharing your information. Read more at facebook's Family Security Center
And remember: “Be Careful What You Post On Facebook.” – President Barack Obama
Facebook Follies Documentary
"Love it or hate it, Facebook is the world’s most successful social networking site. And whether you use it or nohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gift, it is fundamentally changing the way people connect and communicate. Facebook is easy to use and so far, more than three-quarters of a billion people all over the world have signed up. Our relationships, our thoughts, our pastimes, our memories, our lives and deaths - all are now routinely recorded on Facebook. It represents a paradigm shift in communications as significant as the printing press, or the telegraph, or the television. Inevitably, mishaps, embarrassment and trouble accompany such change.
Facebook Follies is a one-hour documentary that takes a look at the unexpected consequences of people sharing their personal information on social media. Viewers meet people who lost their jobs, their marriages, their dignity, or who even ended up in jail - all because of their own or someone else’s Facebook posting. To give a broader context to the events, these stories are intercut with reflections from experts in the areas of social change, internet security and contemporary media."
- CBC docZone
STATS
Total # of Canadians that are on Facebook : 16 908 380 (Ranked 13th against all other countries – As of October 2011)
Total % of Canadian population that are on Facebook : 50.08% (Ranked 17th against all other countries - As of October 2011)
Total of Facebook users as of September 2011 : 800 Million
Country with highest # of Facebook users : USA - 155 981 460 people (As of October 2011)
Country with lowest # of Facebook users : Vatican City - 20 people (As of October 2011)
Canadian average # of Facebook friends: 190 friends
Global average # of Facebook friends: 130 friends
Average amount of time Canadians spend on Facebook each month: 400 minutes
Daily active Facebook users in Canada : 9 Million
Minimum legal age for Facebook users : 13 years
Fastest growing Facebook user demographic : women 55 years +
Number of photos uploaded to Facebook daily : 250 Million (as of October 2011)
TIPS
You should never post anything on the internet that you don’t want becoming public. (Cyber Security Expert: Graham Cluley).
Limit the amount of personal information you post on Facebook because once it’s on the internet, you can never get it back.
Funny or embarrassing photos posted by yourself or someone else on Facebook might seem funny now, but they can have serious negative consequences in the future.
Un-tagging yourself from embarrassing photos posted on Facebook doesn’t make them go away, it only removes the direct link to your profile. To remove the photos permanently you’ll need to ask the person that posted them to delete them from Facebook.
Always verify that you actually know the people you are friending on Facebook. Accepting a friend request, especially from a stranger, could provide a hacker with access to all of your personal information and increases the risk of identity theft.
Become familiar with how to set your privacy settings on Facebook. The default privacy settings allow everyone to see all of your information. Changing your privacy settings only takes a few minutes and allows you to decide how much and with whom you’re sharing your information. Read more at facebook's Family Security Center
And remember: “Be Careful What You Post On Facebook.” – President Barack Obama
Saturday 29 October 2011
Bullying - Stop it!
"Every year in this country 300 kids take their own lives. It is a mind-boggling number. And this past week one of those kids was Jamie Hubley. He was 15, he was depressed and he happened to be gay.
And because this is 2011 we don't just read about a kid like Jamie, we can Google him and then the next thing you know, you’re sitting at home watching his videos on YouTube. And he was gay all right. He was a great big goofy gay kid singing Lady Gaga on the Internet. And as an adult you look at that and you go, you know what, that kid’s going places. But for some reason, some kids, they looked at that and they attacked. And now he's gone.
And because this story is all too familiar we know exactly what’s going to happen next. Grief counselors will go into the school, as they should. But what about the old fashioned assembly? You know, where the cops show up and there's hell to pay and they find out who’s responsible. You know like when the lunchroom is vandalized. Because the kids who bullied this boy, they know who they are. And more importantly other kids know who they are.
It's no longer good enough for us to tell kids who are different that it’s going to get better. We have to make it better now, that's every single one of us. Every teacher, every student, every adult has to step up to the plate. And that’s gay adults too. Because I know gay cops, soldiers, athletes, cabinet ministers, a lot of us do, but the problem is adults, we don't need role models. Kids do. So if you're gay and you’re in public life, I'm sorry, you don't have to run around with a pride flag and bore the hell out of everyone, but you can't be invisible either. Not anymore. 300 kids is 300 too many."
- Rick Mercer
It gets better. Stop bullying now!
And because this is 2011 we don't just read about a kid like Jamie, we can Google him and then the next thing you know, you’re sitting at home watching his videos on YouTube. And he was gay all right. He was a great big goofy gay kid singing Lady Gaga on the Internet. And as an adult you look at that and you go, you know what, that kid’s going places. But for some reason, some kids, they looked at that and they attacked. And now he's gone.
And because this story is all too familiar we know exactly what’s going to happen next. Grief counselors will go into the school, as they should. But what about the old fashioned assembly? You know, where the cops show up and there's hell to pay and they find out who’s responsible. You know like when the lunchroom is vandalized. Because the kids who bullied this boy, they know who they are. And more importantly other kids know who they are.
It's no longer good enough for us to tell kids who are different that it’s going to get better. We have to make it better now, that's every single one of us. Every teacher, every student, every adult has to step up to the plate. And that’s gay adults too. Because I know gay cops, soldiers, athletes, cabinet ministers, a lot of us do, but the problem is adults, we don't need role models. Kids do. So if you're gay and you’re in public life, I'm sorry, you don't have to run around with a pride flag and bore the hell out of everyone, but you can't be invisible either. Not anymore. 300 kids is 300 too many."
- Rick Mercer
It gets better. Stop bullying now!
Friday 28 October 2011
Tuesday 25 October 2011
Waiting game
I wrote my second exam yesterday and I'm still waiting for the results. The longer I wait the more nervous I get. I think I've checked my course website 50 times already. What's the hold up? ... Oh look. Another grey hair.
Monday 24 October 2011
It begins
Greetings friends. It has been a long time since I last posted something online and for that I apologize. I can't promise that I will update this everyday but I will try my hardest. I also can't promise that my blog entries will be mind-blowingly interesting and life changing. I'm a simple writer. Don't expect any crazy Shakespeare material here.
I admire good writing and I am inspired by bloggers who write about the truth. I do not want to post any entries that will distort your perception of who I am. It is easy to photoshop everything and hide behind a pretentious picture of yourself. We want to be perceived as someone who meets today's standards, but the truth is that people can tell when you are being "fake". And we all know that being "fake" is deceitful and downright boring. Imperfections are interesting and should be praised.
"Vanitybook", (ie: facebook) as I like to call it, pretty much sums up what I'm talking about. It's a tool that we all use to make everyone think that our lives are going as planned.
"Welcome to Facebook, the place where relationships are perfect, liars believe their own bullshit & the world shows off they are living a great life".
I don't want to fall into this trap so I am going to give you a head start. Here are a few things that you will need to know about me before reading this blog.
_________________________
I am gay.
I'm sure most of you already knew that, but for those who didn't... SURPRISE :)
I have a secret obsession with Seinfeld.
Why? Cause Jews have a great sense of humour. Seriously! I love Yinglish and their schmancy comedy.
I am completely and utterly dependent on my parents.
I think I'm going to stay in school for the rest of my life! Could my underachieving generation be the reason why our parents have to keep putting delays on their retirement plans? Hmmmmm. More on that in another blog.
I'm not religious but...
I sometimes ask favors from the man upstairs around exam time.
I'm not a Ginger.
I have pictures to prove it! It's actually brown with a couple white hairs. Stupid nursing and all the stress that comes with it. Grrrrr.
I am currently in a relationship.
Yes, the rumors are true. I am dating a boy. His name is Hoang (he's Vietnamese) and we've been together for almost a year! Wow, I can't believe it's been that long. Where are the pictures, you ask? I will post some soon. Promise.
I can't stand passive aggression.
We are what we hate, I guess. I'm trying!
Everyone thinks I'm in Nursing for the money.
Partly true, but I really do care about people. Honestly!
____________________________
So there you have it. Some confessions of mine that will help you get to know me under the skin. More to come!
I admire good writing and I am inspired by bloggers who write about the truth. I do not want to post any entries that will distort your perception of who I am. It is easy to photoshop everything and hide behind a pretentious picture of yourself. We want to be perceived as someone who meets today's standards, but the truth is that people can tell when you are being "fake". And we all know that being "fake" is deceitful and downright boring. Imperfections are interesting and should be praised.
"Vanitybook", (ie: facebook) as I like to call it, pretty much sums up what I'm talking about. It's a tool that we all use to make everyone think that our lives are going as planned.
"Welcome to Facebook, the place where relationships are perfect, liars believe their own bullshit & the world shows off they are living a great life".
I don't want to fall into this trap so I am going to give you a head start. Here are a few things that you will need to know about me before reading this blog.
_________________________
I am gay.
I'm sure most of you already knew that, but for those who didn't... SURPRISE :)
I have a secret obsession with Seinfeld.
Why? Cause Jews have a great sense of humour. Seriously! I love Yinglish and their schmancy comedy.
I am completely and utterly dependent on my parents.
I think I'm going to stay in school for the rest of my life! Could my underachieving generation be the reason why our parents have to keep putting delays on their retirement plans? Hmmmmm. More on that in another blog.
I'm not religious but...
I sometimes ask favors from the man upstairs around exam time.
I'm not a Ginger.
I have pictures to prove it! It's actually brown with a couple white hairs. Stupid nursing and all the stress that comes with it. Grrrrr.
I am currently in a relationship.
Yes, the rumors are true. I am dating a boy. His name is Hoang (he's Vietnamese) and we've been together for almost a year! Wow, I can't believe it's been that long. Where are the pictures, you ask? I will post some soon. Promise.
I can't stand passive aggression.
We are what we hate, I guess. I'm trying!
Everyone thinks I'm in Nursing for the money.
Partly true, but I really do care about people. Honestly!
____________________________
So there you have it. Some confessions of mine that will help you get to know me under the skin. More to come!
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