Thinking reeds...

Well, here we are... entering the "long stretch" of the school year. March and April roll on without a break until the very last of April, and then it's a sprint to the end of the school year. I don't really mind the unbroken schedule-- although it will be punctuated  by assemblies and other things-- because there's a lot to get done before the seniors depart. They graduate about a week before the rest of the kids can leave, so it's a hurry and a dash to get things done. And once April break happens, they mentally check out. So this is the time to accomplish just about all we (I?) want to get done.

Seniors are a funny lot; they are both so grown up and so young. I know that I sound like I'm spouting platitudes, but it is really true. Of course, since I've seen the kids grow up literally from birth, some of them anyhow, it's hard to see them as burgeoning young adults. But they are. They'll make the same discoveries we all did, and for them, it's new and fresh and hard to navigate, just like it was for us. That cycle goes on, regardless of the date. 

The concerns they face are, in large part, far different than the ones we faced. They have cyber issues, bitcoin, a crumbling federal government, rampant diseases, and an overwhelming fear and distrust by society at large (at least a significant faction) of everything science-related, immigrant-related, education-related, and so on. They want so much to understand all of these complexities, and what the media and a lot of adults hand them are slogans, bumper stickers, and misinformation. How do they navigate their way through this morass of info-sludge? I hope that some of the lessons we've taught them about critical thinking and verifying sources will help, but the default is to cling to what others have told them. I worry about these kids. I worry about us all, really. 

But today, we'll talk about Lincoln's speech to the Lyceum and his second inaugural address. And we'll listen to James Earl Jones deliver parts of Douglass' "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July" speech. I hope that some of the concerns that those fine gentlemen shared will resonate with the students as well. It is only by reading, discussing, and parsing out what others have said that we can start to figure out what we think, as well. This constant barrage of tech-driven info-garbage that we are assaulted by both in the social and main-stream media makes it very hard to think and see clearly. This is a true test of our intelligence and of our will. 

Blaise Pascal said it best:

“Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed. There is no need for the whole universe to take up arms to crush him: a vapour, a drop of water is enough to kill him. But even if the universe were to crush him, man would still be nobler than his slayer, because he knows that he is dying and the advantage the universe has over him. The universe knows none of this.”

I hope well can all think our way through these troubling times.

C