This was brought up in p.b.i

Here are a couple of mine on atypical haiku subjects. Those are the ones 
in which I am most interested. Have any to share?


In response to my brother's (27yo - soon to get his doctorate in EE) 
questioning the value of his well-spent youth.

   A scholar ponders
   Life among the savages
   Had it been a choice?

My mother played Farmtown on Facebook for a while. Some might miss the 
geek reference, but I think I'm safe here.

   Virtual Garden
   Plants consuming human life
   Day of the Triffids

  -Shay

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Very good poems.  I have nothing of the sort to offer in response but 
rather I will describe I very clear and immediate memory that, reading 
them together, they evoked from me.

At about the same time you posted, on Thursday morning, I was peddling 
down a wide, spiral staircase at the college where I teach.  It was 
break and I was thinking over a conversation I'd just had with some 
members of the class. One had asked me simply, "What do you think is the 
fastest way to learn this for the test?" He was talking about New York 
City geography.  And one more time I had taken the occasion to stress my 
belief, based on my own experience, that the sooner one humbles them 
self before this task, and recognizes that a certain foundation of 
knowledge must be memorized by rote, the easier and faster it becomes. 
"The first thing I did was go to the store and buy fifty sheets of blank 
paper" is a pivotal line in my monologue.

Of course this is exactly what my audience doesn't want to hear.  And 
not without reason.  Many of these guys, (occasional gals,) are here to 
give taxi driving a try precisely because they lack the temperament and 
bookish skills to learn in a classroom.  Many are poorly able to even 
make the connection between book knowledge and field knowledge, let 
alone trust in it enough to make the classroom effort.  And for many 
that effort is septic with discouragement.  Memorizing something by 
writing it out ten times is hardly so efficient if forming the very 
letters is a painful process.  Neither do they trust the process of 
establishing a foundation of raw knowledge which then can be integrated 
in different ways to answer different questions.  Instead, if there is 
any memorizing to be done, they want to memorize already-integrated 
answers to known questions.  Because the hurtle at hand is the Test, and 
field knowledge is now located in readily affordable GPS devices.

And so, I sank through that spacious stairwell, and juxtaposed in my 
mind the thought of the impoverished class of men we've become, 
overwhelmed at the prospect of memorizing a gross or two of facts, when 
perhaps in an earlier age whole books or passages, multiplication tables 
or navigation tables were recited without question.  And yet with GPS, 
an individual might be productive in a way he never was before.

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On 08/07/2010 01:01 PM, Jim Charter wrote:
>
> And so, I sank through that spacious stairwell, and juxtaposed in my
> mind the thought of the impoverished class of men we've become,
> overwhelmed at the prospect of memorizing a gross or two of facts, when
> perhaps in an earlier age whole books or passages, multiplication tables
> or navigation tables were recited without question. And yet with GPS, an
> individual might be productive in a way he never was before.

Yes, I really want to struggle to learn something, but can find no 
reason besides novelty to really dig in to any new subject.

When I was a senior in High School, I had to retake the History class 
I'd flunked my junior year. Class was just before lunch, and the 
teacher, Mr. Ramsey would review (really it was a PREview, I suppose, 
but he called it REview) Friday's tests on Thursday. No pens allowed, 
but I could memorize all 30 test questions. I'd write them down at lunch 



When I was poor, I would sometimes shop to fatigue for expensive items 
instead of buying them.


Now, I don't have any tests to take and have learned to hate shopping. 
Every thing I think I might someday need to know is easily available on 
the Internet. My grandmother says, "A sheep isn't stupid. A sheep knows 
what he needs to know." Guess that's where I'm at.

  -Shay

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Shay wrote:
> Guess that's where I'm at.

I still feel really bad for you.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    C# - a language whose greatest drawback
    is that its best implementation comes
    from a company that doesn't hate Microsoft.

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On 08/09/2010 05:17 PM, Darren New wrote:
> Shay wrote:
>> Guess that's where I'm at.
>
> I still feel really bad for you.
>

Because I don't have any learning goals at the top (or anywhere near the 
top) of my list right now? Sure, I miss them sometimes, but there are 
plenty other avenues in life and there's too much principle and too 
little practice in the world ATM anyway, IMO.

One could starve to death searching for the best way to crack open a nut.

  -Shay

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Shay wrote:
> 
> Yes, I really want to struggle to learn something, but can find no 
> reason besides novelty to really dig in to any new subject.
> 

I suppose if you really want to get into learning something, one good 
way for you to go might be to take up a task which would require a good 
deal of learning to accomplish.  But of course, no reason that you need 
to make learning a high priority if you've got other things you enjoy to 
do with your time anyway.


> 
> y grandmother says, "A sheep isn't stupid. A sheep knows 
> what he needs to know."
> 

I like that quote, I may have to steal it.

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On 8/9/2010 4:47 PM, Shay wrote:

> Now, I don't have any tests to take and have learned to hate shopping.
> Every thing I think I might someday need to know is easily available on
> the Internet. My grandmother says, "A sheep isn't stupid. A sheep knows
> what he needs to know." Guess that's where I'm at.

Feeling sheepish? ;)

Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun.

-- 
~Mike

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