A quick note of explanation

(I had called Tim the other day as a Beta Tester of my new VOIP provider; Tim often screens my calls, so if I blabber enough into his machine—they eventually pick up. I’ve been using Vonage for over a year now, and while their service is alright, they have failed to provide me with a local number—so I’m leaving them. I’m now using Teliax, which is *much* more geeky, and the nerd-learning-curve is steep. Installation of the SIP device was relatively painless; I chose the Grandstream HandyTone 496. Tim was one of my first calls, as he could appreciate the geekiness of my achievement, as well as give me a critical ear in terms of jitter, latency, QOS, and overall voice quality.)

Life in the Deep South

You know Matt, I looked into that White-Only-Church in Saltillo MS. First thing I did was google it—and found that it’s a rural area north of Tupelo. Somewhat oddly, it’s also right close to Guntown—where we had just sent our students to do hearing screenings. I’m betting that many will have a noise induced hearing loss around 4khz. (SLP humor; the names of towns in this state can be hysterical.) Anyway—the church in question isn’t even listed in the phone book, so I actually wonder what kind of church it is in the first place. While I’m not doubting the actual event, it’s safe to stay that it’s not representative. (I shared it around the office, and people were generally disappointed in how it will appear, stereotypically. Personally—apart from the act itself, I rather don’t mind such bad press—as it keeps the yankees out.)

But for the sake of argument, let’s assume that this “church” of less than 30 members that isn’t even listed in the phone book; I assume that it’s a family-based congregation—consisting of anywhere from 1 to 3 extended family units. So these people did a dumb thing, and they’re actively choosing segregation for all the public to see. It’s blatant and non-apologetic; I believe that they are wrong, but they are also outliers.

But I also find the statement of “Living in blue-state Massachusetts makes it easy to forget that stuff like this still goes on” a bit presumptuous. Not your intent or your statement, but the fact that I’ve seen various acts of active segregation in every town and city in which I have lived. What is the functional difference between the active-segregation of this one so-called-church, and the de-facto socioeconomic segregation that I viewed running rampant in Chicago and DC? Personally, I would rather be a black man in the south than a black man in the SE of DC any day of the week. My point and pet-peeve is that I have seen many a blinded northerner cite the south for racism, when it lives just as prevalent all over the country—albeit in a different form. The southern flavor of prejudice just seems to be more of an easy target.

Thomas Sowell did a review of black academic achievement pre- and post-integration, and his findings stunned the hell out of me; IIRC, he found that black students did significantly better in segregated schools—a finding that he attributes to the changes in black culture and values.

Of Grade Inflation, the Postman, and the missed mark of Relative Values

Yeah—Grade inflation is a problem. Everybody bitches about it, and nobody claims to be guilty of it. Yet—it runs rampant; a sin acknowledged by all and admitted by no one. Perhaps until now; I have inflated grades. And I did so knowingly and deliberately. In the instance where I have inflated grades, I have done so simply to make my life easier—as the system would have attacked me (the instructor) and negated student responsibility. A classmate turned in 2 of her peers for cheating; the snitch wanted to remain anonymous. After looking at the data, the 2 students had clearly corroborated. The same answers correct, and the same answers incorrect for the same reasons. When asked how this could have occurred, they replied with, “we studied together.” When asked when they studied together, they gave entirely different answers. Yet—as the story unfolded, I had to recant my charge, and was forced to write a letter of apology to the cheaters—as dictated by my former chair (who had no balls). Why? Because he didn’t feel like dealing with it. His administrator-bosses (who had no balls) didn’t feel like dealing with it. Because Universities are now more fearful of litigation than they are the consequences of absolute performance standards. No balls people; no balls. I could have taken it to the mattresses, but the decision had already been made—and I would have made much ado about nothing, left in the sun to bake while bent over—inspecting my ankles for a bit of sanity in my reality. No thanks, no thanks. Is my pride worth it? With the same outcome happening regardless, I chose to skip a step; I also chose to leave that department.

It would not surprise me a bit if grade inflation occurs, in large part, because of this type of scenario. When holding kids to an absolute standard of performance and conduct becomes increasingly difficult (if not impossible) within the modern fusion of academic litigation and moral relativism that is academia.

The segue to Postman

I’ll try and approach this from another perspective, but it’s been my experience that the Postman perspective is cut from the same cloth as many the liberal advocating equal outcomes for all, rather than equal opportunity. That feelings and intent is more important than measurable outcomes. The notion that the free market or modern capitalism is ripping the cultural fabric, and that life was somehow better (i.e., glorified) in decades or centuries gone by. This projection onto Postman may be inaccurate on my part, although I doubt it. In any event, his speech seems to infer that technology (i.e., another modern evil corrupted by the greedy free market) is one of the central tenets for the social problems in the 21st century.

Admittedly, I don’t buy into his (projected) premise, and subsequently can’t accept his arguments as valid. But here’s why—he seems to point the finger at technology as the could-be-evil that is whored by capitalists… but his focus (I submit) is misplaced. I would argue something different—that it’s not technology nor capitalism that is at the greater root of social issues that he ultimately attacks (including examples of grade inflation or the dumbing down of America from our own discussions) … it is the mainstreaming of humanistic moral relativism. The systematic deletion of absolute right vs. wrong (or good vs. bad) within American (or global) culture (and academia), to me, is more the culprit. Thus fundamental shift in cultural values does share common elements with the technological ecology, but I would argue that his examples of technology are more symptomatic than causal to his greater vision. Although, I won’t be arguing that right now, as I’ve run out of time for this novel…

Sorry guys—just got caught up in the moment.