Tag Archives: society

We do not know

In a number of different places I’ve already said that COVID-19 has humbled me in that my thoughts and predictions have been way off. I’m not the only one.

Here is an interesting but worrisome article from Vox: My patient caught Covid-19 twice. So long to herd immunity hopes?

“We do not know how much immunity to expect once someone is infected with the virus, we do not know how long that immunity may last, and we do not know how many antibodies are needed to mount an effective response.”

There is still so much we need to learn about this virus that has changed the social and economic habits of humankind on a massive scale. So much we don’t know.

Here’s one thing I believe, (while admittedly not truly knowing):

We are going to be dealing with COVID-19 social restrictions and economic repercussions well into 2022.

I want to be wrong. I hope I’m wrong. I doubt that I’m wrong.

I tend to be optimistic, and this doesn’t sound very optimistic. Not at all. But I think accepting that from now and right through 2021, we will be navigating a defensive response to COVID-19 will help us stay positive. We can plan the best possible path forward facing a very challenging scenario, and be pleasantly surprised if I’m wrong. This is better than hoping for the best and continually being disappointed.

If we prepare for a long response, adhering to the required social distancing and social norms recommended to us, we will make things better, faster.

The path forward won’t be easy, but maybe we’ll learn some valuable lessons along the way. On the path, we need to be patient with each other. Tolerant. Forgiving. Kind.

We aren’t designed to live our lives in a constant state of anxiety or stress, and it’s hard to constantly adapt to change. But the rules for social interaction are going to be fluid for a while, sometimes loosening restrictions and opening public and social spaces, sometimes closing them down again. We need to be fluid too. Responsive. Adaptable.

We may not know what the future holds, but we will be more prepared for that future if we prepare for a prolonged and bumpy ride. Let’s work together and make it as smooth as possible.

Smile with your eyes

Seeing more and more people with masks, I’ve come to realize that some people know how to smile with their eyes and some don’t.

I’m not sure if this is something you can practice or teach, or if after years of smiling it’s just what you do or don’t do? But it can create a bit of an awkwardness when having friendly exchanges at stores… when you don’t know the person you are interacting with, and thus don’t know how they are responding to an attempt to have a fun conversational exchange.

Put your mask on. Take a photo, then smile and take another photo. Looking at your eyes, can you tell that you are smiling in the second photo?

~

On the bright side of mask-wearing, I don’t have to worry about the piece of food stuck between my teeth. 🤣

Angry Twitter, angry news

From news articles, to Facebook posts, to Twitter, to Imgur & Tik Tok, I cant seem to go anywhere online without finding anger and hate magnified on my screen.

It’s bitter, undermines my mood, and makes the world seem cold and uncaring. For every uplifting and inspiring post that’s shared, there are five to a dozen angry ones.

I’m sure this is having an impact on people in ways that are unhealthy, not just to ourselves, but to our society in general.

Are there reasons to be upset? Yes!

• Yesterday was the single worst day of ‘Daily New Cases’ for Covid-19

• Civil unrest to fight injustices has lead to unjust confrontations between police forces and peaceful protesters.

• Videos of looters and blatant prejudice are meme-ified and virally spread.

That’s the backdrop to what we watch and read about online. It’s impossible not to see this without tuning out completely… and so other than my Daily Ink tomorrow, you won’t see me online this weekend.

I need a break from all this. My guess is, you probably do too!

In the history books

We are only half way through 2020 and already we know that this year will be prominent in history books like no year in the 2000’s before it. It is the beginning of a new era, one that will keep us socially distancing from one another for a while; One that will make the wearing of masks and hiding our faces ‘normal’; One where handshakes and hugs are greeted with hesitation rather than warmth.

But it will also be a year remembered for bringing about social change. It will be remembered not just for changing our social interactions as they relate to salutations, but also for bringing about equity and making the world a more just place for those that have been disenfranchised and unfairly treated. Perhaps this year will be remembered as year a pandemic brought us together exactly when it was trying to pull us apart.

There is still half a year left, and many hints that economies and therefore people will struggle. The second half of 2020 will hold inequalities, political strife, and a death toll that will include those fighting against a virus, and those fighting against injustice. While the pandemic will surely be the lead story in the history book chapter on 2020, I hope that social change, and the battle against injustice is the focus of the chapter.

That is my hope, but if there is one thing the first half of this year has taught me, it is that this is not a time when it is easy to predict the future. If you don’t believe me, go back in your memory to the end of December 2019 and tell me that you could have predicted anything about the world we are living in today.

The year is only half over and it is already one for the history books.

Education focussed mind dump

I’m going to do a little mind dump of things on my mind about school, education, life, and learning, in point form – bullet format. Many of these could be entire posts on their own, and I want to share these as placeholders for future development:

  • Teaching is going to be more challenging in the future, but also more rewarding. Yes, technology will replace some teaching… an AI (Artificial Intelligence) based program can teach students who are learning to use algorithms better than a teacher in front of 30 students, when students could use just-in-time feedback and an adjusted curriculum based on their answers being right or wrong. However we are decades away from AI being able to teach problem solving, or critical thinking, or moderate a philosophical discussion. Teaching these things is exciting and can be very engaging for students, but also challenging to do well… this is the true art of teaching.
  • I’m tired of seeing ‘Remote Learning didn’t work’ articles. It is not ideal for every student and it magnifies the issue of privilege, and access to required technology. It especially won’t work when educators need to make the switch with no forward planning. That said, it has made us question a few things we needed to question, like traditional assessment practices for example.
  • Assessment practices needs to change. We can’t rely on information-based content as a means of measuring student success. ie. 1. We still need to know that students can use mathematical algorithms, but we also need to know that they are numerate and understand the concepts behind those algorithms. ie. 2. The so called soft skills that we want to see like critical thinking and collaboration don’t work well being marked in a traditional way. What does a mark of 77% in Creativity mean?
  • Blended learning is the future of learning in schools, and so two things need to change: 1. Block schedules/timetables where the structure is exclusively around a teacher at the front of a room teaching for a set time. 2. “Teach them while I’ve got them in front of me” mentality, where the face-to-face component of the blending is all about teaching as it used to be… Blended learning should be centred around creating ‘learning experiences’.
  • Student voice and choice needs to be the forefront of course and lesson design. Cookie-cutter assignments are not enough. That said, there can be considerable teacher influence and high expectations. A teacher-led inquiry with embedded opportunities for students choice can be much better than not giving students creative constraints (that they might flounder without).
  • We need to leverage blended learning, in order to create collaboration and professional development time inside of a teacher’s workday. The idea of a teacher working in isolation for over 85% of the school day is counter productive to creating a culture of learning at institutions (schools) that should be modelling a learning culture.
  • A well funded, free, and public education is an essential public service. It also has to foster the values we want to see in our world. Diversity, acceptance (not just tolerance), civics, kindness, and charity need to be celebrated and highlighted. Yes, we need to prepare students to function in society, and even be employable, but the most important thing we do in schools is make all students feel like they belong, and we help them become decent human beings.
  • We need to help students be tolerant of others with opposing points of view. We have to show them that despite the desire of attention-seeking news media to polarize ideas into different camps, ideas sit on a spectrum, they are not all dichotomous. And we do not have to agree with different ideas to be respectful of the people who hold them… That said, while “we must be tolerant and accepting of opposing views“, we must also be, “unaccepting of hateful and hurtful acts, and smart enough to understand the difference“.
  • We need to find a balance between ‘open’ classrooms and ‘private’ learning spaces. Students need a space where they can fumble and be less than perfect, having a private space to work out the rough edges of their work. They also need to be able to share what they want out in the open, and with the world. Everything doesn’t have to be on display, and we need to help students discern what is important to share, and what we keep to ourselves.
  • Mistakes need to be legitimately celebrated as part of learning. Failure is part of most challenging journeys, and while we talk about the importance of this, we freak out when students fail in a public setting. Mistakes are ok when we can fix them quickly, but we still admonish bigger public mistakes in ways that do not foster learning. This is an issue beyond schools, we seem to live in a world where everyone is judged (harshly) by their worst public mistake, and sincere apologies are not enough. This has two important, negative ramifications: 1. Public mistakes become something we can’t recover or learn from; 2. We can not be truly innovative when we can’t risk looking bad for our efforts. So many schools, school districts, and even companies, brag about being innovative, but when it is ‘innovative as long as it looks good’, well then all the risk is gone and so is the opportunity to do something daring.
  • Everyone has a right to their opinion, and everyone can share those opinions, but not all opinions are good, and not all opinions deserve an equal footing. Bad ideas can spread very easily these days. People need to be brave enough to speak out against bad ideas… in non-violent ways. We must celebrate the power of dialogue and use our words instead of our fists, if we truly want our society to be better. We have to challenge ourselves to take higher ground and not fight the fight that the spreaders of bad ideas want us to fight. There is a saying, “Never wrestle a pig, you both get dirty but the big likes it.” Bad ideas get unwarranted publicity when the battles get messy… and the weak-minded get fuel to oppose good ideas when those with the good ideas act in bad faith. You do not have to ‘turn the other cheek’ but you do have to act in a way that is decent and good, if you want to fight for things that are decent and good.

… Ideas To be expanded on at a future date.

Some are more equal

It has been years since I read Animal Farm, but this quote comes to mind now:

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” ~ George Orwell

And this idea reminds me of an image that differentiates equality from equity:

On the left side of the image, some people are ‘more equal’. On the right is the equity that all people deserve. When people counter #BlackLivesMatter with #AllLivesMatter, they completely miss the point that if you believe that ‘All Lives Matter’, then fundamentally you care about equity and not equality. At the core of all lives mattering is living in a just world where everyone can thrive. That’s not the world we live in. ‘Black Lives Matter’ does not negate all lives mattering, it changes the conversation from equality to equity.

In Animal Farm the rebellion starts out with the idea that ‘All animals are equal’, but the idea of equality is corrupted by power and privilege, and this phrase is switched to ‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.’

‘More equal’ today comes out of privilege for some, it comes out of systemic prejudice, it comes out of unequal opportunity. Equity is about making things more fair and equitable, not taking away anyone else’s equality.

Do all lives matter? The answer is: They all should matter, yes, but right now they do not matter with any equity. If you believe that all lives matter, then ultimately you should support #BlackLivesMatter… If you truly care about living in an equitable and just world.

Feeding the rage machine

It’s really hard to avoid rage as a driving force in the news today. Article after article, video clip after video clip, there is anger, upset, and rage. There is a link between what we think and how we feel, and that used to be determined by us. Now it is determined by the headlines we read and the videos we watch.

Cognition used to drive emotion, now emotion draws us towards information and that information caries a bias that fuels anger in one of two opposing ways:

1. Disgust: How can this happen in our society today? What kind of world are we living in? This is so wrong!

2. Rebuke: This is not a crisis. This is overblown! Everything is sensationalized.

These two reactions towards the same topic fuel even greater rage. If you think something is completely unacceptable and I ask you, ‘what’s the big deal?’, how does that make you feel?

Anger does not invite clear thought. It does not invite discourse that we can learn from. It does not foster a healthy environment.

It upsets me that headlines are so geared towards rage and anger. It saddens me that I still follow the headlines, clicking links and watching videos. I’m not impervious to the emotional draw. It’s similar to slowing down on the highway to see why emergency vehicles are pulled over in the oncoming lanes… we are pulled in by the macabre.

It can not be healthy to draw our attention to the world through rage. It clouds the truth, hides it in bias based on anger. This is not how we should be learning about the going’s on in our world. This is not news.

Shifting winds

Most school years are like prevailing winds. You know which way you are sailing and you adjust your course a little and keep going.

This year, and especially these past 4 months, have created shifting winds that keep altering the direction we are going, outside of our control.

If you’ve ever watched a sailing race, the most important aspects of a boat being successful are leadership and teamwork. That doesn’t just mean working together when everyone agrees with the captain. In fact, the test of a true team is how well they work together when there is disagreement.

In the coming months there will be some metaphorical rough seas, and blustery winds. To sail through safely we will need good leadership and great teamwork.

In our Province, we have leadership worth following and listening to. It is sad to see a team crumble under good leadership.

In other jurisdictions people are not as lucky. It is equally sad to see a team crumble because of poor leadership.

What we have to remember is that we are all in the same boat. How well will we sail through this rough patch? Calmer winds and seas will come eventually, until then the shifting winds are testing our resolve to work together.

It will be quite different

I went to swap out my snow tires today. Usually when I go to the tire store, the show room for new tires is open, and there is free coffee and self-serve popcorn. Instead, a table sat in the front entrance blocking the showroom and allowing only one customer in at a time. The popcorn maker was empty. While at some point the showroom will open again, I think the days of self-serve popcorn are over.

Will we see self serve bulk food in grocery stores again any time soon? What will buffet meals look like? What new etiquette will be required for bathroom use in restaurants, or changing rooms in clothing stores? What will hair dressers and massage therapists do to their stations and rooms between customers?

Even without these changes, on a personal level, I look at door handles, railings, and elevator and crosswalk buttons completely differently than I did a few months ago. The new normal will be quite different than what we were used to in 2019.

What happens when we find a vaccine?

At some point scientists are going to find a vaccine for COVID-19, and two things become immediately evident. One: there won’t be enough vaccine to give to everybody as fast as they want them. Two: there will need to be a thoughtful plan to distribute the vaccine in a way that maximizes it’s effectiveness.

The three easiest places to start:

  1. Health care workers
  2. Senior homes
  3. High risk due to age or health conditions like immune sufficiencies.

But what’s the order after that? The reality is that money and power will play a big role, and so athletes and famous people will get an undeserved advantage with respect to how fast they get their vaccine. This unfair advantage will occur. But if you were in charge, who would be next after the list I mentioned above?

Where do grocery and restaurant workers fit in the schedule? Or workers at food production farms and plants? What about teachers and professors? Dentists, physio, and massage therapists?

What restrictions might fall upon those not vaccinated?Will their travel to other countries be limited? Will their ability to work in certain sectors be limited? Will there be consequences for those that decide they don’t want to be vaccinated? (Besides natural consequences.)

I’m sure countries have already made decisions like this. I’m also pretty sure how counties do this will look different around the world. How it plays out will be interesting to see. If production of a vaccine is extremely fast, this won’t be a huge concern, but the slower the production, the greater the distribution order of the vaccine will matter.