Small Explosion in the Lab??? Ignore it, Mom . . . .

In the July 12th issue of Time Magazine, Nancy Gibbs has an essay called "The Case for Keeping Out." She states that "As adults, we shudder at how our shopping is tracked and our searches searched and horrified that anyone can go online and find a satellite picture of our house. And then there are our children, who happily stand exposed in the public square, posting secrets on the Facebook walls, yet remain eternally elusive to the people who sleep in the next bedroom over."

She makes the point later than a variety of technologies exist to "aid" parents in snooping on their kids--ranging from ways to "crack" laptop passwords to drug-testing strands of hair from the teen's hairbrush. Software is sold that can be serendipitously installed on an iPhone that will "log" every text, every call, every GPS location.

Ms Gibbs says that she understands that impulse--it gives parents the impression that they are still "in control" of their teens. But she also (correctly) states that when it comes to technology, the kids hold the higher ground.

It is even more true today that with teens, we must parent using relationships rather than rules. As Ms Gibbs puts it, "if we don't trust our kids, we invite them to be less trustworthy."

In the end, we must allow for the "normal youthful mess-making, for it's practically encoded into adolescence that you savor your secrets, dress in disguise, carve out some space for experiments and accidents and all the combustible lab work of becoming who you are."

So yes, the technology exists (mostly because control-crazy parents will shell out the money for it!) to spy on our kids. But if we have done our jobs while they were younger, at this stage, willful knowledge can be just as damaging as willful ignorance.

Billionaires for Weathcare

Mortimer J. Adler on Reading

At the beginning of a new school year, it doesn't hurt to mention one of the classic books for "scholars" of all stripes, the above-pictured How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler. (Many other of his writings--including

• How to Stay Awake While Reading,
• How to Read a Difficult Book, and
• How to Read a Book Superficially

are available online from the Mortimer J. Adler Archive.

Many students are very used to taking snippits of facts from facebook pages, websites, etc., but are less adept at reading longer texts through and retaining the overall purpose and message of the work.

It will be well worth the time to read and digest these essays.

The Semester Has Begun

As most of you know, I teach at several area colleges, including HACC. (For those of you not from the area, "HACC" used to be Harrisburg Area Community College, but recently changed to simply HACC--Central Pennsylvania's Community College). This semester, HACC has over 21,000 students across our five campuses, with 5,024 in Lancaster alone!! The parking lot is crowded, the hallways are crowded, and classrooms are full!!

And the price of textbooks is climbing ever higher; the textbook that my CIS105 class uses is $145! While that includes a software license for the MyITLab product, that still represents an additional expense for which many students have not budgeted.

Are we not communicating with prospective students that the college experience is different than high school??? And college is an investment (remember anything about risk/reward???). An unmotivated dullard will use the finest of books as mere paperweights, while the Lincolns among us can educate themselves with borrowed books and a candle. But using the best tools available can help maximize the odds of a good "return" on the investment.

So yes, college & textbooks are expensive.

But an investment is a "good" investment when it increases the value of one's portfolio. Use the textbooks to increase the "value of YOUR portfolio," and in five years you'll never even think about the cost of the textbook.

Autumnal Changes

Well, I hadn't really intended to take the summer "off" from blogging, but that's what actually happened. My wife's illnesses intensified, unfortunately culminating with her passing away August 8th. Her quality of life was so greatly diminished that she was ready, asking the palliative care physician to transfer her to hospice, where she died peacefully with family near. My regular faculty website contains a remembrance.

As I intend to share with my students this semester, death is very much a part of life; our attitudes toward life affect our view of death, and vice-versa. And watching another's reaction toward a loved-one's death teaches more than books or sermons.

So, as I embark upon yet another semester, part of me is, in fact, diminished in a way that can never be restored. Yet those parts remaining can expand and fill in (though not entirely replace) that now-empty space. If our early years together was Spring, the searing heat of my wife'e intense illness was Summer, then I am entering the Autumnal phase of my life.

I will leave to my colleagues in the Sociology discipline to academically examine cultural attitudes toward death; the lesson I hope to teach is more personal and observational.

Text, Context, Pretext . . . .

Those of you who are as much a political junkie as am I know that there has been quite a flap over Judge Sotomayor's comment that she, as a Latino Woman, would more often render good judgment than would a white male.

This brings to mind something one of my prof's drilled into our heads, while we studied hermeneutics . . . . "A Text without its Context is a Pretext . . . ."

Keith Olbermann of MSNBC has researched the larger context of the controversial sound-bite, and (rightly, in my view) points out that, when read in context and with a view toward the audience to whom it was addressed, actually points her to be a careful adjudicator of the law cognizant of her own potential bias, rather than being (shame on you, Mr. Limbaugh!) a bigot or racist.

So, those of my readers who are college students--THAT is why your profs are SOOOO insistent upon citations in your papers, and why they make SUCH A BIG DEAL ABOUT THEM.

Any quote not taken in context is a misappropriation of an author's intent, and, as such, is a PRETEXT . . . . .

Grillin' 'n Groovin'????

Since not all of life revolves around the classroom, came upon some useful tidbits for Summer Life:

Six Best MP3 Taggers

and

Top Ten Grilling Secrets

Both of these gems from the Lifehacker website.

But--if you absolutely must do both at once, here's a novel solution:

This Memphis music barbecue grill will be music to your ears - and stomach! The retro Memphis-inspired grill can cook your steak while rocking your house. This powerful grill is powered by two gas burners that can quickly cook your steak to perfection. As if that's not enough, it has been designed so that an MP3 player can be hooked up to an integrated plug at the rear of the unit. This way, you can create your own soundtrack to your barbecue party while grilling some delicious steaks at the same time. The unique look of this model will also impress, with its hip 1950's styling. Price for this machine is $450. From The Appliancist