This is why its called a depression

A fascinating article from BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/

7426794.stm

Though the intentions of the group who took the photos seems to be
genuine, I can't help but feel these people are now more at risk,
exposed.

Yet, moreover, I am awed by the fact that tribes exist that are not
in contact with the rest of the world. My students are truly
addicted to electronics. They seem as compelled to text message
their friend across the room or in the next class as an alcoholic is
compelled to drink.

I wonder what it would be like to live in a community where each had
to participate for the survival of all. I feel jaded and disconnected.

First, even out in East Los Angeles, where I usually fill up on my
way to Spanish class, the gas has gone up to over $4 a gallon without
any indication of stopping.

Today, my school laptop was stolen. Though not my own property, it
is the computer I was assigned to use for work and, teaching
filmmaking and media, I did use it a lot. I have backups of
everything. Yet, it somehow feels very personal. I've had other
equipment stolen, which, though limiting our access in times of run
down batteries and such, did not take anyone's personal work or
inhibit the running of the class. On this computer were my personal
work files -- all my lessons, work emails, and, the biggest lost,
copies of our first semester projects. I am sure i have a back up of
those somewhere, but I am not sure where at the moment. At my
school, stolen laptops are common. However, it is also likely to
have been an employee. My room was locked (we were having a great
video shoot in the girl's restroom . .. lots of fun and creativity
happening, for once!) only to return to my room sans laptop. My room
has a key that limited people have. It is rather mysterious and sad
and frustrating.

Is it so much to ask to just be able to go in and teach student
without having to worry about locking down each tool I have to teach,
each pencil and computer and camera and light? It just seems to
amplify an anxiety, distrust and desperation (the thief's not mine)
that I expect to increase as I see the economy spiral into a black
hole of its own creation.

Then somewhere, in the forests of Brazil and Peru, are tribes that
have somehow managed to survive without being sucked into cell
phones, tv, credit cards, home mortgages, and really lovely laptop
computers. I doubt i could survive there and I know I am somewhat
romanticizing their isolation. I lost a laptop that wasn't mine and
will minimal information that can be used to harm me. Their entire
environment is under threat by loggers and developers. It puts it
all into perspective, but I still think I need that second glass of
wine tonight.

Poetry class and news rants

If I had more time i would write this all in iambic pentameter, which
is what I have been doing for my new poetry class.

The course is called "By Art, Not Chance," which is what sold me on
this class (versus some fiction writing classes that were all about
finding one's muse) because I feel my writing (mostly blogs) is too
much by chance, not enough about art. So each week we study a poetic
form, read and analyze examples of the form, then write in that form.
It is fun and challenging and I am actually enjoying (and writing
better) in form than just free versing or freewriting. It feels
intentional; the form forces revision and new ways of saying what I
want to say leading to more precision.

Yet, it is has been so long since I posted something . . . so let me
turn to some news items.

First, education. There is so much about testing and No Child Left
Behind. I am not a big fan of testing, but the new buzzline seems to
want to blame testing for the failure of schools. Yes, standardized
tests reflect the narrow-minded and robotic logic of bureaucracy.
Yes, they were originally used to support Eugenics and racial
discrimination. Yes, they are boring and test standards set by an
outside source. OK, that last one is a weak argument as no everything
in life worth doing is 'fun' and, moreover, the fact remains that
students are bombing these tests of standards that most educated
people at some point had to learn. Students are not just getting a
little bit less than we want them to, but they are failing with gusto.
These tests are not like the SAT or the GRE -- they are not trying to
weed out the Ivy leagues material from the community college material
(though, yes, we know that is mostly a class issue anyway), but are
testing basic skills. This week I taught students how to breakdown a
screenplay, starting with marking scenes by 8ths of a page. This
involved using fractions and things like, if a scene is a whole page,
8/8, then we mark it as 1. Or, if we have 6/8 of a scene on page 2
and 5/8 of that scene on page 3, how may 8ths of a page is the scene?
At least half of the students had trouble with this math. About a
quarter of them could not properly write the fractions. It is
disheartening and sad. As far as I know, you don't need a college
degree to be a 1st AD on a film set, yet, if you can do it (which
requires basic understanding of math) you can be bringing home a few
thousand dollars a week. Another example we all may have experienced.
Have you ever been at you local chain coffee shop and your order
comes to, say, $3.05. You had the cashier a $5. He/she enters it and
waits for hte machine to tell the change. You find a nickle and give
it to him/her so you don't have to get a handful of change and you see
the look of panic on the cashier's face as this now means he/she will
have to figure out your change ON THEIR OWN. My point. Over-testing
is a bit rampant, but it is not totally inaccurate. More testing will
not solve the problem. Neither will budget cuts or blaming the
teachers or hiring more administrators. On NPR there was a story
about a teacher who refused to give the state standardized test. He
was suspended until the testing period was over and when asked why he
thought he knew better he said, "Because I am the one who is trained
to teach students." The obvious solution then would be to hire more
teachers (and thus reduce class sizes). Maybe, if they weren't in a
math class with 39 other students more of my students would have known
that 5/8 + 6/8 = 11/8 or 1 3/8.

Second is the energy crisis. It is a crisis. The story I heard on
NPR was about how biofuel only exasperates the hunger problem in
neighboring countries. Yet, many of my LA neighbors continue to drive
Hummers (some are biofuel, I am told, but we just showed how that is
not a friendly solution) and Escalades and all other kind of gas
guzzling cars. Our country seems more than willing to legislate what
a woman should do with her own body (legal abortion is far from safe
in our country; and even when it is legal, it doesn't stop many who
think they know better from trying to keep women and doctors from
exercising that right through violent ends), yet, we are outraged at
the idea of legislating the size of car citizens can drive. Why can
we not have laws requiring manufacturers to ONLY produce cars that are
hybrids or that get at least 30 or 40 mpg (the technology is there, we
have cars that do that, so why allow them to do otherwise)? So what
if that means they can't produce a car bigger than an Accord or Camry.
There could be a lengthy process to apply for a truck, SUV, or
industrial vehicle that is necessary for work, requiring extensive
counseling sessions about the global environmental and health effects
of your gas-guzzling addiction, graphic photos of children starving,
of cancer-invaded bodies, and of bioregions dying from pollution or
global warming. I don't really see the dilemma here. Except, I
suppose, for politicians, auto industry executives and oil industry
executives who might wonder how they will survive on only millions
rather than billions.