Thanksgiving Thoughts -- On Turkeys, Teachers, Soldiers and Conscience

 
Below is the preface to some verses I wrote, last Saturday, that might be of particular interest to teachers. I added this preface for those working in the schools here.  Hopefully, they are off  today for Thanksgiving, this being the last Thursday in November.

President Barack Obama, by the way, stood with his daughters yesterday, to publicly declare that he was using his executive powers to pardon, not just the usual one lucky Thanksgiving turkey, but two of them. 

The word "pardon", though now accepted for this annual presidential event, seems very wrong. Surely, it is we, not the turkeys we routinely slaughter or have slaughtered for us without compunction, who need to be pardoned -- or perhaps not pardoned. 

But who are we to quibble, who are set to gobble the poor gobblers?  I'll be cooking salmon today, rather than turkey, and so will be needing my own pardon -- from the Big Fish in the sky.
 
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In the early to late 2000's, when I was away on leave for several years for my parents, but subbing day-to-day whenever I could return to New York, I used to be called, quite often, to a local school that actually had a teacher's lounge -- a rare thing here in New York City.

Sitting in that lounge in my off-periods, I used to observe the teachers and at times chat with them.  In those days, they were somewhat less hard-pressed than they are nowadays, although still of course continually busy.  In that setting, I made the acquaintance of an amiable senior teacher, who made some remarks that I still remember.  Let me call him Bob.

Bob told me about a past colleague of his, who had joined the profession, as quite a few did at the time, to avoid or lower the chances of having to go to Vietnam.  This must have been in the 1960's or early 1970's.  As also could happen, this young man was given some difficult classes, with rowdy students who made life very difficult for him.  In addition, he faced the usual indifference or worse from the administrators and even colleagues.

One day, this young teacher came in rather late for work.  When Bob asked him what had happened, this is what he said:

"I was sitting in my car for half an hour, wondering whether I should just go and sign up for the war, whether that might be less of a hell than this."

That young man probably made the right decision, however difficult, at the time, by coming in to face the daily, but hopefully not deadly, fire at the school job.  After all, soldiers were coming back from 'Nam in body bags every day.  And those who survived were at times damaged for life, physically or mentally -- or both.  That can happen to teachers too, but less commonly than to soldiers during a war.

Of course, the foreign wars of more recent times, though lower in bodily casualties for our troops, seem to be wreaking just as much mental havoc among them, judging from the suicide rates.  Most soldiers, like teachers, don't like to talk too much about their experiences, perhaps for similar reasons.

There was something else that Bob said, which might explain quite a bit about what we see around us.  Once again, it applies to both soldiers and teachers.

"Oh, you've got to hang up your conscience with your coat, when you come into the building."

This was in response to a question I had, even then, about how we could go about our jobs in good conscience, given all that was set up wrong or was going wrong, even then, for the students -- and also for their teachers.

That remark of Bob's seemed cynical to me at the time, and still does. I never could do as he prescribed, which might explain a lot of my woes over the years.  But perhaps what he summed up so picturesquely is how one survives in the schools, as a soldier might do in a war zone.

I learned, the hard way, to keep my mouth shut (most of the time), but I never could do the same for my heart. I don't think that this situation -- of a closed mouth, but an open heart -- is that uncommon among teachers, although sometimes I wonder.

Following conscience, one tries to do what seems right, but this can be a very hard path to take, both as regards the workload that ensues, and from the attitudes of one's "supervisors", many of one's colleagues and, as can happen more frequently than not, from quite a few of one's students. One can work and work and give and give, expecting little in return, except to be left alone to do one's job.  But even this is rarely granted, and the psyche can only take so much punishment before it becomes discouraged or rebels.

Of course, there are always those, if one takes care to notice, in all of these three categories -- "overseers", coworkers and pupils -- that do no harm, do their jobs and might even be appreciative and supportive. But human nature is such that we notice, much more, those who behave in highly negative ways, often through no fault of our own.
 
So one has to continually tell oneself to disregard those folk, or at least not let their attitudes, words and actions unduly affect us -- and focus instead on the others.

One can act, to some very limited degree, as a therapist to one's troubled students -- but one can hardly do this for those who are colleagues and "supervisors" and act like mean-spirited bullies.

So this continual re-adjustment of perspective, to notice the good around us rather than the bad, is easier said than done.  This is our work environment, where we are also expected to be productive -- and we have students who need to learn a subject and pass tests that might seem impossible, not only for them, but for those of us who want to be able to help all of them who are willing, not just the better-prepared ones.

The physical and mental noise around us, including in our classrooms, often drowns out the weak and faltering signal, however much we may labor to keep it extant.  Part of that signal is the transmission of culture from one generation to the next -- including values -- the latter more by example than by speech.  The other part, from our (teachers') point of view, involves the reception, on our part, of whatever our students, including the quieter ones, are trying to, or need to, communicate to us, often silently. 
  
This is a conversation that needs some peace and quiet in order to proceed.  We can neither speak in a meaningful way, nor listen and notice as we should, without this physical and mental tranquility. 
  
I should note that not even speech and its comprehension can be taken for granted with many of our students, recently arrived from distant lands.
  
Some of us are fortunate to have found -- or made, with a bit of luck and quite a bit of effort -- a niche in which we can function. Others are not so lucky.  I suppose it might be the same for those who go to war.

Be that as it may, as pressures mount in the schools, those of conscience or those faced with impossible working conditions might find themselves in a situation not dissimilar to that young man sitting in his car.
   
Of course, the job pays much better than it did in those days, and there's no draft.  We have drones now.  But all the old problems and pressures in the schools are just as great as they were then, with naught having been done about them over the years -- and many new ones have been added, that tax even more our strength and our conscience.

So here are some verses, from last Saturday.  I am sending them out today, on Thanksgiving Day, when one should perhaps also take a moment to think of the birds and the beasts, including us humans -- and our history on this and other continents.

Karma--Part II
 
http://thedailypoet.blogspot.com/2014/11/karma-part-ii.html
 
Peace,

Arjun
 

Let Teachers Find their Ways that Work

   
Let Teachers Find their Ways that Work

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I wrote the comments below after reading the post reached via the link:

[Ed Notes Online] Shades of 2004: Balanced Literacy Plus High Class Sizes a Recipe for Failure [3 Updates]
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I have worked for close to three decades as a teacher in the high schools in New York City, including several years on family leave, working as a day-to-day substitute teacher and as a substitute para-professional (teacher's assistant).  These many years in the schools, working with students of diverse backgrounds, have been a learning experience -- and also a humbling experience. 

Whatever successes I was able to glean for myself and my students did not come easily, except under the best of circumstances, which were short-lived for me and may elude most teachers.  But what I did learn, and rather quickly, is that what worked for me might not necessarily work for other teachers -- and vice versa.  And what worked with a particular subject, grade level and student group might not work with one that was different in one or more ways. Indeed, as teachers have repeatedly found, what worked in period 2 might not work in period 3, even though the factors mentioned above appeared to be basically the same.

As a high school teacher teacher, I have taught, usually, close to one hundred and fifty or more students (mostly regular-ed) each day, usually in at least two subjects. Too often, I have had curricula to teach that were far too broad, given the time available and the multiple and varied educational deficits the students generally have.

These deficits become clear if one cares to collect and carefully check homework, ask and encourage questions to and from all students and get other kinds of feedback. But, as sincere teachers know, all of that takes a great deal of time and effort.  Most of the advocated shortcuts give a very superficial picture, at best.

Given all of this, I rarely found time to interact, closely, one-on-one, with any one student, during my class-periods, for more than a minute or two a day. This was because other students -- and the much maligned task of  traditional "teaching" itself, also needed attention.

The main exceptions to this were:

a) during small -group or individual tutoring, usually before or after school hours, with or without pay;

b) during silent reading and writing assignments, provided the more restive students in the class allowed the relative quiet needed for this, permitting me to circulate and quietly be of some help to individual students or to pairs. 

When I was "subbing" frequently in schools where teachers were kind enough to leave such assignments, I got to know some students rather well.  I learned much about them that was surprising, sobering and intriguing.

But if I were truly able to focus more on this individual interaction, I think I would have found yet more that would surprise me -- of individual strengths, weaknesses and varied human circumstances.

I have given this particular, individual history because it is all I truly have on which to base my understanding in these matters of formal teaching and learning in the schools. I am sure that the experiences of others will have been different. 

Nevertheless, I will now dare to use my own personal experience as the background for, or springboard to, a rather sweeping general statement, with which I think most teachers with some experience will agree:
  
Teaching and learning are difficult enough, again except in the best of circumstances. So it is best to let teachers and students find their particular ways.  

There is no harm in exposing them to ways that are different from the ones they use -- but one should exercise forbearance in this.  Impositions do far more harm than good. 

Again, what I say is based mostly on my particular personal experience teaching (mainly) the sciences in the New York City High Schools for the past 27 years.  Others may or may not agree with the generalization I made above.  That is all for the good.  I would like to hear from them.
 
Teaching and learning, formal and informal, constitute the active, participatory transmission and development of human culture.  This includes outlooks, values, languages formal and informal, skills of diverse kinds, disciplines and their organized knowledge, the wonder of exploration and questioning and the sincere and difficult search for non-trivial answers... 

As such, teaching and learning are far too vital, for our collective and individual survival, to be left to the mercies of fads, dogmas, zealots, careerists and yes-persons. 

There are no substitutes for the traditional virtues long recognized as needed to be students and teachers who are truly sincere and successful (in the humblest sense of that last word). These include, of course, sincerity, respect, attention and diligence on the part of both teacher and student. The teacher, even more than the student, needs to have an open mind and an open heart. 

This may sound utopian. But without these things, or at least without these things as guideposts, we lose our way and wander into the deserts of cynicism and cruelty.

But neither teachers nor students can succeed for long if the structures and resources needed for formal education are lacking or counterproductive -- or if the social fabric is torn beyond repair.

I have touched on these things earlier, for instance in the post:

On Social and Educational Pathologies
  
http://subject-teacher.blogspot.com/2014/06/on-social-and-educational-pathologies.html
  
I should remark here that formal education, with all its strengths, is no substitute for the informal education that was traditionally obtained from the home and the community.
   

On Social and Educational Pathologies

   
This was a comment I made in response to a perceptive article by Robert Reich (a former U.S. Secretary of Labor). That article can be found via the link at the end of this post. I have lightly edited my original comment and added the title.

On Social and Educational Pathologies
 

Thanks for making these points, Robert Reich. A word about the schools in poorer (or even not-so-poor) areas: as part of the war against workers in general, and public workers and public institutions in particular, the public schools and those who teach in them have been targeted.

The scapegoating of teachers is so widespread that the real problems in the schools, with causes both social and structural, are unaddressed and even unacknowledged.

Those who suffer from this are primarily the sincere students -- and, along with them, the sincere teachers. Fortunately, there are still many in these two categories -- but they are both endangered species.  The recent punitive "reforms" might finally make them extinct.

The schools have little control over the social pathologies that enter into the schools and doom them. This has to be addressed by the communities -- and that entails sustained, collective effort to stem and reverse the alienating social tides that have been generated, largely, by commercial forces over generations and whose destructive effects have been similar to that of hurricanes. This effort needs to be sincere, and yet humble, open-minded and open-hearted -- a genuine grassroots movement of recognition, healing and empowerment, rather than a "cure" imposed from "above".

This is not an easy task -- but one sees little talk about this beyond the occasional sermons in the local churches, and there appears to be no regional or national organized effort to speak of.

The schools do have some control over the structural problems afflicting K-12 education. These include, in the high schools, a long neglect of commonsense concerns about traditional things such as:

-- respect, civility and integrity;
-- warmth, nurturing and collegiality;
-- purpose and choice;
-- sequence;
-- focus;
-- time and pacing;
-- familiarization and  habituation;
-- feedback and correction;
-- diligence and perseverance;
-- success and the building of confidence;
-- reflection, questioning, exploration and application.

Unfortunately, the administrative layers in the school systems have been more preoccupied with toeing the line to keep their jobs and clamber up the ladders, focusing on surface appearance rather than on content and humanity. 

More and more time has been directed at mostly unnecessary supervision of teachers, dictating "methods" of teaching and at the same time demanding improved passing percentages and test results. From all of this, fraud, superficiality and outright cruelty -- to both students and teachers -- are becoming the norm.

This is not an atmosphere in which teaching and learning, both of which involve relaxed yet sustained attention -- and also, at times, playful creativity -- can survive, let alone flourish.  Basic honesty, empathy, responsiveness and independent thinking are becoming increasingly scarce.

Two clearly observable (and linked) symptoms of the educational pathologies that have been generated by all of this are:

(a) the obsession with testing;
(b) the micromanagement and punitive evaluation of teachers.

The well-financed attempts to privatize the public school systems and to attack teacher tenure are part of what threatens to further demolish whatever remains of value and integrity in K-12 education in this country.
 
The schools, already afflicted with multiple problems that are almost impossible to handle without collective recognition and effort, are being made into even more hellish places, with all that has heart, tradition and value forcibly extinguished.

The Three Biggest Right-Wing Lies About Poverty

   

Our Children’s Ethics – and our Own

Our Children’s Ethics – and our Own

This was a response to a Facebook Post reporting a recent assault, in Central Park, on a 31-year-old jogger by four teens and a twelve-year old, being part of a recent pattern of targeted violence there.

These kids are criminals. But one should also ask oneself what kind of society produces such criminals. In India, there has been a spate of horrible rapes and now a strong public reaction against this. But as in here, the questions regarding what brought this about, what are the social conditions that led to this -- these questions are rarely asked. This is not to excuse the criminality, but to seek to cure it and prevent it by looking at its causes, as one should do for any pathology.

The social and economic situation, and the social ethics, in the parts of India where the rapes mostly occur are different from other parts, as they are from here. Turning to our own culture, why is there such a resistance against strongly condemning (I am not speaking here of banning) the extreme and unnecessary violence portrayed for so long on screens and the extreme misogyny accepted as cool in certain forms of music? Shouldn't we teach children, including by example, to turn away from such things, to despise them?

These are highly lucrative businesses, and those dollars are coming from people watching and listening to these things, accepting them as normal and shelling out cash for them.

Of course, violence and its celebration as well as misogyny have been part of many cultures, and ours has never been an exception in this. I am against political correctness and all for free speech, but the transmission of ethics to the young, along with the awakening of empathy, compassion, kindness and gentleness have always been, in most human cultures, a part of the perceived duty of parents and adults, best set by contact, caring and example.

These include (and may be most clearly evident in) those cultures we (most mainstream civilizations, including Indian) arrogantly view as "primitive" -- such as those of hunter-gatherers, even though (or perhaps because) the killing of animals and, in certain cases, of plants, is something the tribals have to do themselves each day in order to survive -- rather than having these things done for them in mass slaughterhouses and farms, as with us.

I would not necessarily tie this particular incident to the culture that is transmitted and commercially exploited by our entertainment industry. But we are exercising, at best, a double standard here by accepting and even promoting that debased culture. This includes, by the way, the "I, me and myself !" (or "Me and mine -- and f**k the rest of you!") ethos.  This is flaunted by many of our screen heroes, both in their screen personae and in their personal, too often public, lives.  And this is part of the reason they are admired, even worshiped. And yet we find this attitude disturbing when we see it evidenced in the way our children, neighborhood youth or students speak and act.

In the absence or dissipation of the traditional cultures, with all their problems but also their basic values and their histories and mythologies, what many of our young imbibe is the culture (and manufactured mythology and history, from Disney onwards) transmitted by the entertainment media, along with, from their peers and older children in their neighborhoods and schools, a "street culture" that is also degenerate, even depraved.

So we have a disconnect between the generations, between working parents too busy, unable or unwilling to teach their kids what humans have always taught their young, and children who run wild, with their own (to us) strange ethical rules and attitudes. The schools aren’t usually able to bridge that gap, and this isn't even considered to be one of the duties and rights of teachers.

I have to be careful, except with freshly arrived ELL (English Language Learner) kids who tend, in many cases, to be more receptive to such things, with less hostility towards and distance from their teachers, viewing us more as humans like themselves, gifting us with good intentions, sometimes undeservedly -- I have to be careful, with the rest, of ever venturing, even by example, let alone speech, into areas of right and wrong, or of duty and responsibility. I know I will be quickly disciplined by the call, "Just do your job -- teach!"

For teachers’ assistants (paraprofessionals) such a venture is even riskier.
 
I have long believed that, especially for high school regular ed. teachers with up to 170 students to teach each day (or more, each week, if one is a science teacher with many labs), that our main concern, as teachers, should be the subject (or, too often, subjects) we teach.  To say otherwise may often be mere pretense. 

But we cannot be oblivious to the human side of our job.  We need to notice what's going on with our students, at least in the classroom and with homework, and that cannot really be isolated from what is happening in the rest of their lives.  

Even basic teaching and learning cannot proceed without an atmosphere in which there is some degree of mutual respect and some commonality of ethical culture between the students and between students and teachers.  I need not go into the details of all that transpires, making teaching and learning impossible, when these things are absent or badly frayed.  It has been accepted that the establishment of this atmosphere is primarily the job of the teacher. I would differ with this, along with most other teachers, and say that the students have at least a shared responsibility, as do parents.  So does the larger community, if such a thing exists in any coherent form.

If we have a situation in which some of the same things we find objectionable in students are also present in many teachers, then those of us who cannot deal with this have little choice but to leave the profession as fast as we can without landing up, quite literally, on the street. 

Perhaps such teachers (who have imbibed the same popular mores as the kids) will find some commonality with their students, and so succeed.  It will become, even more than it has been, all about the dollar and the show, like much of show business is, and school will become, even more, a place where only the savvy, slick and hard-hearted can hope to survive.  And, even more so than now, it will be those who are best at this who will climb up and dictate to the rest.
  
If this isn't what we want, then it is up to us to publicly voice our concerns. Not to do this is to be as derelict in our duties as not bothering much about really teaching the subject or helping the kids learn it.

I had noted, in earlier posts and writings, that there are two main sets of issues that have plagued the schools, long before the current punitive reforms and the testing mania and privatization hit us. 
    
One of these sets contains the structural issues, over which we have some control, if not as individual teachers then collectively, although some would deny that.  These include issues of purpose, choice, background, resources, sequence, pacing, time, focus, feedback, familiarization, habituation, success, diligence, confidence, application, connection, exploration and questioning.  I will not elaborate on these again here.  And there are other things one could add to that list. 

This is not yet another list of what a teacher has to incorporate into a lesson, although some of these things do need to be considered in a unit plan.  It is more the structure that the system itself has to at least acknowledge, consider and try to provide so that teaching and learning can proceed without the heartache, failure and misery that is so prevalent.
  
But there is also the set of social issues, over which we have far less control. These are the ones that have been primarily responsible for wrecking the schools. The chaos and tension they create do not allow the structural issues their due attention. On the social front, the most we can do is publicly voice our concerns, both individually and collectively.  This does make a difference.

On both the structural and the social issues, no worthwhile, meaningful progress will be made unless we, the teachers and others in the schools, along with concerned parents and sincere students, bring these to the forefront.

Despair and Hope (Preface to "The Job")

Despair and Hope (Preface to The Job)

I despair at times that there will be any worthwhile changes in the schools here (and perhaps elsewhere) -- changes that bubble up, instead of being imposed with deafness and blindness from above, as they usually are, with all the damage that does.  I know it will not happen during the time I have left in the schools, but what bothers me even more is the realization that it may not happen for generations to come.

That doesn't mean one should not keep working towards that, in whatever minor way one can.

After all, it took hundreds of years before the transatlantic slave trade was abolished, and the repercussions of that trade are still visible to this day on both sides of the Atlantic. But at least it was abolished, and the slaves themselves played their part in that, however voiceless and disempowered they had been.  And even the mighty colonial empires receded, at least to some overt degree, and not from the kind volition of the imperialists.

In the link below are some personal reflections on my decades spent working in the schools.

The Job 

But let me salute here those who persevere in working towards those worthwhile changes, in very difficult circumstances -- and all of those who tried to accomplish this in the past.
 
Arjun  
  

Walking to Work and Back, 2014 (Preface to Two Beings)

  
Walking to Work and Back, 2014 (Preface to Two Beings)
  
I have often marveled at those who not only work full-time in the schools, but also do second or even third jobs.  I would count the duties at home, of those who are raising children or taking care of elders or the ailing, as at least another full-time job. This burden, that has its joys as well as its sorrows, appears to fall most heavily on women, who make up much of the teaching staff, especially in the lower grades. But many men also carry this weight, in addition to their workload from their teaching jobs.  

For both men and women teachers, the job-related work often eats up many hours beyond the official work-day and work-week.

The travails of teaching in the public schools of a city such as New York may or may not be known to the general public in this country or abroad. It is often a difficult job, to put it mildly -- some would say an impossible one. And experience does not always lessen the difficulty or reverse the impossibility. But teachers adapt and even find sustenance from their work -- and not just financially, vital as that is.  

If they are unable to do this, they quit, are forced out -- or somehow continue to teach, finding solace in other things. Of course, many successful teachers also fall by the wayside, increasingly so as the pressures mount on the schools. And success can be a transient thing, especially in a profession where so many changeable factors are outside one's control.

I describe, in these verses (in Two Beings), my own walks home after work in the evenings. For many years, I used to travel back and forth from work using public transportation, spending an hour and a half, on average, each way. I was younger then, and I was able to cope. 

At the time, I was teaching my own subject (physics) and I felt that what I was doing, even with less effort than I now put in, was more meaningful and helpful to the students.  So going to work and back used to be different, for me, than it is now.  The morning commutes, mainly by bus, were relatively peaceful, with my mind settling on what exactly I was going to teach that day, and how I would go about it.  The long trek back was fatiguing.  

But things do change, for all of us.  

Over the past several years, I have worked closer to where I live, walking just over a half-hour each way. 

The walks back home in the evenings, even in the darkness and cold of the winters, are now relatively tranquil (as the rush back home may not be for those with major family responsibilities or a second paid job).  The walks to work in the mornings, even in the brightest of seasons, are very different. 
  
In the evenings and nights, I walk through the city streets, tired from a long day at work, trundling my school things.  But I notice many things, especially the changing skies and the trees.  In the mornings, I manage to munch on a bagel and sip coffee while waiting at intersections.  But my mind is cluttered, racing, preoccupied and confused.

At work, the teaching instincts and habits take over, and I do what many school-teachers do, seeking to notice and attend to the students while still trying to maintain focus on the subject matter. But it is a sad, mad rush, and, increasingly, a cruel, even criminal business, despite whatever extraordinary efforts students and teachers may put in.

We are all different, and so no two teachers are alike. But there may be some things that many of us have in common or may at least empathize with. So here's one old teacher walking back from teaching, late in the evening, and then going back to work early the next day -- and what he sees, feels and thinks as he does this.  Perhaps we shall hear from others. 

Two Beings 

http://thedailypoet.blogspot.com/2014/04/two-beings.html
   

To Andrew Cuomo

     
To:  Andrew Cuomo, Governor, New York
From:  the Labor
Re:  Efforts and Results
Date:  February 26th, 2014
-------------------------------------------------------
To Andrew Cuomo

You lord about in limousines
As you had done before.
And then you bellow, bellicose,
Demanding more and more.

You dance around with denizens
Of regions that are tony.
You coddle them and bully us
With “reasons” that are phony.

Oh step out of your limousine
And fancy tie and suit.
Come shovel muck like workers do,
In dollars’ grim pursuit.

Oh Andrew, leave the Kennedys
For dinner at our “diner”.
Come eat it standing on the street,
And do not be a whiner.

An office?  Tie it on your back
Or cart it on a wheeler.
A desk?  A phone?  Remember, you’re
No more a wheeler-dealer!

Give up on sleep, oh Andrew, and
Work night and day – and harder.
And then perhaps you’ll understand
The viewpoint of a worker.

And when you’ve slaved enough, you’ll find
In your mailbox, see – a letter.
“Trying is nice, efforts are nice,
But results, oh slave, are better.”

And when you're fired, you could throw
Another temper-tantrum.
But you're no longer money's boy.
So try another mantram!

2014 February 26th, Wed.
Brooklyn, New York 
-------------------------------------------------------
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/nyregion/new-york-officials-stall-plans-to-tweak-teacher-evaluations.html

Re: Work in the name of love

  
Re: Work in the name of love 
  
Thanks, Steve. I read the article (at the link at the bottom). It is definitely worth reading.

While it is of course true that it is desirable to find a livelihood that gives one some enjoyment and satisfaction, the sad truth is that, in the setups that prevail in most economies the world over, most of us -- indeed, the overwhelming majority -- have to labor at jobs or in enterprises that offer little of either.

Given this fact, it is important that those who work have some collective power to influence the conditions under which they work, to limit the amount and pace of the work  that they do and to ensure that the compensation they get is fair and something they can survive upon. (The word "survive" may be argued about.  I suppose the best way to understand it is to imagine oneself and one's family in the worker's place.)

When this collective power is achieved, workers then have the leisure to attend to their responsibilities to self, family, friends and the wider community, and to explore and indulge in activities that are more fulfilling.

This also provides those who work the chance to do their jobs well, attending to details, paying attention to beings and their needs, and being creative, rather than doing things in a rush, cursorily or "by the rules". This gives them some measure of enjoyment and satisfaction in the work that takes up a major part of their lives on our planet. 

Unfortunately, we see that workers have, all over the world, grown increasingly disempowered.  Here in this country, over the last three to four decades, the amount of work each (average) worker does has expanded, and the pace of work has correspondingly increased.  Work is carried over, in many cases, into after-job-hours, being basically work done out of obligation or pressure, for free.

Slogans that sound appealing, such as the one this author discussed, have only furthered this disempowerment.

It is the focus on the individual to the exclusion of the collective, which is the bigger picture, that lies at the root of this. Those who are focused only on themselves may still thrive in such an environment, because they feel little obligation towards others, especially the ones that need the most help -- such as elders, the disabled, the ailing and children -- and so do the minimum, efficiently, by the rules, making sure they look good and rise up. They may even have more than enough leisure for other things.  Those with a conscience or those who by habit attend to details suffer most.

 In all things, there is a balance. It seems to me that the balance has shifted in a direction that has been atomizing our societies and even our families, putting impossible pressures on some individuals while allowing others to avoid their basic responsibilities.  I do not think that this is a prescription for the long term survival or well-being of our species, let alone of other species on this planet.

I recommend this article (reachable via the link below your note) to others. There are insights and facts there that I have not gone into in my long preamble above.  While both the author and I have had this country primarily in mind, the situation in other countries should not be ignored. The author does draw some attention to that. Those in academics might also find this article relevant.

-- Arjun

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Brown <>
To: sjanah <>
Sent: Sat, Feb 1, 2014 9:53 am
Subject: Work in the name of love

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2014/01/do_what_you_love_love_what_you_do_an_omnipresent_mantra_that_s_bad_for_work.html

Much here that I have not thought about.