Gun violence has become so common, it rarely stays in the news for more than a few days. The ones that shocked me, Columbine and Virginia Tech, were the ones that could not be dismissed as individual anomalies but indicated institutional failure.
Most of us survived high school, and wondered what on earth was going on in Littleton. Some of the initial explanations, since disproved by Dave Cullen and Jeff Kass, were the ones that resonated with graduates who knew first hand the status system that allowed one group to scapegoat another or led people to feel persecuted when they were simply overlooked like the strongly religious.
But, we think, something had to fail for routine nastiness or teenage angst to propel Eric Harris into buying automatic weapons and luring Dylan Klebold into his maelstrom. Society’s verdict that they were psychopaths beyond help simply offers a self-serving label in place of recognizing a cultural or institutional failure.
At Virginia Tech we know a lot more, because the parents and school did not blind themselves to Seung-Hui Cho’s problems as people had done in Colorado. They simply had no idea what to do with someone who had stalked people and been diagnosed with mental problems, but could not be institutionalized or even expelled on probability.
The part that shocked me was the role of the creative writing program. Art is supposed to exist as a means people use to externalize and contain their demons, to explore what they know is inadmissible We know the biographies of too many published writers who drank or drugged themselves to death to still believe art is a cure, but we do still think it is a way to explore our worst feelings without letting them become too destructive.
I’ve never taken a creative writing class, and fall into that group that is skeptical about what possible job market a middling school like Virginia Tech hopes to serve with an entire major in creative writing and just what future they see for their graduates after they have provided themselves with employment.
I’ve taught English composition and realize the necessity of helping students learn to write a decent sentence and become knowledgeable enough about their writing to be able to edit themselves. I always stayed with prosaic, factual assignments because I believe the process is the same for all writing - poetry, novels, or essays - and it’s easier to critique something the writer is not personally involved with than something that has required they reveal their feelings.
Louis Menard’s recent article in the New Yorker suggests the central methodology in many creative writing programs is public, group criticism. He makes classes sound more like the self-accusatory sessions of the communists and evangel prayer meetings, than anything I would tolerate.
Such group sessions might possibly work in the sort of summer sessions and graduate programs where each member has to first prove him or herself to be capable writer to be admitted. Such criteria are not possible in a state undergraduate program. Interviews with his classmates make it sound like Cho was exposed to the voices of the very unthinking, conventional students who were first suspected of persecuting Harris and Klebold.
One instructor, poet Nikki Giovanni, had him removed from her classes because she thought he was "menacing" and wrote a letter for the record to the department chairman, Lucinda Roy, who in turn notified school authorities. Another instructor, Lisa Norris, asked the dean’s office about him and was told he had mental problems.
His male play writing teacher, Edward Falco, was less bothered and simply recognized Cho’s writing wasn’t "good" and that he probably took the courses to find a means of communicating.
Writing requires risk taking. A school that turns homework into an opportunity to enforce conformity by reporting deviance betrays the student. The fact Giovanni and Norris were correct in perceiving danger does not negate the ways their reactions and those of their students contributed to Cho’s growing sense of isolation. They, and everyone involved, should know the dangers of liberating the imagination in a creative writing program and either know how to respond or not offer the courses.
Notes:
My memories of comments at the time by Virginia Tech instructors and students confirmed with Wikipedia.
Cullen, Dave. Columbine, 2009.
Menand, Louis. "Show or Tell: Should Creative Writing Be Taught?," New Yorker 8 June 2009.
Kass, Jeff. Columbine: A True Crime Story, 2009.
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
How Long Can It Take?
When Michael Jackson died we were told it would take several weeks for lab results to tell us the cause of death. When my friend got the plague she was told it would be several weeks before they knew if any of the animals in her area were infected. When the body of a five-year-old girl was found in Monroe, Michigan, her family was told it would be several weeks before tests would tell them if she was the missing Nevaeh Buchanan.
Fortunately, I have limited experience with lab tests. Some had a day’s delay caused by the need to air express samples out of state. In the cases of Jackson, Buchanan, and my friend the tests were done by state laboratories that could be reached quickly by a car. With Jackson and Buchanan, the transporting cruisers would have been justified if they used sirens.
Tests I’ve had done to detect bacteria took time because the samples needed to sit in conditions that would accelerate the growth of the small organisms. It took a week before they could tell my friend only her dog had traces of the plague in his blood and that none of the wild animal’s they trapped had been infected. The source of the fleas is still unknown.
Buchanan required DNA testing; Jackson chemical tests. Neither have the time constraints that organic tests have.
When they finally identified Buchanan’s body, the state police said they placed her tests ahead of "others backlogged for months - hundreds of them homicides." It still took four days for a family whose child had been missing sixteen days.
Michigan, of course, has had budget problems for years, and probably long ago cut forensic staffs. One can only guess what’s going on in California as the state careens towards bankruptcy, and the Los Angeles police department has done little to improve its credibility since it arrested O. J. Simpson.
The promise of Sherlock Holmes that tests could provide positive evidence has disappeared in a cultural refusal to support science and a willingness to accept the consequences. In Buchanan’s case, three known sex offenders were arrested because they knew her mother, and two are still in protective custody waiting to be punished for knowing the woman. They may have committed no other crime, but in the anxious waiting period when nothing was known people needed assurance their children were safe and demanded the police show some sign of action.
If Detroit is frequently listed as the murder capital on the country, it isn’t simply the city that’s responsible, but all those taxpayers who are willing to let hundreds of cases languish in understaffed facilities where samples can be lost or deteriorate if it means they can have a few more dollars to spend on themselves. Too many people learn early there is no connection between actions and consequences.
No doubt some of the best lab technicians left for other jobs when the state work load became so large there was no hope of ever actually solving problems. Every year Michigan watches many of its college graduates leave the state because they know the remaining opportunities are not desirable. They still believe in a connection between behavior and reward, and realize they can only benefit from their years of education if they leave. Those who remain either burn out or never rise above mediocrity.
When a society separates actions from consequences, the very act of dissociation has predicable consequences. When those who deny science also deny the value of any social unit beyond the nuclear family, then the outlaw culture that develops is one that reinforces their expectations. It’s the rest of us, with expectations for improvement, who are punished.
Notes:
Hunt, Amber. "Nevaeh’s Case Becomes Top Priority for Crime Lab," Detroit Free Press, 9 June 2009.
Fortunately, I have limited experience with lab tests. Some had a day’s delay caused by the need to air express samples out of state. In the cases of Jackson, Buchanan, and my friend the tests were done by state laboratories that could be reached quickly by a car. With Jackson and Buchanan, the transporting cruisers would have been justified if they used sirens.
Tests I’ve had done to detect bacteria took time because the samples needed to sit in conditions that would accelerate the growth of the small organisms. It took a week before they could tell my friend only her dog had traces of the plague in his blood and that none of the wild animal’s they trapped had been infected. The source of the fleas is still unknown.
Buchanan required DNA testing; Jackson chemical tests. Neither have the time constraints that organic tests have.
When they finally identified Buchanan’s body, the state police said they placed her tests ahead of "others backlogged for months - hundreds of them homicides." It still took four days for a family whose child had been missing sixteen days.
Michigan, of course, has had budget problems for years, and probably long ago cut forensic staffs. One can only guess what’s going on in California as the state careens towards bankruptcy, and the Los Angeles police department has done little to improve its credibility since it arrested O. J. Simpson.
The promise of Sherlock Holmes that tests could provide positive evidence has disappeared in a cultural refusal to support science and a willingness to accept the consequences. In Buchanan’s case, three known sex offenders were arrested because they knew her mother, and two are still in protective custody waiting to be punished for knowing the woman. They may have committed no other crime, but in the anxious waiting period when nothing was known people needed assurance their children were safe and demanded the police show some sign of action.
If Detroit is frequently listed as the murder capital on the country, it isn’t simply the city that’s responsible, but all those taxpayers who are willing to let hundreds of cases languish in understaffed facilities where samples can be lost or deteriorate if it means they can have a few more dollars to spend on themselves. Too many people learn early there is no connection between actions and consequences.
No doubt some of the best lab technicians left for other jobs when the state work load became so large there was no hope of ever actually solving problems. Every year Michigan watches many of its college graduates leave the state because they know the remaining opportunities are not desirable. They still believe in a connection between behavior and reward, and realize they can only benefit from their years of education if they leave. Those who remain either burn out or never rise above mediocrity.
When a society separates actions from consequences, the very act of dissociation has predicable consequences. When those who deny science also deny the value of any social unit beyond the nuclear family, then the outlaw culture that develops is one that reinforces their expectations. It’s the rest of us, with expectations for improvement, who are punished.
Notes:
Hunt, Amber. "Nevaeh’s Case Becomes Top Priority for Crime Lab," Detroit Free Press, 9 June 2009.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Design - Part 1 - Engineers
Mustang, Corvette, Muscle Car. What’s the last car you remmber from Detroit?
Who’s the last creator you remember? How about, Lee Iacocca, Ed Cole, John DeLorean? Afficionados, Detroiters prefer men like Harley Earl and Bunky Knudsen.
Who’s the last CEO you recognize from one of the Big Three car makers? Alfred P. Sloan, Robert McNamara? Business historians will name others like Roger Smith and Arjay Miller.
Who mattered most to you when you bought your first car? Which do you associate with failed enterprises?
As car dealer Hoot McInerey said, when asked about the latest reorganization at Ford, "If you've got the right product in the right market, any fool can be a hero."
But why hasn’t General Motors or Ford been able to produce a vehicle consumers want?
Ed Cole was lead engineer for Corvette in 1953 when he was 44; he became president of General Motors when he was 58, in 1967, and retired at 65.
He was the one of the last engineers to rise so far. Since, production men have had their careers stymied.
Lee Iacocca was behind the introduction of the Mustang in 1964 when he was 40. He became president of Ford in 1970, at 46, and was fired by Henry Ford II eight years later.
John DeLorean developed the Pontiac GTO in 1964 when he was 41. He aborted his promotion path when he divorced a second time and began dating celebrities. He left General Motors when he was 48.
Today, the top men and lone woman at Ford and GM are in their 40s or 50s, but their experience is in finance and international operations. Almost none mention time in a plant on their resumes. None are associated with a single product innovation, but several are credited with salvaging operations by downsizing.
The talent of several generations rose in the 1960s and left in the 1970s. What was happening in the 1950's when the young men were coming of age who would be in their 40s then? What’s happened in the 1970s that stopped those men from getting new projects? What suppressed the culture of mechanical innovation and design since?
When I was growing up, sons of storekeepers and professionals did not consider engineering. It was the route to upward mobility for children of plant workers. Then, in the Nixon years, the aerospace industry laid off highly paid engineers. Parents who valued education for concrete, pragmatic reasons began to question the wisdom of their ancestors.
The oil embargo by OPEC and quality problems publicized by Ralph Nader should have been challenges, not insurmountable crises. The reaction of automotive executives was panic, the first of the hiring freezes and layoffs. Kids began to see their parents’ jobs threatened, and saw accountants were more valued than engineers.
When GM transferred its data processing functions to EDS in 1984, engineers feared they would be next. Teenagers either saw their fathers lose their jobs, or saw cousins and older brothers have problems finding berths out of college. No doubt, parents advised their children to consider other fields.
The number of engineering students in the United States peaked in 1983 in the United States with 441,000 baby boomers, and fell to 361,000 in 1999, according to Ed Cohen. Using rough calculations that multiply the percent of the population between the ages of 5 and 19 by the total population, it appears the actual decline was from .78% of available young people to .67%.
Statistics on engineering enrollments are tricky, because they combine disciplines. ASEE reports nearly a third of the 394,148 students in 2003 were in computers and electrical engineering. If we only count a third of those as traditional engineers, then the current total falls to 306,107 students, or .52% of the available young people.
A quarter percent decline in engineering students nationally seems statistically insignificant, but the percentage of truly creative men in any generation is even smaller, and they may be the ones who first considered computer science or business administration.
The more critical problem is the thirty year dearth of jobs. ASEE tell us the state of Michigan had 22,865 undergraduate engineering students in 2003. Two years later, Michael Ellis reports GM employs 22,000 engineers world-wide, and is planning to transfer more work to Brazil and eliminate more positions at its Tech Center in Warren.
Students know they have to leave. Michigan ranks 4th in the number of engineering students but 37th in the percent of residents with bachelor’s degrees. Even immigrants know there’s no future. GM says it is transferring engineering work because it can pay lower wages and admits it’s recruiting Indian nationals at Wayne State, hoping to lure them back to Bangalore.
How long can an industry deny opportunity to those critical to its success before it finally discourages too many? How long before the ambitious and creative are gone, leaving plodders to fill the slots? GM and Ford can still recruit engineers, but they can’t produce exciting cars.
It may be the only culture GM and Ford have been able to change is the one they need to survive, the one that produces men who might create the next generation of muscle cars. Once the formative environment is gone, it’s almost impossible to recreate. Detroit may become the equal of the places it sends work, Brazil and BangalPrismore.
Sources:
American Society for Engineering Education. "State of Engineering,"
Prism 13 (2) October 2003 on internet.
Cohen, Ed. " Enrollment Trends: Too many students are choosing the same academic paths. What's a college to do?," Notre Dame Magazine Winter 2005-2006 on internet.
Evans, Michael. "Engineers' work goes overseas, GM says," Detroit Free Press, 6 April 2006.
George, Mary Anne. "Michigan’s College Graduate Rank Sinks to 37th in Nation," Detroit Free Press 29 March 2005.
McInerey, Martin. Quoted by Tom Walsh, "New team to drive F"ord," Detroit Free Press, 7 April 2006.
Who’s the last creator you remember? How about, Lee Iacocca, Ed Cole, John DeLorean? Afficionados, Detroiters prefer men like Harley Earl and Bunky Knudsen.
Who’s the last CEO you recognize from one of the Big Three car makers? Alfred P. Sloan, Robert McNamara? Business historians will name others like Roger Smith and Arjay Miller.
Who mattered most to you when you bought your first car? Which do you associate with failed enterprises?
As car dealer Hoot McInerey said, when asked about the latest reorganization at Ford, "If you've got the right product in the right market, any fool can be a hero."
But why hasn’t General Motors or Ford been able to produce a vehicle consumers want?
Ed Cole was lead engineer for Corvette in 1953 when he was 44; he became president of General Motors when he was 58, in 1967, and retired at 65.
He was the one of the last engineers to rise so far. Since, production men have had their careers stymied.
Lee Iacocca was behind the introduction of the Mustang in 1964 when he was 40. He became president of Ford in 1970, at 46, and was fired by Henry Ford II eight years later.
John DeLorean developed the Pontiac GTO in 1964 when he was 41. He aborted his promotion path when he divorced a second time and began dating celebrities. He left General Motors when he was 48.
Today, the top men and lone woman at Ford and GM are in their 40s or 50s, but their experience is in finance and international operations. Almost none mention time in a plant on their resumes. None are associated with a single product innovation, but several are credited with salvaging operations by downsizing.
The talent of several generations rose in the 1960s and left in the 1970s. What was happening in the 1950's when the young men were coming of age who would be in their 40s then? What’s happened in the 1970s that stopped those men from getting new projects? What suppressed the culture of mechanical innovation and design since?
When I was growing up, sons of storekeepers and professionals did not consider engineering. It was the route to upward mobility for children of plant workers. Then, in the Nixon years, the aerospace industry laid off highly paid engineers. Parents who valued education for concrete, pragmatic reasons began to question the wisdom of their ancestors.
The oil embargo by OPEC and quality problems publicized by Ralph Nader should have been challenges, not insurmountable crises. The reaction of automotive executives was panic, the first of the hiring freezes and layoffs. Kids began to see their parents’ jobs threatened, and saw accountants were more valued than engineers.
When GM transferred its data processing functions to EDS in 1984, engineers feared they would be next. Teenagers either saw their fathers lose their jobs, or saw cousins and older brothers have problems finding berths out of college. No doubt, parents advised their children to consider other fields.
The number of engineering students in the United States peaked in 1983 in the United States with 441,000 baby boomers, and fell to 361,000 in 1999, according to Ed Cohen. Using rough calculations that multiply the percent of the population between the ages of 5 and 19 by the total population, it appears the actual decline was from .78% of available young people to .67%.
Statistics on engineering enrollments are tricky, because they combine disciplines. ASEE reports nearly a third of the 394,148 students in 2003 were in computers and electrical engineering. If we only count a third of those as traditional engineers, then the current total falls to 306,107 students, or .52% of the available young people.
A quarter percent decline in engineering students nationally seems statistically insignificant, but the percentage of truly creative men in any generation is even smaller, and they may be the ones who first considered computer science or business administration.
The more critical problem is the thirty year dearth of jobs. ASEE tell us the state of Michigan had 22,865 undergraduate engineering students in 2003. Two years later, Michael Ellis reports GM employs 22,000 engineers world-wide, and is planning to transfer more work to Brazil and eliminate more positions at its Tech Center in Warren.
Students know they have to leave. Michigan ranks 4th in the number of engineering students but 37th in the percent of residents with bachelor’s degrees. Even immigrants know there’s no future. GM says it is transferring engineering work because it can pay lower wages and admits it’s recruiting Indian nationals at Wayne State, hoping to lure them back to Bangalore.
How long can an industry deny opportunity to those critical to its success before it finally discourages too many? How long before the ambitious and creative are gone, leaving plodders to fill the slots? GM and Ford can still recruit engineers, but they can’t produce exciting cars.
It may be the only culture GM and Ford have been able to change is the one they need to survive, the one that produces men who might create the next generation of muscle cars. Once the formative environment is gone, it’s almost impossible to recreate. Detroit may become the equal of the places it sends work, Brazil and BangalPrismore.
Sources:
American Society for Engineering Education. "State of Engineering,"
Prism 13 (2) October 2003 on internet.
Cohen, Ed. " Enrollment Trends: Too many students are choosing the same academic paths. What's a college to do?," Notre Dame Magazine Winter 2005-2006 on internet.
Evans, Michael. "Engineers' work goes overseas, GM says," Detroit Free Press, 6 April 2006.
George, Mary Anne. "Michigan’s College Graduate Rank Sinks to 37th in Nation," Detroit Free Press 29 March 2005.
McInerey, Martin. Quoted by Tom Walsh, "New team to drive F"ord," Detroit Free Press, 7 April 2006.
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