As my family and I were driving back from Michigan this weekend, I borrowed/stole my brother's book, Blink by Macolm Gladwell. Gladwell's mother is black, and father is white. Gladwell metioned taking a test from Harvard known as the IAT, or the Implicit Association Test. The whole point is to determine how you make connections, and why.
Here's the link for the test.
If the link doesn't work, click on their link for the homepage and click on demonstrations. Or, you can sign up for the test
If you click on the "Take a Demo Test" it will give you several options. The book deals with the Skin Tone IAT, about six or seven from the top.
Please take it, and post comments about either the skin color or other demos.
The IAT in the book is Work/Family, where you the catergories are female/male names and either words relating to work (corporation, executive) or family (cousin, domestic).
Though of course we'd all like to think of ourselves as color-blind, this test really surprised me. Don't feel obligated to post what your results were, but, having grown up on the North Shore, I did not find it surprising that my results came back as a moderate automatic preference for light-skin compared to dark skin.
How much of this is conscious? And is that a question anyone can ever answer? Also, in what ways might this test not completely identify our subconcious?
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Reali.tv
A couple weeks ago, I saw the Truman Show for the first time. What caught my attention the most was the following that the show collected: Why was Truman a symbol of hope? What else was going on that he was "necessary"? And why did people care so much about a vaguely realistic person's confinement, over their own lives? By the end of the movie, I admit that I was more than a little disgusted that, even though I knew it was fake, so few people stood against confining Truman on an island and making his dad "die." There is also a good deal of fright: will America ever become so obsessed with "reality" that it fails to realize reality is not what is on the tv set, rather what is going on in the "real world?"
I've never been much for reality tv. It never seems real. Every emotion seems fake unless the shot is taken with a shaky camera and there's a lot of swearing going on (In Say Yes to the Dress--slapping, too). Reality is not what is on tv, so what is reality tv? Dictionary.com defines it as "a genre of television programming in which "real life" people are followed in a situation, game, etc." Of course people are real life-- very few actors can completely recreate themselves as a character. And all these shows, like Keeping up with the Kardashians, and the Lama one-- reality tv stars are proven to just be weirdos who happen to like having cameras in their face. This is bad news-- being a drama queen is now a profession.
I've never been much for reality tv. It never seems real. Every emotion seems fake unless the shot is taken with a shaky camera and there's a lot of swearing going on (In Say Yes to the Dress--slapping, too). Reality is not what is on tv, so what is reality tv? Dictionary.com defines it as "a genre of television programming in which "real life" people are followed in a situation, game, etc." Of course people are real life-- very few actors can completely recreate themselves as a character. And all these shows, like Keeping up with the Kardashians, and the Lama one-- reality tv stars are proven to just be weirdos who happen to like having cameras in their face. This is bad news-- being a drama queen is now a profession.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
the Trevian Manifesto!
Last year, in my very open minded Modern World class, we did a project called "the Trevian Manifesto" in which were allowed to attack New Trier's approach from all angles. Don't get me wrong, I think many aspects of New Trier are well-thought out and good, however, it was easily one of the most entertaining assignments I've ever had.
One of the main topics my partner and I touched upon was grading, and GPA's. This came up today in class: what is the purpose of a GPA? Humans love numbers, so lets throw some numbers that will somehow signify how smart someone is. What a bad idea. I know for a fact that everyone learns in a different way. For me, it's getting involved in the class through participation and active note-taking. But what about the people for whom fitting into to the educational norm is not the best way to learn? For instance, in my family friend's college course, the students were supposed to turn in their class notebook for a grade at the end of each semester. He was a completely auditory learner, and therefore it made little sense to write anything down from him. He turned in a notebook with a few scribbles and a couple formulas, and yet had done extremely well on all the tests.
So if teachers don't grade based on GPA's, homework, tests, and checking off everytime you raise your hand, how can they grade? What is the best style of grading? Clearly, teachers don't have time for more than one system, so what's the compromise? And what can New Trier do to change their current methods?
One of the main topics my partner and I touched upon was grading, and GPA's. This came up today in class: what is the purpose of a GPA? Humans love numbers, so lets throw some numbers that will somehow signify how smart someone is. What a bad idea. I know for a fact that everyone learns in a different way. For me, it's getting involved in the class through participation and active note-taking. But what about the people for whom fitting into to the educational norm is not the best way to learn? For instance, in my family friend's college course, the students were supposed to turn in their class notebook for a grade at the end of each semester. He was a completely auditory learner, and therefore it made little sense to write anything down from him. He turned in a notebook with a few scribbles and a couple formulas, and yet had done extremely well on all the tests.
So if teachers don't grade based on GPA's, homework, tests, and checking off everytime you raise your hand, how can they grade? What is the best style of grading? Clearly, teachers don't have time for more than one system, so what's the compromise? And what can New Trier do to change their current methods?
Tenure's Shadow.
Mr. Bolos has mentioned several times how he shadowed a student the first year he came to New Trier. This, in my opinion, is an excellent idea and should be used more often by New Trier so that even tenured teachers would have to shadow students from time to time. Any Trevian will tell anyone that cares to listen how stressful NTHS is, but I was surprised that Mr. Bolos didn't make it through the day. For me, New Trier has become a routine, and I accept the fact that I have lots of homework (though, with AAS this year, not half as much as my friends in double APs), and that sometimes I won't get the sleep I need. But isn't high school supposed to be easy? Isn't what were experiencing now supposed to be college?
I've heard from several people that the gap between New Trier and college is much easier than that from other schools. And of course, we hear about being high-performing all the time. But how many teachers recognize the difficulty levels of New Trier? Is New Trier hard, or just fair? And should all teachers, including tenured ones, have a responsibility to have a better understanding of what classes are really like?
I've heard from several people that the gap between New Trier and college is much easier than that from other schools. And of course, we hear about being high-performing all the time. But how many teachers recognize the difficulty levels of New Trier? Is New Trier hard, or just fair? And should all teachers, including tenured ones, have a responsibility to have a better understanding of what classes are really like?
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