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shop class as soulcraft

updated sun 8 aug 10

 

ivor and olive lewis on mon 2 aug 10


An interesting book though I take issue with the Authors use of complex
terms that would be better replaced with more frequently used terms. This
errors of this form is compounded when the term used seems to be omitted
from both the Oxford and Webster dictionaries.
There is also a wonderful example of the failure of the principle concept o=
f
the Author which illustrates the disjoin between Learning and Experience. I
wonder how many people who, when faced with a situation, having been told
that the rule was, "Do not do this...." would proceed to test the concept
rather than asking "Why not..." a situation that confirms my belief that
"Accidents are caused by thoughtlessness.
Enjoyed the reading.
Best regards,
Ivor Lewis,
REDHILL,
South Australia

phil on fri 6 aug 10


Hi Ivor, all...



Below...amid...


----- Original Message -----
From: "ivor and olive lewis"

> An interesting book though I take issue with the Authors use of complex
> terms that would be better replaced with more frequently used terms. This
> errors of this form is compounded when the term used seems to be omitted
> from both the Oxford and Webster dictionaries.


I have not read the Book.


I felt the title was off-putting - I do not like how tacit and blythe it is
for people, to accept a userpation of everything - and certainly of
'learning' - by an overarching, mechanized, bureacratic 'state'.

The phrase 'Shop Class' rubs me the wrong way right at the get-go.


If people wish to be peons and serfs and chattel, lowering up and down thos=
e
Temple Grandin 'ramps', upturned eyes and grateful toward
what-is-regimentedly-compartmentally-bureaucratically sold them for twenty
times or more what it was ever 'worth', there is nothing they can be 'given=
'
which would
interest me positively...it is already far too late.



'Shop Class as Soul craft' is already sounding like a sort of post mortem
post-modern concession, whicdh is all that could be imagined by some
intellectual urban armchair
idiot academic...sharing the gleee of how a corpse, if one attatch thin
'Wires', can
be made to appear animate-enough to satisfy him and his 'soul'.


Maybe I am mistaken...but, the title had that smell...and it's a smell I ca=
n
scent against the Wind even.





> There is also a wonderful example of the failure of the principle concept
> of
> the Author which illustrates the disjoin between Learning and Experience.




Too, those two terms, 'Learning', and, 'Experience', are very vague and
amorphous when standing alone...relying on interpretations of tacit or naro=
w
possibility in
context for one to quess the meaning an author intended them to have,
whatever their meanings might or could be otherwise.


I would imagine that trying to seperate them, would be a lot like trying to
seperate or distinguish the terms 'Atmosphere', and, 'Air'.




> I wonder how many people who, when faced with a situation, having been
> told
> that the rule was, "Do not do this...." would proceed to test the concept
> rather than asking "Why not..."




The people who were always leaning over me and interfering under whatever
fake facade or guise or slobbery jive, when I was growing up, and sometimes
since,
resented ( with varied orders of violence or threat of violence ) being
ingenuously asked 'why', or 'why not', or 'how come' or anything else for
details or depth or for them to share understanding ( I doubt they had any
to share).


My solution, was two fold -


1 ) Don't ask...or ask in indirect or adroitly re-directing ways...pay
attention to them for whatever value might be in the noise and bluff ( like
say, noting the few Kernals of actual, whole 'Corn' in Cow Poop Patties ),
think things out, and or try things for myself instead, regardless of
anything they say.

2 ) Accept everything they say or insist on as the noise and theatrics of
emotionally damaged, stupid, interfering, compulsively needy, domineering
idiots whose only real 'Faith' was in their own stupidity and failure, and,
in projecting it onto anyone they could corner...and, to accept it as their
mode of appeasing their own anxieties, at other's expense, of course...and
to be unavailable for them to 'corner'.

3 ) Rely on my own judgement, taking into whatever account, my apprasal of
theirs, and never rely on 'theirs'.

4) Fall asleep at night tenderly wishing they ( by the millions, nay, tens,
nay hundreds of millions, ) would simply die off, of ohhh, I dunno, sudden,
massive, cerebrial, bursting Anurisms or Cardiac arrest or whatever, who
cares 'what', and keel over in mid stride, or mid anything, whatever they
were doing...whereupon, I would find some little Meadow, and, tearfully Kis=
s
the Earth however many thousand times in gratitude and happiness...for
Humanity's sake, and, for it allowing maybe, some possibility of a future
worth having.





> a situation that confirms my belief that
> "Accidents are caused by thoughtlessness.


Or, she thought her Ovulation was 'last week'...if she could even spell
it or recognise the term...which is how most of these mooks got here. And,
of course, it did not
get any better from 'there', either.


I do not believe that the idea of what the term 'accidents' has come to
mean, is worth what it costs.


I believe instead, a far better assay, is to accept the liabilities of
ignorance, amentia, dis-attention, dis-interest, conflict of
attention/interest, emotionalized triggers, subterfuge, insinuation,
mis-use, or other orders of how someone is relating to various
conditions or dymanics, and, to relate these to the consequences ( but then
who is to interpret the consequences? I prefer it to be me, and not
'them' ) ...as, the interplay or relations of conditions in dymanic, in
effect.





> Enjoyed the reading.
> Best regards,
> Ivor Lewis,
> REDHILL,
> South Australia


Lol...

Yup...

Like that...



Love,


Phil
Lv

ivor and olive lewis on sat 7 aug 10


Dear Phil,

My immediate reaction to the book was via the title. Yes, I was put off by
it.I imagined it to be about Pre tertiary levels of education and what can
be done for the lost souls who drop out of secondary education before they
are legally allowed to leave school, the ones who cause mayhem in the
classroom. But it isn't. Thankfully, I did read it when the librarian
obtained it on inter-library loan.

Almost forty years ago in my first appointment as a high school teacher, at
a time when the school leaving age was about to be raised in England in
1972, I was blessed with a group of testosterone charged adolescent forth
form boys (Year 10) for a subject called "Building Studies", a topic in
which I had no training. I later found out they were students the Technical
Studies Faculty had rejected as "unsafe" in the workshop. I was responsible
for their theory work and a Building Trades Instructor covered their
practical skills. The course lasted two years and they all passed a
moderated examination (Certificate of Secondary Education). Their reward, i=
f
they wished to enter into a building trades apprenticeship was a years
exemption for time served.

Shop Class as Soulcraft is not about that sort of thing. It is about mature
people who enjoy speed and the smell of Engines.

Get the book and read it Phil. And by the way, Shoes secured with double
tied bow will undo if you just pull one of the shoe lace ends.

All the best,

Ivor Lewis,
REDHILL,
South Australia .