Education: Losing Your Element
Do schools kill creativity? This is the opening question of an interesting interview with Sir Ken Robinson, an “expert” on creativity and innovation. The answer is deceptively simple: “Yes, of course they do.” Though this may sound somewhat sarcastic, the reality of schooling is the systematic obliteration of the individual including their creativity, and their [...]
Disaster: Toxic Breath
The end effect of the Gulf Oil Spill disaster will not be known for many years. Some of the effects will be immediate and obvious, while others are far more mercurial and illusive. As with all disasters, a large contingent of people will be employed to distract and counter both the breadth and depth of [...]
Effects of Media: The Children of Cyberspace
[Exploring Life] Brad Stone’s NY Times article The Children of Cyberspace raises a number of poignant issues regarding our relationship with technology. Heralding in a new type of “generation” by some individual claiming “visionary” status seems like an all too common occurrence in mainstream media now. Apparently the so-called “Net Generation” is now giving way [...]
Ecopsychology: Water – A Fundamental Human Right
[Exploring Life] Can an individual or organization claim the right to own and profit from a natural resource that is essential to the preservation and well being of all life on our planet? The battle to claim ownership and control the world’s fresh water supply brings us to the particular nexus where money, the natural [...]
Effects of Media: Writing – The Shifting Style of Elements
[Exploring Life] The Chronicle of Higher Education recently published 50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice in response to the release of the commemorative edition of Strunk and White’s famous The Elements of Style.[1] The article condemns Strunk and White’s advice as being detrimental to the correct use of language as well as the development of [...]
Effects of Media: The Technium
[Exploring Life] The word technology can be an illusive term. Technology originates in the Greek technologia which combines craft (techne) and saying (logia). A common understanding of technology refers to the physical tools and hardware hardware of an object that is designed to make work easier. In this sense, technology is a label that describes [...]
Culture: Working Perspectives
[Exploring Life] We spend the majority of our lives involved in some form of work. It is a means to contribute to and to be assimilated into society. In our childhood we are introduced to work in the form of schoolwork and homework. To not work in school often labels an individual as unmotivated, lazy, [...]