Friday Randomness

I think, for the time being at least, I'm going to stick Russka out. I read a little more last night and it's picked up, somewhat. We'll see. Once I've finished it though I think it's going to be time for some fluffier mysteries - I know the new J.D. Robb is out in paperback (just like I thought it was supposed to be, even though I couldn't find it) and there are a few others that I think will make perfect interruptions for the massive amounts of historical fiction I have been consuming of late.

My online class (that I'm teaching) is winding down. Thankfully. Overall it's gone well. But there's one student (there's always one, isn't there?) And he reminds me - at least once a day - of all the reasons I stopped teaching lo those many years ago. He is a whiner with a capital Entitlement and just doesn't understand why I don't think giving him the answers is not acceptable "help". Frankly, I also think he's cheating. But at least he's been relatively smart about it as I don't think he's cheating from someone in the class - my guess is he's gotten the files from someone who already took the class. Because the disparity between what he knows and what he turns in is along the lines of me taking a Japanese class and not knowing how to form the characters but somehow turning in beautifully written essays. I just can't prove it, so more than likely he's going to get away with it. I try to console myself that he's really only hurting himself, but the injustice of it burns in my soul and makes me wish I could believe in the idea of Karma, if only in this situation. Unfortunately, it's just another reminder that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. So I'll try to remember to just be thankful for the rain.

I'm actually really enjoying the reading for my Learning Theory class. (Yes, this is where you can all start to snicker about me and my earlier statement about bunk - though honestly, in many ways, I still hold to that. It's just interesting bunk.) The book is essentially a survey of all the various theories (to date I've covered Plato, Locke, and the major behaviorists like Pavlov and Thorndike). Then they give case studies that are meant to demonstrate learning taking place according to the theory just discussed. Except that it goes further and offers suggestions of how you could find the theories previously discussed in that same case study. Which I think is utterly cool. Because if I was to lay out my theory on learning theory at this moment, it would simply be that you learn different things different ways. I totally believe that some things are behavioral and you learn them that way. I even believe that some knowledge is innate and that you just have to discover it. So we'll see if that continues to hold - I suspect it will. Of course, it will also continue to get me in trouble as I go to school with a whole much of militant constructivists who sacrifice at the altar of Marie Montessori on a daily basis. And while I definitely think that constructivism has its good points in certain situations, I don't believe it's the magical silver bullet that will make everything in education work out just right. I've been in too many group gropes toward richer ignorance to ever buy into that.

As a final amusing note, it appears that my work has blocked blogspot.com addresses - though they haven't appeared to key in to the idea that blogger.com might be a good one to block along side it. I'm not telling.