The constructive person stands
against the spiritual emptiness
of encroaching technology and
does not let himself be emptied by it.
He lives and works with
the machine without
becoming a machine.
- Rollo May
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1ST DAY THOUGHTS + BEWARE OF FALSE DILEMMAS + MORE OF WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING
1st Day Thoughts
Thank you to all who did fixes and sent in activities yesterday.
Honorable mention would have to go to Olivia Rotondo who by 9:11 am
had performed, written up and sent me her activity, calculating
the speed of a car on the
road. I'm pretty sure that the speed of her completing the
assignment was faster than the car.
I imagine it was a little tough and maybe a little overwhelming
to go back to doing school work for some of you.
I have to admit that this distance learning thing
felt a little weird to me, but it was good to hear back from
many of you via email. I'm looking forward to
hearing from the rest that need to fix before the end of
the week.
I do miss the face-to-face interaction, though. While it is
nice not to have to get up at 5:15 am, and it is nice to be at home,
I do miss being in class with you. There's something magical about
teaching in person that I can only hope will still happen
over the internet. We'll see, I guess.
Note: Special thanks go to my colleagues
Mr. Bugenhagen, Mr. Damm and Mr. Restad
who came up with this week's activities.
Beware of False Dilemmas
A false dilemma is when someone makes it seem as if there are
only two extreme choices
when in fact there are more choices available.
Here's one I heard recently:
We should re-open
the economy because it's better to choose to save the
economy and let a few people die rather than kill the
economy to save a few people.
This presents us with only two choices: save the economy or
kill it. Close everything or open everything.
This is a false dilemma because there's a middle ground where
not everything is closed, which is in fact what's happening now.
Believe it or not some sectors of the
economy are even thriving. Ms. Newhart's one brother works in
a steel mill in the Lehigh Valley. They're working 7 days a week
to meet demand for make-shift hospitals and
hospital equipment. On the other hand, her other brother works for Merrell shoes
and they're taking a hit.
Ms. Newhart's one sister is a nurse, and is able to pick up
extra shifts if she wants to (although we worry about her being on the front
lines, so to speak.) But Ms. Newhart's other sister is a realtor
and that's in a major slow-down.
My brother works for a company that makes software simulations
for the military. He's got more work than he can do. My sister
works for an investment company, and although she's able to work
from home, she's worried about her company.
I am not trying to minimize the situation, because I know it's
hard for many people. But there is a middle
road here in which parts of the economy continue, and some
even grow stronger. It's not just a simple matter of everything open
or everything closed.
In general, when you are presented with an overly simply and sharp choice,
always think: Is there another way? Zoom out and try to see the bigger
picture, and I think you'll agree that there often is a middle road.
More of What I've Been Doing
Mr. Mont with guitar; picture taken by Ms. Newhart.
Besides keeping up the Corona Diary (which actually takes hours
to do each night, believe it or not) and grading,
what's Mr. Mont been up to?
Some of you know that I've been learning guitar.
It's been tricky trying to get my 54 year-old brain to
learn new things, but I love playing. And it's
good for teachers, I think, to be on the other
side - trying to learn something new. It
gives you perspective and keeps you humble.
So I recently decided to record myself playing along to
songs and discovered how bad my sense of timing
really is. Apparently, I ain't got no rhythm. But
as with all things, it's a matter of practice.
So I'm working on it.
Camera rig first try (London Bridge 1).
Camera rig second try (London Bridge 2 with screen).
I've also been trying to photograph old maps & newspapers for the
historical society.
Since I don't have a scanner big enough, I take separate pictures of every
part and have photoshop put them all together. But photoshop doesn't
do a good job unless the camera is parallel to the surface and in the
middle.
After realizing that the camera on my phone
is plenty good for the task, I still needed a way to hold it
steady and parallel to what I'm photographing.
I had the idea of making a rig out of K'nex to hold my phone.
My first try looked like London Bridge,
but it wasn't steady enough.
My second try worked better, but
I was using plexiglass (clear plastic) on top of what was
photographing to hold it flat, and the plexiglass was
reflecting the colorful
K'nex which you could see in the pictures. So I made a screen
out of a trifold display board that was laying around.
There's a small hole cut in the top for the camera
to see through.
The results didn't turn out too poorly:
Map of King of Prussia, Roberts Area & Tredyffrin, 1913
Upper Merion Road Map, 1965
Upper Merion Township Map, 1960