Al Filreis wrote: I love big messes. It's what education is about. By being in "a big mess" together, and knowing it, we can constitute a community. No joke. (What I've said is another way of saying what Kristen said today.)--Alph

i guess that is a version of what i'm trying to say. changing the system is not going to be a neat and clean process. the only thing we can do is exchange our ideas about a subject and hope to come to a greater understanding not only of what the problem is but what the course of action should be. i think critiquing this experiment's methods is perfectly justified. we can't sit around patting each other on the backsaying "well, we gave it a good try, our intentions were right on, maybe things will get better." for us to make progress in a society we have to criticize and yell at each other a bit and come up with a mutual solution. just because i can't ramble off a half-baked scheme to do it better on the spot doesn't mean i cannot say "this is wrong, we can do better." nor is it a personal attack on crane or some manifestation of a judgemental personality if i do state my opinion against it. to make progress all opinions must be heard, so turning the telescope onto the door side and making them out to be supervillains because they can't make up something better or say something nice about poor crane is really a borderline pollyanna perspective. if saying how negatively i feel about this story is evil then i'm a meanie damn it, hear me roar.

today i was the one who left the class angry. but that's great because we actually had a discussion and it was truly invigorating and i got to use the phrase "freedom of expression". therefore i say viva 103 and lets keep shouting (or talking in raised tones), even though conflict makes me feel sick most times. when all the yelling is over with we might just learn something about ourselves and maybe even....you guessed it....community.

love,
kristen