Month: March 2019

Leave a comment Posted on Facebook, New Zealand massacre, Reddit, Twitter, YouTube

Innocence Lost

The tragedy last week in New Zealand where a maniac murdered 50 people was doubly despicable due to the killer live streaming his deed on Facebook using a GoPro helmet camera.

It took a half hour before anybody reported this to Facebook, 12 minutes after the shooting ended.  In other words, those watching online did not report it while it was happening.  In fact, many were cheering him on.

What happened was not a video game yet there exists people in the world who derive entertainment from the killing of innocent people.  It’s disturbing to realize that hate has a worldwide audience.

How does a parent explain this to a child?

The internet offers wonderful opportunities.  But whatever good people get from using social media is negated if it means that just one child intentionally or not may come across a video of a person actually getting killed.

Ever since the birth of the internet, dutiful parents have had to carefully monitor content, pornography being an obvious problem.  However, no matter how one closely scrutinizes or how many filters are in place, something horrible is bound to suddenly appear on a screen.

Each generation comes to grips with changes in technology.  When television came on the scene, some thought it would corrupt children’s minds.

However, this occurred when there was one screen per household.  All one had to do was to turn off the TV.

Today, each person has a screen.  Internet accessibility and control rests in the palms of a child’s hands.  It’s impossible for a parent to continuously watch what appears on the screen.

Surely, social media companies such as Facebook, Reddit, Twitter and YouTube have the ability  to shut down hate-related content.

Some advertisers plan on boycotting these businesses.  The Association of New Zealand Advertisers and the Commercial Communications Council posed the following question in their statement released earlier in the week:

“If the site owners can target consumers with advertising in microseconds, why can’t the same technology be applied to prevent this kind of content being streamed live?”

If the internet was available during Hitler’s reign, he might have installed cameras in the showers where Jewish prisoners were gassed, available for everybody to enjoy.

Just because we have the capability to access every repulsive act a person can perpetrate on another human being does not mean we should see it.

One of the main problems I have with the internet is that it offers legitimacy to the most illegitimate anti-social outcasts among us, giving each voice an audience.  Yet not every voice should be heard.

Unimaginable horrors abound online where anyone of any age can access hateful ideologies, suicide instructions, and an online forum entitled “watch people die.”

Is that really what we are all about?

The world shouldn’t be a nightmare.  If so, why would people bring up children in such a toxic environment?

It used to be that children had a childhood.  Unsuitable material could be delayed until later.  Not now.  Innocence is a nostalgic notion.

There’s a favorite line of mine from the 1962 film “To Kill a Mockingbird” that was not in Harper Lee’s novel.  Screenwriter Horton Foote who won an Oscar for the screenplay wrote a scene where Atticus Finch turns to his son and says, “There’s a lot of ugly things in this world, son.  I wish I could keep them all away from you.  That’s never possible.”

How truer that is today than ever before.

 

 

Leave a comment Posted on students, teachers

Diverse Students United in Bowl Goal

For the 29th straight year, Glendale Unified will host the Scholastic Bowl at Glendale High School on Monday night.  Televised locally, this is the biggest academic competition among the district’s four high schools:  Clark Magnet, Crescenta Valley, Glendale, and Hoover.

Having a night that showcases the talents of bright students is welcoming.  Smart kids often get the short end of the education stick; gifted education receives the least funding of any ability-level group.  Yet these high-achieving students are the ones who make their schools shine.  Most aspects of a school that principals brag about have a large amount to do with the contributions of these fine young people.

The first part of the competition takes place a week before the main event when all five-member teams write a one-hour timed essay.  Points earned from this writing are added to each school’s score the following week when the teams converge on stage to answer 25 questions in a group round where collaboration is allowed, then another 50 questions in a buzzer round when only individuals answer.  Two points are awarded for correct answers; one point deduction for incorrect responses.

Each member of the winning team wins $500, second place $250, third place $150, and fourth place $100.  Knapp, Peterson & Clarke, Oakmont League, Kiwanis Club, Rotary Club, Dan Levin Trust, Parker Anderson Enrichment, and Sylvan Learning Center contribute to the awards.

Most years Channel 4 weathercaster Fritz Coleman has served as quizmaster.  This year the emcee will be Channel 7’s weekday anchor Phillip Palmer.

When I was asked by the principal to coach the Hoover’s team back in 2008, I had no idea that I would still be doing it 11 years later.

While I have had the good fortune of having two teams win the competition, for me the joy of being involved with this program is the opportunity to work with some of the brightest young people.  They enjoy each other’s company and have fun showing off their knowledge.

The lowest point occurred two years ago when one of my students forgot to save the essay on the computer which ended up costing us another championship.  This was especially bitter since I was the coach who championed transitioning from handwritten papers to using laptops.

As coach, my main job is selecting the team.  I hold tryouts where I seek five students who collectively are able to answer questions in the five main categories of art, literature, history, science, and math.

For months, we hold after-school practices twice a week where the team watches past Scholastic Bowls, answering the questions “live.”  One team member tracks correct and incorrect answers for each category so we can figure out which students will be stronger in the group round versus the buzzer round (only four students are allowed on stage at any one time).

We even practice using buzzers.  I also give them practice essays which we later evaluate according to the Bowl’s writing rubric.

This year’s team happens to be all-male, comprised of three seniors and two sophomores, each student a different ethnicity—a delightful coincidence.  Their collegiality proves that students from various backgrounds can work well together pursuing a common goal:  to win the Bowl.

It is an important reminder to those who only know Hoover from recent negative headlines that positive experiences also happen on campus.

If you want to see another side of Hoover, come to the Scholastic Bowl this Monday at Glendale High School at 7:00 p.m.  The future will be present on stage representing all 1,600 of their fellow students.