Assignments in thinking, and a grammar test

What I've learned over the years of teaching is that my students don't learn a lot when I'm talking. They learn more when pushed, prompted, provoked into discovering new ideas.

Part of this is because the world is changing so much  and fast, that memorizing information means obsolescence before the year is out. They must learn how to think and adapt.

So it is with two classes I teach this fall, Blogging for Journalists and International Media. You can see tomorrow's  first assignments by clicking on the two class blogs I've set up, BlogblogUCO  and  Clarkinternational

However the third class, Media Writing, is introductory, and students--mostly freshmen and sophomores--will be doing some old fashioned learning about writing in there...it's going to be a class in basic grammar and sentence structure. parts of speech, diagramming, punctuation. It'll start with a grammar test. This is based on my experience that most of our students haven't had grammar since eighth grade. Regardless of technology and trends, they must know how to write a simple English sentence. 

Tomorrow I'll post the grammar test after they take it to see if you can pass it. 

The 24th UCO autumn of change

So much has changed. 

It's my 24th autumn at UCO.  Parking lots are crammed and students crowd the sidewalks, visiting and  heading to and from classes.
Most of these students weren't even alive when I started work here, and the freshmen were born in 1995.
Venturing across campus, listening to music blaring, letting the energy of hope and youth sink in, I'm amazed at the changes.
The students all have mobile phones, iPods and most have laptop computers, non-existent when I started. They nonchalantly carry backpacks and water bottles with them. There are many more now, about 17,000, and there are many more languages spoken on campus as international students have also increased.
They walk on neat sidewalks across a manicured campus where gravel parking lots once lapped up to buildings.  In 1990, there was little Internet, email was new and strange, and there were only a few computers on campus. 

Media has changed. The student newspaper, The Vista was in its prime, and broadcast was in another department. Today they've merged and are dominated by online news, using new inventions never imagined then--Facebook Twitter, Instagram and You Tube.
Since then Oklahoma survived a terrorist bombing and has been revitalized. America has been attacked and involved in three wars and air travel is excruciating.
My office today is in part of a building that didn't exist then, along with other new buildings dotting the campus. We're still a commuter campus, but there more resident students and a vital campus life, almost non-existent then. The average age of the students has dropped from upper twenties to lower twenties, as more and more fresh high school graduates arrive. 
Then I was old enough to be my students' father...now I could be their grandfather. I've worked under four university presidents, four deans, four governors and four U.S. Presidents. I've endured countless meetings, just as more than 3,000 students have endured me.
The first classes I taught were editing and feature writing. Today I teach classes in social media, blogging, international media and writing. My teaching has changed as I grow more tolerant and aware of what's important and not so. I served 19 years as a department chair, had successes and losses, and wish I'd given it up long before then.

    Teaching keeps you young, and aware that you're not--Clark

I've changed too, with less hair, more wrinkles and weight, though I still work with newspapers. I have written and traveled more. My children are up and grown.  I've survived some trials, tragedies and losses, and enjoyed adventures and happiness, losing friends and loved ones, and making new ones, including being blessed with many great students. And of course, eight grandchildren.
But some things haven't changed at UCO, including the energy of the young, especially at the start of the fall semester. Old North, the 1892 iconic building  is still vacant but being renovated, towering over the campus. And the coeds are always attractive.

Scriptures and photos--A cloudy day

What a day to look up. Magnificent, infinite creations.

Job 37:16-- "Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge?"
Quran 24:43--“Have you not seen how God makes the clouds move gently, then joins them together, then makes them into a stack, and then you see the rain come out of it….” 

Clark Store

We had to stop, and it's old since 1889 with a new front, a combination store, post office, deli, liquor store, gift shop, ice cream store, library, coffee  shop...an old fashioned general store. I meant to get a pix of the woodburning stove, but somehow missed it. But what a treat in Colorado.

And of course, at checkout, to tempt you.

Hatred on the phone, gnashing of teeth

It's been a week since I was called a Nazi and coward on the phone.

Other than that, it was a good evening, but I've been postponing, avoiding writing about it, because it was so, so violent a verbal attack, so filled with rage.

Several ironies of the incident were apparent to me immediately, especially since I'd been meeting with a group of Christians the day before, discussing nonviolence as modeled by Jesus, Gandhi, King. I'm not sure I really want to write about it still, but think I must, not to get even, but as part of a personal solution.

Here's the background.

I was recently voted into membership with the Oklahoma City Gridiron club, which is an honor. They've raised hundreds of thousands of dollars since 1929 for scholarships for journalism students. They raise money by putting on a once-a-year political satire show, filled with songs and scripts poking fun at politicians and more, from the state to the national level. See a post about last year's show here, for an example. Members of the club are journalists of all sorts, and former journalists. I think I'm one of few professors to have been a member.

At any rate, the club holds some meetings at the OETA facilities, and in trade for that, members run the phones for three hours one night during the OETA August  fund drive. That was last Monday night. It's all highly computer-operated, and in spite of training, it takes you a little to figure out all the intricacies of taking a call and filling out information on the computer.

It was the first phone call. I picked up the phone, said "Good evening, thanks for calling OETA. May I take your pledge?"

He started immediately, saying he was a member of the Tea Party and why should he support a tax-supported station that labeled the Tea Party "racist."

At first, I thought he was joking, but the venom in his voice changed that. I knew better than to try to argue or answer him, and just remained silent. He kept going, implying I worked for the station. I told him I was a volunteer, and he kept a barrage of questions coming all along the same line. 

I know OETA has never referred to the Tea Party as racist, but it wouldn't have mattered to him. I tried to tell him he was welcome to his opinion as an American, but that infuriated him more. He then said that being a volunteer for OETA was like being a volunteer for Hitler, and when I refused to answer any more questions, getting ready to hang up, he called me a coward for not answering his questions and slammed the phone down.

Yes, I caught the ironies of someone in the right-wing Tea Party calling someone a Nazi, and hiding behind a phone, calling someone a coward.

He called a couple of others during the evening and I guess, being satisfied, shut up.

The volunteers sitting next to me joked about it and that helped. And from then on, the phone calls were from friendly people all over Oklahoma, saying how much they appreciated the programming on OETA and pledging money to qualify for 1950s and '60s music CDs andDVDs.

Afterward, I wished I'd asked him if he were a Christian, since many Tea Partiers are, and if so, how he could be so full of hate and condemnation when Jesus preached love and forgiveness. But I wasn't that quick. It was a shock.

What disturbs me most  was the black-and-white, ignoring the facts attitude of this person, and wondering how representative he is of the Tea Party membership? Where does that hatred come from? It it typical of propaganda techniques--using labels, being unable to think, unreasoning action fueled by a mob mentality, an lack of being able to consider other peoples'  views--totally anti-government, anti-education, anti-science, mixed with complete lack of concern for others. 

For me, I came face to face with crackpot extremism and hatred that endangers our freedoms and our government which is based on working together. And with my personal restraint. I thought about Scripture saying  a soft answer turns away wrath, but it didn't work here. 

Then I thought about scripture telling how the Pharisees "gnashed their teeth," at some of Jesus' teaching. This guy went to bed that night, and probably every night since, very unhappy, grinding his teeth.  Really sad.

But he made me much more thankful for the other callers like the  lady (probably about my age), from Salina, Oklahoma, who called to pledge. We proceeded to have an intelligent conversation about the history of her town, and how thankful she was for OETA, supported by tax dollars, providing good in her life. 

I won't forget the angry crackpot. He actually enriched my life, because I value even more  the good people who called.

The second caller of the night said he'd already pledged, but he just wanted to call back and say how much OETA meant to him. I wrote down his name and passed the message on to the people in charge.