Jobs? "I don't want one," is the response from 34.3% of people. This is the latest statistic from the Wall Street Journal, where it is noted this is up from 30% just two decades ago. In a recent paper, Declining Labor Force Attachment and Downward Trends in Unemployment and Participation, by economists Regis Barnichon and Andrew Figura divided those out of the labor force using a simpler standard: whether or not the person says they want a job. the paper is rather technical, but understandable. But it does render a couple of questions. (1) How much unemployment by those not wishing employment can a prosperous nation absorb - and remain prosperous? (2) What is the critical mass whereby this "don't want a job" attitude toward work becomes epidemic in society? The answer the the second question is unexplored.
There is another population out there not yet analyzed. This group, those people employed by in totally non productive venues. Many government workers can be so classified. So also are many in law and order. This is not to say they have no value; they do. They are usually high in relative intelligence. They protect us from another class in society - those that violate laws. But they don't actually produce. One could posit that the Soviet society collapsed partly under the weight of its unproductive human infrastructure.
Liars
We, in the education business, are facing a new problem with students. That is with lying. Not so, you may say. First note, all of us lie when it is convenient and necessary. The reasons are well studied. Yet students have taken this aspect of inter-class relationships with their instructors to new levels. The lies offered these days are incredibly weak. It is as though any plausible argument (lie) should be accepted, or at least not rejected. It is a technique used by most kids upon their parents, particularly parents that wish no controversy under their roof. This has escalated to the children of parents who themselves were liars in their school days. We call this, the current student body, the second generation of liars. These are students who have been raised by parents, themselves academic liars. The excuses are weakened; the logic is specious; the expectations for acceptance are certain.
Manifest in this is our current generation of politicians that simply tell outrageous lies. Moreover, they expect the lies to be accepted. It is only important to posit the lie as credible. Deniers of the lies are put under attack.
Cheater's high. What? We know well about "runners high," being that wonderful feeling of achievement upon completing the race in a good time. Some even run to gain this high. It has been associated with the release of endorphins. Physiological this is. The concept has legs, and now is extended well beyond mere physical pleasure.
You may think that the cheater on tests must feel bad or feel guilty after cheating. Peeking from a nearby paper, learning about the test questions, gaining feedback from those having already tested, are among the channels for cheating. But guilt seems not to exist. In a recent paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (abstract; PDF) explores “the cheater’s high,” this concept is put aside. The assumed negative effects of cheating such as guilt, shame, and remorse are simply not there. This new study stands on end the instructor's reliance on moral and ethical conduct by students based on such emotions. It indicates that many students simply want the grade. The morality of high grades dominates honesty as a vehicle to achieve them. No longer is there the trusted equation between success and honest achievement.
Lying and cheating are sisters in the same family. It is no wonder that children licensed to lie at an early age become cheaters later when the stakes are high. It is not surprising there are no feelings of guilt and remorse. Morality is a coin that must be minted early in the child's upbringing.
Genius upon Genius. I am listening to a recital by Vladimir Horowitz made March 5, 1951 at Carnegie Hall. Horowitz was a genius of the piano-forte. Franz Liszt was a genius of composition. I was just a baby at the time and did not attend. The performance was of the Franz Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 in D-flat major. The work begins so simply, but then turns to the artistic, and then to the purely demonic. Having heard this Rhapsody before, I was excited to hear what Horowitz could do. I've never heard it so played, as it was on this spring day in 1951, with such technical fervor, with such consummate technique, with such perfection. I cannot imagine any contemporary artist playing this work with such skill and such interpretation. If you want to hear the epitome of human near-perfection, please consider this listening to this recording. We so rarely experience by sight or ear the perfection of human-kind, it is important to make notes of those few times genius upon genius happens.
I just listened to Horowitz playing his very own arrangement of "The Stars and Stripes Forever." It was a bombastic, virtuoso performance that I'm sure very few would even try to play. It brought down the house at Carnegie Hall that Sunday afternoon, April 23, 1951. It occurred to me how very few might even consider playing such a patriotic piece these days. Sad to me, I hope to you.
Yet, when Horowitz, the keyboard genius of our day, plays Mozart, he is respectful and plays the music as written with his own slight interpretations. Horowitz simply plays Mozart better than most. None of the essential Mozart is lost. Horowitz is honestly respectful of the ultimate master. One cannot improve on perfection.
However, what he does to Prokofiev Sonate #7 is beyond mastery.The final toccata movement culminates into a furious recapitulation of the main theme. I would use the term "intoxi-ccata" to describe this finale. Yet Lang Lang is another master of Prokofiev.
There is another population out there not yet analyzed. This group, those people employed by in totally non productive venues. Many government workers can be so classified. So also are many in law and order. This is not to say they have no value; they do. They are usually high in relative intelligence. They protect us from another class in society - those that violate laws. But they don't actually produce. One could posit that the Soviet society collapsed partly under the weight of its unproductive human infrastructure.
Liars
We, in the education business, are facing a new problem with students. That is with lying. Not so, you may say. First note, all of us lie when it is convenient and necessary. The reasons are well studied. Yet students have taken this aspect of inter-class relationships with their instructors to new levels. The lies offered these days are incredibly weak. It is as though any plausible argument (lie) should be accepted, or at least not rejected. It is a technique used by most kids upon their parents, particularly parents that wish no controversy under their roof. This has escalated to the children of parents who themselves were liars in their school days. We call this, the current student body, the second generation of liars. These are students who have been raised by parents, themselves academic liars. The excuses are weakened; the logic is specious; the expectations for acceptance are certain.
Manifest in this is our current generation of politicians that simply tell outrageous lies. Moreover, they expect the lies to be accepted. It is only important to posit the lie as credible. Deniers of the lies are put under attack.
Cheater's high. What? We know well about "runners high," being that wonderful feeling of achievement upon completing the race in a good time. Some even run to gain this high. It has been associated with the release of endorphins. Physiological this is. The concept has legs, and now is extended well beyond mere physical pleasure.
You may think that the cheater on tests must feel bad or feel guilty after cheating. Peeking from a nearby paper, learning about the test questions, gaining feedback from those having already tested, are among the channels for cheating. But guilt seems not to exist. In a recent paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (abstract; PDF) explores “the cheater’s high,” this concept is put aside. The assumed negative effects of cheating such as guilt, shame, and remorse are simply not there. This new study stands on end the instructor's reliance on moral and ethical conduct by students based on such emotions. It indicates that many students simply want the grade. The morality of high grades dominates honesty as a vehicle to achieve them. No longer is there the trusted equation between success and honest achievement.
Lying and cheating are sisters in the same family. It is no wonder that children licensed to lie at an early age become cheaters later when the stakes are high. It is not surprising there are no feelings of guilt and remorse. Morality is a coin that must be minted early in the child's upbringing.
Genius upon Genius. I am listening to a recital by Vladimir Horowitz made March 5, 1951 at Carnegie Hall. Horowitz was a genius of the piano-forte. Franz Liszt was a genius of composition. I was just a baby at the time and did not attend. The performance was of the Franz Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 in D-flat major. The work begins so simply, but then turns to the artistic, and then to the purely demonic. Having heard this Rhapsody before, I was excited to hear what Horowitz could do. I've never heard it so played, as it was on this spring day in 1951, with such technical fervor, with such consummate technique, with such perfection. I cannot imagine any contemporary artist playing this work with such skill and such interpretation. If you want to hear the epitome of human near-perfection, please consider this listening to this recording. We so rarely experience by sight or ear the perfection of human-kind, it is important to make notes of those few times genius upon genius happens.
I just listened to Horowitz playing his very own arrangement of "The Stars and Stripes Forever." It was a bombastic, virtuoso performance that I'm sure very few would even try to play. It brought down the house at Carnegie Hall that Sunday afternoon, April 23, 1951. It occurred to me how very few might even consider playing such a patriotic piece these days. Sad to me, I hope to you.
Yet, when Horowitz, the keyboard genius of our day, plays Mozart, he is respectful and plays the music as written with his own slight interpretations. Horowitz simply plays Mozart better than most. None of the essential Mozart is lost. Horowitz is honestly respectful of the ultimate master. One cannot improve on perfection.
However, what he does to Prokofiev Sonate #7 is beyond mastery.The final toccata movement culminates into a furious recapitulation of the main theme. I would use the term "intoxi-ccata" to describe this finale. Yet Lang Lang is another master of Prokofiev.
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