Remember yesterday when I was reluctantly about to begin a research project?
Well, in the words of Emily Litella ...
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
The War of 1812! Tippecanoe and Tyler too! The Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria!
I'm not a fan of researching something for the sake of just doing the research. Now, that being said, I find research rather interesting. I think there's much to be learned from research and it's not an exaggeration to say that the results of research have saved my life (2 times and counting - knock wood).
Most times, however, I need a target for doing research. I'd prefer that folks not swing by my office and say "hey - can you research the human population from 30,000 BCE to 2020?" - because the answer I'll give is "yep - I can" and it's true, I *can* research that but I'm probably gonna ask for a "why". Otherwise, "research" becomes "history" and "history" is just not a favorite subject of mine ... and I blame the teaching methods being used at the time.
See when I was in school, "History" was rolled into a larger subject called "Social Studies". Basically, from the 3rd grade on, students were fed a steady diet of dates and phrases and meaningless campaign slogans and battlefield names and the names of a bunch of men (nearly always JUST men) who shaped the history of the country. And then we'd have Summer Vacation and, in the Fall, we'd start all over again.
OH - and each year, without fail, we'd be running behind and we'd never even get to anything beyond the 50's . Honest, it wasn't until I helped edit a Social Studies book in the 1990's that I actually saw mention of the Vietnam War in a textbook. And yet, year after year and grade after grade, I read about Columbus discovering America, where he was met by people who already lived here that apparently had no clue they needed "discovering" at all.
But I digress.
I've been given a research project ... page after page of Global-, Informational-, Ecological-, Technological-, and Design-based factoids that I'm being asked to find and report. And I'm conflicted. This being the Information Age, I know I can let my fingers fly on the keyboard and I'll find all kinds of reliable facts with which to report back. But the facts I'll be providing are, from what I can see, going to be used in a way that will be just as ... "forced fed" ... as how I was taught so many years go, and I don't wanna be a party to perpetuating this diet.
Has History taught us nothing?
Most times, however, I need a target for doing research. I'd prefer that folks not swing by my office and say "hey - can you research the human population from 30,000 BCE to 2020?" - because the answer I'll give is "yep - I can" and it's true, I *can* research that but I'm probably gonna ask for a "why". Otherwise, "research" becomes "history" and "history" is just not a favorite subject of mine ... and I blame the teaching methods being used at the time.
See when I was in school, "History" was rolled into a larger subject called "Social Studies". Basically, from the 3rd grade on, students were fed a steady diet of dates and phrases and meaningless campaign slogans and battlefield names and the names of a bunch of men (nearly always JUST men) who shaped the history of the country. And then we'd have Summer Vacation and, in the Fall, we'd start all over again.
OH - and each year, without fail, we'd be running behind and we'd never even get to anything beyond the 50's . Honest, it wasn't until I helped edit a Social Studies book in the 1990's that I actually saw mention of the Vietnam War in a textbook. And yet, year after year and grade after grade, I read about Columbus discovering America, where he was met by people who already lived here that apparently had no clue they needed "discovering" at all.
But I digress.
I've been given a research project ... page after page of Global-, Informational-, Ecological-, Technological-, and Design-based factoids that I'm being asked to find and report. And I'm conflicted. This being the Information Age, I know I can let my fingers fly on the keyboard and I'll find all kinds of reliable facts with which to report back. But the facts I'll be providing are, from what I can see, going to be used in a way that will be just as ... "forced fed" ... as how I was taught so many years go, and I don't wanna be a party to perpetuating this diet.
Has History taught us nothing?
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Keeper
So I was half-watching TV last night (really I was more listening with my eyes closed than watching actually) and a commercial came on for a device of some kind (no free-advertising today). And the thirty seconds of music that was playing in the background of this ad reminded me of a song that I always liked but ... well ... I wasn't awake enough to write down a note to myself to look up the tune later.
Flash forward to today ...
I'm surfing for like 35 minutes for this silly ad. Now, I'm pretty resourceful. I know to use different terms when looking for something - heck, I even checked the message boards that were discussing the product in question, but I was batting ZERO. The product that was being advertised seemed to only have two commercials, and the music in both was NOT what caught my ear last night. I was moments from just giving up when I mentioned it to the boyfriend. I described the music (incorrectly, as it would turn out), told him the product that was being advertised, and that all my searching had led me nowhere. I even told him that I'd started to doubt that I was naming the right product ...
... and it took him just barely over five minutes to come up with the tune in question.
He's a keeper.
*****************
Since I haven't named the ad, the product, or the specific song ... how about ya' just respond with your favorite "guilty pleasure 80's or 90's" song?
Flash forward to today ...
I'm surfing for like 35 minutes for this silly ad. Now, I'm pretty resourceful. I know to use different terms when looking for something - heck, I even checked the message boards that were discussing the product in question, but I was batting ZERO. The product that was being advertised seemed to only have two commercials, and the music in both was NOT what caught my ear last night. I was moments from just giving up when I mentioned it to the boyfriend. I described the music (incorrectly, as it would turn out), told him the product that was being advertised, and that all my searching had led me nowhere. I even told him that I'd started to doubt that I was naming the right product ...
... and it took him just barely over five minutes to come up with the tune in question.
He's a keeper.
*****************
Since I haven't named the ad, the product, or the specific song ... how about ya' just respond with your favorite "guilty pleasure 80's or 90's" song?
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