Ecolog:
Because it all boils down to individuals and cases and the devil is in the
details, I would say that (the article at the link is.gd/dTIL2)* as Madhu
suggests, is as good a place as any to start. Generalizations won't cut it, but
that doesn't mean that trends and entrenched habits and even inconvenient
truths are not useful--to a point, of course. Hacker and Dreifus have
illuminated some possible pathways to betterment, but like all good teachers,
wisely choose not to belabor the obvious and bore us all to tears. Their job is
to help all to UNDERSTAND, not merely to "know." As they point out: "It's the
job of the teacher to get students interested and turned on no matter what the
subject is. Every student can be turned on if teachers really engage in this
way." That is the issue, and that is the challenge. Always has been, always
will. It is out of THIS that the magic of fuller and fuller understanding grows.
Ecology, like a "roofer's card," covers everything. Every teacher should have a
fire in hisher belly and infect as many other people with the disease as
possible, in and out of institutions. Those who are primarily interested in
glory and/or riches should keep a day job in the military or the stock market
and settle for ecology as an avocation. Getting rich and famous just isn't in
the cards in ecology; it ain't for the egocentric. It's a square
peg in a round hole problem.
True, the whole trend in the world is toward acquisitiveness rather than
inquisitiveness, and right there is the tension between emphasis on a life of
ease and an easy life. Subordination of all kinds should be resisted, but
ecology most of all, as a study of life in its context, should resist selling
out to the acquisitors. Students, which means all of us who stand before Nature
in naked ignorance, would do well to suffer their suffering
unto Ecolog--and all of the 10,000-plus subscribers should pass the word that
this is the place to start. To some degree (and once one gets hooked, CAN one
stop?) every single person should be an ecologist. Jobs, JOBS? We don' need no
stinkin' JOBS--what we need is a LIFE!
WT
* For some reason, inclusion of the actual link caused the system to reject the
post without sending the request for confirmation message. Sorry for any
inconvenience. Have others noticed this? What is it about the link that causes
this? This is the first time I have encountered this. The fact that Madhu's
post was able to get through the system with this "defect" only adds to the
mystery.
