These comments rest in the contest between the mechanical/adoptive and the organic. The dominant shape of our thinking in this nation tends toward the mechanical. Lecturing, testing, race, rank evaluation. Crisp rather than fuzzy sets. I think that is one of the reasons we do not see that living everyday life is like making sausage.
It would be easy to say that things are broken. But that would be crisp and suggest that at one time they had been fixed or running the way we think they are "designed" to run. Enter the definition of the situation....or what may be the latent definition of the situation the unseen or unrecognized definitions. There was a study succession of management, and Sudnow's Normal crimes that provide evidence that things are not as we consider them. I once had a conversation with Kenneth Boulding regarding this process. How troubled organizations failed because the did not change the definition of the situation...... they tried but after all the changes they returned to form and perished or were taken over only to fail bigger. After 911 we were told that it was an intelligence failure. After Rice claimed that we could not imagine that people would fly plans into a building. Some claimed it was a failure of imagination. Few thought that this was a second attempt at the target. Next there is Katrina. Not only had the dots been connected for this well predicted and covered attack, we had a trial run months earlier. We had a trial run with hurricane Pam. Its not just these emergencies. Our approach to drug prevention is another example. Most of the AOD prevention education efforts are a kin to placing pamphlets at pool side to prevent drowning. When this years pamphlets don't work.... they just promise/plan better pamphlets. There are effective approaches. I met a man at San Luis Obispo Mike Looney who had students do anti smoking slogans. I recall one that hit home...kissing a smoker is like licking out an ash tray. This apple needs more than one bite Del --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Teaching Sociology" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/teachsoc -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
