Town Heretic

:chuckle: I might have to use this.

Eh. I'm halfway gone myself, to be honest. (Rest to follow via PM in a sec.)

2/2

"... But man's resourcefulness goes beyond simply protecting a belief. Suppose an individual believes something with his whole heart; suppose further that he has a commitment to this belief, that he has taken irrevocable actions because of it; finally, suppose that he is presented with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence, that his belief is wrong: what will happen? The individual will frequently emerge, not only unshaken, but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs than ever before. Indeed, he may even show a new fervor about convincing and converting other people to his view."

1/2

But there are so many facets. I keep coming back to psychologist Leon Festinger and his study of the doomsday cult members who continued to believe even after the world didn't end when it was prophesied to end:

"A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point. We have all experienced the futility of trying to change a strong conviction, especially if the convinced person has some investment in his belief. We are familiar with the variety of ingenious defenses with which people protect their convictions, managing to keep them unscathed through the most devastating attacks..."

cont'd...

Yeah, agreed - a big part of it is that and I've posted on it several times - as well as belief perseverance, social conformity, groupthink, etc. Last year I posted this:

"When people commit themselves to a particular belief through verbal affirmation, they're much more likely to stick to that belief - so what do we do when we're online? We're constantly putting into words what we believe. The more we spell out what we believe, the harder it is to walk away from what we're invested in, from what we've given verbal affirmation."

When I get a chance I'll send a PM, sometime by the end of the day here.

Kindergarten. I met and adopted Froebel's notion of learning through play in short order. I adapted it for 1st grade by creating games, like Stinky Toad cards (interesting adjectives and nouns finding one another) or PIE Bingo for author's purpose. I had Kindergarteners becoming math problems when ten of them perched in an imaginary tree and some flew to me (two operations to think about). That sort of thing.

The interview was for a 6th grade position, which is outside of my certification, though I took the K-6 PLT Praxis and came away with a 192 out of 200 possible points. I could do it for a year or two before I'd have to move on or pick up a few additional classes to broaden my certification. That's assuming...there was another interview before me and she looked like someone who had experience, so it may not matter.

It was good to get the bat off of my shoulder in any event.

What grade do you want to teach?

Was out most of the day and came back to see that. lain:

Wow, won't that be an adventure! Keep me posted, okay?

That's good to hear. I don't watch any of the late night shows, I just see clips of them here and there.

Reading about the reaction of NATO leaders yesterday, I know I'm not off-base to be worried about the direction this country is going. I've tried not to lean into being some kind of chicken little, but I've been posting on this presidency pretty much non-stop since before the election and my worst fears are being realized. And half the country and most of Congress and all his cabinet just stand by and watch it happen.

:rotfl:

I hate it when I ruin a perfectly good... whatever that was. :chuckle:

I probably deserve more than a few silly bastards, and I recognize that the Trump years have pushed me from the relative mainstream into a kind of extreme of the American political discourse. But I'm quite pessimistic about the future of the country, because I think that few Americans perceive what part of history we've slid into. I don't count myself as much of a patriot, but I do support human rights and democracy, and seeing this country undermined in this way is hard to take.

In any case, it feels like it's been a long time. It's good to talk again, whether or not we agree.

You misspell painful.

Sadly, I don't think I did either.. :chuckle:

Deal.

I'll write a reply later today, have some things that have to be seen to for now.

The latter...

Sorry to get back to you so late ... my internet, phone and cable have been out for almost two days. I don't blame you at all and yep, I am there.

:chuckle: Probably because it's the bible on the subject for anyone who doesn't live in PA?

:chuckle: Witness was a great movie, though.