Dialectic Dynasties of Destiny: The Reason Why This 'Blogging' Thing Rocks

Grammars of English. Pursuits of English. Two classes that I will remember, not necessarily for their content, but for the way they were conducted. The manner in which lessons were put out there, the "here's an ocean of knowledge. *Push* Now swim, don't drown. Swim." type of mentality. The kind of mind-infiltration we attempted when reading a text. It was unorthodox. It was time-consuming. It was bloody difficult. But one thing I will always recall during my darkest moments, in terms of academia, is free-thought. That unshackling of the mind that allows one to voice out thoughts and opinions and all kinds of views/beliefs, without fear of authority or structure or censorship. That's what I always try to do when submitting a post on this CURR blog. And I feel like the technology that allows me to do this, not the laptop, not the internet, not the Word Document where I write down my thoughts, not even the keyboard itself. But the ability to be free. Now this could be both a good thing and a bad thing. A double-edged sword so to speak. No safe way of handling it. I have to be careful with what I say. Have to avoid any offensive remarks and such. Sometimes it's hard to revert back to the filter. But technology allows you to do that. To test the boundaries of creativity and logic. To research and create and comment and enjoy. How I try to blog is to not treat the blog as something that needs to be done. That would be an insult to the blog. The blog has feelings, you know? But it's a conversation. I rant, spell check happens, I proofread (eh, at times I attempt to), publish. Edit. Publish. Edit. Free thought allows me to act foolish, but foolish in a good way. Foolish in a way that allows me to convey what I want to say in a laid-back, stress-free sort of way. Along with TNR, STS, and hanging out with friends, this CURR blog is one of my favorite things to devote time to. Because as a future educator, I have to think about these things. My head may be filled with all these crazy thoughts, but I try my best to connect them to some part of education. Because for all I know, there's some kid out there feeling the same exact wacky way. And hopefully, they're feeling good about it. I want to implement the blog for a class. Trying to balance out rules as we speak: no racism, no sexism, no derogatory/offensive material, no inappropriateness. I'm thinking about it, the easiness of doing it. How having a blog is the same as having a journal. Except, you never have to worry about losing it. Never have to worry about forgetting to do it. Honestly, it takes a couple of minutes for me. And I suck at technology. Imagine how a tech savvy kid will feel about it. Vent out about a text. What confused them. What intrigued them. What angered them. Comment on other people's stuff. Get into discussions. It sounds really fun on paper, or on blog post rough drafts, and it might be harder to do in real life, but imagine the risk. Imagine it paying off. I am, I'm imagining kids having to do this blog for class and being interested in it, and making a personal one just for fun. One blog for school. One for very, very, very personal stuff. This could be a way of technology being incorporated in the classroom. Science teachers can do it. Math teachers can do it. Instead of assigning papers that will probably get misplaced or lost on purpose or forgotten, have the assignment online. In a fun, engaging sort of way. Don't have the whole class steered towards it. Oh no, that will be anarchy (although...hehehe, agent of chaos). But devoting some part of the curriculum to an online activity. Trust me, and other people who's experienced this, as a former high school student and current college student, online assignments are easy. They may be a pain in the butt, but compared to doing a worksheet in class, it's pretty fun. Sure, some kids may forget. But you'll always have that mass of students who have integrated into technology so well, that such work will be second nature to them. Going back to free-thought. Technology has allowed me to exercise that brand of thinking. And since free-thinking is such an integral part in understanding sophisticated philosophers like Plato and Rousseau in Grammars or Pursuits, maybe it'll do kids some good getting them into it at such a young age. Using something that is constantly being pioneered and advanced in the years to come. I have a lot of fun talking about nonsense, and I'm 21 years old. I'm constantly fighting back the maturity attempting to smother my immaturity. Imagine how much a younger kid will enjoy blogging about class.