[tips] Random Thought: China Diary 13, Attention Deficit Disorder

[Louis E. Schmier]

Diary, it's Tuesday, May 24th.  We've already been to lots of places 
and have done bunches of stuff so far that I won't list.  The one thing 
everything had in common were the cameras.  Hoards of people were snapping 
pictures with an almost mindless "I've been here" abandon.  They looked like 
Borgs from Startrek, each with a protruding mechanical eye.   You know, this 
trip I decided to do something "untouristy."  I didn't take all that many 
shots.  It was exhilarating. I was actually seeing and listening so much more.  
I felt released from point-and-shoot social obligations.  In fact, one person 
in our group asked me why I wasn't taking any pictures.  "Is this boring to 
you?"  The question had the tone of accusing condemnation as if I had committed 
the sin of violating the eleventh commandment:  thou shalt take a picture.  In 
contrast to all this shutter-bugging, I noticed a person, at the Forbidden 
City, a single person, sitting on a collapsible stool, a sketch pad on his lap, 
a piece of charcoal in his hand, his head bobbing up and down, concentrating, 
studying, and drawing.

It came to me.  To schedule exactly where you're headed, to be there 
just for the sake of being there, to cover for the sake of covering,  may be 
the best way to go astray. You know, diary,  not all those who loiter are lost. 
 Most don't miss the enticing unexpected as much as those looking straight 
forward through the lens or at the schedule.  While they think they're 
preserving something in the picture, they're really letting it get away from 
them.  Most people seem to assume that taking a picture automatically assures 
them of having paid attention.  It is the ritual rite of the tourist.  It has 
become a substitute more often than a supplement to active and engaged 
conscious engagement.  There's no searching for the complexity, no spur of the 
moment, no penetrating the minutest parts, no noticing of different elements, 
no posing of questions, no slow reflection.  Just point and click and run, 
point and click and run, point and click and run to meet a jam-packed schedule. 
 Like the hare in Alice in Wonderland, no time to take your time.  Arousal of 
the sublime is confounded.  Little is allowed to develop; so little is 
empowered to inspire; so much is haphazard.  Sharpness gives way to blur.  We 
become little more than shallow picture takers.  Certainly not penetrating 
artists.

We're deluded into thinking that just being there to take a picture is 
enough for us while we let the camera do all the work.  Yet, the camera decides 
matters for us.  It is no longer a tool in our service.  We don't put it aside 
to alter or expand  the attraction.  It's almost as if we have slavishly 
surrendered to the camera to decide for us our sense of place.  So, we overlook 
certain places because nothing has prompted us to set down the camera to just 
quietly appreciate.  If we did, we might ask questions in our quest to 
understand and value where we are; we might stop merely looking at and start 
seeing.  Instead, the camera blurs the distinction between looking and seeing, 
hearing and listening, passing by and noticing.  In fact, we close our 
eyes--one eye literally--to the extent we open the shutter.  We're deadened to 
the smallest features of the visual and audio worlds.  We don't notice the 
details.  That's why I hate being a tourist.  That why I shudder at being 
merely a shutter bug.  That's why there is always a why to whatever picture I 
take.  That's why I'm always lagging behind and wondering.  That's why I'm 
always being hurried up.  The tour, with its deadlines, a slave to the clock, 
is like driving on a super highway--or lecturing to a superclass.  It's 
efficient.  It gets us quickly from place to place, but in speeding past 
everything, everything become less distinct, the soft and subtle--and, at 
times, meaningful--are gone..  So, the tour tends to blind and deafen its 
members to the true sound and appearance--and meaning--of things.  It takes us 
into the shallows at best, but not to the depths.  The hurried tourists look at 
so much, but don't notice much, and so much is missed.  Most haven't learned to 
see or listen to.  It's that "beauty deprived" I told you about earlier.  And, 
I haven't said a word about those blasted, intrusive, and distracting cell 
phones.

Back to this artist at the Forbidden City.  He reminds me,diary,  of a 
technique I use in one of my teaching workshops and will use at one of my Lilly 
presentations in September to deal with classroom "attention deficit disorder." 
 The most effective means of understanding is by slowing down, peering, 
focusing, noticing, and describing what we see or hear by descriptive "word 
drawing," that is, writing, or by drawing.  I have the people draw or write 
about the room they're in.  It's not about how well they can draw or write; 
it's about learning how to see, to notice, to develop a s

[tips] Job announcement

[Valerie Eastman]

 

The following job ad will be posted in the Chronicle of Higher
Education, the APA Monitor, and the APS Observer. 

 

Psychology:  The Department of Behavioral Sciences at Drury University
invites applications from accomplished teacher-scholars in clinical or
counseling psychology for the inaugural Victor M. Agruso, Jr. Endowed
Chair of Behavioral Sciences, to begin August 2011.  The position is
open rank, with appointment commensurate with credentials and
experience.  The interdisciplinary department offers undergraduate
degrees in Criminology, Psychology, and Sociology and master's degrees
in Criminology and Criminal Justice.  The psychologist will contribute
to an innovative undergraduate research program and will be expected to
teach abnormal psychology, research methods, and other related courses.
Qualifications include a Ph.D. in psychology and a commitment to liberal
arts education, quality teaching, and active scholarship.  Evidence of
successful mentoring of student-faculty scholarship is especially
desired.  Interested applicants should send a vita, a statement of
teaching and research activity, graduate transcripts, and three letters
of recommendation to Dr. Valerie Eastman, Department of Behavioral
Sciences, Drury University, 900 North Benton Avenue, Springfield, MO
65802.  Review of applicants will begin November 1 and continue until
the position is filled. Drury University is an equal opportunity
employer. To learn more about Drury, visit our website at
http://www.drury.edu.

 

 

 

Valerie J. Eastman, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Psychology

Department of Behavioral Sciences

Drury University

900 N. Benton

Springfield, Missouri  65802

 

veast...@drury.edu

 

Office: 417-873-7305

Fax: 417-873-6942

 

 


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Re: [tips] Raising Hitler to be "a nice person"

[Christopher D. Green]

He's simply paraphrasing JB Watson's (silly) claim: "Give me 12 
children, well formed, and give me complete control of their 
environments. I'll make any one of them become whatever I wish: baker, 
banker, beggar man, thief, doctor, lawyer, or Indian chief."

It is an article of the behaviorist credo.

Chris
-- 

Christopher D. Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Canada

 

416-736-2100 ex. 66164
chri...@yorku.ca
http://www.yorku.ca/christo/

==


==

Beth Benoit wrote:
>
>  
>
> I just finished reading another obituary for O. Ivar Lovaas, which 
> ended with this astounding statement:
>
> To the end of his career, Dr. Lovaas was adamant that applied behavior 
> analysis was supremely useful in childhood interventions of all kinds.
>
> “If I had gotten Hitler here at U.C.L.A. at the age of 4 or 5,” he 
> told Los Angeles magazine in 2004, “I could have raised him to be a 
> nice person.”
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/health/23lovaas.html
>
> I don't know whether this is a result of a stunning ego, 
> underappreciation on my part, or maybe he was misquoted, like Freud in 
> his statement about the Nazis.  What think you?
>
> Beth Benoit
> Granite State College
> Plymouth State University
> New Hampshire
>
> ---
>
> You are currently subscribed to tips as: chri...@yorku.ca 
> .
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Re: [tips] Raising Hitler to be "a nice person"

[Beth Benoit]

Wow, Chris, you're uncharacteristically "late to the gate."  This
conversation has been going on for almost a week.  I'm curious...Did TIPS
get to you late, did your post get delayed, or???

Beth Benoit

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 3:51 PM, Christopher D. Green wrote:

>
>
> He's simply paraphrasing JB Watson's (silly) claim: "Give me 12 children,
> well formed, and give me complete control of their environments. I'll make
> any one of them become whatever I wish: baker, banker, beggar man, thief,
> doctor, lawyer, or Indian chief."
>
> It is an article of the behaviorist credo.
>
> Chris
> --
>
> Christopher D. Green
> Department of Psychology
> York University
> Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
> Canada
>
>
>
> 416-736-2100 ex. 66164
> chri...@yorku.ca
> http://www.yorku.ca/christo/
>
> ==
>
> ==
>
> Beth Benoit wrote:
>
>
> I just finished reading another obituary for O. Ivar Lovaas, which ended
> with this astounding statement:
>
>  To the end of his career, Dr. Lovaas was adamant that applied behavior
> analysis was supremely useful in childhood interventions of all kinds.
>
> “If I had gotten Hitler here at U.C.L.A. at the age of 4 or 5,” he told Los
> Angeles magazine in 2004, “I could have raised him to be a nice person.”
>  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/health/23lovaas.html
>
>  I don't know whether this is a result of a stunning ego,
> underappreciation on my part, or maybe he was misquoted, like Freud in his
> statement about the Nazis.  What think you?
>
>  Beth Benoit
> Granite State College
> Plymouth State University
> New Hampshire
>
> ---
>
> You are currently subscribed to tips as: chri...@yorku.ca.
>
> To unsubscribe click here:
> http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd0da&n=T&l=tips&o=4446
>
> (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken)
>
> or send a blank email to
> leave-4446-13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
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Re: [tips] Raising Hitler to be "a nice person"

[Christopher D. Green]

Beth Benoit wrote:
>
>  
>
> Wow, Chris, you're uncharacteristically "late to the gate."  This 
> conversation has been going on for almost a week.  I'm curious...Did 
> TIPS get to you late, did your post get delayed, or???
>

No, I was away from my e-mail for five (glorious) days.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=197422&id=503448130&l=e8876d1c5f
I wrote before seeing all the responses.

Chris Green
York U.
Toronto

>
> On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 3:51 PM, Christopher D. Green 
> mailto:chri...@yorku.ca>> wrote:
>
>  
>
>
> He's simply paraphrasing JB Watson's (silly) claim: "Give me 12
> children, well formed, and give me complete control of their
> environments. I'll make any one of them become whatever I wish:
> baker, banker, beggar man, thief, doctor, lawyer, or Indian chief."
>
> It is an article of the behaviorist credo.
>
> Chris
> -- 
>
> Christopher D. Green
> Department of Psychology
> York University
> Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
> Canada
>
>  
>
> 416-736-2100 ex. 66164
> chri...@yorku.ca 
> http://www.yorku.ca/christo/
>
> ==
>
>
> ==
>
> Beth Benoit wrote:
>>
>>  
>>
>> I just finished reading another obituary for O. Ivar Lovaas,
>> which ended with this astounding statement:
>>
>> To the end of his career, Dr. Lovaas was adamant that applied
>> behavior analysis was supremely useful in childhood interventions
>> of all kinds.
>>
>> “If I had gotten Hitler here at U.C.L.A. at the age of 4 or 5,”
>> he told Los Angeles magazine in 2004, “I could have raised him to
>> be a nice person.”
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/health/23lovaas.html
>>
>> I don't know whether this is a result of a stunning ego,
>> underappreciation on my part, or maybe he was misquoted, like
>> Freud in his statement about the Nazis.  What think you?
>>
>> Beth Benoit
>> Granite State College
>> Plymouth State University
>> New Hampshire
>>
>> ---
>>
>> You are currently subscribed to tips as: chri...@yorku.ca
>> .
>>
>> To unsubscribe click here:
>> 
>> http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd0da&n=T&l=tips&o=4446
>> 
>> 
>>
>> (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line
>> is broken)
>>
>> or send a blank email to
>> leave-4446-13132.a868d710aa4ef67a68807ce4fe8bd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
>> 
>> 
>>
>
>
>
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>
> You are currently subscribed to tips as: beth.ben...@gmail.com
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> 
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>
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