Appeal to their better natures is a waste of time

Also from my conversation with my partner in China, I learned that he was teaching in an international department of a public high school.  His descriptions of his experiences echoed mine.  The students were unmotivated, unqualified to be there, and refugees from the gaokao system.  His classes were generally a waste of time because most of the students weren't paying attention.  He wasn't allow to kick their asses.  Appealing to their better natures was a waste of time.  He had to accept the situation as it was and help the few who were motivated and forget about the rest.  The rest were stuck there and couldn't be expelled.  Ultimately, the whole thing was a racket because only children of rich parents could put their children in the international program, and the motivated students that you would have loved to interact with were stuck on the Chinese side.

I still remember a student from the Chinese side of the high school I was at telling me how much she loved reading German philosophers.  All I could do was feel woeful about the supposed elite students with whom I was stuck.

It seems that education by appealing to the better natures of students (or learners as they are incorrectly named) is an education model that needs to be smashed.   If the students will not learn anything, they should not be there.  And it is moronic to try to cater to them.

Between Two Worlds

 I talk to China every Tuesday morning for two hours.  This morning, my partner in this learning enterprise I have a small part in, was describing the atmosphere in China: the economy there is bad with real estate or apartment prices collapsing and a pervading feeling of tension with America.  With my wife being in China now, a ominous feeling came over me.

One of the motivations I heard for Trump's Venezuela operation was to deal with China's presence in the Western Hemisphere.  Whether this will increase the feeling of tension between the two countries or result in a quid pro quo simmering of tension by an acknowledgment of spheres of influence remains to be seen.

This puts me personally in between two or three worlds:  Trump Haters and Reactionaries; China and the USA, Canada and the USA.  My way to deal with these conflicts is to embrace Catholicism and ultimately to have to think what is best for my wife, my son, and me.

Of the three entities: Communist Party China, Liberal Party of Canada, and the Trump Administration; which do I support?  If Trump plays real politick, I will be on his side.  The other two parties are harder to pick from.  CCP China is at least adult and not frivilous.  The Liberal Party of Canada represents stupidity and wilful cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.

Best to pray to God and hope for a miracle to get out of my gordian knot.

GKC on Science & DW on Venezuela

 Chesterton nails the Covid debacle perfectly with this observation.

David Warren gives a big thumbs up to Trump’s Venezuela action.

Tuesday of the Last Week of Christmas 5:50 AM

 The neighbor’s landlord has cleared snow off the roof,

JD Salinger

 I watched this film last night.  The first film I have watched in a long time.

Back in the day, I was fascinated by JD Salinger, not so much by his writing, as by his mystique.  I found Catcher in the Rye to be annoying, and much more appreciated his Glass family stories.  And his disappearance from the public view into Sasquatch like mysteriousness was what really held my fascination. I thought it was the greatest thing to find a copy of Catcher in the Rye that had his photo on it -- this was in the daze before the Internet.

But then I matured, and got more reactionary in my outlook, and so I forgot about him.  I took note of him again when he died.  I was able to see more pictures of him, and I assumed he was a family man who valued his privacy.  I remember this detail about his thoughts about Burger King food being mentioned in a personal letter.  It seemed his taste in food was pretty pedestrian.

At the recent Rotary book sale in Brandon, I bought a copy of his Nine Stories.  I am not sure why I did other than an urge to see how it read after all these years.  I had reread a novel by Henry Miller, another young-me fascination, and saw that that book had some literary merit.

Recently, I was listening to a Coffee and a Mike Podcast where JD Kunstler talked about his recently published novel which had Salinger as a character.  Kunstler mentioned that there was this documentary about Salinger put out in 2013.  Kunstler also discussed the details of Salinger's life.  Salinger was a strange cat to say the least.  In the next paragraph, I will go into the details.  Suffice to say that Salinger was a man with literary ambitions who suffered from what they would call PSTD symptoms on account of his time in World War Two where he experienced and witnessed a lot of horrific things.

The podcast prompted me to find the documentary online and I watched it right away.  The details, some of which I found surprising, I got from the documentary:  Salinger, for a brief time, was married to a Nazi.  Salinger did a bit to foster his reclusive turn on success image.  Salinger was into Buddhism.  Salinger had a mother who was Catholic.  Salinger was meticulous in his writing: caring a lot about punctuation and being angered if editors added even one comma.  Salinger remarried.  Salinger had platonic relationships with young girls.  Salinger was a better parent to his literary characters than to his real children.  He built a bunker in the forest where he would spend weeks on end writing.  Salinger was in combat for over 200 days and he apparently never got over it.  Salinger had a girlfriend who married Charlie Chaplin.  Salinger had another who was also in a relationship with Orson Welles.  He tastes in Music included Lawrence Welk.  He loved watching old movies.

The documentary was okay and included appearances by Gord Vidal, Martin Sheen, John Cusack, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The assassinations of John Lennon and Ronald Reagan were mentioned because the assassins had a fascination with Haulden Caufeld from Catcher in the Rye.  However, we were never told what Salinger's reactions to these events were.  In fact, the documentary came to an abrupt ending.  And the documentary was a hodge-podge of styles, and facts thrown in without a consistent theme.  The documentary ended with a promise of Salinger's unpublished writings that don't seem to have actually come out.  It was a three stars out of four.

My ultimate assessment of Salinger.  I appreciate his hatred of the modern world.  However he could have better dealt with its phoniness if he had embraced Catholicism.  This world is what it is and there has to be a better one we can aspire to it while we are in it.

Tony gets to school and then

 Tony drove there.

Coming back, I drove and took these photos.  It is white, very white.

My WeChat Channel Overnight Numbers

 What can’t I get these numbers on YouTube?

12th Day of Christmas: 6:45 AM: This morning’s snow

The first one on my street to shovel their driveway.  That's me!

The snow of last night coated everything. I can’t say for sure if it has done this before.  It may be because it is not so cold.

Good news: my wife will be coming to Canada this summer.

12th Day of Christmas: 5:41 AM Back to School

 

A detail I notice is the snow in the trees.

I got shoveling to do again!

Tony goes back to school today.  Needless to say, he’s not excited about it.

My time in Canada: an assessment

I have been in Canada since July 21 or so: five months and not enough days to make six months.  Close enough to make an assessment or sorts, although I dare not format it.  I need to put my thoughts on paper and see if they can coalesce or are just a bunch of ramblings with no connecting theme other than I don't know what to do with my time.

My time in Canada has been a mixed bag.  Some good things have happened, but there has been much disappointment and many things that I imagined would happen, haven’t, and I don’t know if I should be sad or glad about these non-things. 

Here are some other thoughts that I will jot down and tinker with as they occur to me:

The RCIA program has been fine and I very much like going to Mass.  If it wasn’t for the program and the mass, my "return" would have been a total bust.  Being able to take proper part in the eucharist is a goal would going for.  All else shouldn't matter, whether it be this blog or fitting in or my video making.

I miss my Jenny.  Women: you can't live with them or live without them.

The price of things is horrific, and so there are many aspects of Canada that are closed off to me.  I have nothing to say about tipping because going to a restaurant with table service is beyond my budget.

The amount of immigrants in Brandon has seemingly nullified my being able to say I have returned.  It isn’t the same place.  Is it better for it?  A difficult question.  The faith they exhibit in Church is something to be said for them.  Their taking over entire industries is not.

As for those things that I hoped would happen: it is just as well they didn't, that they were non-things.  I don't need them. It may be a cliche to say, but they wouldn't help in my quest or even define my quest.

This crazy woman living in my brother's house has stopped me from going to Winnipeg, I hate to say.

The used car I took a chance on has worked out well in that it has been reliable.

My son has not yet blossomed into maturity.  He still prefers to live a settled life, sitting in his room playing on his devices.

I do have good neighbors.

It is nice to not have to use a VPN to access things.  The great firewall of China sucks.

My job hunt has been a bust.  I do on-line stuff and my fund raising job is a solitary thing and isolating, much as I like driving out to the small towns.

Trump hatred is a crazy thing, and I have to avoid those who have it.

I am very much the outsider in Canada, and I have been asked why I have come back.

But I have had some good encounters with friendly strangers.

Letter grade for my return: D minus.