|
Another idea on "community" is the increased mobility of Americans over the years: * fewer shared experiences with neighbors; * more feeling of "well, I won't be here long, so why invest time/effort getting to know my neighbors. Even though we have lived here 10 years, my wife and I are still labeled by our neighbors as "not really Wisconsinites" by some because our families aren't from here. In graduate school, practically none of my neighbors were from the same state - many/most were from other countries - and didn't stick around beyond 4 years. The late-90s had this, sure, but it feels like this has probably gotten more prominent since.
|
#
¿
Mar 27, 2023 18:13
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 12, 2024 07:34 |
|
|
WOW goon here. O, specifically. We are historically the 3 conservative counties surrounding the very-liberal Milwaukee. Our state Rep is Glenn Grothman, who is ridiculously conservative (and, his mom, who is somehow still alive, lives up the street from us!). That said, looking at the results from WOW, seeing the Ozaukee numbers being that close tracks with 1) trends from the last few presidential elections that shifted us from beet-red to purple, and 2) yard signs (I know, I know...) that are just about 1:1 liberal:conservative. What is pushing the needle is, surprisingly, age: Ozaukee is "old money", with families that moved here 50 years ago and never left now leaving/dying and young families are moving in. This means the fiscal conservative "protect the nest egg we are saving up for the kids" types are being replaced with younger, more socially conscious Young-Xers/Millennials. This has sparked a lot of cultural controversy around here, including an innocuous "love is universal" mural getting painted over by a crusty old superintendent: https://www.wisn.com/article/grafton-business-to-recreate-mural-painted-by-students-covered-by-district/37296798 For the District 8 race, Knodl was always likely to win because Washington County continues to be Full of Shitheads, but Ozaukee being "slightly less shithead" is encouraging. Catching up on the thread, River Hills is in Milwaukee County and is full of ridiculous wealth. Habush Sinykin is also really rich - she is an attorney who worked for the firm of Habush, Habush, and Rottier, who advertise constantly on TV - so River Hills going for her isn't unexpected. Here in Mequon-Thiensville, all eyes were on the school board race. Last year, M-T was engulfed in a recall election (https://www.tmj4.com/news/coronavirus/four-mequon-thiensville-school-board-members-to-face-recall-election) that really divided the district (the original board members all got re-elected). This year, there were 4 candidates for 2 slots, 2 of the candidates were out-and-out Recall supporters. Very fortunately, the two "liberal" candidates won! https://www.gmtoday.com/news_graphi...3abeeb92ec.html I'm seeing that the more liberal candidates won in Cedarburg, too, so that's also good news. Give it another couple cycles and the WOW counties will just be WW. Mark my words.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 5, 2023 12:49
|
|
|
Nash posted:Another for the humanities crew. All this school talk just makes me thankful it is almost summer. 18 years of HS history down. Big ol' caveat here that every class is different. I'll have a class one year that is interactive and asks questions, laugh at jokes; and that class might be sandwiched between two quiet, disengaged and/or jokeless automatons. In general, I've seen some positives and a lot of negatives: + A lot less "entitlement behavior" (God, I hate that word, but it really encapsulated the state of higher ed when I started a decade+ ago). Interactions with students are a lot more, "you tell me what to do and I will gladly do it." - With that said, there is also less "learn on my own" or "learn for the sake of learning." The mentality is like one of an assembly line or factory: "tell me what you want me to compute so I will compute it." + I perceive less day-to-day drama, and cohorts are a lot more open to working together in labs, on projects, etc. - I find that I'm hounding students about turning things in way more than before. More expectation that I will give a grace period on assignments, even when I tell them "no grace period. Turn it in on time or don't bother." Part of that is my dumbass colleagues letting students turn things in whenever. + Much more "tech-savvy," so I can throw all kinds of teaching styles at them and they seem to respond to it, so we can get creative in ways we couldn't in 2010. However... - Time spent on phones is way up. I get that you can use a phone to look up information, but I can see what you're doing when you aren't listening to me, and it isn't scholarly. (I will hedge on that last one, though: I vividly recall classmates in my 100-person calculus lectures in 1998 who would sit in the back with headphones on, clearly disengaged. So, it isn't a "new" phenomenon, just a new gizmo being used as a distractor). - "They wouldn't wipe their butt if I didn't tell them to." This is my crude way of describing the massive downward trend in independent thinking I've seen in the research lab. It's kind of like an expectation of hand-holding. "What do I do now?" "What did you do last time we did this?" "I did this." "OK, then do that." <--this is a common conversation now, and it's massively peaked post-pandemic.  +/- This last one is relevant to the mental health conversation here earlier: My students are massively stressed out...but, they seem to recognize it, and will tell me about the things they are doing to manage. Sometimes it makes me sad - I can't believe you have to deal with this right now, and that you're sharing this with your college professor instead of a trusted friend - but I'm hopeful because many have healthy coping strategies.
|
|
#
¿
May 23, 2023 14:42
|
|