If I gave you an inch, would you take a mile?

“cultural fabric of a community [might] be stretched or altered when it encounters new ideas and members.”

Let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment, this is exactly what we are all afraid of in some way or another. Change. Something revolutionary and brilliant may come along but many of us will just let it pass by on the chance that it may upset the status quo. Being a Catholic, Conservative myself I am terrified of new things. I don’t mind innovation as much as forgetting tradition. I’ll be the first to admit I dodge change whenever I can. Not because I am anti-innovation, I mean I sure as hell love new, faster, and better ways to do even the simplest day to day tasks. That lets me be #lazy and the slowly evaporating teenager still in me loves letting technology do all the work. But because I sometimes feel targeted with “old-school” or “ancient” or even “bigot” stereotypes whenever my views are exposed and challenged I tend to shy away from such topics. In other words I am am prime example of someone set in a direction, on a paved road to success and terrified of off-roading.

This is all relevant to the article I read I promise. The article I read was by a 9th grade English honors teacher by the name Sean Hackney who is currently reading the book “Things Fall Apart” by  Chinua Achebe in his classroom. The quote I began with is “essential question” he asks his students when introducing them to this novel and an insightful nudge for all of them to apply the concepts they learn from their book to current time. He goes on to relate that to an announcement he heard on the radio about new ways to define relationships on facebook. In this case leaving more room for facebook users to describe the true essence of themselves and their chosen romantic endeavors could be viewed as revolutionary. It is remarkable how some people would describe their own personal accounts when given the room to do so. However, this could be entirely too dangerous for any society to dive into blindfolded. When people are handed the power of true, essential, expression what they do with it is out of our hands. And for those not so accepting of change, like myself, it can be detrimental. Some people do not account for the things they say in self expression as a personal assault on another’s beliefs. There are ways to say things in a neutral manner, and then there are people who say things to purposely ruffle others feathers.  And this is where Hackney tries to walk that line with his students while also trying to show them the endless possibilities one could be presented with if they were simply not afraid of but embracing this ever changing world.

Hybrid Pedegogy Article Link:

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HybridPed/~3/g33ho1SUzic/