May Day, May Day

When I decided that the hard-working staff of the Tanuki Ramble would enjoy a sabbatical, it was my intention that posting would continue on a somewhat regular basis.   If you were once a frequent visitor who's just too lazy to delete this bookmark, my thanks and my apologies.   

And what's an apology without several lame excuses to back it up?  Yes, it's true that my work load has probably doubled since I first started this blog.  Back then I was teaching as part of a ersatz university system.  Now I'm working for a "technical school," the technical expertise in question being the English language.  We went from being on a shoestring budget with great esprit de corps to half-shod.  It became clear that there was no room in the budget to expand, but hoped there was enough to maintain the sinews to keep our skeleton crew together.  Now we're several vertebrae and a couple scapulae short of a cadaver.

Those who remain have been encouraged to, as it were, "take one for the team."  Trouble is, there's hardly any team left, and we've seen what can happen to those who put their team ahead of themselves.   If I were the cynical sort, I'd suspect that we're being played for patsies on the assumption that our dedication to our students will trump our dismay at the Jobian experiment that is seemingly being enacted upon us.  Sad thing is, they might be right about that. However, I'm willing to bet that it is not a capricious Jehova out to sucker or test us, but a blind watchmaker ever attendant to the ticking of the second hand.  Time is money.  Time is money.  Time is money.   

Anybody who's read this blog knows I am far from the anti-capitalist sort, but smart business involves more than just double-ledger legerdermain.  Some fulminate against any decisions made for the sake of profit, but I see no reason that a good school can't be profitable as well.  Good management utilizes the creativity and independence of good workers, is willing to roll the dice for select new ideas, doesn't change the game plan, let alone the line-up, after a successful first quarter.   Those who manage in such a way squander the motivation and good will of dedicated team members.  In short, it's bad business.

Recently, I rewatched the great Kurosawa classic Ikiru, and wondered if the three rules of the Japanese bureaucrat that are mentioned in the film are still alive in today's Japan: 

1. Don't be late.

2.  Don't take vacations.

3.  Do no real work.

Somehow, I don't think this is how post-war Japan became the economic envy of the world.  But then again, I can see that such thinking might still exist, and with it, we get a glimpse into the current stagnation.   When I leave Japan one day, I'd hate that to be the impression I take with me.

   

Comments

[hk]

Perhaps this school could embrace you...
www.phc.edu/

[kb]

Yeah, hk, good choice. However, this probably should be read first:

http://www.highbeam.com/library/docfree.asp?DOCID=1G1:13266603&ctrlInfo=Round20%3AMode20a%3ADocG%3AResult&ao=

KB

[Tanuki]

Thanks, HK, for the advice. It does look like a good school, and I could sure use a good hug in terms of an employer these days. My current employer, unclear on the concept, thinks the term "hug" extends to thumscrews.

KB directs our attention to an article describing the "danger of fundamentalists schools." Running down the list, it seems that there are some downright stupid criticisms (these school actually preach the heresy that there is a connection between sex and sexual diseases!) to some valid ones (disparagement of science and encouragement of anti-semitism. But then again, we have other kinds of extreme views in some of our best schools which are championed as expressions of free speech.

It's revealing that there are some who believe free speech should be limited to those who hold the same opinion as themselves.

Sometimes, in darker moments, I think that the fundamentalists may be the last, if not the best, hope for western civilization. After all, they're the ones still into fruitfulness and multiplication, and seem sure about who they are in relation to their culture. Lefties, on the other hand, seem unable to realize that are members of a mindset with its own faith-based tenets, prejudices, and punishments for heretics.

If I really had to choose, I guess I'd rather live in the People's Republic of Bob Jones than as a Dhimmi in The United Wahabi States of the World.

May it never come to such a choice.