Focus on the Main Things

Right before Thanksgiving, I returned exams for one of my classes. It wasn’t pretty, unfortunately. My classes usually create a fairly normal bell curve, especially in the A-C range. This time, I had a slew of poor efforts that created a deep failure pool. I do pay attention to the results of my assessments and so this caught my eye. Was the test unfair in some way? I don’t think so since it’s a version of the same exam I had given over the past 5-7 years. Were they poorly prepared, so my fault? While I pondering this a bit, in the end I concluded that wasn’t the answer. I do several formative assessments with my students in the weeks leading up to the major assessment and there was no evidence of such poor performance. In fact, some of the poor scores came from what I knew to be solid B students.

Finally, the answer emerged as students started coming to my office. While all have not reported in (I ask all failing students to visit with me in the office; usually less than half do), those who have come have told a similar story. “You told us to study, perhaps as much as 10 hours….I simply didn’t do this.” In other words, even with my prodding, these students self-report to failing to focus on the main thing.

I’m not surprised. Just look around. The world has changed so much in the past decade as I have written about here previously. Honestly, as a historian and scholar of culture, I don’ t think we realize just how much as been transformed….for good or for ill. But if anything has emerged, it is that we don’t focus on the important. We get quickly and easily distracted by the latest Snapchat or tweet or some picture on Facebook.

I think Doug from the movie Up might be a good poster child (poster dog?) for our times. Remember his deal? He was loving and devoted dug_up-284x300 and thought that both the child Russell and Carl, elderly man, were his favorites. “I think I love you.” Yet, his focus was quickly turned to other things.

SQUIRREL!!

It was funny in the movie. Anyone with a dog understood instantly. And yet, that isn’t really how we humans are supposed to act; moving almost irrationally from one fad, one thing, one cause to another.

Maybe it’s appropriate for showing Doug the dog today because over the weekend, it was another dog that became excellent evidence for the point I am making. On Facebook, I saw on Friday, someone had posted a shaming post about some woman who had put duct tape around the muzzle of her dog (looked like a lab). It was a horrible thing to do. I mean, the point was fine enough…so go out and buy an actual muzzle for dogs and use that. Using tape of any kind was terrible.

I sadly shook my head and moved on scrolling. Apparently, though, this picture brought the ire of the world. Hundreds of thousands shared it beyond the initial post (of course, one has wonder about the thought process of the woman posting it in the first place). The Sunday Orlando Sentinel had an article in the Local section reporting that due to the picture, “hundreds of calls from around the state, country and world including people from Canada, Germany and Australia” had called the South Daytona Police Department, wanting the woman arrested or at least the dog taken from her. It got so bad that the police’s “email server has gone down, our station computers have gone down and our phone lines are having issues.”

In other words, due a sad picture of a dog poorly treated, thousands of people had over-reacted to demand the police stop their work on important issues like violent crime, slavery, rape or burglaries in the South Daytona area to deal with this woman. Today, on the radio, I heard a DJ sharing that even though the woman had self-reported that she untaped the dog’s mouth after a minute, that wasn’t good enough. People were calling for her to experience harm, and her personal phone number had been posted online.

Look, I am all for activism, but like Doug, we have quickly gotten touchy over the smallest things. As I told my class today, where is this energy when the issue is slavery that exists worldwide, including right here in Orlando? Where is the energy to save babies being murdered in abortion clinics around the country? Heck, where is the energy from the Green community to shame people like Al Gore for giving lip service about carbon footprints while he still jet-sets around the world, lives in big houses and drives cars?

My students did poorly, some of them, because they apparently could not focus on the main thing. Yes, it’s great to speak out against violence to pets. And yes, if you think hunting for sport is evil, then fine…that’s your thing so protest away. That’s yours and my right. But, while you are lamenting another shot deer or lion, remember there are actually much bigger things going on in the world. Those are the things that deserve your ire.

One last thing…rather than just trying to shame someone on social media, why not actually get out and protest in person. Why not check out some of these anti-slavery sites and see where you can volunteer? Or maybe use your computer skills for good and find out what companies are using slave labor at any point in the process of creating their product…and then march against that company.

To help you out, here is a list of organizations that are devoted to ending modern day slavery. Go get involved:

There are more groups, I know. Why don’t you list them in the comments?

Look, I love my dogs dearly, and would be horrified to discover anyone harmed them. But as an active citizen (and certainly if I am a student in a class), I need to ensure that I am focused on the main things. If not, I may wake up to find not that other people have mistreated dogs, but that much worse things have transpired while I was following the trivial.