Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Time Servers

As a quick sidenote, (which I meant to put in my last post, but just remembered) I was thinking about Ms. Fletcher's challenge to go without electronics for 24 hours ( I failed within thirty seconds, by the way). Then, I was reading chapter 1 of Postman. Towards the end of the chapter, he refers to us as "time-servers", or rather he refers to another author who refers to us as "time-servers". I would resent this if it wasn't totally and utterly true.

So I pose a challenge to my peers, much like Mrs. Fletcher's. Try going 24 hours without so much as glancing at the clock. Just the fact that this should last 24 hours shows that we are all time-servers.

How do you guys feel about this? Who's going to try it?
Posted by at

2 comments:

Matthew Turner said...

Does this challenge count if one is camping and there are no clocks around? If it still does count, then I will attempt it next week.

If it makes you feel better, then the challenge can be from dawn one day to the next day's dawn. Then we will be just nature servers as it should be.

Temptation is the part of the challenges that make them so difficult. They are not difficult if one is away from technology and there is nothing to tempt one into failure. However, if one is placed within the grasp of electricity, then all 24 hours of this Sisyphean task will be grueling.

I have something to add to your task that will make it even more difficult and a test of temptation. Try not looking at the time for 24 hours while one is wearing a watch. A watch is evidence of how humanity is controlled by time. Humanity invented the watch, and led even more obsession over time.

The concept of being a time-server reminds me of the first video about the impact of technology in the classroom that was posted on the blog. Humanity has created a concept and then obsessed over it until humanity was controlled by its own creation.

July 23, 2008 at 3:29 PM
AFletcher said...

I wonder what you kids think of the bell we all live by at school? (When my daughter was back for a visit from college, she was sitting in my classroom with me when the bell rang. She jumped, and said "Oh man, I forgot all about that.")

Do you know/have you thought about the history of that bell? It's part of what they call "the Hidden Curriculum."

July 24, 2008 at 1:50 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)