Wendell the Canadian adult literacy blogger recently had me thinking about the nature of hope, and also hopelessness.
He wrote recently, in “Pedagogies for the Oppressed” about how the adult literacy learners in his classroom became interested in public affairs, during the Obama Hope campaign,
I’m often tore between presenting the best face of economics and politics (in order to be encouraging) and a more realistic picture: e.g., you’re statistically more apt to die in a motor vehicle accident on the way to the polls than you are to change the outcome of an election.
It’s not exactly half-empty / half-full stuff. It’s more, “The glass is half full… but it might not be safe to drink.”
Best wishes
P.s., why do I always get the scowling pumpkin head for an avatar? Is that, like, the post-modern Marxist icon? LOL
Hi Wendell, thanks for your messages. i know the feeling of being divided between optimism and cynicism. Sometimes i’ve been cynical in a intended-to-be-humorous way, only to realise that the students are way more cynical than i am, but without the humour. Oops.
Sorry about the scowling pumpkin head.. i think there is some way to change it, but it might involve logging into wordpress.com, or maybe me adding a plugin.
kind regards, michael