ISTANBUL — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a decree Friday ordering Hagia Sophia to be opened for Muslim prayers, an action likely to provoke international furor around a World Heritage Site cherished by Christians and Muslims alike for its religious significance, for its stunning structure and as a symbol of conquest.
…. Entry to the monument would be free of charge, foregoing the ticket price from several million visitors a year, and the first prayers inside Hagia Sophia will take place on July 24. Just before he spoke, several hundred people gathered outside Hagia Sophia to celebrate a prayer of thanksgiving, recording the call of the muezzin on their phones, and then bent in unison for the evening prayer on the esplanade in front of the building.
Do you consider yourself to be an empathetic person? Do you try to understand how others are feeling? Is empathy is an important skill for all of us to have? Why, or why not?
In the Op-Ed “The Trouble With Empathy,” Molly Worthen explores the power — and limitations of — empathy:
Few would quarrel with a kindergarten teacher’s noble efforts to teach listening skills to 5-year-olds. But as my daughter and her classmates get older, they will run into thornier dilemmas, our era’s version of old questions: Are some divides too great for common humanity to bridge? When we attempt to step into the shoes of those very different from us, do we do more harm than good? At the same time, trends in American education have worked at cross-purposes, nurturing social and emotional learning in some ways, hampering it in others.
Our capacity to see one another as fellow humans, to connect across differences, is the foundation of a liberal pluralist society. Yet skeptics say that what seems like empathy often may be another form of presumption, condescension or domination. In his 2016 book “Against Empathy,” the psychologist Paul Bloom argued that empathy can cloud rational judgment and skews toward people “who are close to us, those who are similar to us and those we see as more attractive or vulnerable and less scary.” The scholar and activist bell hooks put the matter more starkly. White desire to feel Black experience is predatory, exploitative, “eating the Other,” she wrote.
It’s impossible to perfectly inhabit another person’s experience. The important question is the value of the effort, and whether it leaves us separated by an asymptote or a chasm. Can a straight TV writer create an authentic gay sitcom character? If an author of European descent writes a novel from the perspective of Indigenous people, is it an empathic journey, or an imperialist incursion? “I don’t want to throw out what empathy is trying to do,” Alisha Gaines, a professor of African-American literature at Florida State University, told me. “I’m very critical of it though. Empathy has to be considered in the context of institutions and power.”
She also investigates the history of how empathy came to be included in curriculum standards, “nurturing social and emotional learning in some ways, hampering it in others.”
In the hands of the social scientists who rule our own time, empathy has become one piece of “emotional intelligence,” a term coined in the 1960s and developed by the psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer in 1990. The journalist Daniel Goleman popularized that phrase in his 1995 best seller “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ,” which argued that focusing on emotional skills would reduce school violence and equip students for greater success in life. Research has shown that these capacities are at least as important for long-term happiness and economic security as “hard” skills like reading and math.
In 2004, Illinois became the first state to adopt standards from preschool through high school for social and emotional learning, or SEL. Since then, anti-bullying workshops, classroom rules stressing compassion and wall charts of “feeling words” and “emoji meters” have become more common in schools nationally. “The overwhelming majority of educators and parents acknowledge that teaching children SEL skills is critical,” Marc Brackett, director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, told me. “At the other end, in corporate America, employers are looking for people who have these skills.”
But the colorful classroom posters and the drive for data through “social-emotional competencies” student assessments — not necessarily bad things in themselves — risk reducing our idea of empathy to yet another job skill. The mania for standardized testing that followed the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act has further hampered teachers’ best and oldest tool for developing emotional understanding: the study of literature.
The New York Times guide “How to Be More Empathetic” defines empathy as “understanding how others feel and being compassionate toward them.” Do you think you are good at empathizing? Do you try to understand how others are feeling? Do you think of yourself as a compassionate person — even toward people you don’t know? And if you do think of yourself as good at empathizing, how did you get to be that way?
Do you think empathy is important? What are the benefits of trying to understand someone else’s experience and point of view?
What are the limits to empathy? To what extent can we really know, understand and feel what someone else is experiencing? Is it worth trying? Why?
In the Op-Ed, the author mentions anti-bullying workshops, classroom rules stressing compassion, and reading of literature as some of the varying methods that schools use to promote social and emotional learning — including empathy. Should schools be teaching empathy as a skill for students to practice and learn? And if yes, how?
Ms. Worthen asks these two questions: “Are some divides too great for common humanity to bridge? When we attempt to step into the shoes of those very different from us, do we do more harm than good?” What do you think? Are there potential dangers to trying to be empathetic?
Ms. Worthen quotes bell hooks, a Black scholar and activist, who warns about white people who desire to feel what Black people feel, calling it “predatory, exploitative, ‘eating the Other.’” What do you think? What are the potential pitfalls or dangers in using empathy across racial — and other — differences?
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
As the coronavirus pandemic has upended school, summer plans and daily life for millions of teenagers, many are turning to a podcast to cope. “Teenager Therapy,” hosted by five rising seniors at Loara High School in Anaheim, Calif., has become a lifeline for kids and a breakout hit.
In this lesson, you will learn about the podcast, its young creators and the reasons for their success. In the Going Further activity, you will design your own podcast.
Warm Up
How familiar are you with the growing world of podcasting? Do you have some favorite podcasts? What do you like about them? When and how do you tend to listen?
If you’ve never listened to a podcast, what subjects do you think might interest you?
Now, take five minutes to listen to an episode from the “Teenager Therapy” podcast above. Then answer the following questions:
What do you notice?
What are the qualities you think make the podcast so popular?
Which aspect do you find most appealing and why? Do you relate to any of the podcasters’ interests, views and experiences?
Questions for Writing and Discussion
Read the article, then answer the following questions:
1. Who are the five teenagers who created the “Teenager Therapy” podcast? What in their personal biographies do you find most interesting?
2. What goals do the young creators have for the podcast? Why is it important for the podcast to be “raw and authentic,” according to Gael Aitor, 17, one of the show’s hosts?
3. How has the podcast grown and changed over time? What lessons have the five teenagers learned about making a successful and engaging podcast?
4. What are some of the topics and themes addressed on the podcast? Which do you find most relevant and why? Have you ever turned to a podcast or other type of media as a form of “therapy”?
5. What are some reasons that account for the success of the podcast according to its creators and fans? Which reasons ring most true for you?
6. Does reading the article make you want to listen to “Teenager Therapy” or to other podcasts? Tell us why or why not.
Going Further
Design your own podcast.
1. If you could create your own podcast, what would it be?
What topics and themes would you want to address and explore? What style or format might you use? Who would be your desired audience? What would you hope your podcast would achieve?
Would your ideal podcast be scripted or spontaneous, as in “Teenager Therapy”? Would it be a conversation or a solo-cast monologue? Would you include music or interviews? Would it be light and funny or serious in tone?
2. Then come up with a podcast name, a tagline and a two-sentence synopsis for your show.
Your name and tagline should be catchy and appeal to your target audience, and the synopsis should provide a clear idea of what the podcast is about. Keep in mind, audiences have a lot of options — so it should be distinctive and original.
Use “Teenage Therapy” as a model: Their tagline is “Because We Have Problems Too,” and the synopsis on their website is: “Five stressed, sleep deprived, yet energetic teens sit down and talk about the struggles that come with being a teenager. Is high school really as bad as everyone says?”
3. If you have time and are inspired, write a script and record the first 60 seconds of your podcast. You can use our podcast planning form to help you plan and outline your show, and you can find some recording tips here. In addition, a past winner of our contest has created a student podcast guide to walk students through creating their own podcast.
When you are done, share and celebrate your projects with your class!
About Lesson of the Day
• Find all our Lessons of the Day in this column. • Teachers, watch our on-demand webinar to learn how to use this feature in your classroom.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to create an effective resume.You’ll learn strategies for tailoring your resume to the role you’re pursuing, and how to effectively present your skills and experience—whether you’re a new-job seeker or a mid-career professional switching to a new field. You will learn about templates and formats and understand the structure of every core section of a successful resume.
Strategy
An effective resume needs to present all the important information about you as a professional in a concise and clear way. Format and content are both important. Prior to diving into the details of resume structure, you’ll first want to have a clear understanding of what you are trying to communicate. It’s also important to keep your focus on what matters to the employer and do everything you can to tailor your resume to the role.
Focus on what’s important to the employer
Before writing your resume, try to consider the employer’s point of view. What do they want to know? Answering this question will enable you to focus on the information that is going to be relevant to the employer. This, in turn, increases your chances of getting their attention.
When applying to a specific role, carefully read the job description. This will help you understand specifically what the employer is looking for. If you want to gather additional insights, review multiple job descriptions to see what shows up repeatedly. This will help you gain a broader understanding of the role. Another great way to understand the needs of your potential employer is to schedule networking conversations with industry professionals who can share their experiences and insights.
Keep in mind that focusing on what’s relevant to the employer might mean omitting details about your skills and experiences that are significant to you but are not directly relevant to the role. Deciding what to not include on your resume can be as important as deciding what to include. Irrelevant information might distract or confuse a reader, potentially making them more likely to discard your resume.
Tailor your resume to a role
It is essential that you tailor your resume to each job that you apply for. Even if your target roles have the same general set of requirements—and even if your skills and experience are broadly applicable—you should still adjust the order of your qualifications to match the order on the job description. In this way, you’re putting what’s most important to each employer at the top.
If you can, try to match the language of the job description. For example, if you have a resume built around recruiting, and you are applying for a talent acquisition role, replace “recruiting” with “talent acquisition” on your resume. Shifting to the employer’s terminology can help them relate to you. This approach can also help prevent you from being filtered out by automated software that relies on keywords to match your resume to the job description and to determine whether it should be passed on to a recruiter or discarded.
Tip: Keep in mind that resumes are traditionally written in the third person without the use of personal pronouns.
Different Types of Job Seekers
Your resume strategy will differ at different stages of your career journey. Someone seeking their first role will need to use a different approach than someone looking to make a mid-career switch to a new field. In both of these scenarios, you have to communicate your value despite not having experience in the field, but your strategy will differ depending on what information you have available to share.
You can use the recommendations in this section to understand how to communicate your value to an employer in a way that’s appropriate to your skills and experience.
Career changers
If you are an experienced professional but are looking to start a career in a new field, your background can provide you with a unique perspective, and can potentially help you stand out as a candidate. At the same time, you will need to be conscious about clearly establishing yourself as a qualified professional in your new field. Remember that your application will most likely be reviewed alongside applications from people with directly relevant experience, so you need to make it clear to the employer why they should consider you for the role over those candidates.
Here are some key things to keep in mind as you build your resume:
Focus on your transferable skills and experiences and highlight the advantages of your diverse background.
When describing your past experiences, focus on what’s relevant to your new career, and don’t over-elaborate on less relevant details. For example, if you’ve been managing a restaurant and are now shifting into IT support, your customer service skills will be crucial, while your ability to manage staff won’t be as relevant. If, as a restaurant manager, you maintained your computer network and electronics, that will be important to discuss on your resume as well—even if it was a minor component of your role. Finally, try to point out how your background—despite being in a different field—is actually an advantage. For example, you might highlight how the commercial awareness you developed as a restaurant manager can help you understand business needs when prioritizing your work as an IT support professional.
Adopt the terminology of your new industry.
Get familiar with the language, terms, and jargon of your new industry and demonstrate this familiarity by using industry-specific words and phrases in your resume. This will make it easier for the reader to understand how your experience is relevant for them, and give them confidence about your engagement with your new field. For example, if you’ve run your own business in the past and are now looking for a role in marketing, use terms such as “marketing funnel” and “nurturing leads” when discussing your past marketing activities—even if you weren’t thinking in those terms at the time.
New Professionals
People who are looking for their first job, and who don’t yet have professional experience to describe, might struggle with how to fill their resumes. When this is the case, you can leverage non-professional experiences such as coursework, extracurricular activities, volunteer work, and life experiences (travel, caretaking, and more) as a means to demonstrate to the employer how you overcome challenges, solve problems, and achieve results.
It’s important to remember that the employer only knows what’s on your resume. If you think something will help you make your case to a prospective employer, you need to find a way to include that information on your resume. Use sections such as Projects, Volunteer Work, Relevant Experiences as alternatives to Professional Experience for that purpose.
Templates and Layouts
Now that you have an idea of what you want to communicate on your resume, you can start filling out the details. You can design your own resume or use an existing template. There are many templates available online, and you can access them by typing “resume templates” into your favorite search engine. You can also find Google Doc templates by going to Google Docs and clicking Template Gallery at the top right.
Tip: Whether you actually use a Google Doc template or not, it’s a good idea to design your resume in Google Docs. It will enable you to easily share, get feedback, and download your resume in a convenient format.
You can use your personal taste and preferences when selecting a template, but it’s also important to consider the following factors:
Ease of reading: Your resume needs to make a great impression and communicate all your most important information in a very short amount of time. Make sure sections are clearly organized and that the font is easy to read, and use margins and white space to prevent the document from feeling cramped.
Simple design. Your resume needs to be easily comprehended by both humans and applicant tracking systems (ATS)—the software that companies use to store and retrieve candidate information. ATS’s vary, but many cannot parse graphs and other visual elements, meaning that information contained in them will be lost. Simple designs relying on well-organized text are best.
Length. Your resume should be one page, unless you have at least 10-15 years of relevant (not total) experience. Two-column resume templates are appropriate for one-page resumes. Two-page resumes should use the entire width of the page.
Resume Sections
Before you start filling out your resume, you’ll need to decide which sections to include, and in what order. There are core components that should be in every resume. There are also optional components you may want to include, depending on your skills and experience, and the roles you’re applying for. Adjust your template by moving, adding, removing, and renaming sections as necessary.
Core resume sections include contact information, a professional summary, and details about your skills, experience, and education. Make sure to use section labels to help the reader easily navigate through your resume. In terms of order, this will often depend on what you want to highlight to your employer. A recent graduate might want to put their education first, whereas a working professional would lead with their experience. Optional sections could include information on projects, publications, volunteer experience, awards and honors, patents, languages, and more.
Let’s take a closer look at each section of a typical resume.
Individual Resume Sections
Header
This is the section at the top of your resume that includes your contact information. Your name is the only part of your resume that should be spelled out in a larger font than the rest of your document. Your contact information should include:
city, state, zip (no street address for privacy purposes)
The Summary section will always be located at the top of your resume immediately following the Header. It should be brief (3-5 lines) and clearly articulate what makes you a great candidate for the role, as well as what makes you stand out from your competition. The Summary sets the context for the rest of the document by calling out the most important things for the reader to know about you.
While there are many ways to write a summary, consider the following format, focusing on your core expertise, strengths, and what sets you apart from others.
Sentence 1:Describe yourself by role and competencies. This is where you provide your professional introduction. Examples:
Digital Marketing Manager with expert level knowledge of SEO, Social, PPC, and GMB.
Talent Acquisition expert with 4+ years of experience in the medical device industry.
Tip: If you are changing careers, describe yourself using your desired title. For example, if you are shifting from QA Analytics to Project Management, describe yourself as a Project Manager. You can add “with background in QA Analytics” to acknowledge that part of your career.
Sentence 2: Connect your expertise to your value prop. This is where you define how your unique skills will make you a valuable asset to the company. Examples:
Proficient in creating and editing graphics, figures, and illustrations. Consistently able to create high-quality marketing assets that drive conversions.
Able to source for full range of positions from administrative to executive level. Able to create a seamless recruiting and hiring process for managers, and consistently present top-quality candidates.
Sentence 3: Include a differentiator. You are likely competing against other people with similar skills, so it’s important to provide a clear reason why an employer should select your resume. Examples:
Known for the ability to eloquently present point of view to clients, prospects, and colleagues with expertise, confidence, and clarity.
Consistently noted in performance reviews as being able to present to clients, prospects and colleagues, with expertise, confidence, and clarity.
Received 8 awards for customer service excellence.
Tip: Instead of using the word “Summary” to label this section, use a professional headline to help to set the tone for the rest of the document. For example: “Experienced SEO Manager” or “Android Developer | Medical Devices.”
Skills
Immediately below the Summary you should have a list of your core areas of expertise, and your specific skills.
For a non-technical role, include 4-8 short bullets detailing your core skills (also known as Areas of Expertise) organized in two or three columns. To decide what goes on this list, think of what the employer would primarily hire you for. Focus on quantifiable skills like copywriting, agile project management, Google Analytics, or sales funnel management. Keep in mind that skills like communication, time management, and collaboration—which are harder to quantify, and are claimed by most people—are not as effective on a resume.
Tip: When tailoring your resume to a specific role, the Skills section is your first opportunity to line up with the job description.
For a technical role, it’s important to list out all of your relevant technical skills. If you find that your list is too long to list out each item in a separate bullet, then organize your skills by type—software, programming languages, hardware, data analytics, or any other categories that apply.
Professional Experience Section
The Professional Experience section is uniquely important because it tells the story of what you’ve done in your career. For employers, this is a strong indicator of what you will be able to do for them.
The Professional Experience section should list your roles (company, job title, location, employment dates) in reverse chronological order. If you have significant professional experience, limit your resume to the past 10-15 years, as that is what is most relevant to the employer.
Ideally, you want to list three to six roles on your resume that demonstrate progress on your career journey. Under each role, you should list your responsibilities and accomplishments in bullets. Responsibilities describe what you were supposed to do, and accomplishments are the specific outcomes that demonstrate how well you performed your role.
Your most recent role should feature the most detail, with four to six bullets of no more than two lines each. Older roles should provide less information. Begin each bullet with an action verb that puts you in control. Include numbers to show the scope of your role and impact—how many leads did you convert, how much revenue growth did you drive, how many new hires did onboard, how large was the team you managed, and more.
Tip: Avoid chronological gaps in your Professional Experience. If you spent more than six months out of the workforce at any point—whether intentionally (for caregiving purposes or travel) or unintentionally (unemployment)—explain on your resume what you did during that time. Particularly highlight any activities relevant to your professional life, such as independent study, projects, and part-time or volunteer work.
Example
Big Box Story, Service Associate, Middleton, CA01/2015 – 02/2016
Provided customer service during checkout transactions and assisted customer questions and concerns in a big-box retail
Earned 8 Employee of the Week awards in one year on a team of 100+ associates
Enrolled over 200 consumers in new credit cards within a 15-month time frame (4x average rate)
Received “Certificate of Excellence” for success at upselling to customers
Education Section
In this section, include degrees beyond high-school in reverse chronological order (include your high-school information only if you don’t have any education or training beyond it). For each entry in the Education section, list the degree, institution, location, and date of completion.
Tip: You can include pending or incomplete degrees by marking them as “In progress” or “Incomplete”—if you do so, make sure to include information on the classes/work you did complete.
Finalize Your Resume
Once you’ve completed your resume using the guidance in this document, try to have someone proofread it for you. Recruiters consistently say they will discard resumes with typos, even if the resume is in great shape otherwise.
Tip: Consider asking a few people you trust—especially those familiar with your work—to provide feedback on the content. Don’t feel obligated to incorporate all the feedback you receive, but be open to recommendations that can help enhance the quality of your resume.
In conclusion, please keep in mind that, while there is no such thing as a perfect resume, you can use this guide to create an effective resume that avoids common problems and pitfalls. As you progress in your job search, remember that your resume is a living document. You can make revisions based on any feedback you receive, but try to avoid losing valuable time trying to over-optimize. Focus on your skills and experience, present yourself in the best light possible, and get ready to land that next role!
“My name is Esther Chidinma Chinweuba from the south-eastern part of Nigeria. I’m a graduate of Forestry and Wildlife and am currently a master’s student of Science-Policy Interface on Biodiversity and Ecosystem services (SPIBES). I love nature and learning generally.”
How did you learn about Alison?
I cannot remember how I learnt about Alison but it was during my undergraduate programme.
What was your first course on Alison, and why did you choose it?
The first course I took on Alison was about study skills and I chose this course because I wanted to learn how to effectively study all of the courses I had as part of my first degree. After seeing my first year result in university, I knew I needed to learn study skills if I was going to graduate with a good result. Thankfully, I graduated incredibly well.
How have Alison courses affected your career?
Alison courses have developed my soft skills in great ways that have helped me with my studies. I recently took a course on Alison called Winning With Communication- Master Your Communication Skills which helped me with class discussions and presentations. I have received good grades in my presentations because of my ability to communicate effectively. Also, I am learning French to help me cope in a French environment [in Côte d’Ivoire] as an English speaker and during lectures delivered in French.
What’s your favourite way to relax from studying?
My favourite ways of relaxing are learning something new outside the classroom and watching movies, particularly animation.
What are you studying now?
I am currently studying Science-Policy on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services at the University of Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Côte d’Ivoire. It is a master’s programme organised as part of West Africa’s contribution to the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
What’s next for you, in terms of education or work?
After my master’s programme, I would like to get a job before I go on to study a PhD.
If you could learn absolutely anything in the world from an Alison course, what would it be?
It would be a course on interpersonal skills. I think it’s necessary not only for career success, but for life generally.
What would you say to someone if they asked you about Alison? Would you recommend it and why?
Alison is one of the best online learning platforms with a diverse range of courses for learners. You can find any course you desire to learn. The courses are free with the option of purchasing certificates, which allow them to keep running free online courses. The platform always sends reminders to their learners to encourage them to continue learning and meet targeted goals. The modules are easy to follow and not overwhelming. It is self-paced and can be completed anytime.
I know that it is still over a month until Halloween but I have already refreshed one of our Free Halloween Blogger template! This one is called Happy Halloween and features cute small spiders.
Seasonal Blogger templates can be temporarily installed to your blog to give your blog a festive, yet stylish look. Just make sure you save a back-up before installing any new design.
What is included with this free Halloween blogger template?
When installed on your blog, you’ll be able to edit the title, tagline, and menu link titles. All of your existing sidebar gadgets will remain with this design.
You can edit fonts and most design colors using the blogger template editor, so feel free to play with the settings. Make sure to share the results with your blog link in the comments below. Everything else comes as shown in the preview.
This design IS mobile responsive, however, remember that it is for Blogger Platform only.
Make sure to check the live demo of the desigining by clicking the image below.
For personal use only.
The download package includes an Installation Instruction to help you set-up your new design. Remember that by downloading this template you are agreeing to these terms. Enjoy!
If you are looking for more blogger designs, you can find them in our Premade Templates Blogger Shop. They are all just $15 each, so it is a perfect option for a stylish and affordable blog makeover.
Lastly, I hope you like this free Halloween blogger template. Would you like to get some more freebies like this in the future?
When I got married, I had no idea that my husband would become my office mate. COVID19 has affected our lives in a number of ways, one of them being that we now both work from home in the same home office. For most of my career I’ve been lucky enough to have my own office. It had its fair share of distractions (I used to eat lunch with the lights off, careful to type quietly so that I couldn’t be heard by the students who somehow only had problems that only I could solve during the 20 minutes I had to myself to eat lunch) but by and large it offered me a place to focus on work. Now, every email answered, every blog post written, every meeting zoomed, is a minor miracle of focused attention as my husband takes work calls in the background and we take turns with baby duty. I am not a great multitasker, and chances are that you aren’t either.
When people say they are multitasking, i.e. doing more than one task at the same time, what is really happening is that they are rapidly switching between tasks. When we engage in task switching, several things have to happen. We have to disengage with the first task, find the new task, find the new task parameters, and engage in the new task. Our brains are able to do this very quickly, so it feels like we are doing two things at once. And, in fact, the more practiced or experienced we are at a task the faster we get at task switching and the more automatic the task becomes. Like walking and chewing gum.
When we talk about multitasking, however, we’re usually talking about tasks that are a bit more complicated than walking. Like driving and talking on the phone (1) or typing and email while answering questions about your grocery list. For these slightly more complicated tasks, task switching comes at a cost. We’re slower to respond, we make more mistakes (2), and our memory for the tasks we’re trying to do is worse (3). It’s this last consequence of task switching that may explain why we feel like we are multitasking. We don’t remember the mistakes we made or the information we missed. This is most obvious to me when I diligently remind students of an upcoming exam or assignment at the end of a class period, only to have them insist later on that they were not warned. My well intentioned reminders were given when students were distracted – finishing up their notes from the class, packing up their materials, and anxiously waiting for the class to end so they could get to lunch, their next class, or meet up with their friends. For the students who were distracted it was as if I never gave the reminder. They felt they were successfully multitasking (listening while checking the time on their phone) because they weren’t aware of the information they had missed.
Another example of our inability to remember or process information that we didn’t pay attention to is this excellent demonstration of inattentional blindness from Daniel Simons. Inattentional blindness refers to the finding that we do not appear to remember or even perceive information that we do not attend to. We are blind to it. If you haven’t already, I recommend taking a minute to watch the video.
Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem inspired by this illustration — or tell us about a memory from your own life that this image makes you think of.
Post it in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
During a global pandemic, all is certainly not calm. But things are a little bit brighter in some neighborhoods, thanks to a growing movement that has families stringing Christmas lights, blowing up holiday inflatables and building spirit-lifting snowmen to help bring some much-needed cheer during the coronavirus crisis.
… Then, of course, there’s the feel-good factor of brightening up someone else’s mood in these dark times. In Clover, S.C., Elizabeth and Bill Nickles and their three children got busy decorating their house with lights and a passel of inflatables and lawn characters, including kid favorites like Minnie Mouse and the “Frozen” character Olaf. On the other side of the house, they decided to go with an Easter theme, complete with a barrage of bunny inflatables.
That’s why we’re inviting young people everywhere to document their lives right now. For students in the United States, we’re also running a special multimedia contest inviting you to submit anything you like — in words or images, video or audio — to tell us about your experiences.
To inspire you, we’re posing the question above — How has 2020 challenged or changed you? — and also inviting you to read the July 14 article “This Year Will End Eventually. Document It While You Can.” In it, Lesley M. M. Blume shows how and why historians, archivists and museums suggest we start preserving personal materials for posterity.
She writes:
A few weeks ago, a nerdy joke went viral on Twitter: Future historians will be asked which quarter of 2020 they specialize in.
As museum curators and archivists stare down one of the most daunting challenges of their careers — telling the story of the pandemic; followed by severe economic collapse and a nationwide social justice movement — they are imploring individuals across the country to preserve personal materials for posterity, and for possible inclusion in museum archives. It’s an all-hands-on-deck effort, they say.
“Our cultural seismology is being revealed,” said Anthea M. Hartig, the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History of the events. Of these three earthshaking events, she said, “The confluence is unlike mostanything we’ve seen.”
Museums, she said, are grappling “with the need to comprehend multiple pandemics at once.”
The article continues:
While some curators are loath to suggest a laundry list of items that we should be saving — they say that they don’t want to manipulate the documentation of history, but take their cues from the communities they document — many are imploring us to see historical value in the everyday objects of right now.
“Whatever we’re taking to be ordinary within this abnormal moment can, in fact, serve as an extraordinary artifact to our children’s children,” said Tyree Boyd-Pates, an associate curator at the Autry Museum of the American West, which is asking the public to consider submitting materials such as journal entries, selfies and even sign-of-the times social media posts (say, a tweet about someone’s quest for toilet paper — screengrab those, he said).
To this end, curators said, don’t be so quick to edit and delete your cellphone photos right now. “Snapshots are valuable,” said Kevin Young, the director of New York City’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. “We might look back at one and say, ‘This picture tells more than we thought at the time.’”
At the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, the curatorial team will be evaluating and collecting protest materials such as placards, photos, videos and personalized masks — and the personal stories behind them.
“One activist found a tear-gas canister, and he gave it to us,” said Noelle Trent, a director at the museum. “We’re going to have to figure out how to collect items from the opposing side: We have to have theracist posters, the ‘Make America Great’ stuff. We’re going to need that at some point. The danger is that if we don’t have somebody preserving it, they will say this situation was notas bad.”
And there is perhaps no article more representative of this year than the mask, which has “become a really powerful visual symbol,” said Margaret K. Hofer, the vice president and museum director of the New-York Historical Society, which has identified around 25 masks that the museum will collect, including an N95 mask worn by a nurse in the Samaritan’s Purse emergency field hospital set up in New York’s Central Park in the spring. (The museum also collected a set of field hospital scrubs, and a cowbell that the medical team rang whenever they discharged a patient.)
Students, read the entire article, then tell us:
How would you answer our big question about how 2020 has challenged or changed you? Don’t worry if your answer doesn’t seem dramatic — sometimes small things tell a big story. If you like, make a list. In how many ways are you a different person now than you were at the end of 2019? Why?
What aspect of this year’s local, national or global news was most profound for you? The pandemic? The protests for racial justice? Something else? Why?
Now that you’ve read the article, what artifacts might you have that tell some part of your story of 2020? For instance, what’s on your camera roll? Do you keep a journal, or draw in a sketchbook? What have you posted on social media? What do your texts, emails, letters or, yes, even grocery lists say about your experiences this year? Which of these artifacts might you submit to a museum, and what “back story” would you tell about them?
You may think you have nothing unique to say, but, trust us, you do. No one can tell the same story you can. What aspects of who you are — where you live, your family, your racial, ethnic or religious background, your sexuality, your hobbies or interests, a job, your health status, a role you play in your community, or anything else — have affected your experiences most profoundly this year?
For example, non-athletes might not know what it’s like to have been without team games and workouts all season. Students who are considered essential workers have stories to tell that those who could stay home do not. Teenagers of color experienced the protests for racial justice differently than white students. Young people living in foster care went through quarantine differently than those living in traditional families. This list, of course, could go on and on. What can you express that other people may not know or understand? Why?
If you are a teenager in the United States, consider submitting something about your experience to our related Coming of Age in 2020 contest, which runs from Sept. 10 to Nov. 12. Your submission can be in the form of writing, images, audio or video. Learn more here.
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
