Thoughts on Jeff Bliss' Viral Video about Teacher Rants

I recently watched a viral video on YouTube showing a student ranting about a teacher's teaching methods. I may not know the entire story, but I'd like to share my thoughts so far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bYv2AKPZOk

I completely agree with Jeff and respect his outspokenness; a classroom is meant for interactive learning, and today packets could easily be obtained over the internet, so if this were the method by which every teacher taught, schools would be unnecessary. However, was it really necessary to get up in the middle of class and make such a scene? Did he try talking to the teacher beforehand about her teaching methods? While I know it's silly to feel bad for inadequacy, I feel bad for that teacher because of the unfairness of the situation. There are plenty of teachers who teach like that and yet she is getting bashed because of this viral video. Jeff says that after dropping out for a year, he realizes the value of education. Do all the students realize that? Do they try their best to take charge of their own learning and take steps for their own future? I guess I’m just trying to say that learning is a group effort; it requires both the students and teachers to be engaged. So while I agree that handing out packets is not the best way of teaching, maybe we should reflect a little, before jumping to praise Jeff and bash his teacher, about how much effort we put in to make learning engaging for ourselves. If we really want to learn, we should make the best of whatever is given to us and be grateful about it before we try and improve things. 

Glimmers in the Sun

Several recent (and rather unrelated) developments have inspired me to blurt out the poem below in little spurts of semi-coherence over a ten minute period: a certain book we are reading in English class called Lord of the Flies, the ending song to a new, popular anime that a friend recommended to me, and a mild frustration with the somewhat unproductive altruistic efforts of youth. Welcome, unexpected reader, and please make of this poem whatever you'd like to make of it. I hope that after reading this poem (and heck, after reading  any piece of poetry) you take away a little something, no matter how irrelevant it may be to the writer's intended message.

when dreams assault you

in all their painful beauty

what can you do but see

like the threads of a spiderweb

glimmering in the last drops of golden sunlight

easy to fall for, easy to entangle

all too soon

the zealousness of callow children

leaps at what is meant to be carefully constructed

the fight for light ensues

trying to regain sight of the web

but we can not see what we are embedded in

we build bridges of string

and arches of steel

layer upon layer, echoes of the vision

but where is the glimmer of the web

it is buried

under layer upon layer, echoes of the vision

can you see now

in the darkness of post sunset

that we are left with nothing

the business of the moment

the middleman, the bridge

was an arch between two points on a web

and when the sun rises again

if we have the bravery to tear down our fabrications

we might find that glimmer once more