1.5 Life

Many of you know I have a penchant for computer games. It probably started when I programmed my Mother's first Macintosh computer back in 1983 with a BASIC game that simulated a lunar landing. The graphics consisted of a dash (-) for the surface, and the exhaust were asterisks (*,) and the capsule was two slashes (/\). The whole game looked like this:

/\
*
*

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Carnack eat your heart out!

Now before you laugh too much, I know many of the readers of this will hearken to the days of Atari 2600s and playing Combat, where a colored "H" with an extra stick was what your tank looked like. Pitfall: an L-shaped stick with legs that would jump across leaned over V's, while swinging on straight line -- enough said.

So what do I play now? I stopped playing Guild Wars because they were pretty much ending the on-line game by introducing Guild Wars 2 with no way to transfer your character to the new game (I know, insert world's smallest violin playing"My heart bleeds for you" right here.) So the latest addiction, err... I mean diversion, is a game called "Second Life."

I could spend a lot of text and time boring you with the details of the game, but I won't. It's interactive and contains real world environments built by its users, who at anytime number between 30,000 to 50,000 on-line, with over 3 million registered users. People buy and sell stuff they make, and they chat with each other. In-game money can be exchanged for US dollars and vice versa.

It looks like real life, being played by real people, but it is a game. "SL is not RL, and RL is not SL." is a common slogan you hear (SL = "Second Life," RL="Real Life.") It is designed to be a "utopia" where everyone is equal, and everyone has a chance for success, there's no need for food, and clothing can be found for free, or you can just learn to make your own. Heck you can learn to make anything you want, and then sell it, allowing for your character to be successful in the game. It's all given to you. Yet the game has a darker side. There are those people who go about "griefing" others, those who try to steal, and those who use get-rich-quick schemes to entice others into scams. There are those who lie, and cheat, and manipulate. In a perfect digital world where everyone has an equal chance to succeed on their own merits, we still see negative behaviors of "Real Life." "SL" may not be "RL" but is shares in its virtues and vices.

"So, what's your point?"you may be thinking.

In the education business, we have many well-meaning people, and we have the legislature (not to be confused with the well-meaning people) all trying to create a utopian environment. "Everyone will be equal" -- so much in fact that we will expect all of them to pass the exact same tests, at the exact same level, at the exact same time. "There's no need for food" -- schools now provide much of the supplies for their students. A district I'm aware of provides vouchers for school supplies to families who fill out (not just qualify) an application for free and reduced lunch. The educational institution for which I work feeds every student breakfast as part of a government program. "You can learn to make anything you want, and then sell it, allowing for your 'character' to be successful" --All educators have ever asked is for those people whom we have fed, and supplied, and nurtured, to come and learn how to make it in the world.

Well, we understand how far this "simulation" has taken us... no further than the digital panacea of Second Life.

So I should start to call my job "1.5 Life." I'm sorry to say public education has become as much a game as those I play on computers. It's not whether we get a student ready for "Real Life", only when we can get the "high score" on the tests we give in "School Life". So we structure everything we do toward that goal. We learn the tricks of the "game," like the codes gamers type in to get more powerful items or special skills. We tirelessly practice, and refine our skills, until we play the "game" better than anyone else. Then we get to go around for big money and tell others how to play "The Game." In the end, if you really consider the disservice you're doing, it's hard to sleep. So you tell yourself, "it's just a game." You "de-humanize," and view those around you as "avatars" or only virtual representations of real people, because if they were real, you would be preparing them to be successful, instead of using them for your own gain. They become an ends to a means to achieve the goal of the "high score."

"School Life is not Real Life, and Real Life is not School Life."

When will the populace put an end to the game: "School Life" must become "Real Life," even with all its non-Utopian crass, failure, and finality. In this we truly find humanity.