Clearly we all took the Expanding The Canon assignment seriously. It’s always fun when everyone gets to chose subjects which are close to their hearts, intellectually stimulating, or in the best cases, both. I was particularly struck by Samantha’s post about religion in the workplace. Despite having been raised Roman Catholic, I am not a particularly religious man. I am, however, a huge fan of Christmas. I have a tattoo on my chest of Santa Claus for crying out loud!I
It’s my love of Christmas that got me thinking as I read Samantha’s post. For ten to eleven months of the year, there are no hints or signs of religion at my workplace. Then, come mid to late November, Christmas decorations are hung everywhere around the office. There are some decorations for Chanukah and Kwanzaa, but they are dwarfed by the blinking lights, trees and ornaments throughout the building.
Everyone at work is well aware of my fondness for Christmas and as such, for the past several years, I have been responsible for organizing the office holiday party. This is typically a non-denominational event which usually involves drinks and dinner somewhere. This past year, however, my boss wanted to do something different.
She was enamored with the idea of riding around to see holiday lights displays. I loved the idea, and quickly looked into hiring a bus to drive us around certain neighborhoods known for their displays. A colleague suggested I hire a party-bus that featured karaoke, so that everyone could sing their favorite Christmas carols while we rode around town. While I understood her intention, I wasn’t quite sure that was the best idea. The idea behind the holiday party is to be as inclusive as possible. Asking people who don’t celebrate Christmas, and are perhaps unfamiliar with Christmas carols didn’t seem particularly sensitive and inclusive.
I ultimately decided to get the karaoke bus, and it seems I didn’t have anything to worry about. The people who chose to sang ended up picking rock & pop songs. The only holiday song that ended up being sung was “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.” Perhaps I got lucky, or perhaps other folks were being more mindful and inclusive than my fears had been giving them credit for.
For me, the “flashpoint” of Bogost’s article is the moment when Amy Webb blames our recent cultural obsession with STEM education for the current lack of diversity in computing. Given that the conventional wisdom du jour has been a focus on getting more kids – and in particular – girls and minorities into computing via STEM education, to have that quote from an NYU professor, which follows Bogost’s own self-identification as a professor of computing and liberal arts at Georgia tech is particularly powerful.
At the end of that passage, the reader is now asking themselves, “Well, if these guys don’t think getting kids into STEM is going to solve things, what will?”. Bogost now has the rest of the article to attempt to answer that question.
Right–tapping into the conventional wisdom around the subject (that education is the ‘fix’) is a good way to move the conversation along; start from what people tend to say and move outward from there.