On Sunday nights I read all the blogs on the Puma Press Blog site, write my blog, and make changes to the highlights on the main web page.
This Sunday night I find only eight of 17 blogs have new posts.
I was speaking with a friend on the phone today about my attempts to teach children chess and how to sit quietly and think during lectures and while playing. It is like herding ants. I suggested to him that this week I would try to shame them to come to attention, stop interrupting me and each other.
He reminded me that in order to feel shame the children will have to feel guilt.
Well now.
In order to feel guilt the children will have to to have a conscience with a frame of reference that places value on sitting quietly and thinking.
After two years of coaching elementary chess clubs in after-school programs to groups of 10 to 25 children I am at a point of rethinking the entire job.
I have been trying to teach them to stop talking, stop moving, and start thinking – even for a fraction of a minute. Only five out of 100 students can sit quietly for up to one minute and think.
What does all this have to do with journalism and blogging?
Well, as editor of the Puma Press Blogs, I have attempted to motivate 17 bloggers to add to their blogs at least once each week. The journalism department also has been asking for everyone to add to their blog at least once per week. I have suggested that everyone read all the blogs, leave some comments, and broadcast the blog URL to their email correspondence list.
So, is there a common thread between motivating children who do not think and bloggers that do not blog?
Without intention blogs do not get written. Without intention children are controlled by the habits of their little bodies.
Perhaps a key is in the future.
When chess is played well, players are visualizing the future more clearly. Players that make better choices see their intentions realized. One of the joys of playing chess well is looking in to a larger future.
When blogging regularly, periodically, a writer can manipulate time and enjoy projecting the present into the future, and bringing possibilities of the future back into the present.
Reticent bloggers and wiggly children need a thump from the future.
Journalism and Blogging 