ChatGPT Revises “The Children Are the Future”

I asked ChatGPT to “Rewrite the song The Children Are the Future from the perspective of someone who is certain that the children are mini-demons.” The results are spectacular satire.

(Title)
Dark Future: Mini-Demons Unleashed

(Verse 1)
Whispers in the dark, beware the young,
Their innocence is just a mask, their wickedness has begun.
They’re lurking in the shadows, with mischief in their eyes,
Mini-demons in disguise, spreading chaos ‘neath the skies.

(Pre-Chorus)
Teach them well in the art of manipulation,
Feed their cravings for power and domination.
Show them how to sow discord and strife,
For in their hearts, darkness thrives.

(Chorus)
Mini-demons, oh, they’re the future,
Unleashing havoc, a twisted suture.
Corrupting all that’s pure and light,
In their hands, malevolence takes flight.

(Verse 2)
Their laughter is a sinister melody,
A symphony of malefic glee.
They twist and turn with every word,
Their devilish charm can’t be unheard.

(Pre-Chorus)
Guide them to deceit, teach them to lie,
Nurture the malevolence deep inside.
Let them revel in their wicked ways,
Innocence lost, darkness stays.

(Chorus)
Mini-demons, oh, they’re the future,
A generation of chaos and rupture.
Watch them dance upon the ashes,
As they paint the world in devilish splashes.

(Bridge)
Gone are the days of hope and trust,
Replaced by the children, cold and unjust.
Their hearts are black, their souls are cold,
A generation of darkness to behold.

(Pre-Chorus)
Shape their minds to crave despair,
A legacy of malevolence they’ll share.
Let them spread their poisonous seeds,
Fuelling humanity’s descent into heed.

(Chorus)
Mini-demons, oh, they’re the future,
Agents of darkness, each a corrupter.
The world shall tremble at their command,
As they grasp it tightly with malevolent hands.

(Outro)
So beware the youth, their innocence a lie,
For in their hearts, darkness will never die.
The future unfolds with wicked delight,
As mini-demons rise, casting eternal night.

Writing on Eggshells

Damn the uncomfortable readers. It’s time to start writing again.

Some time ago, more than a decade, I wrote on this blog all the time. There were daily updates on what I was writing, links to things that I found, stories about my crazy dreams, and varied random ramblings. Some of those posts are harder to find because I made some dumb decisions about post titles, and I haven’t fixed them all (it’s on my to-do list). The point is that they are there.

I said what I thought, talked about the things I was working on, and described what was going on each day. When I was sad and depressed, I talked about it. I have dysthymic depression, social anxiety, and have had issues with major depression a few times. I didn’t put the names to what I was going through, but I talked about being overwhelmed and sad and scared and anxious.

And that was the problem. My posts made some people uncomfortable. Someone came to me and told me that I shouldn’t write everything I feel because I was “making everyone feel like they were walking on eggshells around me.” I could write about what I was working on, but I was told not to write about being sad or depressed or anxious.

So I stopped writing. I’m a black-and-white thinker, so it was my standard response. I let the uncomfortable readers silence me.

Eventually, I started posting news links. If you check the archives, there are years where nearly every post is a summary of the links I have posted to Twitter about educational news and writing resources.

I wanted to write and post more, but there were people worried about walking on eggshells always in my thoughts. So I said nothing for a very long time. And now, I am going to start writing again. I’m going to say what I want. I’m not sure what has made me brave enough to talk again. Perhaps it’s that I started taking antidepressants again in November after six years without them (when I couldn’t afford them at $800/month). Maybe it’s that I am teaching again. Maybe I just feel like a writer again.

Part of it is that I finally figured out how to move all those news posts to their own page and take back the blog’s homepage. That’s what I am going to do: take back my writing space and say what I want. I will no longer worry about my readers. I will write on those eggshells and post what I want. Here’s to writing whatever I want to say whenever I want to say it.

The Harm We Can Do

Sara Kadjer shared “Can Reading Logs Ruin Reading for Kids?” from The Atlantic. The piece dredged up some memories for me, good and bad.

I guess I am an oddity, but I always loved tracking what I read when I was in school. Reading doesn’t really come with a tangible thing to point to when you’re done, and those logs let me say, “Look, I did all this!”

I know there are problems with the pedagogy when tracking takes away from the joy of reading. It made me recall Troy Hicks’ recent blog post on the troubling need to quantify everything students do.

That leads me to my bad memory. On the first day of class in 9th grade, the teacher asked us to write down all the things we read over the summer. I busied myself with a list in categories: mysteries, biographies, historical fiction, and so forth. I had to think in categories to remember them all. As I scribbled titles down, the teacher moved through the classroom. She paused at my desk, and I expected her to be impressed with the list of all the things I had read. Unfortunately, she instead announced to the full class that I had to be lying because no one read that many different books.

I try to remember that moment to remind myself that the long-term harm of my comments as a teacher can last forever. After all, I was in 9th grade a very, very long time ago; and I still remember that moment of shame very well.

 
Image: Pinocchio by Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier, on Flickr, used under CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

Free Access, If You’re Patient and Persistent

Routledge (Taylor and Francis) is offering a nice collection of articles to mark the RSA conference this weekend: Rhetoric & Change: A Free Access Article Collection in Collaboration with the Rhetoric Society of America (RSA).

It looks like a grand collection; however, the fact that you have to read and download everything one-by-one leads me to believe that Routledge is more interested in trying to keep you on their site than actually providing free access to key pieces.

A well-designed site would have a “Download All” option. I would have been willing to fill out a short survey and give them my email address for such access. Sure free != easy, but it could and often should. Shame on Routledge!