Creativity

By all accounts I was a failure of the public education system in Chicago. My class rank was something like 152 out of 154 and I had to attend 4 years of summer school despite starting high school 2 years earlier than most. It wasn't really for a lack of ability. I eventually did quite well in college and the juxtaposition of my dismal grades with my test scores were always a source of contention with my teachers. Obviously there were several factors that contributed to this later on in my high school career but the reality was I had given up on school a long time prior.

I actually remember when everything went down hill. It was the second grade... stay with me here..

Following up

Subsequent to my last post my friend has had a version of her letter posted on Foreign Policy's blog. The link can be found here: http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/07/12/voice_from_kashmir

After posting my last post her and I had a very interesting exchange regarding the nature the place of emotions in things like this. We were discussing whether or not it was worthwhile to tone down our response to these types of things. I was suggesting that sometimes it may it is necessary to tone down your emotions in order to get your point across. Her response was something like, well not all of us are as emotionless as you. Somewhat inadvertently this discussion sent me down an introspective trail that I hadn't really intended to go down. I've written down some of my thoughts on it after the jump.