When I was in high school I had an English teacher, Mr. Paige, who was probably my favorite teacher of all time. He was unconventional and made his classes fun and engaging, getting kids interested in literature who otherwise wouldn't have been... something for which he unfortunately had narrow-minded school administrators constantly breathing down his neck. True story: We often read on the floor, by the light of candles and flashlights, in forts built with overturned classroom tables - sometimes taking turns reading aloud from the assigned novel, and sometimes just listening to Mr. Paige read to us, voicing each character distinctly, with REM music playing in the background. On more than one occasion, he had to warn us that the next time our class met, we would have a member of the administration observing the class, so the lights would be on, music off, and forts temporarily dismantled.
Despite how much I loved Mr. Paige's class, I struggled. Try as I might, I could not grasp "proper" essay writing, and that was how one's comprehension and progress in a literature class were gauged. My grade in the class slipped to below passing in the second semester of my senior year - and if I did not pass that class, I would not graduate. Recognizing that the class was about the literature and not about the essay, and not wanting it to be the one and only thing to keep me from graduating, Mr. Paige agreed to raise my grade to passing if I would spend a couple of lunch periods a week with him, verbally discussing the material we were reading in class. I was able to show him that I was reading and comprehending the literature; I just was not effective at conveying that in written form. He gave me a B, if I remember correctly, and I graduated with the rest of my class because this teacher rejected the district curriculum's standard, inaccurate way of testing grasp of the subject he taught.
Oh, and how many times in the real world have I needed to know proper essay form and failed at something important because I was never able to learn it? A big fat zero.
Mr. Paige moved to another school district right after I graduated, and I lost all contact with him. I actually did find him online, after all these years, just a few months ago. But I thought I would use his name to test out MyLife, a web site which calls itself "America's #1 People Search". I'm sorry to have to say this, but I think they're going to have to drop the tagline.
He did turn up on my search on MyLife, but I was able to see absolutely nothing about him - because MyLife wanted money from me the minute I clicked on his name. Now, I already know quite a bit about how Mr. Paige's life turned out just from searching his name on Google. And I suspect that if I were to pay MyLife for access to the information they have on him, it would not be anything more than what I already found for free. After all, where do you think a site like that gets its information?
Especially in this day of social networking, 99% of which is free, I don't understand why paid people search sites like this keep popping up and thinking they can actually make money. Even though Mr. Paige would probably not call himself a heavy social media user, do you know where I was finally able to make contact with him? On Flickr, a photo sharing site. Nearly everyone who can be found via the internet has at least one social networking profile out there somewhere.
I'm sorry, MyLife, but as long as there is Google, Facebook, MySpace, and the thousands of other free search engines and social networking sites that are out there, you won't ever see me pay a dime to search for someone.
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