W.E.B. DuBois Quote
“We must insist upon this to give our children the fairness of a start which will equip them with such an array of facts and such an attitude toward truth that they can have a real chance to judge what the world is and what its greater minds have thought it might be. —W.E.B. DuBois”
Darling-Hammond, Linda. The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future. New York: Teachers College Press, 2010.
The final reading from our wedding, 2001
Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
(King James)
Behold, a sower went forth to sow.
And as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up.
And some fell upon stony ground, where they had not much earth, and anon they sprung up, because they had no depth of earth.
And when the sun was up, they were parched, and for lack of rooting withered away.
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up, and choked them.
And some again fell in good ground, and brought forth fruit, one corn an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and another thirtyfold.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
(Geneva 1599)
“Once there was a man who went out to sow grain. As he scattered the seed in the field, some of it fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some of it fell on rocky ground, where there was little soil. The seeds soon sprouted, because the soil wasn’t deep. But when the sun came up, it burned the young plants; and because the roots had not grown deep enough, the plants soon dried up. Some of the seed fell among thorn bushes, which grew up and choked the plants. But some seeds fell in good soil, and the plants bore grain: some had one hundred grains, others sixty, and others thirty.”
“Listen, then, if you have ears!”
(Good News Version, the one I read in Reading, Mass, CCD class, 1970s)
I believe
Last year Senior CR constructed an “I believe” mural on the outside of our building. It was the centerpiece of this morning’s circle.
What you want from your work together: things that get used over and over again.
Human beings doing something cool together
I was thinking this morning about my group and the weeks we’ve had together so far. You live long enough and you do enough different things and you realize how rare it is to be with a group that shares a common purpose and cares about each other. As such a group develops, it makes the hard work, the crappy but necessary work, that much easier.
I had a few classes like this in high school (thank you Jean St. Pierre) and a couple more in college and graduate school. More often, though, when I had these experiences it was a club, a so-called extracurricular activity, or a post-work activity.
Teaching, though, means that I have to find ways to foster deep and authentic intentions regarding the work. I know that the more purpose I felt — let’s make this team awesome, let’s play out as a band, let’s build this organization — the easier it was to grind through the hard parts.
And I have to make sure that the group coalesces in a way that they start to pick each other up by reminding them why we’re doing what we’re doing.
“Human beings doing something cool together” sums it up.
Article I need to take apart in circle
Nova!
Our school is highlighted about 2/3 of the way through the video. Definitely a cool overview of an important topic…
Where do we hear each other?
This article describes how one reporter has struggled with the ways in which Americans communicate with each other at this point. There were a number of killer insights but several stuck out:
In recent years, in my reporting, I’ve come to uncool conclusions. For one thing, I’ve begun to think that instilling public purpose into private communities is the hardest thing in the world.
I’ve increasingly found myself a supporter of messy public process: the legislation pushed through government slowly, in curtailed form; the interminable, fruitless-seeming town-hall meeting; many of the government’s lumbering, error-prone efforts at regulation. These processes are cumbersome, often wasteful, and inevitably infuriating. But at their best they have the virtue of occurring in a common arena, the place where all parts of a population meet. They force us, if we hope to get anything done, to translate our values and thoughts into language that communicates broadly. The more I observe, the warier I grow of privatized efficiency: in time, it indulges clannish thought. Let’s drive our language out of private circles, back toward the public sphere.
What I appreciate about this latter idea, particularly as a teacher, is that Heller is trying to move us back to the circles where you have to get something done. For example, if you want safe water, you’re going to have to meet with a lot of different stakeholders. Getting all of those individuals and institutions to agree on something let alone change their behaviors and policies is going to require a lengthy process, one that’s, in Heller’s words, cumbersome, often wasteful, and inevitably infuriating.Or you can retreat to a closed, private space, say an on-line community, where you can develop your own language and vision in essential isolation and then lament why nothing seems to change.
Eating the New York Times
We have no shortage of green/nitrogen waste. There are leaves for a portion of the year but I can’t count on them and I’m not a huge fan of the dust that’s on our street.
So I shred the daily paper and dump into into the compost. I was worried about any toxic components but here’s what the research/ google search revealed:
Newspaper is safe to compost, but it breaks down quite slowly because of its high lignin content. (Lignin is a substance found in the woody cell walls of plants, and it is highly resistant to decomposition).
Most newspapers today use water or soy-based inks. Although these may contain small amounts of toxic compounds, the trace levels are not of significant toxicological concern.
Planet Natural, considering the same question.
I’ll continue to do this. I like the idea of digesting the news twice…
Strange thing to find
My dad often sends me boxes of stuff from my childhood. As he apparently saved everything, a tendency I’m not unfamiliar with, I got all of my report cards from 7th and 8th grade, every single note written home (teachers had great penmanship and wrote incredible thank yous), and every newspaper article that mentioned me. As the Reading Chronicle tended to list every child in every event, from basketball to cub scouts, from drama to school band, there’s a pretty big pile.
In this pile of stuff was this xeroxed sheet. Don’t know where it came from. Don’t know how or why it got into my junior high pile. But it’s a pretty great image for a teacher who does project based learning for a living.
How many times have I had my head down and lost track of the big picture? How many times have I mixed directions up and thought it can’t be that big a deal? How many times have I turned to look at a “finished” product only to see total disaster?
Love it. Thanks Dad.
