Category: observations

Schools are a mirror of society.

:: a thoughtful public school teacher (that doesn’t narrow it down much, does it?)

confidence and competence

First day working with a class of kindergarteners and 1st graders and I am doing one-on-one assessments of reading sight words, knowledge of numerals, shapes, colors. I am struck by the poise and confidence of some of the students who can write their answers without hesitation, by the ones who misspell a word and catch their error when they read it back to themselves (those silent terminal e’s that lengthen vowel sounds are tricky). At the same time, there are some who grope for their answers with some uncertainty, as if they are unfamiliar. What makes the difference in these examples?

Preparation at home, conscious or otherwise, that demonstrates commitment to their child’s education is part of it. Perhaps some parents think the bulk of their work is done when their child walks in those schoolhouse doors. Sadly, that’s when the work really starts, when the teachers and librarians and other kids expand their exposure to all kinds of new knowledge in a new environment, purpose-built for learning. Teachers can only do so much with 20+ children and can use the support that a dedicated one-on-one parent/child relationship provides.

Children are in school 6 hours or so per day out of the 24. Consider than in those 6 school hours, children will eat lunch, have recess, engage in some other enrichment (music, art, health & fitness). That might leave only 4 hours or less of classroom time. They are capable of learning every minute they’re awake. So what happens in the 18 hours they’re not in school is at least as important as those focused and planned hours. Every child should have a family structure that treats learning as a lifelong activity and knowledge as a tool for understanding the world and one’s place in it. Too often we blame the schools for the failings of the larger society, for it’s inability or unwillingness to value each person within its care. Both society and the schools are ours to make to our requirements.

one of the more profound insights into human nature I have read

Italics added:

I don’t want to hear it about trust-fund hippie kids. Yeah, it is infuriating that they can use the safety of their middle class lives to tell themselves they are adventuresome. If they’re sanctimonious on top of that, that’s really frustrating. BUT. Think of it this way. This is what people do when they know they are safe. These kids have felt safe their entire lives and trust the world, and what do they do with that? They choose a lifestyle of openness and gentleness, of connectivity and consciousness. When you know your whole life that you can have what you want, what they want is to be in a tribe and care about nature and spirituality. (Maybe they care about nature and spirituality in an easily accessible way, but as far as cheap philosophies go, it is a kind one.) This is also what impresses me about Burning Man. When privileged people have everything they want, the next thing they want to do is build amazing things for other people (and celebrate and be nude and beautiful). People who have never been scared don’t want dominion. They want expressiveness and connection.

[From From the archives: Go to work!]

that’s gonna leave a mark

from comments on TBogg » Janeane Garofalo is like Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, Angela Davis, and Ron Karenga times infinity .

As a member of the African diaspora that is now successful and stable in the US, I’d like to answer your question about African Americans. Unlike African Americans, I did not face structural and institutionalized racism in my own country, my father was not lynched for loving a white woman, my mother was not beaten for trying to vote, my grandparents were allowed to read and write and own property. Thus, my family had knowledge, skills, wealth, and pride to pass down to each generation. The question is not really why African Americans are the way they are, history answers that. African Americans still struggle to be treated as equals. The real question is why are the poor white trash still poor white trash hundreds of years after the Mayflower and institutionalizing superiority based on the color of your skin. If America gave you every opportunity to succeed based solely on the color of your skin, white people, ask yourself why you are now a failure and scared that “those people” are taking over your country and your government?

Blank Generation




Blank Generation

Originally uploaded by AndyWilson.

An accidentally blank instant photograph makes the connection between the emptiness of contemporary middle age and the nihilism of youth 30 years ago. The stray hair and the scanner artefacts remind of us the imperfections that become more apparent with age, while the emptiness of the frame and the shiny texture lets us reflect on the invisibility of the middle aged in modern society.

The latticed surround adds a twist that hints the artist may not be entirely serious 🙂