This was the title of the bulletin board I put up today. And by bulletin board I mean old-fashioned school staple and cork-board bulletin board. I'm not talking about a web bulletin board. I just finished up a unit on writing personal narratives with my students. We focused on "small moments" of our lives. Each student wrote a piece, trying to focus on a 5 minute segment of their lives. The most popular topic was writing about a moment with a pet (whether meeting a pet, a pet dying, a funny pet moment). Others wrote about playing the piano, falling asleep in chapel, fighting with a friend, etc. Then we revised the pieces using such strategies as: "find the heart of the story and stretch it out" and "add five sense words" and "include internal thinking." Anyway, I put up their writing on the bulletin board, along with small illustrations and comic strips they had drawn to accompany their words. I searched for some quotes by famous authors about "moments" to place around the bulletin board. I want to share a few because they are soooo philosophical (and I like them):
"This moment contains all moments." - C.S. Lewis
"The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough." - Rabindranath Tagore
"Love the moment, and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries." - Corita Kent (RSHM)
"Life isn't a matter of milestones, but of moments." - Rose Kennedy
I was particularly happy to find the Tagore quote, as I am especially interested in Tagore after learning more about him in India.
My quote: The moments of our lives compound, overlap, magnify and direct each other, but remain distinct as well. Also, our lives are more than a sum of moments.
I always like reading books that tell about the small moments of people's lives. Like Prep, by Curtis Sittenfield, made up of vignettes. I totally recommend this book. It includes many small moments from the life of an adolescent (through the eyes of her 20-something self) and it addresses such topics as race/class/sexual orientation throughout as well.
Friday, October 20, 2006
to voice or not to voice
The role playing experience was interesting. We had many voices "represented" from W.E.B. Dubois to G. Stanley Hall to local schoolteachers and administrators to parents, etc. It was a delicate, yet insightful conversation. There is a different level of learning that happens, I think, when you have to take on the "voice" of someone else. It is hard enough to figure out one's own voice sometimes, let alone get the nuances of someone else's. Of course it is impossible to totally get the nuances of someone else's voice, especially when you are only relying on a fabricated biography or a few pieces of writing. And sometimes (actually, often), people change their own minds over the course of their lives and experiences. For example, Dubois initially pontificated on the value of uplifting the "Talented Tenth" to lead African Americans and later, after seeing how this initial concept was changed and expanded upon, changed his stance. He then asserted that the masses (more than just the "talented tenth" of the population) could join to create powerful change. A stance that appeals to me much more.
It was brought up that no one in the class found it comfortable to play the role of racist characters from the past. One colleague stated that he didn't want to give any more voice to his character than he had to. Therefore he didn't speak up as much as he normally would have during a class discussion. This lead to a conversation about speaking, silencing, being silenced and choosing to be silent - there is power and agency, or can be, in each. Silence is as much a part of the conversation as speaking.
5th grade application: I want to be more cognizant of encouraging all students in my 5th grade class to participate in discussions, especially philosophical ones, but not forcing them. I want to build a community where we can be kind of "meta" and think about our thinking and the power in silence. Haven't flushed this out exactly.
It was brought up that no one in the class found it comfortable to play the role of racist characters from the past. One colleague stated that he didn't want to give any more voice to his character than he had to. Therefore he didn't speak up as much as he normally would have during a class discussion. This lead to a conversation about speaking, silencing, being silenced and choosing to be silent - there is power and agency, or can be, in each. Silence is as much a part of the conversation as speaking.
5th grade application: I want to be more cognizant of encouraging all students in my 5th grade class to participate in discussions, especially philosophical ones, but not forcing them. I want to build a community where we can be kind of "meta" and think about our thinking and the power in silence. Haven't flushed this out exactly.
Monday, October 16, 2006
first post - what would Andrew Carnegie say?
Well, I missed writing on my marygoestoindia blog, so I thought I would start a new, more general one. I am a glasses fan. Being myopic myself, I depend on glasses and contact lenses all the time. I think glasses frames are really fun. In fact, when I was a kid I wanted to be the person at the eye doctor's office who helped people pick out frames. I also like the glasses metaphor... hence my blog title. For now. The blog will probably be a lot about education, but also about current events in the world and in my life.
I'm taking a couple of classes on Tuesday nights towards my EdD. This is proving to be a lot of work, but very interesting. Tomorrow night we are doing a role playing exercise where I am assigned to be a White philanthropist (ie Andrew Carnegie). I've been trying to read up on Andrew Carnegie and develop a position. We're supposed to respond to a "school board president" who proposes the following changes to a school. I'll respond as if I'm Andrew Carnegie...
• I propose segregating students into four tracks, each with a different curriculum: Track #1: Feeble-minded; Track #2: Dull; Track #3: Average; and Track #4: Superior. This will allow us to adapt a given course of study to students’ individual needs. As suggested by one California school administrator, the lower tracks will naturally train students for “definite hand occupations as opposed to brain occupations.”
• There will be no guess work placing students in different tracks. They will be placed scientifically, on the basis of test scores. I want Central City high schools to use the Mental Ability Test developed by the top psychologists at Stanford University. I’ve handed out a sample of questions from that test, which have helped psychologists differentiate dull students from average ones. A system of guidance counseling will assist students in the interpretation of test scores, and to help them plan a personally rewarding and socially useful occupation.
• Lots of the people entering Central City schools are immigrants and ex-slaves from the South. These newcomers are worrisome for a number of reasons. Instead of identifying themselves as Americans, they see themselves as Hungarians or Italians. Some of them identify with the working class against the owners, or even with radicals, people who want to overthrow our form of government. Some of these newcomers are backward and need to be helped to learn good work habits in order to further develop themselves and their race. In order to ensure that all children become loyal Americans and hard workers, I’m proposing the following: To encourage students to learn about democracy, all schools will have student councils, and everyday all students will pledge allegiance to the flag. In all classes we will teach that our system of government is the best in the world. Through clubs, athletics, school assemblies, school newspapers, and the like, we will encourage students to identify not with their social class, racial group, or radical groups, but with their school. We will teach them to be patriotic to their country and patriotic to their school.
• Finally, in order to maintain the most efficient school in which teaching and learning proceed like clockwork, we will hire policemen to patrol the schools and to keep order so teachers can turn their full attention to teaching.
Interesting activity. I still have to do all the reading in order to be able to answer it. But so far I know that Andrew Carnegie supported the Tuskegee-Hamilton Model - which were vocational schools for African Americans. He also supported the idea that African Americans should not vote or run for office, at least during the 1920's. Very racist and alarming. He also had a "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" kind of mentality.
I didn't know previously that he funded our public library system as well.
I'm taking a couple of classes on Tuesday nights towards my EdD. This is proving to be a lot of work, but very interesting. Tomorrow night we are doing a role playing exercise where I am assigned to be a White philanthropist (ie Andrew Carnegie). I've been trying to read up on Andrew Carnegie and develop a position. We're supposed to respond to a "school board president" who proposes the following changes to a school. I'll respond as if I'm Andrew Carnegie...
• I propose segregating students into four tracks, each with a different curriculum: Track #1: Feeble-minded; Track #2: Dull; Track #3: Average; and Track #4: Superior. This will allow us to adapt a given course of study to students’ individual needs. As suggested by one California school administrator, the lower tracks will naturally train students for “definite hand occupations as opposed to brain occupations.”
• There will be no guess work placing students in different tracks. They will be placed scientifically, on the basis of test scores. I want Central City high schools to use the Mental Ability Test developed by the top psychologists at Stanford University. I’ve handed out a sample of questions from that test, which have helped psychologists differentiate dull students from average ones. A system of guidance counseling will assist students in the interpretation of test scores, and to help them plan a personally rewarding and socially useful occupation.
• Lots of the people entering Central City schools are immigrants and ex-slaves from the South. These newcomers are worrisome for a number of reasons. Instead of identifying themselves as Americans, they see themselves as Hungarians or Italians. Some of them identify with the working class against the owners, or even with radicals, people who want to overthrow our form of government. Some of these newcomers are backward and need to be helped to learn good work habits in order to further develop themselves and their race. In order to ensure that all children become loyal Americans and hard workers, I’m proposing the following: To encourage students to learn about democracy, all schools will have student councils, and everyday all students will pledge allegiance to the flag. In all classes we will teach that our system of government is the best in the world. Through clubs, athletics, school assemblies, school newspapers, and the like, we will encourage students to identify not with their social class, racial group, or radical groups, but with their school. We will teach them to be patriotic to their country and patriotic to their school.
• Finally, in order to maintain the most efficient school in which teaching and learning proceed like clockwork, we will hire policemen to patrol the schools and to keep order so teachers can turn their full attention to teaching.
Interesting activity. I still have to do all the reading in order to be able to answer it. But so far I know that Andrew Carnegie supported the Tuskegee-Hamilton Model - which were vocational schools for African Americans. He also supported the idea that African Americans should not vote or run for office, at least during the 1920's. Very racist and alarming. He also had a "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" kind of mentality.
I didn't know previously that he funded our public library system as well.
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