Education past, present and future

Introducing people of all ages to mythology... in pre-college educational curricula, youth orgs, the media, etc. Share your knowledge, stories, unit and lesson plans, techniques, and more.

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JamesN.
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Post by JamesN. »

Clemsy the blog site is spot on. I don't know if this link will be helpful but you might find something of interest from it. It was a teachers Town Hall that was sponsored by PBS here in Nashville awhile back where they were asked what they thought some of the problems were.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ_OCvmU5wA

Personally I think the teaching curriculum you are developing based on some of Joseph Campbell's themes has a lot more potential to affect lives than the present dysfunctional education system can currently deliver. ( Skillsets not withstanding; if you can't read your own internal compass how are you going to be able to develop a human life if you can't read the geography the compass is suppose to help you navigate? ) To me this work you are doing is far more powerful and meaningful with much greater potential than the spinning of one's wheels in the mud of political reform.

As I see it as long as the current bureaucratic grid-lock is in place; education like so many other " hot-button issues " of the day will continue to be a " football " that is tossed around to suit whatever the political " winds of change " dictate because it is a safer subject than religion, war, the NRA or economic reform with fewer consequences or fallout in the polls or the ballot box. It's not that it is not a worthy endeavor; ( heavens no ); it's just for the life of me I don't see how anyone is going to make a " Mule " move forward when the desire is not really there from within the system itself. Perhaps I am far off course or just oblivious but I keep seeing the same patterns emerging over and over again. And leading these horses to water is not going to make them drink if they do not agree upon what the problems are and cannot or will not compromise enough to exert any real intense and focused pressure to get any traction.

Bless you for fighting the good fight in this arena; but if I may suggest and like I said if I'm not being too oblivious; I really see alot more tremendous potential in this other area because giving a person a sense of who they truely are and their own sense of self-worth is far more valuable and was what Joseph Campbell's work was really pointing towards seems to me; at least as I have experienced it in my own life. Helping students come to understand that they are the authors of their own lives is in my mind major consciousness raising material that can change the world. ( It is real; it has substance; and it can transform lives. ) IMHO I personally think a teaching curriculum based around what you are doing with this work involving ( personal writing ) and " Myth and the Hero's Journey " would be absolutely " awesome " in ( any ) school system. ( Maybe I'm not really understanding what you are trying to do with this particular activity so my apologies if that is the case. I myself am kind of submerged within my own personal transformative " sphere " at the moment so please forgive me if I'm not quite up to speed with any of this. ) At any rate whatever your objectives are strive on my friend and all the best with them.

Namaste :)


Addendum: After this post I went back and was able to spend a little more time looking over what a really excellent site you have put together. ( Great job Clemsy! ) Have a little patience with an aging fellow if you would; like I said I'm kind of wrapped up in my own transformative mode at the moment with the " Individuation " process I have been learning about so I'm not quite as aware of other things around me as I would like. Getting older kind of slows things down plus I have a rather large number of technical manuals and assorted reading materials that I am immersed in concerning several projects that are all interconnected to this that I am trying to integrate so being somewhat " self-absorbed " would be putting it mildly. :lol:

Cheers
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Clemsy
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Post by Clemsy »

Personally I think the teaching curriculum you are developing based on some of Joseph Campbell's themes has a lot more potential to affect lives than the present dysfunctional education system can currently deliver.
Indeed, James. That's why I'm active in this struggle and one of the reasons i haven't been participating here lately. Now that school's out for the summer, I'm going to make a point of sticking my nose in here and there. lol!
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

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Post by JamesN. »

Clemsy I know it must be taxing to be carrying the load of both teaching and head moderator here on the boards; ( especially given the fact of the technical hurdles of the aging system and the new funding requirements strategy to make the desperately needed overhaul ). But none-the-less it'll be great having you back in the " hood " for a change. 8)
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Clemsy
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Post by Clemsy »

Clemsy's latest contribution to the education wars, this in relation to a new initiative from the Education Secretary"

http://clemsy.blogspot.com/2014/07/teac ... -left.html
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

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Post by Cindy B. »

:(
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

Andreas
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Post by Andreas »

Yeap madness..

JamesN.
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Post by JamesN. »

Clemsy:
Clemsy's latest contribution to the education wars, this in relation to a new initiative from the Education Secretary"

http://clemsy.blogspot.com/2014/07/teac ... -left.html


Truly a moving, poignant, and insightful job Clemsy.


I hope everyone who sees this will not only read this article; but his blog as well. Not just to look at this particular issue; but also to consider some of the larger concerns which his links are able to articulate with great precision what is happening to our society. At the risk of sounding like preaching to the choir; when human beings charged with the responsibility of nurturing the education and welfare of a child's inherited landscape deliver this kind of pitiful and ( dysfunctional excuse ) as a " solution " we will most assuredly reap these very " same " rewards multiplied in kind many times over coming down the road to meet us. And no matter how well this shameful excuse of an approach is cloaked; results such as the ones that are shared here will reveal with stark and overwhelming clarity not only where it has failed in it's task; but also the human devastation left in it's wake. Clemsy has given a voice to I think what many here have long felt. And his powerful use of personal narrative provides the kind of window needed to grasp not only the depth of it's impact; but to make the connections from a personal point of experience. And it is I think this human connection that is needed to further comprehend those deeper implications of what we as a society have to look forward to if this particular view of education continues; not only in the kind of human suffering it will produce; but in the ( lack ) of a proper set of " humane " value systems born from this fruit.


( I chose a few quotes to try and illustrate why I thought this piece so effectively pointed this out . )


"Mr. Lambert. You're gonna be my teacher next year."
"Is that a good thing, Germaine?"
"Yeah. You're gonna make me learn so I can get my black ass out of this neighborhood." ~Conversation with Germaine Shell, then in 7th grade, in the hallway outside the teacher's cafeteria in IS 302, District 19, East New York Section of Brooklyn, 1984.
I was a special education teacher in a self-contained class. One day I had to sub in a bilingual class for academically advanced students. (They received instruction in both English and Spanish. They were all fluent in both.) I asked, out of curiosity, how many of them had heard a gunshot the previous night. About half the class raised their hands. I asked how many of them knew someone who had been shot. They all raised their hands. How many knew someone who'd been murdered? About three quarters raised their hands.
My first year: Another teacher and I took our classes to an indoor pool for swimming lessons. Before the school bus had gone more than a few blocks, I noticed a beautifully graffitied wall, like a shrine, which read: "RIP Julio, Homeboy." A chill went down my spine. I asked one of the boys, Greg, if Julio had been killed on that spot. "Yeah," he replied. "Hey guys," he said to his friends. "Remember Julio?" There were assenting nods all around. "Yeah. Man, he was a good kid. That sucked."
After Christmas break, we returned to school to the news that one of the custodians had been murdered on Christmas Eve, just a few blocks from the school on Fulton Street. Point blank gunshot to the head. He was the Head Custodian's son. His mother was a teacher in the school. I knew them well. I went to the wake.
"Mr. Lambert, did you hear about Germaine?"
"No," I replied instantly concerned. I had been absent the day before.
"Some kid got beat up bad, real bad. Jaw's broke and shit. His uncle and some homies were outside after school and jumped Germaine. They held him to the ground and put a gun to his head. Wanted to know who beat up his nephew but Germaine didn't know. Said he better find out and that he'd be back."
I wasn't surprised Germaine had been picked out of a crowded after school street. He was the alpha male. What did surprise me was Germaine walking into class a minute later.
"Germaine, what are you doing here?"
"What? Why?"
"Didn't someone put a gun to your head yesterday?"
"Yeah. No big deal. My boys are taking care of it."
Eighth grade. 14 years old...

"Do all of you carry a blade?"
"Yeah," replied Ian. "You don't understand, Mr. Lambert. I gotta cross someone else's territory to get to school. I gotta have my blade."
"Do you have it on you right now?"
"Nah," he laughs. "You're too good, Mr. Lambert. I don't want you to have to take it from me. We stash them outside before school."
I'm sorry. I can't keep this up. As I write about Duncan's ill conceived equity initiative I get angry. When I go back and pull out these memories I can't stop crying and it's been 25 years. Why can't these neighborhoods hold on to teachers? Why did I leave, after five years of loving that school, my colleagues and my students? Kids who looked at me with hope in their eyes? Kids and families who accepted me as one of their own, the Puerto Rican from Whitebread, Queens?
I know why impoverished neighborhoods can't hold onto teachers. I also know why bringing in the most talented teachers in the world won't matter a damn. The people making these decisions are so far removed from the reality of the street they might as well be from a different planet. I was from a different planet: Fresh Meadows, Queens, only eleven miles away.
Education is one piece of the poverty puzzle. Teachers are one piece of that piece. To put the whole onus for nullifying and eliminating poverty on teachers, and that IS what's happening, is not just wrong, it's cowardly. That's what cowards do, assign a scapegoat to deflect attention from the real problems.
You both need to be haunted by a Germaine Shell.

Mine certainly haunts me.

If anyone knows him, if he's still alive, please let him know I haven't forgotten him.

I never will.

In solidarity,
Mr. Lambert

( From Clemsy's " Meet My Ghosts " page ):


Ian? Matelyn? Patrick? Germaine?

Human sacrifices. All of them are human sacrifices on the altar of blind ideology and unrestrained corporate control.

Be haunted. Give them a chance. I'd rather my tax dollars went to reducing the recidivism rate than the pockets of the oligarchs successfully rendering American democracy an illusion.

Thank you Clemsy. Beautifully written and thoughtfully shared. Please keep it up! 8)
What do I know? - Michael de Montaigne

Clemsy
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Post by Clemsy »

Thank you James. I would encourage my stateside friends to share this. I am working with some other colleagues on making a series of such stories to be released on a regular basis.
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

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Post by nandu »

Poverty is at the root of most evils in a "democracy" where the power is only with the rich. :(

Nandu.
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu

JamesN.
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Post by JamesN. »

Clemsy,

Considering what we discussed yesterday I thought you might find this story from this morning's paper of interest. Charter schools are long an item here because the Conservative Republican Super-majority has a big influence; but it was the school board's behavior and public relations image sculpturing that caught my attention. Education has always been used as a political device to give the appearance of attending to the moral welfare of the community; when in reality it is appropriated little money compared to business concerns like the convention and tourism industry; professional sports; or a corporate building project of some sort. The school board here is very large and far too often represents a circus tent of arguing animals under it. For several years I taught private music percussion lessons to the board's ( former ) superintendent like the one who is in the spotlight here and he use to tell me stories about how ridiculous the situation was; too many members and all pushing their own private agendas. He was later pushed out amidst a huge public scandal because he rubbed too many people the wrong way. My point here is the conflict of agendas that always seems to evolve where the welfare of the kids and teachers is sacrificed for budget excuses when to me the operating funds that are allocated should not always be at the bottom of the city's annual budget list.


http://www.newschannel5.com/story/25992 ... ols-office


( This next item came out the other day and has been evolving into another backdoor concern that I think is worth watching. The Koch brothers already have funding connected to PBS donations. The Negro College Fund donation they gave ( and was accepted ) is causing a huge stink. These guys are moving around behind the shadows make no mistake. They just opened an office here in Nashville with their new superpac funding group. I saw in a press release they stated they thought this area seemed like fertile ground to expand their growing political interests. )


http://news.yahoo.com/union-cuts-ties-b ... 05865.html
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JamesN.
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Post by JamesN. »

Here is an article from this mornings " Huffington Post " about the Koch brothers education agenda. Although seeming innocently beniegn this to me is a very bad sign for their efforts at changing the very basic idea of what an education is suppose to be. :evil:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/1 ... =education
Last edited by JamesN. on Sun Jul 27, 2014 1:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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JamesN.
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Post by JamesN. »

OK this one really takes the cake;( Seth Meyers where are you ); I mean " Reeeally "!!!! :roll:

I found this almost " incredulous "! But then there are some who might actually believe this stuff and that is what's scary. I realize that the real purpose here is about perception and that bothers me even more!

I was thinking about your Blog and how this might have a connection.



http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/07/23 ... pro/200182

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/20 ... uired.html

:idea:
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JamesN.
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Post by JamesN. »

I saw this article this morning and it spoke to me of all the children needing to be heard. How many of them suffer in silence because no one listens to their pain; waiting like a ticking time bomb until they feel they can take no more. How heartbreaking to read of a culture's response that cannot seem to be able to address the generating factors of hopelessness that they feel as they blindly strike out into the darkness at an enemy that they can neither see nor understand; only wanting the suffering to end. It's not just the bulling here that is at issue; but also the failure to give these children a sense of their own true value, and self-esteem.

Here is where Joseph's work IMHO offers the greatest promise of hope in helping a child to come to terms in understanding their place in the world with an internal compass to help guide them.

I know that there are many important efforts being made to address this need within many of the various educational avenues. ( Clemsy's " Dream Class " curriculum ) used as an approach would seem to be one such method that could be assimilated I think. ( I know there must be others. )



http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/ ... mesticNews


:idea:
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JamesN.
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Post by JamesN. »

I got this off Yahoo this morning and I think it raises some important issue distinctions about connecting a child to their society and their accountability for their actions; but in a good way for it points out how it can also add meaning and context to the relationship. I think some of Joseph Campbell's ideas would fit right in here with this understanding. ( See what you think. )
Parents of students in Portland, Oregon, are upset about “community service” discipline, which has kids doing clean-up chores. Photo by Michael H/Photodisc/Getty Images.


An elementary school in Portland, Oregon, has put a controversial approach to discipline on hold after parents complained that it caused their kids to feel “humiliated.”

The “community service” program, called off at the César Chávez K through 8 school while the Portland Public Schools district investigates, reportedly punished misbehaving kids for unruliness (such as throwing food) by having them do chores that included picking up trash from hallways and paper towels from bathroom floors. But that didn’t sit well with some parents.

“My son has been humiliated and he’s frightened to go to school, and he feels sorry and has some esteem issues. I just don’t think that’s right,” Jeff Hagadorn, the father of a first grader, told KPTV. He noted, “I feel like if a student gets in trouble I’m fine with him having detention or having extra school work.”

However, Christine Miles, a spokesperson for Portland Public Schools, tells Yahoo Parenting that the aim is to offer consequences that are alternatives to punishments including suspensions, expulsions, and extra homework assignments because research has shown those options are ineffective and have negative consequences. She also stresses that while the district widely uses community-service discipline, the methods in question have been temporarily put on hold at César Chávez in order to ensure it’s being used appropriately.

“We’re trying to see if the chores match the discipline,” Miles explains. “If they make a mess, they have to clean it up. If they hurt someone, they have to apologize. If they are involved in a food fight, then part of the discipline is to correct their behavior by them cleaning it up — but if they’re being instructed to instead be cleaning up the restrooms, that’s not okay.”

Jeremy Finn, and education professor and discipline expert at the University of Buffalo Graduate School of Education, tells Yahoo Parenting that, while he’s not familiar with the specific program in Portland, it sounds like it has the potential to be effective. “Community service is a method of discipline used by the courts all the time, and it always seemed like a good one to me,” he says. “It gives students the chance to make up for what they did while keeping them in school — and anything that gets them back in school is good.”

Some of the confusion about what’s being carried out at the school in question, Miles adds, may stem from the fact that several schools in the Portland district have been participating in trainings for “restorative justice” discipline. It’s an approach gaining a foothold at schools nationally, and aims to foster more open, meaningful relationships among students and teachers as an alternative to “zero tolerance” policies such as suspension and expulsion. While the César Chávez school is not one of the six in the district that has been using the method, Miles notes, an administrator from the school has attended the training program; part of the investigation will be to examine whether the school has been putting it into action prematurely or inappropriately.


And while the superintendent has not made a public statement on the situation, local paper Willamette Week interviewed candidates for the upcoming school board election on the issue, and most agreed that doling out chores that matched the misbehavior was appropriate — especially if it meant providing an alternative to excluding kids from school. But they agreed on another point, too, as articulated by candidate Bobbie Regan: “It should never be a shaming activity.”



https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/schools ... soc_trk=ma
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet a scholar-administrator from the University of New Mexico, who is the director of a writing center at the university. His background is in linguistics and he has written about the subject of tutoring and the administration of a writing center.

The concept he seems to have introduced to the tutoring program at UNM's writing center is the notion that the tutor and student should be co-learners, collaborating on the shared activity of writing as a process within a social, interactive context. (Traditionally, the tutor was the expert who fixes the student's flawed work, and the written product is the point of a short one-on-one session.) He started programs that implement new ideas about co-learning.

IMHO, his approach to tutoring is a sign of innovation in the learning process at the university.

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

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