Interests:live music, the blues, photography, writing, creative non fiction, travel writing, documentary film writing, acoustic guitar, lap steel guitar, new orleans brass and funk, NORML, hawaii, travel, cold coffee
recently... learning japanese, taiko, surfing, cooking with japanese cooking directions, trying foods that smell/look terrible
more recently, watching bootlegged DVDs in Phnom Penh, marathon sweating, directionless city walking, pull-ups and yoga. Expertise:primary education, literacy development, Freireian development philosophy, advocating educational equality, capacity building with teachers/students, 12 bar blues and
I do really good impersonations of people. Occupation:Education/training Industry:Nonprofit
So I did this last paper on his concept of 'constructionism' --that we each construct our different ways of knowing, though, most often, the formalized, abstract, removed way of knowing is regarded as "formal" or "academic."
Papert is interesting because he and his crew are behind a lot of the interesting stuff we see Apple/Macintosh doing.
Papert is also interesting because he is the theoretical base for the OLPC project, which worries me a little.
If we all become autonomous, individual learners...will we forget about each other? Is this the place we're coming to with social networking sites? with...this blog? I'd so much rather have all of you over for dinner, some tunes and field trip down to St.Nick's pub than this digital connection we've limited ourselves to.
Then again, not as though friends in CA or Japan could just pop by----but I still just feel the strain of being digitized. Positive, powerful thoughts flowing for ways to incorporate critical pedagogy with technology in education. more to come on that.
we moved. the old roommate bit just wasn't working out and, in less than one week we: decided we needed to move, found a new place, packed, mobilized, unpacked and lived. the details are foggy now, some 4 weeks later, but I remember: writing midterms while Y packed, leaving the library every 3 minutes to field craigslist calls about our old room or from our new landlord, actually giving a care about my "credit rating" for about 2 days, moving in 2 subway trips and 2 gypsy-cab rides across Harlem and the first meal we cooked and ate (on the floor) in our new place.
so, we's all growns up.
that was just the beginning of the fun. we thought we were going to move again. did I mention we moved about a Mexican restaurant called "El Mismo" ? Restaurant would be a euphemism for this place, which is actually a juke-joint-catchall-of-drug dealers-and-users. Some nights, totally silent, some nights, solid bass hits til 3am. I have, as you might expect, come to embrace and cherish such an experience. The landlord is going to do some sound-proofing measures and, as a late-night interaction with a somewhat-frightening man reminded me--we got the place cheap. in NYC, you live and learn...and learn....and learn. and you walk.
Got a new suit, went to thanksgiving in Portsmouth, NH, saw J get married in Long Island, started finals last week and....here I am. Isn't it disappointing? All that downtime, and that's all you missed! Of course there is more, but it's all subject to interpretation, translations, notarizing and socio-political-global-economic constructions of 'reality' dependent on your own 'fabric' of society which you have woven for yourself. That's my way of saying, while I wasn't blogging, I hung out with some smart kids here in the academy and learned a few new fancy words! don't you just jump at the chance to use 'ephemeral' or 'pejorative' whenever you can?
Well, I do.
No, but seriously, I'm enjoying Teachers College. As a panel of recent alums told us: it's what you make of it. I get to dive into theory, learn about who the big top fat cats are pulling most of the strings of global education (answer: world bank, imf and UNICEF...not to mention USAID) and their motivations (answer: over-development of global information-based economy) while also learning about teaching and getting some in-the-classroom time a few times a week. 1st grade? who knew how cute those kids were. Having a focal student in 1st grade is a lot like being the fun uncle who takes you to the movies or McDonalds--I get to come around, pull my student out of his group, read a few books, do some fix-up strategies with his reading comprehension, decoding, fluency--then he goes back to the class routine. So, basically, he is never, ever difficult and I'm never, ever a burden or authoritative figure to him. It's, for one small hour a week, a nearly perfect example of idealistic educational practice.
And, since I've decided to get comfortable here for a bit, I learned how to go about auditing a course. Auditing means you get to take the course for FREE-99. It also means my work won't be reflected on my transcript--but, with all of this critical pedagogy rhetoric I'm pushing these days, shouldn't I be taking as many courses as I can handle, not worrying about GPA or credits?
So, this spring I'll be auditing a seminar on 'Reporting on Education' at the Journalism school. How cool is that? I'm also considering taking an undergrad Japanese course--but one step at a time. the seminar on reporting on education, I found out, will focus on 'getting behind the tests' and trying to demystify the numbers games of standardized testing and, I hope, talk about what standardized tests are really all about (my op here): sorting us out and continuing economic reproduction.
This, as the title hints, brings me to my promise: I'm going to have to write a few pieces for this journalism course, and I wanted to say that I'll be posting them on here. When they get written. My papers from this semester....well....unless you're really interested in social learning theory, technology in education, Tokugawa and Meiji era non-formal education in Japan or the 'convergence of technology and literacy' then, well, I gots nothing for yas. I do, however, have a link to a video I made in preparation for a presentation I did on 'how to use technology to support critical pedagogy' --you can check it out here: 5-star community garden visit.
I continue to think that technology is the best worst thing to happen to education.
And, for those of you who know Ki-chan, we're doing well. What better time to share your first apartment than when one person is in grad school for the first time and the other is living abroad for the first time...it's kind of like 'Perfect Strangers', except we can't figure out who is cousin Larry and who is Balki Bartakamous. She'll be going to London for a few days in an act of submission to the dept of homeland security and immigration...and our apartment has become very...colorful, which is a nice addition to the ridiculous amount of sunlight we're able to enjoy from Amsterdam ave. We do not eat at 'El Mismo' for fear that our noise complaints to NYPD will somehow be reflected in the 'secret sauce.'
Oh yeah. My confession. I confess, you guys, that I *kind of* like New York. I mean don't get me wrong--this is the largest (though most well-organized) collection of nut-jobs, weirdos, sociopaths and hooligans I've ever been immersed in--but anywhere you can pick up copies of The Onion on the street, stroll through autumn leaves in central park, and sit next to a barking lunatic on the train...any place like this is ok with me. I forecast a swift move from new york within seconds of getting that pretty little degree in my hand, but I think the time I spend here will be 100% constructive and character-building, whateverthehell that means.
Finally, for my SoCal frineds, we'll be in CA Dec 22-29 and Jan 9-16. Wanna get together and see how many times we can say 'ephemeral' ??
and, I don't have to worry about her being safe in NYC, because I know she's already been through rigorous language and social training in American culture:
also, I seem to have found the answer to finding multi-modal, sensory stimulating instructional methods for students of any level (or maybe just for skeevey men who tend to watch aerobics videos for jollies. )
So I got to participate in a student walkout (though I didn't actually have class to walk out on, I should be reading/studying) to speak out against racism and hate in our own campus. People alluded to the notion that this could have been in an inside job, as we have pretty tight security, it was a profs door tucked away on the 4th floor, etc--
but it all came screeching to a halt (for me), the rally cries, the assemblage of concerned, reactionaries--with two events:
1) one of the speakers that worked his way to the podium decided that he would use his time (just after we did a minute of silence, which I'd considered time for personal reflection, prayer, meditation, etc) to make a prayer and, in my opinion, devalue the whole purpose and point of the gathering.
Why would you pray to Jesus, and ask for his blessing on our country at a university that prides itself on becoming a "Global University"?? Why would you believe that you can fight sectarianism with sectarianism--we'll fight these racists....with JESUS! Are my colleagues, my peers, really so naive and unaware of how exclusive that act made the event? Did they not see the confused looks of Japanese, Chinese, Lebanese, Jewish, agnostic students in the crowd? Do they not realize that, by saying "we want no division--we want to celebrate diversity--we are united as one! united we stand, divided we fall!!" and then praying to Jesus--you have pretty much drained the tub--well, at least, it turned me off.
2) speaking with an Indian-American student as we walked around the building, she made one of her continuous jokes about another guy and I being her token white friends, and needing to surround herself with "more students of color" at this event.
WTF? I asked her. I asked her to explain her reasoning on that. She couldn't and just explained, well, you're the white men, and that's how it has always been, and how it will be. You're my friends, I like you, but we'll always be different in that way.
Keep in mind, I'm knee-deep in Freire right now and reading about the concept of 'unity IN diversity' the idea that, when you acknowledge that the TRUE oppressor is the wealthy class, the dominant, powerful, decision-making class--you realize that, regardless of color, race, ethnicity, gender--we are all the MAJORITY---to the minority of the wealthy, dominant class.
Freire points out: the longer we continue to draw these boxes around ourselves, the better and more comfortably the dominant class will sleep at night. As I sink into debt for education, as you take loans for healthcare, as we put these cages around us thinking that white= oppressor and color= minority, we keep this system in place, and at the benefit of who? The rich. The dominant ideology. The ultra-wealthy, good old boys club.
She knows this already, because I've ranted at her before, but I had to remind her: you're dealing with a white cover to a book which reads like this: I am the son of an Irish/Scottish descendant, an Arab-Argentine Immigrant, a Trinidadian immigrant and a Czech descendant. It's not as though I have to rationalize my "whiteness" --nor should I have to point out my weekends of latino family get-togethers, the uncomfortable yet inexplicable awkwardness I felt as a child hearing people make fun of accents like my grandma had, the diligence I have taken in understanding my families progression from Syria/Palestine to Argentina, to America, my racist family members who regarded the other half of my family as 'mexicans'-- but, I got to my point: I don't give a shit what you say at a protest, what poster or flag you wave, or even if you're at the protest. If you don't have it straight in your mind, if you wake up each morning approaching the world with this paradigm that it is only "us and them" and if you don't recognize that continuing to section yourself off from other humans only furthers the campaign for the dominant--then you're defeating the point.
Well, she answered, I'm a narcissist.
I still haven't been able to figure out what that has to do with anything--except that maybe this woman likes to make conflict with everyone around her in the attempt of having the upper hand or making it about her.
I can't let my mind be filled with fatalistic determinism...yet another reminder that it's time to slow down.
Be here, now.
Feeling like I have one foot on the platform; education, teaching, pedagogy, dialog, discourse, communication, interaction with other humans, my environment
and one foot on the train ; studying, trying to create more knowledge, calls for papers, academic writing/discourse, integrative projects, theses, publishing, journals, recognition, job security, networking, tenure......
tomorrow is John Lennon's birthday, and so, tonight I'll end by quoting him:
" A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together, is reality."
"I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I
believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in
your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as
the here and now?"
"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace."
"If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche
that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem.
Love and peace are eternal.
"
"As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot."
"Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans."
"I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an
old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in
all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all
the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone
wrong."
"Reality leaves a lot to the imagination."
"You make your own dream. That's the Beatles' story,
isn't it? That's Yoko's story. That's what I'm saying now. Produce your
own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It's quite possible
to do anything, but not to put it on the leaders and the parking
meters. Don't expect Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan or John Lennon or
Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You
have to do it yourself. That's what the great masters and mistresses
have been saying ever since time began. They can point the way, leave
signposts and little instructions in various books that are now called
holy and worshiped for the cover of the book and not for what it says,
but the instructions are all there for all to see, have always been and
always will be. There's nothing new under the sun. All the roads lead
to Rome. And people cannot provide it for you. I can't wake you up. You
can wake you up. I can't cure you. You can cure you."
