The Last Chapter

I have to admit that I wanted more from the last chapter of this book. I've read the book before, and I can't remember how I felt when I finished it the first time. Have you ever read something and it didn't effect you, but then you read it again and the message was different? What was bland was now amazing. That's happened to me several times. I often think about teaching as a means to a revolution. Am I getting to the kids, or am I just speaking letters condensed into words that hit the ears of students listening to another voice? A texting voice. A Top 40 voice. Maybe all this is hitting a deaf ear. Today I taught Rock Cycle to a group of 4th graders. I wonder what they will remember from the experience. Will they remember the terms, Esker, Igneous, Glacier, or Kame? Maybe the will remember the lyrics to Rock Cycle. Does it really matter anyway? Do they need to remember any of those terms. These kids were crazy. They were off the wall. At one point their student teacher asked me, "How long until the next activity, because the kids are just goofing off at this point?" This was a student teacher. Not their "real" teacher. I thought the same thing. We were in the pit looking for rocks, and after 10 minutes the kids lost interest. I'm not saying that the activity isn't worthwhile. It has it merits, but the timing is off. Sami wrapped things up, but then we still had several minutes to kill. I decided to take the kids on a short hike. We went exploring for wild things. One of the students found a woodchuck den, and I "tried" to lure it out. Of course I knew the woodchuck would not come out, but it was exciting. The kids were totally silent for the first time. They were engaged. No bells, or time told us what to do. We were in the moment. This is the revolution. We don't need a revolution on a bus. Rosa did this for us already. God bless her. We don't need to write a letter to a senator, or a president. We just need to take kids outdoors. We need to learn how to feel for the moment. We might miss the bell. We might not follow the rules. Some might get upset, but who cares? Feel the moment. Feel the moment.

The Final Chapter, the force has been restored

So a few thoughts. First, I have just finished watching Star Wars all VI episodes for the first time ever in time. YAY me.

Second. I loved at the end of the chapter he got all biblical. "We cannot live on bread along" THank you word of God. I also thought it wasn't nesessary and didn't add to his point, but each to their own.

THird. I would have liked the difficulties of movement and reform to be discussed more. I think that reform is truly difficult for those involved. It is emotionally hard even when you truly believe in something and have to go aganist friends, family and co-workers. Things are most often taken personally because we put are heart into almost everything. I must say that I am most aware of the anabaptist reform, which was very harsh and grave consequences for believers. It is not easy to believe things when people are always saying that you are wrong.

Well I think that this class has been good overall. Dispite my issues.

Chapter 7

I really enjoyed reading this chapter the best. It was more interesting and kept me going. chugging on like a little train... toot toot. I thought that Palmer set up his argument for the need of social change well. I liked how he outlined the stages of social change and then later went into more detail. Changing a system is very hard and time consuming and requires a lot of planning. But however hard social change becomes, there is always the push for something different and better, which is great. So whether the is change that is happening for cleaner air, better educational system, betterment for people's rights, it is possible that it can change as long as there is that desire, push, organization... change will slowly come about. I liked the part when Palmer said, " As a movement goes public, the identity and integrity of it's participants are tested against the great diversity of values and visions at work in the public arena. We must stay close to our own integrity in this complex field of forces, where we an easily lose our way. But we must also risk opening ourselves to conflicting influences, for in that way both the movement and out integrity can grow."

Let's Make Some CHANGE

Oh, how I love me some talk about social movements.

I come from a family of movers and shakers. My grandfather worked for peace among violent offenders in an unjust system, but eventually got shot for it (he lived). My dad and mom worked for FLOC fighting for farm workers rights and had many a run in with an angry farmer with a shot gun, while my mom's parents almost disowned her for acting like a "commi". I was brought up going to protests, having people yell at me and cops threaten jail time, but I was always told to keep on fighting. I remember going to my VERY conservative high school during the Bush/Kerry election wearing a "Buck Fush" shirt and having every teacher and faculty member tell me that I shouldn't be so brave. So, I guess this chapter really didn't come as much of a shock or much news to me. I have always been one who has been attracted to these people who push the system, or as Palmer calls it "living an undivided life". But, I will not say that I would call myself one of these people, because most of the time, this scares the crap out of me.

While reading though, I realized that my favorite teachers were these people. Sorry to go back to my mentor, Dr. Kimmel, but that man tried to change Texas State again and again. People loved him though. He had students that loved him, awards from administration, respect from the community, etc. I don't really know how he did it. So many other people that I ran into there were not the same way because you could tell they were trying so hard to get that tenure. His classes were not your normal State college classes. He gave his students the test 2 weeks before hand. He hated testing, so he just gave it to us and if we wanted to get A's, we could, EASILY. He focused on an end project that we basically did on our own. The great thing about the projects was that it forced us, as students, to go to him with our thoughts and questions. He would have a line outside of his office during office hours every single day! This always amazed me! But he made that available and open. He was the least threatening person, but everyone respected him. When he decided to write his second book, he pushed the envelope again. He went to the administrators to ask for the semester off, but instead of just telling them he needed it to study the Rio Grande, he told them that he would be studying the "paradigm shifts that were occuring along the Rio Grande". It was great! And they let him have his time off. I feel as though most people would have looked at him like he was a lunatic, but the man pulled it off...somehow.

Sorry, to get a little off track, but I couldn't help myself. I feel as though this change in academia and education in general needs to happen. I think the fate of our society rests on it. I don't know what the world will come to if we continue to have these institutions and teachers who follow them that are just training people not to think, but to follow. I don't think that these people are able to inspire anyone anymore, and that is the most important thing that education can do for a student. When I think about this change though, and I think about myself and the fact that I will be getting a "real job" soon enough, I get a little nervous. My head tells me that I should take a job, and do what is needed, in order to pay the bills (mainly loans for this fine education). But me, who was taught to be a radical, is yelling and screaming that I will refuse to do what I am told to do, unless I think it is right and I can do it without beating myself up for it. This is why I did not get the "English Education" degree. I couldn't put myself in this box and be able to live up to it. I knew that I had too much to offer and too much of a brain to do what the institution told me to do.

divided no more...

A recent example from home that speaks to the kind of movement that starts from the ground up is how parents & extended local community demonstrate how CPS (chgo. public school, =the institution) should be working in relationship with, instead of imposing top-down visions for neighborhood schools. This community of congruence, The Whittier Parents’ Committee began a sit-in (lasted 43 days until CEO of CPS finally sat down to dialogue last week) to fight against the demolition of the Whittier Dual Language School’s field house (la Casita), in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. Refusing to allow its' demolition so that a soccer field be built for a nearby private school, brings to light contentious issues around the management and accountability over funds (Tax Increment Funding) and the top-down reshaping of public education.
Parents demanding to be part of the decision-making process have been asking for the remodeling of the building, including a school library. The presence of organizations supporting the demands of the parents definitely aided the cause, along with accessing media attention helped pressure the bureaucracy to face the parents.

This kind of community organizing for change, is not just asking folks to get on the bus, but be involved in the planning of the action/change in attitudes/behavior over how to assert rights and connect to a larger analysis for what is happening, in this case with the broken system of public education in the country. CPS has been conducting an extreme makeover that includes privatization, demolitions, school closures and turnarounds, massive firings of seasoned teachers that have been part of the large-scale redesign of public education. Public funds are being used to renovate schools that are privatized, while low income neighborhood schools are being starved of the most basic resources.
The fight over the survival of this little field house is an important one in the larger struggles around educational rights, community self-determination and control over institutions. Particularly, the skewed interpretation/narrative of charter schools being the "solution", a campaign on school-reform funded by corporate america. What is the real desire behind the privatization of public education?

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/21/chicago_parents_occupy_elementary_school_building

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U&feature=player_embedded#!

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/1/waiting_for_superman_critics_say_much

Chp 5& 6...

In many ways, teaching as described in these chapters, touches upon styles of facilitation. This has made sense to me in working with youth -the heart of the attempt of creating knowledge -ways of knowing -is being engaged/engaging that grounds the experience to making something feel fun, new, connecting the aspects of real-life before us. Echoing the comment Leah shared on the subject-center having that power to reveal those connections across history, it is true in the work of creating solutions and processes that speak to how sustainability can actually be practiced and modeled in the daily living. I often struggled with gauging how overtly I had to make the connections (from whatever activity or projects worked on) explicitly linked to environment vs. working a creative method to have the participants expressing such connections in their own language. To a certain extent, as facilitators you are still in a role of shaping how an analysis can take place and yet the good stuff is really about how we all get to arrive there as a group, class.

The mapping exercise described in chp. 6 seems like a great tool as an entry point to unfolding what makes up the integrity & identity nuances of people working on the ground. I appreciate Palmer's comments that speak for having a lens to recognize the cultural context through which things such as "ground rules for dialogue" are crouched in.

Chapter 5 and 6

My mind races when I read this book. I think I'll start writing in the margins because my thoughts are a mess. The story about Palmer's speaking engagement is a story I need to read often because its message is at heart of education.

Teachers always feel the need to cover everything in the book. State standards, end of course assessment exams, and administration place fear in the minds of so many teachers (especially math teachers)! Palmer recognized the need for student voice. I could picture the tension in the room with 150 students, and I know it is easier for a teacher to talk for an hour rather than allow students to respond and ask questions. Plus, there is always the fear of not knowing all the answers. This kind of classroom does take some practice, but it's amazing once you are in it. Of course what Palmer does not address is the fact that all classes are different. One year you might have a class that thrives on discussion. Another year you might have a dud. I can never figure out why. I guess I'll blame it on genetics.