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Showing posts from April, 2011

Line in the Sand

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One of the most profound experiences that high school kids can have is to participate in something we used to call Challenge Day. Sure it can be a bit too "touchy/feely" for some people, but the overall impact can have life long consequences. Consequences that can easily affect bad choices, intolerance, and the alienation that many young people deal with daily. Challenge Day is organized around a set of activities that encourage personal growth by having those involved develop empathy for members of their own community, whether it be a school or a culture or a sub-culture. One of the most memorable activities is called "Step over the Line." There are various versions of this movement strategy but it's usually done by stating a condition like, who here knows someone who has died of Aids, or cancer, or heart disease? If so, step over the line. People move around, putting their bodies over the line, or not. As you might surmise, this can get fairly emotio

Refresh Your Memory

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It's happened again. Another best selling memoir exposed as a fraud? We don't know all the details yet, but according to reputable sources like "60 Minutes" and writer John Krakauer, the blockbuster Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortensen may be full of lies. If not complete falsehoods, then some very questionable facts. Did Mortensen's chain of events happen as detailed in his two books? Are the schools he claims to have built all up and running? Was he really captured by the Taliban and detained in a cell or are the "captors" he's pictured with in the book just friends. And then there is the money? 23 million in contributions that include $100,000. from President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize money. Troubling. Very troubling. As Krakauer writes in a recently published essay called "Three Cups of Deceit," The first eight chapters of Three Cups of Tea are an intricately wrought work of fiction presented as fact. And by no means was

Tune In

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This week's daily news is certainly full of blues. Ironic that on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War our country seems more polarized than ever. While the self-righteous politicos like to talk about "the greatest country in the world," the quality of life in the USA continues to deteriorate. One day it's air traffic controllers falling asleep in increasing numbers, and another day we learn of even more tax loop holes for the most wealthy and the largest corporations. We've got blood, oil, and greed all over our hands and faces. In 1861, session was unthinkable. Today, I'm not so sure. Critics of education like to compare the U.S. with other countries. Mostly China and Japan, but increasingly the Scandinavian countries. When I think of life in a country where the kind of energy expended on social justice is minimal because people come before profit, I think about Canada and then Sweden or Norway. Rarely about countries with millions. Maybe it'

Will You Still Need and Feed?

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Dealing with age is something that has never been particularly difficult for me. Like most people, I usually wanted to be older. That changed when my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer when I was 16. High School was full of the usual adolescent hopes, fears, and confusion, but in hindsight, I sense that I was forced to grow up a bit earlier than my peers. Too many responsibilities that my friends just didn't have yet. At 22, with graduation from college, I left home. I knew I would never return and felt a bit of guilt because my father was left alone in the family home. Still, I could and would not live there because I wanted to break away from L.A. and many of the people and the geography that was all I knew. My father lived ten more years. I visited regularly and even offered him many opportunities to move closer to me as began my career in the Bay Area. I have no doubt, though I am well aware that I could be wrong, that I will outlive my parents in all probability.

Sudden Accountability

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I'm sure it's been done before. It must have. Still, I keep thinking of another way to counter all the nonsense about teacher accountability I keep hearing from non-experts who nonetheless make policy. Any teacher who has been in the classroom for more than just a few years has them. They are notes or letters. Sometimes scrawled on everything from a 3x5 note cards to Hallmarks, Post It Notes, fancy stationery or plain ol' notebook paper. Sometimes the come quite unannounced if the form of emails. Like the one I received a couple of years ago from a student I'd had in class 15 years earlier. In many ways the sudden thank yous are the most rewarding because they answer the questions that could only be answered after the passage of time. How many teachers ask themselves daily, Am I making a difference? Even after they retire, the question becomes did I make a difference? And then these little notes appear. In some ways they never stop appearing. I've