Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan W-A-T-E-R

Signature

Water Pump

As I was reading the story of Helen Keller, I was as impressed with the story of Anne Sullivan, her teacher and long time mentor.  The story of Teacher is as amazing and heartbreaking as that of Helen.  More than that is the insights and the brilliance of her approach to the child.

We all have heard stories of the water pump and the crisis in Helen's life at that moment that brought about the rapid and dramatic insight that fueled her thirst to move on and learn 30 or so more words that day.  What we hear about less is the brilliance of the Teacher.

This was not the "Miracle" that started the tremendous growth, the miracle was the Teacher's insights early in her approach to Helen. The actual beginning of the story is in Anne Sullivan and her victory over her own blindness.  The foundation     that took a blind girl from a poorhouse and put her in a school for the blind and nurtured her to valedictorian and placed her with Helen at the age of 20.

Anne Sullivan went into the Keller home and defied the authority of the father, in he name of progress.  She took a child who was out of control and first set out to teach obedience and rules.  It was this first step that led to the water incident, the word progression and the eventual resultant Helen Keller, college graduate and hero to the world.

Anne Sullivan is portrayed as the Teacher, and if I could emulate her insights and decisions on her own limitations half as well, I would consider myself a great and fair follower of her moral and intellectual prowess.

She had the insight to take the child out of the chaos of home and set rules, "Obedience" as she called it.  She saw a child of 7 that was developmentally about 2 and so started to treat her as such.

The story is touching, the Teacher is the element that made the pieces fall into place.  Stood up for her student and when it was apparent she could not advance the child any further, sought help and placement.

Helen Keller was a brilliant and amazing person.  Anne Sullivan was the catalyst that brought a chaotic child into a model for overcoming disability.

Anne's key to this was simple observation, self reflection from her past, self awareness of her limitations and the stamina to continue to work with others without jumping ship.  Anne was needed by Helen throughout her life, even when the Teacher was more the support system and the continuity of a presence of positives.

This chapter did not teach me about Helen as much as it exemplified the internal qualities of a true teacher.  Always know your limits, teach to the mental and not the chronicological age and when you have maxed your abilities seek help.  Look at yourself daily and ask- do I really know what to do next and might consultation be the next step?
                                                               Helen Keller on the State Quarter of Alabama.

Helen and Anne (Teacher) 1988

F/U on what blogs can generate

Remember her face.

She was banned in Tuscon.

I blogged it.

111 hits.

15 emails.

10 FB invites.

5 Blogs to follow invites..

And one particular request:

Arizona lawmakers banned schools in the state from teaching "ethnic studies" classes. Unless public schools canceled classes that included racial and ethnic themes, the state could block schools from receiving millions of dollars in critical classroom funding.
But Arizona state officials pushed one school district too far: Tucson Unified School District not only cancelled its vibrant ethnic studies classes, but also banished any book that dealt with "race or oppression."
As a result, students and teachers say dozens of books -- including Shakespeare's The Tempest -- can no longer be taught in class, and some have even been removed from classrooms and locked up in school storage.
Now students and teachers are fighting back in order to draw attention to the ban and keep those valuable books available in schools. Norma Gonzalez is a teacher in the Tucson school district whose class about Mexican American culture was canceled after the state's ban. She started a petition on Change.org asking the Tucson school district to take the banished books out of storage and put them back in school libraries. Click here to sign her petition.
Arizona has been a hotbed of controversy for the nation's immigration debate. But a secondary casualty of what many see as the state's intense anti-immigrant focus has been Arizona's students. For many of these students, ethnic studies courses were proven to close the achievement gap like nothing else had.
Norma sees the ban unfairly hurting her students' education. "Before the ban, I taught my students that, regardless of where you come from, you deserve respect and should love who you are," Norma said. "Now, I can't teach that. My students are angry and confused because they see the ban for what it is: discriminatory."
The literary purgatory of Tucson's school storage facilities now contains dozens of books that have race as a central theme. In addition to the boxed-up books about Chicano and Mexican American history and literature, classics by authors like Thoreau, Shakespeare, and Atwood are seen as too controversial by school officials.
Many are fighting to repeal the ban completely, but the school board fears the state may pull $15 million in funding in response. While several students are fighting a lawsuit to challenge this ban, many books are still stored away. Norma and her fellow teachers want to make sure the banished books are made available in each school's library, so students can read the books that teachers are barred from teaching.
Click here to add your name to Norma's petition asking the Tucson school district to immediately take these books out of boxes and put them back on school shelves:

http://www.change.org/petitions/tucson-school-board-dont-lock-up-knowledge-return-books-to-students-now?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&alert_id=RFJFmASWXc_PoDcfcKYTt&me=aa
People read and notice!

Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar... An Eclectic Thesis

SCIENCE?

The frustrations of the world enter into every aspect of life, and so do the victories.  We spoke about democracy.  Idealism and beauty.  But also the unfortunate creator of freedom that deams certain days and times unavailable to one, 

If only space-time curvature could make my work schedule and the available times for obaining documents and teaching observations coincide.

SCIENCE?

I have this beauiful backround check that is 2 years and 1 week old.  I was supposed to have been done last year when I worked for a high security level project.   Bu they, even though they stated that no person would be excluded from this backround check, because I had one done 2 years and one week ago.  So instead of marching into the ABS office and getting cleared, I must redo it Monday when I get paid and I may be late- and I hate late- for an assignment.

Acceptance and move on.

Above you are images of science.  Apocolyptic, humor, and pollution.  I plan to teach science,  physics or biology.  I spent the week looking at Blogs of various science teachers from elementary to college.  They went from traditional, to experiential, to poliical and to creationist.

I found them to be a mixed breed of my truth, not your truth and real truth.  There were the blogs to prove an extreme viewpoint must be taught.  There were blogs about the tragedy of the child as they are exposed to misconceptions by books that see the world through concrete eyes.

And then there were pragmatists who simply asked why- and gave you (as the student) opportunities to explain.  And hey looked at it from the developemental level of the child.  This excited me and I wanted to know more.  I looked at the blogs he followed- excited more.  These people were prolific thinkers of problems that seem to me to be simplistic.  I want to write one, and I have started.  Some evil scientist stole my byline- Stranger in a strange land, which made it better.

I am starting a journal blog, on blogspot for now and its title- Understanding how to Grok- Student to Teacher. 

The thing is that we are all strangers in a strange land.  We have mastered he Bohr Atom or the trajectory of a canonball.  But like the Stooges stethescopes and doctor garb doesn't give you the ability to go any further until you understand how to Grok- how to see the world from another's eye, one who knows nothing (which is just slightly below you and I) and help them understand.

So I blog and am learning techniques and ideas and being noticed. 

I blogged a week ago about books banned in Arizona.  I got 111 hits, and emails from several organizations.  A link to a petition and invites to several FB and blogging groups.  I'll post later. 

Blog sites are fun-  you tube added can give lectures, ideas and beauty.  This is this weeks blog and I feel like a kid in a candy store.
So I think a little of Ireland. to finish.  Was in this pub, near Tralee, near where my great-great-grandfather was born. (might be one great less great).

The video on the frequency od sound from each intrument and harmonics- in a couple years.

    

2250 EXPERIENCES- The class as it affects me.

The main theme of my first two weeks- Question Reality.

Settling into week two.  I discovered that generational differences in the class are an intriguing asset to my awareness of cycles.  They are also an awareness of the diverse natures of acculturation, this a function of listening to the different educational and environmental settings that fellow students have experienced.  The Dewey Decimal System is replaced by the Web, Wiki and Google.  The factual world is more a dilution of thought into a sea of interpretations.  Newton's Laws, Piaget, Cognitive and neurobiological growth were once the topics of scholarly articles, peer reviewed and revered.  Now a blog that is written well, can be free of scholarly review and may often be opinionated and biased.  This is the brave new world, it is uncomfortable at times.  Never trust a book in its First Edition.

I also am intrigued by the imaginative and energetic populous of this group.  They question and they seem excited as a whole, with a small group uncomfortable with the lack of structure.

In a film of old Up the Down Staircase, there is a portrayal of a new teacher in a school of chaos and lethargic teachers who finds a means to interact, find like thinking teachers and struggle with being inventive in a world of mediocrity.  I am reminded of this in the passion of the class, we will to not allow hindrance of growth of our passions...

And the cycles of learning are expressed easily in the ideas coming from peers that I have seen tried in days of old.  Nothing is truly new, yet the additions and revisions are a sign of a purposeful drive to be the best.  For that I find the class look forward to this class weekly.

My only frustration- Blackboard required 24 hours of tech support to get going.  C'est la vie.

Y'all are awesome.  But then altruism is at the top of Kohlberg's hierarchy of moral values (ladder).

As a teacher I hope to be the visual and experiential instructor.

Oh. the questions.  1. Imparting the lust to learn, 2. Schooling is regimentation and structured to meet a purpose (keep kids off the streets)... pardon the satire. 3. Education seeks to teach the person to fish, schooling provides fish.  4. Fundamental purpose of teaching is to produce thinkers with a basis for questioning reality.  5. Learning is to provide a method and basis to think.

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education. Martin Luther King.

NOT THE OFFICIAL FRIDAY BLOG

SOLUTIONS VI\\\\

Define Blogging : the foundation or basics of something.

What is a blog and what is it not?

A blog, to me, is a representation of where I am at a certain time or place.  It is an insight into interpretation of the external events that are either stimulating me, boring me, influencing me or bringing out older ideas or schemes that I have encountered.  I blog a great deal and in several areas.  I find that I am visual and at times uninterpretable.  I find often that when I read something I have written two months ago, it often brings to question why did I write that and what was I thinking.  For example, after reading Dewey, there was a rapid realization that much of his ideas were many years ahead of his time.  That his treatise was very much the model of development that I embraced early in my training.  The inseparable nature of the biological make up, psychological infrastructure and the social environment.  No one area is the true dogma of life and how we grow.  I see things in diagrams and visual-spacial dynamics.  As above a problem may be attacked from two equally valid angles and then analyzed, debated and dissected,  The solution is often a mix of the two initial approaches, hopefully bringing out the best from each.  Scientific method also may see one to be highly superior or may also produce more questions and thus an alternate outcome must be explored.

A blog  is also an experience in other's perspectives.  Reading someones' ideas can stimulate a path or expression that had not been in my psychic repertoire.  Comments on many of my blogs have been seething in their criticism- all the better,  The blog grows from external input, introspective analysis and realistically a blog without comments or reads is a blog that not effective.  I will probably blog 2-5 times a week.  But one comment has stimulated me to get out of information and opinion of a subject, to writing of the personal effect of this experience as a student again.  So there will be many blogs with ideas such as demonstrated here, but Each Tues or Wed I will try to blog about class and the ATL experience.  The byline will be 2250 EXPERIENCES- The class as it affects me.  Feel free to experience, argue and challenge anything.  Others are commentaries on what I see happening, what I feel and how I interpret my other issues will be here as well.

Arguments

And remember philosophy is the stuff on a cereal box..

Shakespeare and Native American Authors Among Those Banned from Tucson Schools

Something is happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear.......

They are banning books in Tuscon Schools. 

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/01/16/shakespeare-and-native-american-authors-among-those-banned-from-tucson-schools-72749#ixzz1jhMO85Gq

From the article:

As part of its compliance with a state ban on ethnic studies, the Tucson Unified School District has banned its Mexican American Studies program and a number of books including The Tempest by William Shakespeare and Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, which includes pieces by various Native American authors including Suzan Shown Harjo, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Joseph Bruchac, Leslie Marmon Silko and Winona LaDuke.
“By ordering teachers to remove Rethinking Columbus, the Tucson school district has shown tremendous disrespect for teachers and students,” said the book’s editor Bill Bigelow. “It offers teaching strategies and readings that teachers can use to help students think about the perspectives that are too often silenced in the traditional curriculum.”
Other books banned include Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire and Occupied America: A History of Chicanos by Rodolfo Acuña.


With this comes the issue- what is Freedom of Education?  What is the teacher's role and what is censorship?

What is next? Romeo and Juliet because it speaks of teen suicide?  George Orwell because Big Brother and the Ministry of Truth are too close to home?  Anything resembling non-traditional child rearing? 

Rage, rage against the dying of the light- Dylan Thomas

We are apparently not capable of having free thought and the free exchange of ideas. 

Book burnings seemed to me as I grew up completely unthinkable.  This is in effect just that, the smoke is just the fumes of anger.

Age appropriate reading is to me a concept that is in itself vague.  Certainly there are types of books that are socially inappropriate.  But these are few.  I read Mien Kampf in High School- it was read in the context of the Holocaust in an AP History class.

Next will Rig around the Rosie be banned due to its origin- the Plague.

The subtle influence of government on  education is becoming less subtle. 

Reminds me of the line from Animal Farm, "All pigs are equal, just some more than others."

What is freedom of speech- is it now a state based entity.  Hatespeach is one thing, but historical interpretations of indigenous peoples pulled out of the schools under penalty of reduced funding?  Ah, here's the rub.  It is not banning, it is declining to fund.  The notorious manner that the Federal Government has used to get states to enact statutes or lose Federal Highway Funds.

This all surrounds HB 2281:

Hispanic students fill nearly half the seats in Arizona's public school classrooms, but a new law signed by Governor Jan Brewer Tuesday makes it illegal for these students to learn about their heritage in school. HB 2281 prohibits schools from offering courses at any grade level that advocate ethnic solidarity, promote overthrow of the US government, or cater to specific ethnic groups—regulations which will dismantle the state's popular Mexican-American studies programs.

Much like Arizona's new immigration law, this ethnic studies ban is political interest dressed up to look like education reform. The bill was passed largely because of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne's personal distaste for the Tuscon Unified School District's Chicano studies program, in which 3 percent of the district's 55,000 students participate.

The Arizona Department of Education can withhold 10 percent of a district’s state funding if it is found in violation of HB 2281. That provision put $15 million of state funding for TUSD in danger.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne pushed for the passage of HB 2281 and has been criticizing ethnic studies programs in Tucson for years:

“A fundamental role of the public schools is to take students of different backgrounds and teach them to treat each other as individuals and not of the race they were born into. Tucson Unified District does the opposite,” Horne told The Arizona Republic. “They divide (students) by race and teach each group about its own background only.”

So how did the Native American population and Shakespeare get included.

The government is a government- of the people, by the people and for the people.  If Latinos are 50% of the school population, how is this a constitutional act?

History tells us that what we do not understand, we repeat.  Logic tells us that knowledge is the means to bring together populations. The absence of knowledge evokes ignorance and hate, distrust and separation.

Therefore-

1. Ban Civil War Histories.
2. Ban Revolutionary War Histories.
3. Ban anything written about the KKK, Naziism, the Holocaust.
4. Ban Defoe, Huxley, Niven, Orwell, Sylvia Plath, and any other book that suggests change,
5. Ignore Iraq and Afghanistan,
6. Ignore thought, argument, discussion.
7. Promote the one truth, one that is defined by government.
8. And let us not forget Dr. Seuss- He wrote of diversity and color.

This is on the surface madness and an attack on Dewey's thoughts of the teacher as mentor and evaluator of student needs.

Get out you hands and legs, there is a state who is about to place strings all about you and make every move you make directed as the teacher becomes the vehicle of the Puppet master.

Please think about writing legislatures and meeting with your own representatives should this idea spread.

Prejudice and difference is taught, it is unknown to the newborn.

But if the agenda is to eliminate a sector of the population then Ignorance is Strength, and the bans prove it, for knowledge and understanding trump ignorance.

And of course Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Lao Tse, and many more must be silenced,  They had a dream-

We now have a nightmare.

Read more:http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/01/16/shakespeare-and-native-american-authors-among-those-banned-from-tucson-schools-72749 http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/01/16/shakespeare-and-native-american-authors-among-those-banned-from-tucson-schools-72749#ixzz1jhP5V0Wc

Observations on an Article from the 19th Century

There are unexpected and unexplainable events in the lives of each of us as we walk through life's path.  The article by John Dewey (1897) is one of those that, when read in context, is a model of the ideals of a complex interplay of biological, psychological and social interplays that are the core of the child's learning capacity.  His thesis is observational, as was much of the science of that era, but it is astutely accurate in how it sees the elements of the forthcoming biological basis of learning and how this interacts with social and psychological makeup.

He basically outlines the educational system as an extension of the home, an interpretation of values and an awareness that there is a genetic predisposition to learning capabilities.  The child initially is an unconscious learner who is influenced by the social mass that he or she is born into, and develops from motor to intellect through actions and adaptation. He plainly promotes a model of interactions between the biological (individual make-up of the child's cognitive abilities), psychological (the child's perception from conscious and unconscious interactions with the world) and the social (family, peers, history and interactive morality) as challenges for the teacher.  A phenomena that many years later became a prominent psychological school of thought- the biopsychosocial theory of development.

As diagrammed, the developing student is not simply a specimen to regurgitate information, but a dynamic and plastic organism with a multitude of variables that may enhance or deter learning,


The school thus becomes an extension of that which is the home.  Learning should be based on the school as a social process that uses science and literature as explanations of the world.  He is a pragmatist, seeing the school as a practical means to socially nurture while teaching principles rather than facts.  Exams will root out the ones who should go forth into higher or more task laden professions.  There is no stigma to these choices.  There is an implication that the choices are actually moot and that the bright and excelling student is not of any less importance as the one who follows the path of his ancestors. Making judgemental and directional decisions for the student is not the school's job and it is not the teacher's job.

The school and the teacher have a role in pointing out strengths and embellishing these in the student's school experience. The profession of teaching is a highly important and is seen as one of dedication to the formulation of a well functioning, social adult.  A school and its teachers educate students from their own interpretation of what is important for a child's success in life. The formulas of science are not the meat, it is the explanation of real phenomena that is the teacher's job.  Education is as such a practical introduction  of the child into the world through understanding the child's individual qualities, historical and genetic family history and the move from unconscious to conscious acquisition of knowledge.

Reading, writing and arithmetic are seen as a subset of a greater learning experience, the learning of how to be social and functional in society.  The archaic concept of one's race is understood in the context of the writing and is interpreted loosely, yet in many ways it predicts diversity and cultural challenges that the teacher must both respect and accept as part of the collective that is brought to the classroom.

Four Observations:

1. The idea that there is a manifest interaction between the neurochemical makeup of the child, the psychological makeup as learned and imparted and the social interactions and social mass that they are born into is taken into play- it is apparent he is picturing the biopsychosocial concepts of development and learning, a principle that would take years to be formalized.
2. The school is an extension of the home and the child should learn to be practical and social and that the studies should help them enhance those areas.  The school is a social representation of society and that the lessons learned should be practical and realistic and cued to socially fitting in with their world.
3. The material studied should be measured by social adaptation and the student grades only a means to set expectations.  Teach in the now, not in the future.
4. Finally the teacher is a powerful figure to be of great respect who teaches to the level of the child and directs them along the paths of their strengths.  This is not academic per se, science is the science of practical experience and literature is that pertinent to the time.  The future will come, the present is our life.

BRAIN, PSYCHE, SOCIAL
BIRTH AND FAMILY UNCONSCIOUS

INTERACTIVE SOCIAL LEARNING
IN FAMILY FRAMEWORK

SCHOOL IS PLACE OF SOCIAL LEARNING
AND SOCIALIZATION

SCHOOL IS PRACTICAL AND SOCIETY
BASED


                                                                                                                                                         TEACHER

In many ways Dewey is prophetic in his ideas of the process of teaching.  He sees the individual as a maximizing entity that is prodded down a path that is fit for his or her capabilities  In many ways his awareness of the biological, social and psychological uniqueness of the individual, although somewhat archaic and limiting, is what an ideal teacher of today might attempt.  In Dewey's world there was less distraction and less mechanisms of intervention  for the challenged student.  Today's teacher, as depicted above has more distractions, more information, more support and most likely more is expected in terms of measurable outcomes.

The teacher becomes the adaptor of the potential of the child, the needs of the the child and the social, intellectual and moral development of the child.  The teacher is the societal director of the interplay of home, learning and socializing.  These are lofty and somewhat dogmatic ideals.  Yet the foundations he plants are insightful and relevant to today's educational milieu.  The world may be 120 years old, but the basic ideas are still pertinent.  The energy and dedication of the teacher is a mandatory skill whether seen from Dewey's perspective as the maker of minds and the developing director of morality or in a more modern perspective as the stimulator of the lust for knowledge.  After all the world of 1897 was much smaller and was a time of the explosion of the technology that has enveloped us all.  A step back to a more intimate teacher-student dyad might not be a step back, it is indeed food for thought.

"The self-taught man seldom knows anything accurately, and he does not know a tenth as much as he could have known if he had worked under teachers; and, besides, he brags, and is the means of fooling other thoughtless people into going and doing as he himself had done. There are those who imagine that the unlucky accidents of life - life's "experiences" - are in some way useful to us. I wish I could find out how?". Mark Twain

From John Dewey, My Pedagogic Creed, School Journal, vol 57, January 1897, pp 77-80

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL

Stonehenge

Shakespeare wrote that the world is a stage and we each play our roles.  Today was day one of the next adventure in my life.  The next role.

Education, teaching, passing on knowledge, memorization, interpretation, discussion, truth, hypthethesis, frame of reference, theological backround, family influence, peer influence, pc, not pc, challenged, gifted, ADHD, GED, rating, grading, opinion, disagreement, poverty, elitism, private, public, no child left behind, home school, preschool, night school, adult education, special ed, tardy, Plato, diversity, energized, a,b,c,d,f were the words, phrases and explanations I heard from many people in the classroom today.  Numerous backgrounds and experiences representing divergent thinking and a similar goal- to teach.

So begins day one of the flight from the safe harbor into the roaring sea.  So begins a challenge of questionable outcome, but distinct passion.

So teach me about the picture,  what is it?  To a 4 year old it is a bunch of rocks, to a 10 year old a series of placed rocks, and to a 15 year old it is either an enigma or boring. The geologist sees the type of rock, druid sees a place of worship, an engineer a feat of significant accomplishment, a tourist a great snap for the album and the historian a mysterious collection of explanations all based on conceptualizations that come from their frame of reference.

All are correct, none accurate- absolute truth is not truly ever obtained and sometimes 5 + 7 = 14 (base 8).

What I see from day one is there will be absolutes, basic goals and structure and this will be mixed with countless variables, personalities and frameworks. 

Google Earth TM shows us two other perspectives of the same structure.  Each represents a different image and internal picture of
the traditional representation above.  Frames of reference act in similar ways in all settings.  Close in there is a feeling of order and strength.  Permanence and archaism, yet balance and almost a lightness of the precarious and yet balanced structure.  We see units that are in themselves both autonomous and yet connected.

Then from above the same structure loses some of the order and adds a level of chaos and decay.  We can see the fragility and the randomness of the entropic nature of time.  We have to imagine the structure as it was in the past, have clues to what it might have been
but also see these are ruins of something massive, now returning to
earth and losing form.

The beauty of this simple series of observations is that they mirror the challenge and the teacher's potential to use one example to impart upon the student physical science, history, culture, engineering, imagination, the natural processes of aging and take these concepts anywhere. 

A simple image becomes a tool for the instructor to use their skills to impart a variety of learning experiences.  The possibilities become endless. 

So the world is a stage, a place for growth,  and the role of the instructor is that of the facilitator of a student's growth.  Most wonderfully the student can make his or her own interpretation, in whatever depth that they can master, and be completely right.  It is the instructor's role to formulate the question to allow for students at any cognitive level to achieve a successful outcome. 

We all remember teachers from the past, personally I remember the alphas and the omegas.  I remember the ones who stimulated me the the most and the ones who made class an ordeal. The ones that were just instructors of facts fall into a group that with time has lost identity.  Those that influenced me were excited and positive; they loved their field and wanted to convey that passion.

They were mirrors of the words of Gandhi:

“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.”  

Our stage is the classroom, it is our world and our student's world- may we each positively inspire the flame of learning in as many as we can- but as Gandhi alludes, positive thoughts and habits in ourselves are the honey that attracts young minds to the sweetness of learning.