Friday, August 29, 2008

Notes from 8/29/08

-I listen to Obama's acceptance speech. He mentions that McCain called America a "nation of whiners." Immediately, the hall is filled with resounding "boos!"
-Origin of the 'boo'

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Vegetarianism and Morality Discussion

A question from a vegetarian group on goodreads.com:

"ARE THEY EVIL?
Of course, by 'they' I mean the meat-eaters."


My answer:

I'm very interested in this question. I became a veggie almost 8 years ago, when I was 17. My interest in this discourse partially stems from my remembering the ease with which I gave up eating flesh. I attribute this to having familial support and educating myself pretty well beforehand.

I have, however, thought a great deal about why it is so difficult for many of my friends to make the "leap," a term I use not to emphasize the challenge implied therein. I have acquired a term that was new to me having read Peter Singer's Animal Liberation. The word is "speciesism."

Like so many other -isms - racism, Buddhism, sexism, atheism, feminism, pacifism, and so on - speciesism represents an ideology, a way of approaching the world. The ideology of speciesism is one that, knowingly or otherwise, most vegetarians and vegans reject, at least partially.

We must consider where we are geographically, historically, culturally, etc...before we pass too harsh a judgement on a belief. I think you would all agree that racism, or sexism for that matter, is abhorrent regardless. However, if we fail to humanize the position of others, and we fail to place it in geography, history, and culture, we are ignoring the very empathy that has led many of us to avoid eating animals in the first place. Obviously, this is not to advocate relativism, only to understand that most people have arrived at their various ideologies for reasons other than insanity or pure evil.

When we consider the question of change and the inherent challenge there, we must see that the majority of people are, in one way or another, a speciesist. This majority includes vegetarians, vegans, meat-eaters. The decision to eliminate animal products from one's diet does not necessarily mean that one has overcome the grip of speciesism. Many of us who realize the brutality that comes with consuming or wearing animal also consider our social organizations, our techical advancements, and our artistic achievements as representing progress transcendent of "animal" realm, thereby separating ourselves from our own animalism. We see these progressions as being beneficial to our "quality of life," all the while becoming more and more distant from a natural and sustainable definition thereof. In essence, we look at those "below" us, the non-human animals, with pity.

Believe me, I think vegetarianism is great for everybody. I do, and I couldn't be happier. However, I think alteration of diet is just one facet of an overall change of ideology; a paradigm shift. If we can all, and I mean all, truly devalue the tenets of speciesism and internalize a distaste for those tenets, the fallout will be enormously beneficial.

Many folks, with sound reason, see this as a two-sided debate - with meat-eaters on one side and veggies on the opposing side. I prefer to think that we're all headed in the same direction, and it just so happens that some of us are a little closer to the ideal than others.

Just as with any race, there are those at the front who have the choice of inspiring those behind them to catch up, or they can be vindictive and arrogant, as they speed towards a finish line that does not exist. There are those in the middle, who at times find themselves complacent, not believing in the possiblity of getting ahead, yet knowing they don't have to try too hard to not be last. Finally, we have those "flower-pickers" pulling up the caboose. Many of them have no interest in winning said race even if they have the ability. Instead of ridiculing them or getting overly frustrated with them, we must be advocates for the impetus of the race in the first place. We must help them to see, as many of us have, that the place that we're headed - a more humane, sustainable, natural, healthy world - is ideologically beautiful and pragmatically meaningful.

As a teacher, I'm very much focused on helping my kiddos see the beauty in the process, not necessarily the product, of their work. I see striving towards a more humane view of animals and of our earth is no different: it's the journey that counts.

All that said, the health factor and the environmental factors are a totally different issue. I have not the slightest understanding of the argument against vegetarianism within these two realms.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Notes 8/27

-Dvorak Simplified Keyboard
-"Sorry, but you'll have to beer with me, as I'm a tad bit tipsy." Original Pun
-Can one successfully tickle oneself?
-Letter to Officer Oborski salutation, "This Bud's for you." (A bit inside).
-It's amazing how we lose sight of the beauty of persistence so soon after realizing that it might be necessary to complete a task placed in our way. I've decided not simply to pine for the joy that will come with completing the book, but rather relishing in every word of every page as if it were the last. Funny how the assumption is that one's "learning to read" ceases the day one can decode a newspaper or a recipe. Proof that we never, never stop learning, even with regard to so-called "basic skills."

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Interesting Feeling Quoting

I had an interesting sensation as I wrote the Freire Quote from Education for Critical Consciousness. As I was typing a somewhat large chunk of text, I realized that, at some point, and in Portuguese, and likely on a typewriter, Freire had typed the same words that I was now scribing. Of course, he might have made revisions, etc...but at some point, he had created the order and chosen the exact words that I now was re-typing.

I felt a bit like Freire had been humanized, which is a good thing. To deify folks is to no longer see the obvious connections and similarities that inevitably exist. To make the situation more surreal, I feel so strongly about the issues that Freire discusses, both generally as well as with the aforementioned text, that I can only hope to some day have the skill with words and concepts that Freire does. Amazing.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Freire Quote Part II

'The role of the educator is not to 'fill' the educatee with 'knowledge,' technical or otherwise. It is rather an attempt to move towards a new way of thinking in both educator and educatee, through the dialogical relationships between both. The flow is in both directions. The best student in physics or mathematics, at school or university, is not one who memorizes formulae but one who is aware of the reasons for them. For students, the more simply and docilely they receive the contents with which their teachers 'fill' them in the name of knowledge, the less they are able to think and the more they become merely repetitive. The best philosophy student is not the one who discourses, 'ipsis verbis,' on the philosophy of Plato, Marx, or Kant but one who thinks critically about their ideas and takes the risk of thinking too. No philosophers, no scientists, develop their thought without being challenged and confronted by problems. While this does not mean that a person who is challenged automatically or necessarily becomes a philosopher or scientist, it does mean that challenge is basic to the constitution of knowledge. Thus, when a scientist in search of one thing discovers something else, something not anticipated (this happens continually) the discovery originates in the attempt to solve a problem.

'It is this I defend: if scientific knowledge and the formulation of disciplined thought cannot be separated from a problematic approach, then the apprehension of this scientific knowledge and of this disciplined philosophical thought cannot be separated from a problematic approach to the very learning which the educatee must absorb. I sometimes have the impression (without being dogmatic) that many of those who express doubts about this rationalize their lack of belief in people and in dialogue through defense mechanisms. Their aim, basically, is to continue to be 'banking' dissertators and invaders. This fear of dialogue needs, however, to be justified. The best way to do this is to rationalize it, by talking about its non-viability and about 'time-wasting.' This means that between the 'distributors' or erudite knowledge and their pupils, there can never be dialogue. For those who think in this way, anti-dialogue is essential in the name of 'cultural continuity.' This continuity exists. Precisely because it is continuity, it is a process and not a paralysis. Culture only is as long as it continues to be. It endures only because it changes. Perhaps it would be better to say: culture only 'lasts' when it is part of the contradictory interplay of permanence and change.

'Those who fear dialogue prefer lengthy and erudite discourses full of quotations. Instead of problem-posing dialogue, they prefer a so-called 'reading-control' (which is a form of controlling the students rather than the reading). This does not result in any kind of creative intellectual discipline, only in the subjugation of the educatee to the text, the reading of which has to be 'controlled.' Sometimes this is called evaluation. Alternatively it is asserted that young people should be 'made to study,' or 'forced to know.' Such educators have no wish to run the risk of adventuring into dialogue, the risk incurred by problem-posing. They retreat into their discursive and rhetorical classes, which have a lulling effect on students. Enjoying narcissistic pleasure of the sound of their own words, they lull the critical capacity of the educatee to sleep.

'Dialogue and problem-posing never lull anyone to sleep. Dialogue awakens an awareness. Within dialogue and problem-posing educator-educatee and educatee-educator go forward to develop a critical attitude. The result of this is the perception of the interplay of knowledge and all its adjuncts. This knowledge reflects the world; reflects human beings in and with the world explaining the world. Even more important it reflects having to justify their transformation of the world. Problem-posing supersedes the old 'magister dixit' behind which those who regard themselves as the 'proprietors,' 'administrators,' or 'bearers' of knowledge attempt to hide themselves. To reject problem-posing dialogue at any level is to maintain an unjustifiable pessimism towards human beings and to life. It is to lapse back into the practice of depositing false knowledge which anaesthetizes the critical spirit, contributes to the 'domesticating' of human beings, and makes cultural invasion possible.'

-Paulo Freire, from Education for Critical Consciousness, published in 1973 by Continuum

Friday, August 22, 2008

Dream, Abridged (ha!) 8/22/08

Part I
I was in a line to go across a bridge. The bridge was a draw bridge. It began to draw. I, along with four others, arranged our cars facing the sky with the wheels touching some sort of belt that was to hurl us straight up the drawn bridge, where we would wait until it was back down flat. At this point our cars are as big as toasters.

I am having second thoughts. I don't understand how I'm to get back into my small car. I don't understand if my seatbelt will be sufficient. I don't think I can hold on for very long when I'm all the way up there with the birds.

My fellow drivers are not having second thoughts. They're repairing the belt's engine. One sexless person is checking its watch. They seem to be doing things typically associated with unsuspensful waiting. That's all.

Part II
I'm walking up the steps. The steps lead further up. In the middle of two flights of stone steps is a relatively flat slab of concrete. The slab's slope is mathematically equal to that of the stairs. In this way, the slab is roughly parallel to the steps.

Eventually, I reach a point where there the slab's slope becomes zero, concievably the top of the, whatever it was. I decide to walk out onto the slab, which immediately begins to incline, in the same way the flat plane of the draw bridge did.

As this begins to occur, I find myself unable to remain grounded. I start sliding down the slab. The slab's slope is beginning to approximate that of the slab contained within the stone stairs. I am sliding down the slab on my feet and butt, realizing that I've a suitcase or briefcase in my hands. Although I recognize this, I decide not to use it as a tool for retarding my speeding descension.

I begin picking up speed. As I do, I speed past my friend Seegs who is wearing windshorts. I decide not to grab his Umbro shorts. There next is a man who has recognized my distress. He lends his hand. I am going too fast. I continue to speed past people walking up the stairs, in the opposite direction. I can sense that they are reacting. I don't know if they're ridiculing or pitying me.

Eventually, I stop.

Part III
I'm with my third graders from Allan Elementary. One young girl is in an argument with some others. She tells the other group, "Eat my dick!"

I am terribly upset by this. I don't think she understands what she's said. I take her aside and we talk. I ask her if she knows what the word 'dick' means. She says, 'no.' I tell her that it's a fairly nasty word for 'penis.'

We laugh because, as I explain, her statement is impossible. I tell her that girls don't have 'dicks.' Only boys do.

We both seem satisfied with the progress.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Rosie's Tamale House

As a resident of central Austin, I have a high regard for the culinary arts, from the low end dives to the somewhat higher end dives. I'm used to flavor that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Unfortunately, I work in Dripping Springs. We tried Rosie's today at lunch, and before doing so, I had never actually been overtly offended by a food's claim to be of Mexican origin while tasting so much like it actually originated in a can. The salsa, which evidently is worth charging for, amounted to a can of tomatoes, which were, in their defense, sufficiently pureed. The queso wasn't much better, clearly of a line of products that contains the phrase, "cheese-flavored substance." I had the quesadilla. It reminded me of the one I left in the microwave of my dorm as an undergrad after a foam party at the ol' frat house. Good times. My colleagues were similarly dissatisfied, as the three of us were left searching for flavor like an oasis in a desert of blandness. Which brings me to the shining moment in Rosie's history. The best thing about the experience would have to be the 32oz waters you can take back to the office. They tend to make coworkers jealous, as they sip from their inverted party hats at the water jug. As for service...wait, there was no service. Of course, the rest of the folks seemed to be enjoying themselves, their slow, methodic masticating reminiscent of the grazing of cattle one might find around any corner here in DS. Oh, yeah, and not only did they make us pay for this little party, but the prices were unreasonable and predicated on culinary ignorance. I would comment on their tamales, which are their namesake, yet they didn't even have any available. One little piece of advice sums it up for Rosie and her crew, 'Vaya con dios!'

Monday, August 11, 2008

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Notes from 8/7/08

-Kolb's Experiential Learning Model
-Scholasticism, Bacon, Aristotle vs. Cartesian dualism
-"There's nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come" -Dr. Robert Urekew
-Plato-'Allegory of the Cave'
-'In Norse mythology, before the creation of the world, it was the divine cow Audhumla who, through her licking of the cosmic salt ice, gave form to Buri, ancestor of the gods and grandfather of Odin. On the first day as Audhumla licked, Buri's hair appeared from the ice, on the second day his head and on the third his body.' - from Wikipedia page on 'Salt Lick'
-Aristotle's 'Prime Matter,' 'four causes'
-material cause (matter)
-formal cause (form)
-efficient cause (process that brings it into being)
-final cause (purpose for existence, aka instrumental cause)
-Eudaimonia
-Lori Grinkler, photography

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

'Bloods and Crips War Poetry'

Second instillation of poetry...last, given it's not mine, just something I find fascinating as an educator whose focus is multiliteracies. Found under the heading 'Bloods and Crips War Poetry.' Very interesing literary style, unfortunately the possible hand-written visuals are not transferrable. I can only imagine the ways in which this language would have been further encoded.

Awesome. From http://www.gspoetry.com/bloods-n-crips-war-poems-94156.html

"
LaLa14:

imma crip an she a blood
when at war it cause a blood flood
she got dat red i got dat blue
which one u claim is up to you
gun wars an reppin our sets
on da street corner wit dice makin bets
crip love is above da rest
fuck bloods crips is da best
livein an diein protectin our fam
joined together cuz we give a damn

fuck dis blood imma da crip
stepin to us u betta not slip
unlike bloods we aint pussies
we got guts we aint no wussies
fuck da blood game
its bout crip fame

DatGuhShawty:

I am blood so a yall crip
aint got nothing on us
we alway winning so
yall beater watch yall
back we got this our
name fit us causes all
we do is Blood people
Dats how we do it
So If at not blood
Just yall crip azz
down cause blood
coming through this
think rememberer
We Blood cause we
dont do nothing but
show Red

LaLa14:

nobody could give a shyt bout a slob
pussie ass bytch's all get rob
robbed of they life dont make it get took
life for u is bout to get shook
cuz u cant step to our level or handle crip hands
they so hot snap ya neck like a rubba bands
cuz u cant stand to be up agains me
why cant u jus see
that bloods get defeat
by tha crips in da street
cuz they can't compeat
when tha crips bring dat heat

DatGuhShawty:

But u know we alway
have niggas hatting
on us and shit like
we be just minding
our own business
Just come fuck with
blood like yall know wat
the fucking deal it we
running up on us yall
get deal with by us
Crips dont fuck with
us know we red we
all read be the baddest



LaLa14:

ya'll be thinkin people hatein
but ya'll tha one disriminatein
about our color first
in tears ya'll bout to burst
cuz da crip game is higher den blood
cuz when when we cum tha river flood
da blue in da air when we step to ya'll
cuz ya'll pussie's an easy ass brawl
a fight wit a slob is a sure enough win
our style an movements get 10
ya'll can't defeat
with tha crip heat

DatGuhShawty:

We not worried about who game higher
Long as we know that yall we never get
on our level never spit like we spit we
aint worried about the game then
We will alway be Bloods so fuck wat
anybody else say cause we already
top of the line yall will never get
like us so try yall we not even
come close to it cause it just
like that cause we bloods
We alway step it rite
for them crip cause like that
song say we fly no lie u know this
BALLIN

LaLa14:

who u think better crips or blood u dicide


DatGuhShawty:

Bloods up crips down
"

Found Poem-Crip Anthem

Having been interested in the literacy of gangs for years, I went on a short search for 'gang-related poetry,' which I remember being introduced to in middle school. I've always been interested in it's proliferation through various means, because I think it would give folks an insight into the intelligence of these kiddos that, sadly, is generally overlooked given other aspects of appearance. Power of expectation. How might we expect to be involved in inspiring learning, empathy, and dialogue, when the majority of us are uninformed, taken aback, even scared of our kids?

Anyway, here's The (as opposed to the, I guess) Crip Anthem, discovered on http://www.freewebs.com/crippincuz1/ .

Tha Crip Anthem

C~R~I~P, C~R~I~P
CRIP! CRIP!
MINDS OF STEEL, HEARTS OF STONE,
CRIP MACHINE IS MOVIN ON.
BLUE STEEL, BLUE FLAG,
CRIPPIN HARD NO TURNIN BACC.
RAISE THA "C" AND HOLD IT HIGH
FOREVER FORWARD, DO OR DIE.
SPREAD YO WINGS, RAISE YO HEAD,
WE ARE RISIN FROM THA DEAD.
WHO SAY?
"C" SAY!
WHO THA GREATEST?
"C" THA GREATEST!
CANT STOP,WONT STOP,
WILL NOT CE STOPPED!

SOLIDERS! SOLDIERS!
WAR! WAR!
LOSE ONE, KILL TWO,
NEVER STOP UNTIL YOU DO.
HEAR THA SPIRIT FROM THA GRAVE,
GOT TO CRIP EVERY DAY.
THA "C" IS STRONG, THA WORLD IS WEAK,
STRENGTH AND LOYALTY IS OUR KEY.
ACROSS THA SEA AND OVER THA HILL,
GAUGE IN HAND WE COME TO KILL.
COAST TO COAST, STATE TO STATE,
C-MACHINE IS ON ITS WAY.
WHO SAY?
"C" SAY!
WHO THA GREATEST?
"C" THA GREATEST!
CANT STOP, WONT STOP,
WILL NOT CE STOPPED!

IN SIXTY-NINE THA "C" WAS BORN,
34 YEARS AND GROWIN STRONG
FROM OUT THA EAST CAME THA "C"
FROM THA WEST CAME THA REST.
EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE,
NORTH SIDE, SOUTH SIDE,
NATIONWIDE, UNIFED,
CRIP! CRIP!

RAYMOND WASHINGTON DID HIS BEST,
CRIPPED FOR YEARS, NOW HE REST.
BIG TOOK, CE LIKE HIM,
DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN.
MAC AND SATIY, THEY WERE DOWN,
O.G. COMPTON, STRONG AND PROUD.
HOOVA JOE, HE WAS RIGHT,
CUTTIN THROATS DAY AND NIGHT.
UP THA HILL, DOWN THA HILL,
THROUGH THA LAND, KILL THA KLAN,
KILL THA DOG, ON THA WALL,
BRING HIM DOWN, BUST HIS CROWN!
WHO SAY?
"C" SAY!
WHO THA GREATEST?
"C" THA GREATEST!
CANT STOP, WONT STOP,
WILL NOT CE STOPPED.

KEEP THA BUSTAS ON THA RUN,
IF YOU CATCH HIM SLICE HIS TOUGUE.
BACC HIM UP AGAINST THA WALL,
TO HIS KNEES HE WILL FALL.
HOLD YOUR SWORD, MAKE HIM BEG,
NO COMPASSION, TAKE HIS HEAD!
PLANT THA "C" EVERYWHERE,
FORWE ARE THOSE WHO WILL DARE.
UPTOWN, DOMNTOWN,
BLUE FLAGS ALL AROUND.
CHITTY-CHITTY BANG-BANG,
NOTHIN BUT A CRIP THANG.
C~R~I~P! C~R~I~P!

Notes 8/6/08

-Frank Serafini
-Canon Underwater Case
-SHDH 8GB memory card
-Luke and Freebody's '4 roles of the reader'

Freire Quote Part I

"Men play a crucial role in the fulfillment and in the superseding of epochs. Whether or not men can perceive the epochal themes and above all, how they act upon the reality within which these themes are generated will largely determine their humanization or dehumanization, their affirmation as Subjects or their reduction as objects. For only as men grasp the themes can they intervene in reality instead of remaining onlookers. And only by developing a permanently critical attitude can men overcome a posture of adjustment in order to become integrated with the spirit of the time. To the extent that an epoch dynamically generates its own themes, men will have to make 'more and more use of intellectual, and less and less of emotional and instinctive functions...'"

...and one for the teachers...

"The mark of a successful educator is not skill in persuasion-which is but an insidious form of propaganda-but the ability to dialogue with educatees in a mode of reciprocity."

-both quotes from Education for Critical Consciousness, Paulo Friere, 1973

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Notes from 8/5/08

-Barrio adentro, madres del barrio
-Bolivarianism
-PVC homes in Venezuela
-Philip S. Goldberg
-Bernardo Alvarez
-CATO Institute
-ALBA
-Paraguay President Lugo
-"Shock and Awe Theory in Venezuela"