Bird Droppings October 24, 2025
I wonder if you can get moon burn. Trying to get pictures of moonflowers.

I was up early in the morning, getting grandkiddos ready for school and fixing breakfast for a few extra folks. I remembered I had several seed pods left on my datura plants, jimson weed, and moonflower. I have promised seeds to a few folks, and I am trying to save as many as I can. When they are flowering, datura only opens for one night and only at night. I get many photos early in the morning if you can get there before the heat of the day wilts the blossoms. When I went out, I thought it would not be long before the clouds let me go out and watch the moon before it sets. Earlier today, I was sitting behind the trees, and the smile of the moon was hiding this morning behind patchy clouds. After a night of playing numerous games and wrestling with a five-year-old and finally falling asleep, the backyard was glowing from the hidden light. I know from my science classes that it is simply reflection from the sun, but it is hard to talk of the moon without attributing to it its own glow. Sort of like a student and a good teacher, one could say. We may never see the teacher, only the reflection of the knowledge and wisdom passed on. I find myself wandering lonely in a pedagogical desert at times.

“Now, nearly all learning space is occupied by an elaborate testing apparatus that measures the student’s progress in ingesting externally imposed curricula and more insidiously provides a sorting device to reproduce the inequalities inherent in the capitalistic market system. …In turn, the teacher becomes the instrument of approved intellectual and moral culture, charged with the task of expunging destructive impulses and fueling the empty mental tank. The student must be permitted no autonomy lest the evil spirits that lurk in everyday life regain lost ground.” Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of freedom, Ethics, Democracy, and civic courage

Many great thinkers and writers attest to democracy and education going hand in hand. John Dewey wrote extensively about this, as did Freire. John F. Kennedy, I borrowed from Thomas Jefferson, and so many more believed that democracy and education are intertwined. But as I read Freire’s statement above, I wonder if what we call democracy is truly that. How can a society manipulate its students into a marketplace, albeit into consumers, truly be a democracy?
Many historical writers of education address the incorporation of higher education. Yesterday, I went to get a water bottle from a vending machine, but only certain ones were on and able to be purchased. So, I could only get specific drinks and specific brands.

In our local high school, it happens to be all Coca-Cola products. I thought it was interesting, as we have the Coca-Cola wars even in schools. It has struck education. I recall one day when I was working. I walked through the gym, glanced at our scoreboard, and saw the huge Coke logo. It was free, I have heard. There is a regular Coke man who many kids know by name. Each week, the school was buying over ten thousand dollars in Coke products. Essentially, every day, he provides sustenance for nearly 2000 students and faculty in this building. It is interesting that, as you add and subtract figures, two drinks and one snack per day per student and teacher equate to over one million dollars in sales per school year, three high schools in our county, and over a hundred counties in Georgia. No wonder corporations want input in education.

I noticed how what seemingly doesn’t happen and is not supposed to happen does; students tend to group by ability. Several times, I have noticed lower functioning students and students who have failed a class, particularly math and science, will be grouped together and often with a younger, less experienced teacher in the classroom. This happens all over, not just in our school. Obviously, Honors and advanced placement classes are taught by better teachers with experience, and in most cases, they have specific certification, “gifted” qualifications. A simple observation: the best teachers are often in the best classes with the best teachers and/or in special education classes for special needs students.

I have been watching the promos for a film coming on cable again: The Ron Clark Story. Ron Clark was the 2000 Disney Teacher of the Year, was featured on Oprah, and was interviewed by Katie Couric. Providing context to content is a major theme in his teaching, and now, with the  Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, he is taking his philosophy to a new standard.

“Before going to the bowling alley, Mr. Clark visited it himself, measured the lanes, and used the dimensions on worksheets. He also used the bowling pins to teach fractions, took the prices from the snack shop, and used them in math class. On every trip, whether it is up the street or across the globe, the Ron Clark Academy will make every moment a learning opportunity because, as Mr. Clark has learned, children must have a connection to something before they appreciate it. After preparing our students so thoroughly for each trip, they will truly get the most out of the experience and internalize all they have learned.” The Ron Clark Academy, Curriculum, http://www.ronclarkacademy.com

Here is a teacher in our time stepping up and using ideas from 1915. John Dewey proposed such things many years ago.

“Only in education, never in the life of farmer, sailor, merchant, physician, or laboratory experimenter, does knowledge mean primarily a store of information aloof from doing.” John Dewey

However, it requires a teacher to go to the bowling alley, go to a store, go to work, and do more out-of-school stuff, and do more work in school, and do word walls, and do stuff, and … on and on. Much more than getting the teacher’s manual off the shelf and using the packaged transparencies and materials provided by McGraw-Hill or whatever publisher is approved by state and federal guidelines, and or has advisors on your state committee for curriculum. It is no coincidence that textbooks are expensive and a big business; every school buys textbooks and software programs. College texts are notorious for their price, but what if they were priced at fifty dollars each, and many, especially in elementary reading classes, are disposable? It amounts to millions of dollars a year in each school district. Last year, over $188,000,000.00 was spent in California to purchase books to keep up with curriculum standards. So if you multiply by fifty states and many more countries, we are talking about billions of dollars at stake.

“We naturally associate democracy, to be sure, with freedom of action, but freedom of action without free capacity of thought behind it is only chaos.” John Dewey

Freire and so many others are fearful of education being too incorporated and losing freedom of thought, which, according to Dewey, is when we lose our democracy. Please keep all in harm’s way on your minds and in your hearts, namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,
Mitakuye Oyasin
(We are all related)
docbird