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Education often draws from NOW.
Bird Droppings October 21, 2024Education often draws from NOW. A few years ago, a teacher offered me a book on curriculum, or she said “Dumbing down of America” by Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld. It has been a few months since I picked this book off the shelf while reading various books at Barnes and Noble, as…
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Can we find answers outside our windows?
Bird Droppings October 20, 2024 Can we find answers outside our windows? It had been a few years since we were at Pawleys Island, SC, when the largest-ever lottery drawing was about to occur. The frenzy of buying a ticket happened at every convenience store and lottery outlet. Just a few weeks ago, a repeat,…
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How we perceive is often the beginning of the discussion.
Bird Droppings October 19, 2024How we perceive is often the beginning of the discussion. I had a thought this morning, and it’s depressing. We are basically training our new teachers in all the things that we, as older teachers, find wrong in education. It hit me as we are teaching all these new teachers how…
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An eclectic morning pondering mortality
Bird Droppings October 19, 2024An eclectic morning pondering mortality I walked out into a clear sky, and stars gleamed above me. The full moon had settled behind the pine trees to the east. My feet got cold yesterday, and I switched to my sketchers for the first time in months from flip-flops. I walked my…
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Daily, it is all in words, how we find them and how we use them, and perhaps other’s perceptions of those words we use.
Bird Droppings October 16, 2024 Daily, it is all in words, how we find them and how we use them, and perhaps other’s perceptions of those words we use. “The farmer channels water to his land. The fletcher whittles his arrows. And the carpenter turns his wood. So the wise direct their mind.” Dhammapada Many…
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Perhaps, within ourselves, is the change we need?
Bird Droppings October 15, 2024Perhaps, within ourselves, is the change we need? I have been away from my computer for a few minutes. Hopefully, in the next few weeks, I will be hearing from my dissertation chair about defending my paper. I have a feeling of accomplishment and ending my procrastination. I am not complaining,…
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Birddroppings October 14, 2024 Listening to a five-note flute and pondering at a Honda dealer I arise relatively early, even in retirement, on my days off from my part-time teaching. Each morning, I run up to my corner store for conversation and to stock up. I need a couple of Smart water bottles, sometimes the…
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Looking for synchronous moments
Birddroppings October 9, 2024 Looking for synchronous moments My first profound encounter with the idea of synchronicity was possibly at Mercer in one of my psychology classes, but I had forgotten about it, in all honesty. The school of psychology at Mercer was more Jungian than Freudian, even though experimental psychology and Skinner’s ideas seeped…
The daily meanderings of a teacher 