samefourletters

pedagogy of the perplexed

[samefour-blog]

Kanye, a teacher and Angela Merkel

Hey folks.

I know it's been a while, so you'll have to forgive me. I've moved continents, and as you can imagine, such moves often keep you on lockdown for the first month or two while you settle in. In any event, I'm back, I'm settled and I'm ready to roll. Also, I've been doing my homework - reading and bookmarking tons of articles from the wide world of education, so I'm pretty excited to start sharing it all with you.

As usual, all things seem to start and end with Kanye West. I read this a couple of months ago and it still fascinates me. Initially abstract and devoid of logic on the surface, yet crystal clear in its lucid explanation of the mysteries of life upon further inspection.

In December of last year, a bit of footage came out with Mr. West ruminating on his own mortality (as you do).

He talks about how he hopes world leaders attend his funeral - bringing with them not only their presence and their respects, but proclamations about Kanye basically making them who they are: 

"I was just thinking about my funeral and stuff a couple days ago and thinking who would be at the funeral, People who I want to be in the funeral? I wanna have world leaders that were, like, affected, that said, you know, 'Kanye gave me my shot here.' Or 'he pushed me,' or 'he told me to believe in myself,' or 'when I saw this, it made me feel like that.' I wanna affect people like that when I, like, pass away."

So not only would they be there - taking time out of peace treaties and the global economy to pay their respects - but they would be attributing their status as global power brokers to 808s & Heartbreak.

It gets better. He goes on to provide 'context' to the above statement by reasoning that he fully accepts that what he is doing isn't the be all and end all, that he understands there are bigger things going on in the world - but ultimately arguing that what he is doing is necessary, like the work of a teacher:

"I’m not trying to say that what I’m doing is the most important thing that’s happening on the planet, but what I’m saying is, what I’m doing is necessary. Just like if there's one teacher teaching in a class, what she’s doing is necessary.”

Hey, at least he values our work. Would have been awesome if he had dropped the gender stereotyping and made that imaginary teacher a 'he'. That would have been the cherry on top.

Kanye West. A musical mastermind, a personal mentor and inspiration to presidents, chancellors and prime ministers, and an advocate for teachers the world over. Thank you, Kanye.

- Nima (It's good to be back)

[samefour-blog]

learn to kill a bear.

The following is from here.

In June 1744, the College of William & Mary invited the Indians of the Six Nations to send 12 young men to be “properly” educated. They received this reply:

We know that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in those Colleges, and that the Maintenance of our young Men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinc’d, therefore, that you mean to do us Good by your Proposal; and we thank you heartily. But you, who are wise, must know that different Nations have different Conceptions of Things; and you will therefore not take it amiss if our Ideas of this kind of Education happen not to be the same with yours. We have had some Experience of it: Several of our young People were formerly brought up at the Colleges of the Northern Provinces; they were instructed in all your Sciences; but when they came back to us, they were bad Runners, ignorant of every means of living in the Woods, unable to bear either Cold or Hunger, knew neither how to build a Cabin, take a Deer, or kill an Enemy, spoke our Language imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for Hunters, Warriors, or Counsellors; they were totally good for nothing. We are, however, not the less oblig’d by your kind Offer, tho’ we decline accepting it; and, to show our grateful Sense of it, if the Gentlemen of Virginia will send us a Dozen of their Sons, we will take great Care of their Education, instruct them in all we know, and make Men of them.*

growing up, i found it so trying to learn things that were totally detached from my world. i had these underdeveloped but passionate ideas about how education should look. i grew up in alaska, so i thought i should be learning how to tie a lure / kill a bear / grow grass (the legal kind) / whittle flutes. immature, but not totally misplaced. this provided, perhaps, part of the impetus for becoming a "liberal art-ist".

liberal arts is a bit like this entry - great ingredients, but a bit vague in direction. vague and also kind of vogue. what do you do with these pieces? it used to be very clear what you needed for your given context*. but now the context is entirely shifted because of "global-ization" (new and rare term; look it up).

how do we prepare people for this phenomenon? part of it will rely on engaging all interested parties (i.e. everyone) in defining appropriate fields of endeavor - the skills of today's Hunters, Warriors, and Counselors. and more and more - perhaps the result of living several years in the Orient - i am realizing that this is impossible until the contexts and knowledge of all peoples are accounted for (and respected). and those "peoples" aren't just other countries, but peoples within countries (especially women).

only then can we learn to kill the world's bears (metaphorically-speaking) and to use an appropriate number of parentheses in blog posts (many).

- Naim

*the blog from which this quote originates is fascinating and wonderful.

[firstbook]

‎"Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." - Martin Luther King Jr.

[unicef]

Child-to-Child programme offers education in rural Bangladesh (by unicef)

Pre-school is a luxury in most of Bangladesh, where fewer than 23 per cent of children aged 3 to 5 receive any type of early childhood education.

Join UNICEF correspondent Chris Niles reports on an innovative child-to-child education programme, supported by Unicef Bangladesh, that provides supplementary, cost-effective learning to the most vulnerable.

Full story: http://bit.ly/uCGm2v More info: http://www.unicef.org/

[samefour-blog]

The Cycle of Inequity

Why do all discussions related to education and social justice always end up like this? I know it may be starting to sound like a broken record to you and I both, but still a point that needs to be hammered home on the regular: all that money talk, all that lamenting about under-resourced, minority neighbourhood schools, all that madness.

This article discusses the $2,500 salary gap for teachers working in minority-schools compared to their counterparts in more affluent (read: white) neighbourhoods and affiliated schools. May not sound like much, but it's the tip of a deadly iceberg in terms of consequences and repercussions.

Let's look at the root of the problem: teachers in less-affluent neighbourhoods get paid less, are treated worse, don't have enough resources, and have to put in a Herculean effort to even dream of closing the achievement gap. Subsequently, they burn out, they naturally yearn for those bonuses and higher salary doled out at better-performing schools, and eventually make the move to a more stress-free existence. The achievement gap then widens as schools with a higher minority population have constant turn-over of first and second year teachers looking to move on after having 'paid their dues'.

How do we tackle this problem? The article argues, quite logically, that

To make things truly equitable for kids, districts should require that each school, whether it's in a minority or a white neighborhood, have about the same number of first or second-year teachers and veteran educators. That would also make the average salary of each school's pool of teachers the same. Or, we could always ditch the salary schedules and give more money to teachers working their butts off to close the achievement gap, no matter how many years they have on the job.

So throwing that 'broken record' caution to wind - it unfortunately boils down to talk of money. Yet again.

Teachers deserve it, those kids desperately need it, and the world will thus become a more fair and equitable place.

Posted by Nima

[samefour-blog]

"We can see the impact on health. Educated girls are less likely to contract HIV." - Isobel Coleman at a 10x10 event in NYC (via @10x10act)

http://10x10act.org/

[nationaljournal]

[samefour-blog]

nationaljournal:

PHOTO OF THE DAY: President Obama visits a classroom at Yeadon Regional Head Start Center in Yeadon, Pa., on Tuesday. (PHOTO: Charles Dharapak/AP)

[samefour-blog]

Speaking of the need for a virtues-based education

I'm sure most of you have heard about this by now, where a poor 2-year old girl in China's Guangdong province was run over by two vehicles and left to lie there in her own blood while dozens of people walked past. It touches directly on the Martin Luther King vis-a-vis the need for a virtues/moral-based education stuff posted below.

The article quotes a correspondent's take on the 'collective soul-searching' the accident has brought about in China, with a large part of it related to the nation's education system and its possible shortcomings:

'Many people are discussing what they perceive as a loss of morality in Chinese society... some observers have been pointing out that China's education system really has failed here, that it's failed to emphasize and reinforce the need to respect human life at a time when 1.3 billion people (are) all clamoring and rushing to climb up the economic and social ladder.'

Posted by Nima

[samefour-blog]

Celebrating MLK Day in October...

Since Na'im got us first class sleeper tickets on the MLK train with that fantastic clip, I might as well do my bit and carry a couple bags - or at least throw in a couple of my personal favourite quotes from the indomitable Dr. King: "On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' And Vanity comes along and asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But Conscience asks the question 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right."

and from his last speech, the night before he passed:

"And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

How great can one man be? To answer the question - if anyone was even wondering - how this relates to education, I guess the first thought that comes to mind is that the whole notion of racial prejudice and civil rights touches directly on the importance of an education that raises awareness and fosters a sense of love and service towards humanity. No matter what way you look at it, it's hard to entirely disregard the merits of a virtues-based education. By only sticking to pure 'academic' learning, the education system fails to equip it's students with the tools necessary to break the shackles of ignorance, prejudice, discrimination and injustice. I guess you could say that in this sense, Dr. King was one heck of a teacher. P.S. Speaking of trains, if you haven't seen Darjeeling Limited, do yourself a favour and watch it tonight. One of my favourite films: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO1bYukdvLI P.P.S. To poetically tie it all together, here is an amazing quote from a Jay-Z track that gives dap to Dr. King and his iconic peers: 'Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther could walk, Martin Luther walked so Barack Obama could run, Barack Obama ran so all the children could fly...' Nuff said. Posted by Nima

[samefour-blog]

this is topical. apply twice daily.

Posted by Na'im

[samefour-blog]

Haiti & UNICEF working to provide free education to all children

On Monday, President Michel Martelly announced that 772,000 children will receive free schooling this year, including 142,000 children who have never attended school before.

Awesome.

From here.

[samefour-blog]

...and the ¥500 response.

Guo Shougui (pictured) has been a substitute teacher for 22 years, all along hoping for official employment. He makes about $150 per month. For those of you not acquainted with rural China living standards, no, that isn't enough. As the article states, many teachers have to sell their blood on the side to make a living wage.

So many discussions of Which Country will Reign Supreme in Two-Thousand-Whatever. All of them miss the point (probably - I don't actually read much). As long as education and teachers are undervalued (and in many cases in the developing world under-trained), not only as professionals, but as community figures of paramount social importance, we're going to remain in this toilet (see below). And then it's not going to matter who's got the highest GDP, cuz anyone with any sense is going to be too busy emigrating to Finland.

This piece is sad and a little sensationalist, but it's the reality facing a lot of people in this maturing country and an indicator of where global focus should be directed.

Posted by Na'im

Photo found on linked article.

[samefour-blog]

The $320,000 question

Six figures and then some. This article is a year and a half old but it's still pretty revolutionary stuff. (Attn: this is my first blog post ever so please bear with me - and thanks in advance for any constructive criticism).

The New York Times piece is based on some research done by a Mr. Raj Chetty (a Harvard economist) and his crew, who: 

     "examined the life paths of almost 12,000 children who had been part of a well-known education experiment in Tennessee in the 1980s. The children are now about 30, well started on their adult lives. On Tuesday, Mr. Chetty presented the findings — not yet peer-reviewed — at an academic conference in Cambridge, Mass. They’re fairly explosive.

     Just as in other studies, the Tennessee experiment found that some teachers were able to help students learn vastly more than other teachers… when Mr. Chetty and his colleagues took another look at the students in adulthood, they discovered that the legacy of kindergarten had re-emerged.

     Students who had learned much more in kindergarten were more likely to go to college than students with otherwise similar backgrounds. Students who learned more were also less likely to become single parents. As adults, they were more likely to be saving for retirement. Perhaps most striking, they were earning more."

Pretty incredible, isn’t it? These findings emphatically and conclusively demonstrate a sentiment that a lot of people merely relegate to occupying a warm and fuzzy feeling – that kindergarten teachers are important people who play an important role in the development of our children’s lives. Not so fast, Mr. Chetty tells us. Not only are kindergarten teachers important figures in our society, but he pulls up cold hard numbers to show us that we need to collectively put our money where our mouth is and pay these teachers the brie and cheddar. $320,000 a year, to be exact. Yeah. Crazy, I know, but oh how I love it. They arrived at the above figure by estimating “the present value of the additional money that a full class of students can expect to earn over their careers. This estimate doesn’t take into account social gains, like better health and less crime.” Which drops another eye-opener – what number would we be looking at if we actually factored in social gains associated with ‘better health and less crime’? $500,000? $750,000? The bottom line, as clear as the noon-day sun, is that teachers are greatly undervalued. Why do kindergarten teachers average $50,000 in the US if they’re lucky, while investment bankers from a certain institution (nothing personal, fellas…) received an average payout of $369,651 (£233,000) for 2010?

Thanks to Mr. Chetty, we’re finally getting data that conveys exactly how our current economic system/(mis)valuation of professions doesn’t make sense; that the gross undervaluing of teachers and cuts in education spending isn’t a sustainable approach to genuine progress. As long as we underpay teachers, and as long as we deprive them of the resources they need, the more prisons we’ll have to build, and the more once-great nations will lag behind in terms of their collective skill-set, so desperately needed to remain competitive.

The article continues by illustrating the timely nature of the research, demonstrating how “the gap between the pay of college graduates and everyone else grew to a record last year, according to the Labor Department, and unemployment has risen far more for the less educated” and concluding that although “given today’s budget pressures, finding the money for any new programs will be difficult… that’s all the more reason to focus our scarce resources on investments whose benefits won’t simply fade away.”

It all seems so reasonable, yet sadly so far away from being a reality. Instead of going for the quick fix when the economy and everything else around us seems to be going into the toilet, we have to be steadfast and buckle down for long-term solutions. To keep our eyes on the prize, let that chili slow-cook all day instead of going for the 2-minute TV dinner. We may not get to taste the sweet fruits of our labours during our generation, but we have to put all of our efforts and attention into building indestructible education systems, armed with well-supported teachers, abundant resources, and opportunities for reflection and professional development. A vibrant economy and a healthy future demands all of that. Now let’s start paying these hard-working kindergarten teachers their $320,000 a year.

Posted by Nima

[samefour-blog]

Burton is back

...and he hasn't aged a day. I feel close to LeVar, not only because we both employ unconventional punctuation in our names, but because he had a hand in raising me, eventually leading up to my recent purchase of a Kindle. According to this, Spaceman-meets-educational-entrepreneur is getting it done. Merging his two personas to create educational apps and interactive learning experiences for digitized youngins. All in all good stuff. I think the notable part - the argument deserving attention and engagement is the following:

"The educational system is just not getting it done," contends Burton. "If we’re going to reclaim our place in the world, in terms of how we educate our children and how we prepare them for the future" he concludes, "it's going to get done through a private-public partnership."

More and more we read of schools and systems that are farting technology into the atmosphere without genuine attempts to engage with it. Burton doesn't seem to be talking about schools directly. He wants to create passion for reading and learning. However, being a passionate learner is sort of a dry characteristic without a setting within which to flex that passion. And what better place to do that than a school (besides all the other ones)? But schools need to have systems in place that accept adaptable technology and reject useless ones. Having a computer does not make things better. Having real and practical tools tailored to your curriculum and learners does, and that can be a projector or an abacus.

We have so many amazing technologies that improve our lives. The majority are not intended to challenge us, but to make things easier and faster. Learning requires a different approach. Learning happens best at the point where fascination meets struggle. The way technology is currently being applied to schools is like using Powerpoint in a family discussion. Sure it helps to lay out your ideas and opinions in a clear and comprehensive way, but you're just reading from the slides and the lights are all off so I'm getting tired (i.e. you're doing it wrong)*.

To continue the metaphor, this family needs a counselor. Maybe it's LeVar Burton, but more likely is actually not a person, but a new way of approaching education. Part of that should take place on the devices that consume a majority of our time. But let's not forget that we are sending our children to buildings filled with highly capable individuals trying their damndest to do the very thing Burton is committing to with his efforts. Places that, given enough attention and resources, can create the most passionate future app developers.

Posted by Na'im

* BTW, to learn how to present well, watch this.

[samefour-blog]

welcome to our minds

we look forward to you joining us on this journey. we dread you telling us how wrong we are, but patiently anticipate it and know that it will aid in our growth.