Drive-Thru-Edu

McLearning.

With the recent events sparked during the uprising in Madison Wisconsin and other states, we are seeing a lightening fast dash towards an educational brick wall. And our kids are in the front seat, with no restraints or airbags. We are absolutely on the wrong path.

Now that path has been federally funded, paved, green-lighted and the speed limit rose to 100 mph.

Schools, administrators, Republicans, Democrats, unions, Obama’s “Race To The Top” program and Bush’s “No Child Left Behind ” act are collectively conspiring to be the perfect storm of destruction for our society from it’s roots.

Somewhere in the recent past our education system took a turn and we became hyper focused on the testing model. The idea that test scores were the be-all-end-all proof our kids were being educated took the place of a real, whole education.

We have become a nation of drive-thru educators. And the emotional and educational nutrition of this system is about as healthy as the other drive–thru choices American’s frequent.

What's wrong with measuring academic progress through standardized tests? Pretty much everything.

What would happen, if one day, all testing were removed from the system? What would be left in each school day to accomplish? If there were no preparing to test or being tested? Imagine the possibilities…

Our public schools spend literally 90 percent of class time preparing to test and be tested. Learning to memorize ‘facts’ and spew them back out on to paper on demand. Learning how to formulate testing results. Learning how to prep for more tests. And worst of all, learning that they feel like completely stupid losers if they are not proficient memorization specialists. Causing our bright young minds to have a glossy impenetrable sheen of poor self-esteem and derailing their hopes to express and excel in anything outside of test scores.

Why should they bother trying or thinking or dreaming if they have been shown on paper they are stupid? Funny thing about ‘paper-testing stupid’ is that is rarely identifies brilliance where it is blooming. But it can quickly destroy a child’s hopes and dreams in one red marker stroke.

Higher Test Scores Do Not Equal Learning.

Overwhelmingly, teaching is being redefined as acute test preparation. Eighty percent of teachers spend most of their time instructing students in test-taking skills.

Standardized testing destroys much of the curriculum. What do they sacrifice about a child's education to get test scores to rise? Everything else. Art, music, humanity, and studies of all kinds are left for ‘if we have time later’.

The message our children take home, and in many cases through out their entire lives: There is no value in you or what you desire, love or feel passionate about. There is no value in a civilized, thinking humanity and there is no value in critical thinking or passion.

What could be more soul crushing than having to suppress your love of science or art or music, than to have to incessantly fill in the blank ovals with a number 2 pencil?

It is abhorrent that 3^rd and 4^th grade teachers are routinely told not to teach social studies and science until March. Real curriculum is replaced by multiple-choice memorization.

Fact: Endless grade tests and graduation tests increase school dropout rates like crazy.

A Harvard University study found that students in the bottom 10 percent of achievement were 33 percent more likely to drop out of school in states with graduation tests. The National Research Council states low performing elementary and secondary school students who are held back do less well academically, and are far worse off socially. And as you can see by the violent crime statistics worldwide, social behaviors and acceptance counts.

They guys at Harvard, who conducted this study, probably attended small private elementary schools when individualized learning needs were identified and addressed and it does NOT take millions of dollars to implement this kind of thinking or this kind of educating.

Very few if any teachers or administrators and NO public school districts spend any time trying to find out how each child learns best, and then teaching him or her that way. Labels are far easier than actually exploring a child’s potential.

Before you say ‘but they can’t afford it’, don’t. Because that is the same BS argument people give when we say eat more healthy foods in place of drive-thru cuisine. As Obama is so fond of saying: Yes we can.

Fact: Public education is currently the single biggest expenditure for every state.

Just like raw vegetables are cheaper than McDonalds meals, so is raw learning cheaper than fast-brain-food. It is a lie to say we, as a society can not afford to teach kids better. Bull Shit.

We cannot afford NOT to. Our society as a whole hinges its very survival upon changing this path immediately. I assure you if we fail to do this, we will snuff out the middle class faster than any Republican big business agenda ever dreamed of.

The leaders of the Central Falls district in Rhode Island recently threatened to fire the entire staff of the town's only high school. Unfortunately Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Obama thought this was a fine idea, even though no one at the high school had been evaluated. This thinking is fatally flawed right to the top.

Until the entire education system, starting at the root in elementary school, is overhauled, there will be no educational renaissance. And believe me we need one. You want to cut spending in schools? Start with administration costs. Cut out 30% of the non-teaching staff and wasteful nonsense forms and protocols. Cut out 90% of standardized tests. That would save the system millions right off the bat.

But how will we know if our kids are learning if we don’t have test scores to look at?

Try looking at the kids. Read their papers, their actual work. Look at their paintings, their writings, look at their faces.

Do they love learning? Is school a place they look forward to going? Are they engaged in their own education? Are they excited about a subject or two? Do they feel they can achieve a dream or a goal?

Do they look at college as something amazing to strive for?

Do they feel like they are worth something? Do they feel their passions and favorite subjects are valued? Have they been encouraged to create? To think creatively? To think at all?

Surprise, they are probably truly learning.

You Can Fly

When there's a smile in your heart

There's no better time to start

It's a very simple plan

You can fly...

from 'Peter Pan'

When  J. M. Barrie wrote 'Peter and Wendy' about 1903, he official instructed humans in the art of flying. We all wanted to believe somewhere along the line of our lives that we could fly. Some dream about it and it feels so real, it takes our breath away. Sometimes we daydream about flying. 

We get in airplanes all the time, but it never feels the same. In fact it is the exact opposite of why we dream of flying. It confines us, controls us and makes us usually quite uncomfortable. Sometimes even sick. Flying does not feel like this.

Flying is freeing, it is exhilarating and if you do it right, you are one with the universe and you can feel harmony and peace like no where else.

And yes Wendy, you can fly. 

Let go, open your mind, you can fly. You might just not be able to fly the same way as a bird or a bat... but think past the obvious.

Remember when you were small. So many things were possible. You believed. Believe again. Believe in yourself.

Close your eyes and spin around on the lawn on a soft summer day and when you fall to earth you have changed how you feel. You are dizzy, light headed. flying can feel like this. And you learn in a simple version of an Irrefutable truth...

You have the power inside of you to alter the physical world just as you can your emotional state. Can you actually defy gravity? Yes, Wendy, you can. Not the same way a bird does, but remember what Peter Pan told Wendy... "Just think of a wonderful thought - come on, let's go"

Scuba divers know exactly what flying feels like. When we dive under and become accustomed to the pressure we become one with the ocean, a part of the sea.

When we find our buoyancy we can glide with very little effort, arms out stretched and open. The sea is an incredible place to find your balance. You feel like you are flying. It is breath taking and I assure you, you are flying.

Parasailing, wind surfing, diving, even snorkeling are all ways humans can fly. Who ever said flying was exclusively for the air?

Meditation, dreams, prayer, are all ways a euphoric feeling can be obtained... 

Happiness is a form of flight. That's why they call it a natural high.

So is love.

Remember that first kiss? Remember the first touch of someone you longed for and never thought they knew you were alive? Remember the moment your lips touched? You know you were flying and your feet never left the ground. There is palpable tangible power in love.

The enemy of your ability to fly is emotional resistance. An open heart is a powerful tool.

Laughter is real medicine.

You know all about a bodies’ resistance to physical attack in terms of germs, diseases and the like. But good human health is not a purely physical event. Naturally occurring physical immunities are of utmost importance. But have you given the same attention to your feelings and emotions?

Emotional health is as important and maybe even more so than physical in prevention of future illness. Emotional resistance to emotional attack is a learned experience. 

When the human body is born from the mother into the world, nature provides an extensive array of carefully honed natural progressions of protection.  But it's up to us to keep the laughter, the joy, the innocence, the love and the empathy that we are hopefully taught by example early on. 

So go laugh, go sailing, learn to dive, remember your happy place....    go flying.....

 

Why do people accuse sharks in the ocean, of infesting their own home?
There is no such thing as 'Shark Infested Waters' .

Do you call the local shopping mall "Human Infested"?

People get a good many things all wrong.

The headline read:

Oldest U.S. Man Dies of Heart Failure at 112

This made me sad.

At 112 years old no one dies of heart 'failure'.

This man's heart suffered no such failure.

This man's heart served him and very many others the way the rest of us wish we could be served by our hearts.

One hundred and twelve years, every second of every day, this man's heart beat faithfully.

He lived four years in the 19th century, 100 years in the 20th century, and 8 years in the 21st century. His heart did not fail him.

He lived through both world wars, man's first walk on the moon and the election of the first black president. As a black man in the South, he knew Jim Crow-era segregation laws. Shortly before his death, he voted for Barack Obama and watched him win the election. His heart certainly did not fail him then.

George Francis was born on June 6, 1896 in New Orleans. He had been an amateur boxer, a chauffeur, an auto mechanic and a barber. He had one wife, until her death. He never married anyone else. He had four children, 18 grandchildren, 33 great-grandchildren and 16 great-great grandchildren.

How can anyone say he died of heart failure?

His heart just finished and fell to sleep.
We should all be so fortunate.

One of Us...

When Tod Browning immortalized sideshow humans in his inimitable 1932 classic  "Freaks" , the great-unwashed masses felt a stir deep in the heart of Carny-dom.

One of us, One of us, One of us...

The word carny is thought to have become popularized around 1931 in North America, when it was first colloquially used to describe "one who works at a carnival." The word carnival, originally meaning a "time of merrymaking before Lent," Now the carnivals are all but gone and the sideshow freaks have taken center stage to become the main event.

In a bizarre coincidence, Wrestlemania, the glandular festival of knights, is held every year during Lent. More like a time of money-making during Lent, in this case.

One of us, One of us, One of us...

(If you have never seen the 1932 film "Freaks" you do not know this chant, but trust me, it applies to the WWE Corporation.)

Wrestlemania is the yearly finale to a relentless 12 month cycle of staged brutality and bad acting. The entire big top hoopla is the intellectually challenged brain child of the most successful carny of them all, Vince McMahon. 

Vince is a 3rd generation trailer park wrestling promoter and with his kids as the 4th generation carnies, are 95% share holders of the largest and wealthiest carnival side show ever conceived. While the business is built solely upon the lowest common denominator of violence between men, the corporation is run like a cult under charismatic dictators. Everyone who expects to stay in the employ of the great and powerful wizards must tote the party line, and be impressed, supportive and completely enamored of the family and of the  'sport' of pro wrestling. There shall be no snickering.

The family rule the WWE with iron fists and steel hearts. Employees are expected to counter act the inevitable perceptions of carni-ness with overly polite interactions to the point of nausea. An example is the demand that all employees greet any outsiders with big smiles, firm hand shakes and a bizarre requirement that they look the person directly in the eyes and no where else. The fraudulent and compulsory smiling aside, the regimented manor with which they interact is palpably laced with fear.

While the recession forced the corporation to have a 20% across the board layoff, the entire family puts on the Ritz and live the lush life in ways that make Donald Trump appear destitute. Not surprisingly, no amount of chiffon, leather, diamonds and pearls can disguise a carny this pure. The south has risen again and thy name is McMahon.

Basically, these 'shows' are a dramatized melodrama for a primarily blue-collar male audience with some puerile females along for the ride. Much like a soap opera for males. Sadly, there are very often small children in the audience as well. This is congruent to packing a lunch and bringing your family to a public lynching, then over paying for a hangman action figure and toy noose. Here little Billy, go and emulate the nice hangman.

Well, that is, if the public hanging is scripted, rehearsed, back-storied and involved an on going drama around the victim in which several other bad actors pretended to hang each other for the entertainment of the villagers and their mentally challenged children.

To be sure, one must be prepared for such an illustrious event. One must be somewhat naive, and easily entertained. And by easily, I mean if they were to walk past a shiny object, they might be too distracted to get out of the way of a neon painted charging elephant. 

That being said, these events can be a challenge to view if you have even the basic high school education. The less you are able to process as a thinking person, the more you will enjoy this carnival of human oddities. The McMahon family owes a great debt to PT Barnum to be sure. 

There is an over abundance of brightly colored oak tag signage splattered through out the audience at anyone of these events. Home made symbols of the height of literacy one may expect to attain in this environment. If the audience's tee shirts are not misspelled, consider it a banner evening for the English language.

Millions of dollars, thousands of man hours, hundreds of scripted lines of drivel and a few dozen doses of steroids all make for an amazing spectacle that rivals the most riveting beheading ever hosted at the London Tower.  But why?

Why do a vast majority of humans want to pay to see violence? Why is bad behaviour rewarded with fancy cars and oversized homes?  We may never know, but wouldn't the McMahon family have salivated to have lived when John Merrick was alive.

Why do people accuse sharks in the ocean, of infesting their own home?
There is no such thing as 'Shark Infested Waters' .

Do you call the local shopping mall "Human Infested"?

People get a good many things all wrong.

The headline read:

Oldest U.S. Man Dies of Heart Failure at 112

This made me sad.

At 112 years old no one dies of heart 'failure'.

This man's heart suffered no such failure.

This man's heart served him and very many others the way the rest of us wish we could be served by our hearts.

One hundred and twelve years, every second of every day, this man's heart beat faithfully.

He lived four years in the 19th century, 100 years in the 20th century, and 8 years in the 21st century. His heart did not fail him.

He lived through both world wars, man's first walk on the moon and the election of the first black president. As a black man in the South, he knew Jim Crow-era segregation laws. Shortly before his death, he voted for Barack Obama and watched him win the election. His heart certainly did not fail him then.

George Francis was born on June 6, 1896 in New Orleans. He had been an amateur boxer, a chauffeur, an auto mechanic and a barber. He had one wife, until her death. He never married anyone else. He had four children, 18 grandchildren, 33 great-grandchildren and 16 great-great grandchildren.

How can anyone say he died of heart failure?

His heart just finished and fell to sleep.
We should all be so fortunate.

sleep

I cannot sleep

because I might dream

I cannot dream

because I might think

I cannot think

because I might remember

I cannot remember 

because then I would need to forget

I cannot forget

and that is why I cannot sleep

I'm pretty tired.

Life

You need anger
to have passion
Lonely company
as is the fashion

You need volcanoes
to birth a paradise
You need an earthquake
Mountain of size

A raging fire
In the forest
Will grow a flower
Of sweet newness

this collusion of silence
of hipster reading
still is seeing
always seeing

There was the old man
Silver hair
Worse for ware
He was nameless
But no less
Than I

There was mr pervis
In the backyard
Heart in hand
Kindness never forgot him

Hilly bear
Played quiet guitar
Stop and stare
Beneath the noise of the bar

And he played for no one but him

Mervin was cool
I could never figure out
Left the gig in the school
From Cambridge UK
to the Bowery USA

I cant forget how he got to me

There was the boy
He was true
Too much man for himself
And we went blue

There was the tall one
He had all the answers
But he would never tell me
Did not see me

He was still my stallion
My winged night Mare
The one I could not control
and could not share

He left me without ever leaving
He loved me without ever loving
He says he still does to this day
That he is morn to play

The small trips
Down the dirt road
Paved with gold
To make me old

The long drive
Down that silly mile
I got off before I got on

In between there is my muse
The one who steps
ahead of my shadow
and knows it’s all a ruse.