educational reform

I think this is fascinating and raises some good questions about our education system:

reasons why teachers are the worst students

People are people and sometimes teachers are the absolute WORST students!

Sitting in the midst of a disabilities conference, with various audience members typing away on their laptops—access for all, after all! But a quick glance around the room reveals that many of them are not actually typing up lecture notes. Oh no. Emailing, solitaire, msn, iPhone texting, and facebook are all up and being actively used.

The irony of this of course, is that these people are all the ones that have to listen to faculty or deal with students using their laptops in class to avoid/ignore the lecture in question.

anxiety, depression, and positive thinking

 

 

In my everyday life, I am surrounded by a lot of people who suffer from anxiety or depression. Both are diseases that I struggle to understand in order to be able to support the people in my life that face these issues.

 

The thing is, as much as I KNOW the symptoms and the how of both illnesses, I have to admit to still struggling to actually understanding why one person can control negative thoughts and emotions and why another can’t.

 

On some level it seems like such a simple thing: when you’re sad you drag yourself out and look for ways to find happiness. When you’re anxious, you stop and tell yourself to breathe and let go. Both are things I can do. But they aren’t things that some of the people in my life can do. And that fact just makes me so amazed by how complex the brain really is.

 

In New Age speak, there’s this idea that we manifest our own reality by willing and believing what we want into being, either negatively or positively. Obviously I’m reducing and over-simplifying for the sake of brevity. Mainstream views of the world toy with this concept and I suspect that on some level more people accept this than actually refute. After all, the power of positive thinking and prayer are part of our everyday vocabulary. From health issues to job hunting, we are surrounded by visualization techniques, calming routines, or various other practices, that all draw on this concept of making our dreams come true by manifesting the power of positive thinking.

 

But what happens when we can’t use this power in a positive way? If we can invite the positive in, can we also invite in the negative? Can we make our biggest fears reality? (Ok, just to clarify, I’m not talking about making the monster in the closet real here). Can our constant anxiety and fears of being misread, misheard, misinterpreted, mis-whatever lead to that being the way the world views us?

 

The question is rhetorical. Obviously I think the answer is yes.

 

So what can we do to change that? How do we create a brighter reality and vision when we can’t still the demons inside? Cause god only knows that it’s hard enough to do it when all the hormones and signals in our brains are functioning according to what is deemed acceptable! These thoughts are front and center in my mind these days as I attempt to help someone in my life face these challenges and deal with students at work with various learning and physical disabilities who are trying to finding coping mechanisms to deal with an ordinary world from the viewpoint of an extra-ordinary body or brain. (Like I said, I am surrounded by these issues)!

 

I’ve found myself giving a lot of thought to how the brain works and how our thoughts/behaviours/actions shape the reality we live in. I’m no expert and I still don’t have any answers. All I know is that as I try to help, I find myself often being torn between conventional thinking, new age philosophies, and questions about what is normal and why we deem it to be a hard and fast rule that must be adhered to. Einstein couldn’t tie his own shoelaces or pass math class; Beethoven was deaf; Van Gogh was manic; and Joan of Arc, well now we wonder if she might have been schizophrenic. So what’s so great about seeing the world according to everyday wisdom?

 

On the other hand, how do we function in an everyday world if we can’t do everyday tasks? From getting out of bed to taking the bus, depression and anxiety can make these tasks feel impossible. So how do we create coping mechanisms that help overcome these challenges to the point of being able to function within the confines of accepted society? What happens when our brain tells us that everyone is looking at us, and we can’t shut that off, and thus, end up creating situations where everyone really is looking at us?

 

These days I’m working on the premise that we learn to manage it by training our body and mind slowly, spoon by spoon, step by step, how to stand back, access, and go forward with the belief that things can be different. I guess I’m currently becoming a fan of the school of cognitive behavioural therapy (not that I really knew what that was a couple of years ago) mixed with a healthy dose of new age philosophy.

 

Give me a week or two and maybe I’ll have a different theory, but for now that’s all I’ve got.

back to school

Today Montreal college students start their fall semester and the halls are filled with energy and questions as new students search for their classrooms and people to help them out. The difference is remarkable and really reminds me of the excitement of new beginnings that those of us in the Northern hemisphere associate with the fall. As much as I experience it while standing in the sidelines, I have to admit that the school geek that I am, longs to start a new course, pencils and clean notebooks in hand.

Once upon a time, I loathed school (actually twice upon a time) and couldn't wait to leave and find work, make money and stop having to do homework. Now I sort of crave it again but realize that now is not the right time to return to the classroom, be it as a teacher or as a student.

Which brings me to another realization today: I'm not teaching this fall, something that fills me with relief and sadness at the same time. I don't know if I'm a good teacher or not, sometimes I cross the line between professionalism and privacy with my students, and sometimes I'm just tired and don't give my students the energy and preparation they deserve (I'm sure I'm not alone in this), but be that as it may, I'm going to miss my students this semester. Because for all that I dislike marking, working with students is something that I love doing. I love preparing a course that they've enjoyed and I love hearing their responses because even though sometimes I feel disheartened by their lack of originality (I've heard it all before...), other times I am awestruck by their creativity, energy and humanity.

This might sound corny, but as much as people can drive me nuts, my students fill me with love and wonder. Not because I love them in any individual way (hell, most of the time I hardly know them) but because I love watching them work through their discoveries and seeing them grow and learn new ideas. In many ways though, because I hardly know them, I get to see what's best in them (without all the trappings that really knowing someone tends to impose on our perceptions of them). It's really an amazing gift that, when I remember to step back and appreciate it, is just fantastic and makes me think that teaching truly is, if you can put up with the drawbacks, one of the best professions. But trust me, despite the fact that I'm waxing sentimental right now, I am not unaware of the many drawbacks of the field.

abstinence education

From the Nation:

There was the Virginia Beach teacher who told her ninth graders they could be arrested for having premarital sex. And the abstinence teacher who explained to the young women in his class that women are like wrapped lollipops, and that after having sex they're nothing more than "poorly wrapped, saliva-fouled suckers."

Not only is this just disturbing for the sake that it is disturbing, the last comment upsets me because it teaches boys that once women have sex they are used goods and it continues to glorify and fetishize the "virgin myth." Society is far too fixated on the purity of women and too many men are way too enamoured with virgins, or at least the idea of female virginity.

Sure, maybe teens are sometimes too young for sex (hell they probably all are), but the fact of the matter is, is that they're doing it so telling them shit like you can be arrested is just the most ridiculous way ever to teach safe sex. Seriously. The sheer stupidity of people sometimes just overwhelms me. Whatever happened to making informed choices?

Read more of this uber scary news!

Oh the things you'll learn...

Some days, when I sit back, I am somewhat awed by the things my job teaches me. This week alone I have learned (from student papers) about bioremediation, how chemicals impact our sense of love, water shortages in Asia and Canada, the normalization of breast feeding, human rights and globalizaton issue in the Congo and Ivory Coast, and Turkish melodies used in Mozart's Don Giovanni. It's been a busy week!

As much as students think that I am helping and teaching them, they are sometimes completely unaware of the impact they are having on me. I mean, for example, did you know that the majority of Canadian drinking water is underground? I didn't. Or that bioremediation (the introduction of micro-organisms in toxic regions) can actually heal pollution and is ofen more cost effective? Or what about the fact that Mozart used Turkish musical elements in Don Giovanni to convey a sense of chaos and instability in the main character of the opera?

I have learned interesting information ranging from cultural behaviour to Rastafarianism to environmental management to the Black Panther Party to the effects of the diamond trade on the Congo. All from my students. The things teaching teaches are really incredible.

Today I [heart] my profession.

From behind the lens

I'm testing out contacts. Can't say that I'm currently a fan. They drive my eyes bonkers. I feel like I constantly have an eyelash in my eye. Yup, don't know if I'll be able to make the switch.

In other news, a publishing house contacted me about publishing my graduate thesis. Given that they haven't even read the work, I'm not too sure what to expect, but the publisher does seem to be legitimate and the offer sound should it actually go through. However, the choice to actually submit my thesis is fraught with several considerations:

• the thesis needs work before it's really ready to be published and am I ready to let it go out into the world just yet?
• what are the implications of giving over partial copyrights to the work if I ever decide to pursue the idea further?
• do I have the time and self-discipline to edit the work or do I really want to do the work and open those academic insecurities up for examination again?
• there is a whole debate about publishing before you're ready and it being detrimental to your career... would this be me doing that?

I secretly always envisioned reworking the thesis, expanding the idea, and trying to publish it, but I guess I always thought it would be my PhD topic when I was ready. And although the offer is sweet for a graduate level body of work, could the project ever be more? I think it could. I don't know if I'm the one to write it per se, but I think that the research field is fresh, relevant, and totally ready to be explored in the field of Indian literature/poetry. The fact that no one has done so already sort of surprises me.

Monday Morning Meanderings

My thoughts this morning are sort of all over the place, so I apologize in advance if this post seems somewhat chaotic.

First, on the most girly of topics: I now have my wedding shoes, which means that my clothing part of the day is complete. Yay for crossing one more thing off the never-ending list of wedding planning.

Next, I have the means, I have the car picked out, now I just need it to pass the inspection tests and Lucy will be mine. I'm so excited about owning my own (used) new Beetle that I'm giddy. Yes, that's right, I said giddy. Like pee your pants, jump up and down, wave your hands in the air like you just don't care, giddy! I can't wait. Can't wait, I tell you! Whoo hoo... Fuzzy dice here I come (though maybe I should be exploring my options, maybe I could find something even better than fuzzy dice in terms of kitsch factor - think Sophie's Cosmic Cafe kitschy).

And last (cause I'll end here), although I try to avoid work related topics in the public realm of blogland, this topic I feel is suitably neutral that it's ok to explore it. One of the things that I love about teaching is watching students come to new realizations about the world around them; things that we may already be aware of are new to them and fill them with wonder/thoughts. If I were into psychology, I would totally be into the cognitive psychology of higher education learning because it is truly fascinating to watch these students go through this evolution. Depending on their backgrounds, these realizations may be very significant or not but they are common to all of my students thus far. It really is an intriguing aspect in education that I never thought of or was aware of before teaching. Watching young people grow and learn about the world around them and current social issues is definitely the most rewarding part of my job.

Community, Apathy, and the Global Village.

Today on my daily commute to and from work I read two articles (Education and Darfur) in this month's Utne Reader that prompted a fair amount of introspection about the nature of compassion in our current society. In the article about Darfur the author was asking why we are so indifferent to the crisis in Darfur given that we are inundated with horrific images that demand our action.

The question is obviously rhetorical. We are indifferent because we are overwhelmed. There are too many crisis', too many people in need, that the individual no longer knows where to start, what to invest time, action, energy, or money into. I don't think that people care less, rather they are overrun by too many problems that they are paralyzed into inaction and apathy.

So while the teacher discussed in the education article is right in saying that what we need in the world is more compassion, I also think that maybe that individuals need to pick a cause or two and focus on them. This doesn't mean that I think that we should only learn about those causes we've invested in, but rather that we should realize that one person can make a difference if they focus their energies on making it happen.

The education article went on to discuss how specific communities invested in making a change (in the 60s) and made things happen, whereas now that hasn't happened. Bear in mind that the article is focusing on a specific incident and that I am extrapolating rather loosely. However, the point is that my metro ruminations left me with the feeling that perhaps our parents moved mountains more because they only saw one or 2 mountains that needed moving. Obviously there were many issues at hand during the 60s, but the amount of information and media bombardment wasn't anywhere near what it is today. I wonder if the media isn't doing us a grave disservice by blasting us with so much, so quickly, and then moving on. Maybe this is the downfall of the global village. The great irony is that for all that the media and global village allow access to one another, they cause us to lose touch with each other.

Yes the world needs more compassion, but where should we be directing our compassion? The well is only so deep.