It is Monday and I wanted to have a more positive outlook... and I decided to challenge your imagination with these pictures of waves and focus your attention to the beauty of nature...
Nature unadulterated with human greed... and exploitation... and pollution ...
Humans have attempted to replicate the beauty of nature... Humans have created wonderful art and gadgets... But the beauty of nature has remained unparalleled... Love it...Cherish it...and above all protect it...
Do you see...What I see....
***
Even death couldn't part two
skeletons excavated from a lost chapel in an English county, found with their
fingers entwined.
A team of archaeologists from the
University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) are working with
volunteers on a four-year excavation project at the site, which overlooks the
small village of Hallaton.
Love just like nature is a wonderful thing and I guess the skeletons will amuse the muses and the cupids... Looking at them...you will write a lovely sonnet drunk with love...aided by the cupids...
***
But I wanted to jot down some notes about
education today... I wanted to have the Global
Village as my "classroom" without any walls...
Notes on
Education…
Just few
headlines and my suggestions… Education is always in the headlines and the
teachers are always faulted for the failure of the system… Of course the
teachers have to bear some of the failure… But the big burden rests on the
politicians who fund the system; the Boards of Education who set the direction
and budget of schools; and the principals and vice-principals who implement the
goals… last, but definitely not the least, the parents who second guess the
teachers on every step and blame the teachers for the failures of the system,
of the parents and of the students…
But the
teaching has to be relevant too…so far relevancy has been understood to
calculate the height of the CN tower or the Twin-Towers in New York or the length
of the Golden Gate… or the tides Australia or eastern Canada… But as I envision
it…relevancy should mean the everyday life and this does not mean a fictitious
trip to the supermarket to buy grocery and budget our money… Everyday life
means things that happen and IMPACT the kids…the community… the school…the
system…the Big Brothers and Sisters too…
Let’s take a
quick tour of last week…
1. The NFL
was front and centre in the news… The famous, million-dollar players were being
charged for spanking their kids… 2 years old…4 years old… and the marks and
bruises on the kids were evident… Read the news item below…
Corporal
punishment is deeply ingrained in black culture, as it is in many other
groups. A 2012 national study by Child Trends found that 74% of black women
and 90% of black men agreed with the statement that it is sometimes necessary
to discipline a child with a "good, hard spanking." On the whole,
those levels were slightly higher than for any other racial or ethnic group.
But can
we, as black people, stop waxing nostalgically -- and defensively -- about
this particular child-rearing practice and ask ourselves some tough
questions? Is it actually harming our children? Is it hurting our community?
There is plenty of evidence that the answer to both those questions is yes.
The
negative effects on children of any race are undeniable. Study
after study has showed that spanking inhibits the learning
process, causing children to do less well in school. It leads to anger,
depression, violence and alcohol and drug abuse. It breeds hostility toward
authority, undermines trust between parent and child and spawns other
antisocial behaviors. And it doesn't just stop with the psychological.
|
Now… this is
both relevant and current… and not like the fossilized towers somewhere…
The Phys.
Ed. Teacher can initiate a discussion and educate the kids about violence in
sports…. The social studies teacher can talk about race and violence… The
educators (these are supposedly the principals and Vices….) can talk about
spanking in relation to education… and initiate a newsletter to the parents… or
call a teacher-parents-admin conference on the issue of NFL violence and
spanking… of course the violence against females is paramount too…
And you can
add all kinds of relevant topics and relate it to NFL… a topical discussion…an occurrence
which rocked headlines in all news media…
Check the
other part of the headlines and new items…
(CNN) -- Defense
Secretary Chuck Hagel has asked his staff for detailed information about the
U.S. military's relationships with the National Football League in the wake
of the scandal over how the league is handling domestic-abuse allegations
against players, CNN has learned.
News of the Pentagon review comes on
the same day a senior Obama administration official decried recent domestic
abuse episodes within the NFL and said the league needs to "get a handle
on" the situation since so many professional athletes are considered role
models to younger players.
The Pentagon is increasingly
sensitive to any suggestion it is supporting a major sports organization that
is perceived to tolerate domestic violence.
|
Discuss the
military and discuss wars… The violence in the NFL and the war culture and
military are apparently related too…
Educate the
kids and discuss the relevant and the current…
2. Read more…
follow the occurrences in the Global Village more closely…
DUBAI: Thousands of children in swaths of
war-torn Syria, now controlled by dreaded Islamic State militants, can no
longer study math or social studies under new diktats issued by the
jihadists.
Sports is banned, the children will not be allowed to learn about elections and democracy. Instead, the children will be subjected to the teachings of the radical Islamist group. And any teacher who dares to break the rules "will be punished." ISIS announced its new educational demands in fliers posted on billboards and on street poles… |
This is both relevant and current too…
The geography teacher can teach the geography of
the Middle east… the cradle of our civilization and the
major religions…The social studies and
religion teacher can focus on the major religions of the
Global Village…
May be questions will pop out… Why schools
should include sports in the curriculum…and health issues will come out
and eating habits will be discussed…
3.
(CNN) -- A fraternity at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is
being investigated on suspicion that members put "date rape" drugs
into drinks served at a party, according to search warrants issued by campus
police.
|
A search warrant was executed at the frat house of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee chapter of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, 3321 N. Oakland Ave., after female students reported becoming ill, possibly from drinks served at a party. The search warrant states members of the fraternity might have drugged the drinks.
The university campuses have
many issues…and fraternities-sororities are important part of it…
Discuss the sex oriented
culture and gender bias and prepare students to the afterlife…the life in
university…
Educate the kids about date
rape…and drugs and initiate a discussion about the drugs which are paddles from
the lockers of the kids…
(CNN) -- It's an unimaginable horror.
A 14-year-old girl with special needs allegedly was raped at school after a
teacher's aide persuaded her to act as bait to catch an accused sexual
predator, a fellow student.
"It has essentially devastated
her life," attorney Eric Artrip -- who represents the girl and her
father -- said of the alleged January 2010 incident.
|
The headlines are there…the
imagination and vision of teachers must be there too…
Check the news item again….
Clemson University suspended a
mandatory online course that asked students and faculty about their sex lives
and drinking habits following backlash from the school community.
The South Carolina public university
started using the third-party online course this semester as part of required
"Title IX training" on sexual violence prevention. Questions such
as: "How many times have you had sex?" and "With how many
different people have you had sex?" raised privacy concerns among
students.
Clemson junior Machaella Reisman said
she appreciates the school's efforts to educate the community on sexual
violence prevention, especially in light of recent headlines related to
domestic violence in the NFL. But, schools should be able to educate students
without asking how many times they've had sex in the past three months, or if
drugs or alcohol were involved, Reisman said.
|
Graham, 18, was last seen September 13 in an area of Charlottesville known as the downtown mall.
More than a week has passed since University of Virginia student Hannah Graham disappeared, and police are certain that somebody must know something.
" Somebody's got to know where she is, and we want to know who that person or persons are," Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo told reporters Sunday.
Specifically, authorities want to talk to Jesse Matthew, a man Longo believes was the last person with Graham.
Questions… More Questions…
i) Ebola is devastating Western Africa…
It will open up relevant topics for Geography….Sciences
….hygiene… and what else…?
ii) Alibaba …. This is the first time China and a Chinese company is entering
the stock market in New York… Alibaba is listed on the Dow Jones…. And initiate
a learning trajectory… about… Stocks… stock market….Chinese economy… Financial
math … Geography…
iii) NFL scandals… discuss… Domestic violence… violence in sports … physical education as health and
not as a career choice…. That will provide failures in academia and failures in
careers…
In this day and age of
democratization of information…thanks to the technical innovations and the
social media…thanks to Wikipedia and electronic access to internet… most, if
not all kids have a personal electronic device (PED) of their own… In schools
and education there is a dichotomy… and antagonism to PEDs… But I suggest that
they should be part and parcel of education… instead of fighting the PEDs, we
should incorporate them into the education system… Let the kids access all that
they need from the electronic-space… Instead of
cramming facts and formulas to
the kids…let us teach them to think
independently…to reason logically… and synthesize the facts to come to reasonable and logical conclusions…
No formulas please...The PEDs are at the finger tips of the Kids....
independently…to reason logically… and synthesize the facts to come to reasonable and logical conclusions…
The PEDs must be our allies in
education… not the enemies… The PEDs should provide us information and facts…
and our brains should harmonize, synthesize and come to valid conclusions…
No Vacancy...Let the kids learn and have fun too...
The kids use the PEDs in their everyday
life… and we should make education part of their life and not draw a fictitious
line between education and society; between education and young kids…
Incorporate the news and the
headlines in our educational system… and use the PEDs to deliver the relevant
education…
Thinking is fun...Thinking logically is more fun... Thinking logically and arriving at reasonable conclusions will pave the way for new innovative ideas...and innovations...
Do not memorize...Thinking is better and more fun...
***
Think and Get Involved...
Hong Kong students out for a week to protest
Chinese government restrictions on democracy
and openness and transparency ... Young
people want less of Big Brother and more of
independent thinking and democracy...
Students in their thousands on the street to protest Chinese government....
You should act...You should be involved too...
Students learning from each other...Discussing ideas in the open...
The community is more than the sum total of individuals...
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