Mondays are always special... Mondays are for NEW HIGHS... I have asked people can you get high by just thinking...without any drugs....? Try it...It is the lovliest and the cheapest high... Thinking...and getting high on thoughts ... Try it...
***
Murals Painted by Artist ... In Djerba Hood
Open Air Museum Event ... This summer... Artists from 30 countries participate...and transform the Tunisian island into an Island of Dreams ...
Murals painted by about 100 artists from 30 countries taking part in mural
painting… Street art…
The open air museum fired my imagination...because it will be accessible to the people... and also transforms the streets of the neighborhood into a "living and breathing" space...
Yesterday, while hiking on the hills... I was thinking...Why all arts is so expensive... Opera, concerts, theater, recitals, rock concerts... Also sports events...Tennis and soccer and all the rest... are so expensive...?
These artists and athletes...after accumulating their initial millions...why they want to accumulate more...? What will they do with the accumulated money... ? I guess they will go crazy like Bieber or bite fellow athletes like Suares...did during the World Cup...
Arts is fascinating... transforming... and opens up human imagination for a better tomorrow... It should be accessible to ALL... that is why I love this idea of open air art... There are few in every metropolis... Toronto...London...Paris...New York...Los Angeles... and all the rest... But by and large...Arts is expensive and the money keeps the general public and specially the youth away from it....
The youth should have unlimited and unhindered access to arts... That will be educational and entertaining...They will not hang around and get bored of themselves...and initiate "mischief..."
A nine year old Saskatoon boy ... bored out of his wits... and takes a public bus for a joy ride...
To be honest, when reading about it I was sort of happy... I mused... "Wow the kid has imagination...!" and gave kudos to him...Later in the day... the street art and the money barrier erected between people and art...irritated me... I brought the two together...and questioned... may be the kid would not have hijacked the bus for a joyride if he was open to art and music ...
May be, I reflected, the Global Village should become an open air museum and art should be for all...not for the money-man ... money-women and Big Brothers only....
I have always thought that the youth should come together in groups and create their own murals and their own art... May be each summer they should come together in groups and clean the streets..the creeks...the neighborhood... and create their own debating groups and come up with solutions of all the things that are bothering them...
The youth should come together and invent their own "joyrides" instead of relying on the public bus... and the SUV to crush the bus and get a "funny kick" out of it...
May be he youth will do it... or may be this is a mere cry in the wilderness...
But I will try... I have tried all always... Maybe one day... I will see the difference... May be the next generation will not be as greedy as the Big Brothers of today... May be everything will not be measured up by their use-value, but rather their beauty and how much they contribute to make the world a better place...
May be...
***
Just couple of notes:
1. OISE is the Teacher's College at University of Toronto... My former student will get ready to excel me in every shape or form...and I am happy for him...He is a good young man...and he will be a good teacher... Rebellious and searching for knowledge ... learning from students while attempting to teach them...
2. 319 that he refers to was the number of my classroom... I attempted to crumble the four-walls-confined learning-teaching there...
I tried...at times I was successful...and at times I was hindered by the meritorious scale of society ... admin-teachers-parents-students... ganged up on me...
But then...There are students ... Read the email...
Mr.
K,
Tomorrow I begin teacher's college at OISE. I
am both excited and nervous as well as lazy to get up at 6am to take
the train downtown..... hahahahaha ........
To prepare for class tomorrow I am
required to read an article about why teacher's teach. In the article was a
quote from a book, i'm guessing could be another article, from Walt Whitman's
Leaves of Grass. I wanted to share this quote with you as I found it
interesting,
"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and
sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up
for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants,
argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people,
take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men,
go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the
mothers of families, re-examine all you have been told at school or
church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh
shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but
in the silent lines of its lips
and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in
every motion and joint of your body."
To me the quote is interesting, and the article in
general, as teachers are often viewed as people who only teach subjects or as
any other workers in society and yet we see, care and nurture the children who
will grow and shape our communities more than their parents see them. As a
teacher I hope to be more than just copy this, study and here's the test. I
will try to make my classroom just as interesting if not more than 319!
Hope all is well,
Dear former student and now a friend,
The quote is very dear to my heart... When it says..."stand up for the stupid and crazy..." That's indeed wonderful...Standing up for the wise and tame...is very easy... and teaching is a challenge ... every minute... if we cannot bridge the gap between the "students" and "teacher"...then we will fail....If we cannot be engaged as a group - both teacher and students, in pursuit of knowledge and learn from each other through the dialectics within the four-walls... Then we will be failures...
If we cherish the meritorious and neglect the spiritual...then we will be a failure... If we stress the temporal and neglect the transcendental ... then we will be a failure...
Young friend...You were with me as a "student" and I learned from you many things... I looked at you and learned to be patient... to repeat the concept in various forms so as it will make sense to all...and i learned to smile again and again... with you... It was lovely and wonderful...
But your last few lines are revealing ... between the lines...When you write "As a teacher I hope to be more than just copy this, study and here's the test. " .... This is indeed implying that some...more than some..."teachers" do that... it is sad...But it is the truth... I have seen them...I have lived with them...But always refused to go to bed with them... They did not like that... So here we are... You and I...
I wish you all the best... and I will hold you to your promise... You have to try and make the your four-wall-confined learning experience "... just as interesting if not more than 319! "
You have to excel and dwell on the "more" and forget the "just as"... I know you can and you have to try...do not vegetate like the rest of the bunch... Otherwise as I have repeated often "my ghost will bother you forever..." and ever and ever...and you do not want that... I am sure by now you had enough of me and my out-of-the-box existence...
All the best... and live up to you dreams... Soar high and take the kids to the sacred temple up...up...up...in the heavens... But the more you soar...the lonelier you will be...and the kids will make you happy and reward your effort...
On we, you and I, go...
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