a dream

I had an interesting dream last night that I had gone to a major educational institution for an appointment to meet with someone to explain the basics of the educational process, just as I did in a brief meeting with the provost at Teachers College in 2010.

In the dream I waited and waited for what seemed like hours and then was given just a few moments to speak. The woman could hardly wait to get away (after putting me off for hours it was late.) She gathered her stuff and left while I was in mid-sentence. Friends were gathered with me, and raised a ruckus as the administrator made her hasty retreat. Some of my friends had brought musical instruments, and let rip in serenade as she and her entourage made their way down the hall and out of the building. Would it not be a good thing if some of the educational policy makers were pushed toward a hasty retreat?

There are things that one learns through the practice of craftsmanship and the development of skill that are different in some ways from other occupations, and being different, they offer particular insight. And value. But those things one can learn from craftsmanship and the development of skill, are not what schools, school administrators, or educational policy makers want to hear about. They choose instead to seek an efficiency of learning using the wrong methodologies. I am attempting to work on a graphic illustration to describe with fewer words how holistic learning works. That may come in a few days.

The photo above is of one student's work from my 5 day box making class.

An editorial from the Washington Post describes what we are all up against in the digital online age, and I tip my hat to my student Buz Peine, (work shown above) who is not ever online and will never therefore know of my compliment. The editorial is titled: The age of stream of consciousness — and insanity by Kathleen Parker.

Make, fix, create, and extend to others the likelihood of learning likewise.