Classroom Stew

The Western World has been brainwashed by Aristotle for the last 2,500 years. The unconscious, not quite articulate, belief of most Occidentals is that there is one map which adequately represents reality. By sheer good luck, every Occidental thinks he or she has the map that fits. Guerrilla ontology, to me, involves shaking up that certainty. I use the ‘multi-model’ approach, which is the idea that there is more than one model to cover a given set of facts. As I’ve said, novel writing involves learning to think like other people. My novels are written so as to force the reader to see things through different reality grids rather than through a single grid. It’s important to abolish the unconscious dogmatism that makes people think their way of looking at reality is the only sane way of viewing the world. My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything. If one can only see things according to one’s own belief system, one is destined to become virtually deaf, dumb, and blind. It’s only possible to see people when one is able to see the world as others see it. That’s what guerrilla ontology is — breaking down this one-model view and giving people a multi-model perspective.

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—	Robert Anton Wilson (via hand-me-downs-et-cetera)

tomesawayfromhome:

I was cleaning out my closets in preparation for the end of the year and I ran across some old character maps and comics I made for Macbeth, King Lear, Julius Caesar, and Of Mice and Men. A character map is a handy way to see an entire text (characters, conflicts, relationships, and more) on one piece of paper. It’s also useful to check for comprehension without giving a multi-question quiz, or it can be used as a study tool or aid on exams.

Whenever I ask the students to do a project that involves an element of risk like artwork (some of us are not gifted in that regard), I always do a sample for a couple of reasons:

When I model the quality of the work I expect, it clarifies my expectations (so, no pencil marks, complete color, careful attention to details and I make it clear that I never grade based on “quality” of the art since that’s so subjective), and the end results the kids turn in are usually much better.

When I show myself willing to do something that I’m not amazing at (you can see my lovely stick figures above— they’re all clothed, and they mostly don’t have faces, and that’s okay), it gives my students leeway to be imperfect themselves.

All this risk-taking pays off with academic growth, confidence, and a sense that it’s worthwhile to try something even if it’s not your strong suit.

(sorry the shots are a little dark, they’re laminated and trend towards glare, so I turned off the lights in my classroom to take the pictures)

toptumbles:

Consider this…

abaldwin360:

And curiosity is my reason for existing.

Kids play T-ball, then baseball; they play games and have practice every week and, if they’re serious about it, pre-season and post-season too. We never think, “Let’s have kids play baseball for eight weeks in seventh grade,” and then expect that in five years they can join the majors or even be on a college team. But for some reason we do this with civics. We say, “We’re going to have you do a penny harvest in fifth grade and a service learning project in tenth grade, and then we’ll teach you abstractly about government for a semester in twelfth grade.” Then our students enter the major leagues of citizenship, and we give them the vote and expect them to keep our country going. And that’s just crazy!

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—	Meira Levinson talking about her new book No Citizen Left Behind. (via bostonreview) Wow. Just, wow. Quote of the week. (via motherjones)

وحش في عيون أطفالنا، وملاك في عيون أطفالهم

‎”A monster in the eyes of our children, and an angel in the eyes of their own.”

There is more complexity in the world than we like to imagine. This Memorial Day, I remember ALL fallen soldiers, and that we should never stop trying to alleviate the conditions that cause humanity to destroy itself. Let us not just reflect on our losses but also make commitments to reduce them in the future. Let us try and see ourselves as others see us and break through this impenetrable bubble of cognitive dissonance in which we have sealed ourselves inside.

thedailywhat:

This Is Informative, You Should Watch It of the Day: The no-foolin’ history of how April Fools Day came to be.

[jeremiahjw.]