Occupy Your Conscience – Black Friday 2011

November 19, 2011 at 02:38 (A Member of the 21st Century, Economy and Me, Take Aways)
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Every year around the holidays there is that mixture of celebrating meaningfully and celebrating well and possibly not celebrating as we might feel there is little to celebrate. In honor of of all those mixed emotions, I am putting out a wish list for students, parents, friends, family……

Those of us who live in the western world have SO MUCH that we actually have to give it away each year – think Goodwill and all the other places we donate our stuff to. Sometimes that donated stuff is so overwhelming it is shipped to third world countries. An example of this is when I found a beautiful small red cotton rug from America in Kenya (the slums of Eldoret) to put in my office.  I spent most of my  shopping time at second hand shanty shacks in Kenya as it is no different than what I do in America.   We really don’t need more ‘stuff’- what we need is stuff of value and meaning in a season for which we actually yearn to do good. The best memories come from giving something meaningful.

So, for Black Friday 2011 and all the days through the rest of the holidays, think about what wonders you can find at second hand stores – most notably BOOKS!   Books are key to learning and education. Giving a child a book lets them know you value education. There are books on every subject and reading/literacy is really what makes us different from other parts of the evo tree. 

Books do not need to be new – they just need to be gently used and passed on.   Some of my favorite books have come from second hand because the hardbound original is out of print or so extraordinary that it is just rare. Case in point is The Columbia Historical Portrait of New York by John A. Kouwenhoven/Doubleday which my dad found for me when I was in grad school in NYC.  My NYC subway map resides there as a bookmark for my next journey back.

Books are so popular that  their smell has been captured for those of us who use modern technology to read.   http://smellofbooks.com/    Books are a wonderful item to share, pass on, write a special note to some one/dedicate.   Books have the power to raise some one up to their highest and best level.   Algebra has not changed in a bazillion years even though text book companies for schools would have us think otherwise.  History does not change – just the perspective of the author. You can never have enough history books because we still have war so clearly we have not learned from our past.  Art is the ability to communicate without words and we can never have enough of that.  Everything else may have changed but the essence is there and some of the older books are just phenomenal for illustration.

Book crossing can put a book into the hands of many and  makes for a darn good sense of joy  http://www.bookcrossing.com/  .   Imagine giving one or two books to some one at the airport going back to a foreign country where books are very difficult to come by.  You could track it if it shows up on Bookcrossing – more fun than another round of Flat Stanley!!  You can donate books to organizations which get books to other countries – just type in ‘donating books to other countries’ on Google and you will have tons of resources. 

If you think giving a book is not enough, please consider Heifer.org, Red Cross, http://www.un.org/en/  (all things United Nations – food aid, health care – UNICEF, high commission for refugees, etc.) and all the other amazing organizations out there which do so much for so many who just can not do it for themselves.

Money is in short supply for many of us so there is also donations of time. Not just the Thanksgiving Dinner at the homeless shelter – the giving of time once a week or once a month to something bigger than YOU.   If I begin a list in this section, I will just cry and stop typing because there is everything from food banks, animal shelters, hospitals/VA’s, Peace Corps, military abroad, the environment, hospice and so forth. Find something out there and volunteer. You will feel better – you will raise your awareness and make a difference in a world which is often filled with mixed emotions this time of year.

I know I did not list nearly enough because frankly, there is not enough blank space on Google or paper for that  or a machine to bind the book for the ideas and ways to give.  In addition to buying ‘stuff” (it may stimulate the economy) which is hardley ever fulfilling or meaningful, GIVE something and be the change you wish to see in this world.  Make a difference.

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Observations – Parity Across the States (NAEP)

February 5, 2011 at 23:54 (A Member of the 21st Century, Education Observations, Take Aways, What might this person(s) be thinking?)
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The past four months provided a very interesting job opportunity in a way I was not expecting.  I was hired by Westat to help administer the ‘national’ exam.   While this position requires a great deal of organizational capacity, it also taught me so much about those who ‘know’ and don’t really know what is involved in educational reform.   In my mind, NAEP is a giant scientific experiment extremely well thought out as well as planned and executed for optimum good statistical analysis.  NAEP is the real deal of data.

My first observation was how many teachers and administrators in public schools (including charter) did not know what NAEP was about.

Example:  Spoke with a principal who, when asked by another principal why his school was participating in NAEP answered he ‘guessed’ he drew the short stick. (I completely understood the humor, however, I was sad he truly did not know what it was about.) We talked on the phone and I asked him why he thought the school was participating (aha – a bit of Socratic methodology) and he answered the following three items (1) his school improved test scores by 17 points (2) his school has the youngest teachers in the district/area (3) this had something to do with spring testing but he was not sure. 

 I replied that while I like his answers, the reason behind national testing was to have some test scores to provide parity  between the various states which have different state standards and different ways of measuring educational success.

Parity in sports is defined as attempting to make an equal playing field for all participants, specifically with regard to financial issues. When parity in a sports league is achieved, all participating teams enjoy roughly equivalent levels of talent. In such a league, the “best” team is not significantly better than the “worst” team. This leads to more competitive contests where the winner cannot be easily predicted in advance. Such games are more entertaining and captivating for the spectators. The opposite condition, which could be considered “disparity” between teams, is a condition where the elite teams are so much more talented that the lesser teams are hopelessly outmatched. – Wikipedia/ January 2011

 I further explained that schools which received federal funds w  ere required to participate if the necessary sample of student attributes was at their school.  We talked for a few more minutes so I could answer some paperwork questions and we each went off on our own separate journey through the day.

In a different phone call with another principal the day before, I was asked about how the school would access these test scores so they could use them to compare with their API and AYP since other schools in the district were not taking this special test. I had to explain the scores were not disaggregated down to the district level.  This particular issue kept cropping up with teachers as well, especially on assessment day. Teachers asked if they would have the scores to use by Spring……

In  the above scenarios, I was talking to people who could speak clearly about certain aspects of educational reform, albeit only those minimal measures which had been drummed into them through some grad school program/administrative credentialling program/school district.   My shock was that these were ‘good’ schools in so called ‘good’ districts so how could these administrators not have run across NAEP?  I actually asked a couple administrators where they attended graduate school.

Along the way there were also some funny stories – a school which is in a very wealthy area had a substitute teacher’s aide show up with alcohol on their breath and the principal had to deal with that issue; another school had some students order a pizza via their cell phone, except when it was delivered, the office staff realized no ‘individual’ student would order a 2 L bottle of coke.  I had a colleague talk to a custodian in Spanish, only to have the principal state the man understands and speaks English…..

In my mind I was surprised as I have known about NAEP since I was a child – I went through at least one of the testing sessions in Grade 4, possibly Grade 8.  I read about NAEP and went to a lecture regarding The Nation’s Report Card when I was in graduate school.  NAEP was the organization where  the National Science Standards were related so people could discuss trends in science ed ucation.  I was beginning to feel as if I had entered some alternate universe where educational reform happened on a different planet on an alternate flat plane.

On a more personal note, I noticed (part of the script I read requires me to ask a few questions) there is not a category for people(s) of Middle East origin.  I am not sure if this was intentional, as in who really cares what those students do (even though we seem to care about Asians) or some one with far more wisdom then myself decided these people are, well, white.  Since I do not know specifically what NAEP is looking for, I can only speculate on a ‘forced’ selection of race/ethnicity.  One question asks students to delineate Latino/Hispanic and then the next question is everything else.  I feel bad for the Philipino’s who actually know their history as they are Latino (Spain) and Asian, not either or.

I have never looked at the test questions as I continue to have a teaching credential and this, in my mind is inappropriate.  I have looked at the release questions published in booklets for parents and/or teachers and administrators who may have questions.  Not much was gleened from this process as I do not support the efficacy of multiple choice exams since there is always an inherent 25% of accuracy by randon choice on a four answer question.   As is the case with SAT prep, it is not about the right answer so much as the ability to use your mind to reason ‘out’ what are the wrong answers.  The SAT is in no way indicative of much, my favorite examples being people who bucked the system and did not complete college, such as Bill Gates or people who did poorly on the SAT and succeeded far more than anyone would have guessed, Timothy Ferriss. 

NAEP allows educators and statisticians to peer into the minds of students to take a peak at how various curriculums play out across the U.S.  Our ‘Nation’s Report Card’  is just that, a report.  In a broad way we are able to see where education seems to have traction (typically, in places with low socioeconomic distress) and where no amount of money seems to change the consequences of childhood poverty. 

I have been to schools with views which certainly must prevent even a lax daydreamer from focusing and I have been to schools which remind me all too often of things I have seen in Peace Corps and traveling various third world countries.  This previous sentence is a different kind of parity – until we have PARITY, we will not change education in any formidable manner.  It takes an abundant amount of community involvement, parental education and literacy resources (notice I did not say monetary resources) to overcome poverty.  No amount of well constructed testing is needed to prove this out – rather, we just need to travel outside our own familiar community.



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Living One Week on the Spectrum Side of Life

July 4, 2010 at 08:53 (Education Observations, Take Aways, What might this person(s) be thinking?)
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When I first moved back to the U.S. from living abroad, I ‘traded’ in kind housing for re-writing and helping to better implement an IEP for a 12 year old on the autism spectrum.  It was my first time outside the classroom ‘observing’ what teachers do (I have been a teacher for 20 years and always a member of the student study team), what was not going on in the classroom, at the school or with divorced parents and how it manifested itself for this child.  I found out that not all teachers or schools are as committed to working with special needs students as I had hoped.

I am still in contact with this family and am called to consult for various IEP related items. The parents thought it would be great for their child to visit with me for one week as a ‘respite’ for them.  Since I was a teacher, understood autism and could maintain order,  the child had a connection with me and I had the free time, this was arranged.  It was an amazing learning experience and, much like my Peace Corps experience, I believe I gained more from it than the child who visited me.

One of the most gut wrenching experiences for me and the one which made me cry one night was when this child explained to me they could not understand if I was upset/angry.  The child had put some flowers in a book they were borrowing from me to do a drawing for a mosaic project. The child closed the book with the fresh flowers in it and the flowers mushed, essentially ruining the art on two pages. I explained that by not following directions, this was the result and we would not be going for the outdoor movie show by the bay that evening but instead would stay in and play cards. The child knew I was upset/disappointed on some level but ultimately told me that since I do not raise my voice when I am upset, it was hard for them to understand.  This amazed me as anyone who knows me would point blank state they can read my face with no need for verbal cues whatsoever to know what I am thinking. I have worked with special needs students before and this has never been an issue. I decided the best thing to do was sit down and show my happy/normal face and then my upset/sad/angry face so the child could see the difference. It worked and things flowed better after that. It made me realize how difficult it must be to navigate a world where even an ‘emotional’ face could not help with all the information necessary to navigate social interactions.

During the week we went to The Exploratorium, The Tech Museum, cruise around the harbor, cable cars all over and The Aquarium of the Bay. In addition, this child went with me to RAFT as I prepped for a class to be delivered in another week and I thought they would enjoy ‘shopping’ at the mega rich creative RAFT warehouse but found out it was instead overwhelming.  Our afternoon during lab hours at the Mosaic Institute in Oakland was outstanding and the biggest success of all our activities. The student completed a jellyfish picture that was artistically well done in spite of this being their first experience with this media.

We volunteered at Ploughshares Nursery where I volunteer regularly, we spent time at the beach on the Alameda side of the bay and cooked our own meals. I learned that this child would only have turkey slices on a sandwich, not chicken – chicken was for salads, stir fry, etc.  Organic American Cheese slices from Trader Joes were THE CHEESE and in certain food situations had to be made into triangles.  Meals were ritualistic and there was a very specific order to things from the way vitamins were taken to having tea.

The one thing that seemed to leave the largest impact of all, which would have never occurred to me as being significant, was the free box that ended up being put down in the lobby of my building.  Apparently some neighbors were unpacking after their move and had random things to shed – a couple vases, some wrist bands, books, a metal box – all the usual stuff from after a move.  The child loved this box as it seemed to magically gain more goods at random intervals from when we left in the morning or after a couple days.  This provoked a whole conversation regarding the purposefulness of a free box, did I ever contribute to a free box, did I ever take anything from a free box, did I have anything I needed to add to the free box right now and so on.

As you might imagine, the week was a whole new exploration for me in education, ‘parenting’/babysitting/nannying, the conundrum of life and the larger questions of why I enjoy teaching.  It was emotional, thought provoking, stimulating, frustrating as all get out and amazingly rewarding. I am thankful for this incredible opportunity.

After I took this child back to the airport and the child was safely on the plane home, I went out and bought some hard apple cider and a package of chocolate fudge pop-tarts. I had maxed my limit and just needed the rush of an over the top bad carb fix. It is now a week later. I am still reflecting on all I learned. I added some things to the free box in the lobby and took two things out. My life has been altered and I gained much as a teacher and as a member of society.

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Can a school be segregated if the teacher and administration is white?

February 10, 2010 at 09:25 (A Member of the 21st Century, Education Observations, Take Aways, Uncategorized, What might this person(s) be thinking?)
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/05/MNBN1BSOIL.DTL&type=education

The only portion of the aforementioned article I found disturbing was the lack of addressing the color of the people running the school.  Having been a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Namibia (South Africa during apartheid), I learned long ago that I can not bring my values, ideas and good intentions to a community, rather I need to support what the community wishes to do and do everything in my power to assist them.

Somewhere, somehow charter schools used great marketing to offer up something new in education.  Without actual numbers, I would guess that between 80-95% of charter schools are run by a predominantly white staff and administration. Most likely 95% and above is the rate of all charter school organizations started by whites. 

I believe the use of the word apartheid holds the same value in this situation as it did during the historical apartheid in S. Africa. 

Apartheid (Afrikaans pronunciation: [ɐˈpɐrtɦəit], separateness) was a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government in South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority black inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and minority rule by whites was maintained.

                http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid

  • An official policy of racial segregation formerly practiced in the Republic of South Africa, involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against nonwhites.
  • A policy or practice of separating or segregating groups.
  • The condition of being separated from others; segregation.

    •               http://www.answers.com/topic/apartheid

    If a school is run by whites, no matter how good, true, pure and wonderful their intentions and beliefs, something is lost.  What comes to mind most readily to me is the lack of data to demonstrate charter schools promote more minority students to graduate from college.  Since charter schools function best under the guise of spring testing and AYP, the lowest form of knowledge – multiple choice tests, is used to educate minority students to their ‘highest potential’.  Multiple choice tests have never prepared anyone for higher education.

    “While this study raises interesting issues, we must remain focused on our goal by supporting those schools that are delivering results and improving those that are not making the grade,” she said.
    Department of Education spokeswoman Hilary McLean
    If the best ( majority white) people can do is stick to the lowest form of achievement (results) and call it evidence of a great education, indeed, we have an apartheid.  It is disturbing  and horrifying to ponder that we as Americans have so much potential and yet have allowed for and praised the least difficult path in educating minorities. It almost makes me think the rumor touted about, “they are easier to control” is in some form true.

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    The lucrative (or not) market for educators to sell ideas

    November 24, 2009 at 11:48 (A Member of the 21st Century, Economy and Me, Education Observations, Take Aways)
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    The school year in Kenya has now been over for 4 days (we go January to late November/early December).  I have finally had time to get in some perusal of news in education outside of my immediate school and would like to take the following article and opinion letters in the NY Times

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/education/15plans.html?scp=1&sq=lesson%20plans%20online&st=cse

    one step further.

    In Kenya, many teachers do not write lesson plans in the way Americans are used to doing.  Kenya has schemes of work which is a broad ‘lesson’ if you will, with few details indicating the steps, methodology, etc. of delivering education.  Part of the reason for this is the fact that everyone must use the Kenyan mandated textbooks. The lack of access to other books and materials makes it difficult to teach something that is not in the ‘textbook’.   Since there is no true difference, teachers have a tendency to copy the rough syllabus and direct quotes from the text book, do a few limited elaborations/examples and call it a day.  This then promotes the chalk and talk mentality common in many classrooms. It also increases the likelihood of education not ‘improving’ to the degree that it can from one generation to the next as direct copying from a text is not an effective method of learning.

    To add insult to this stupefying lack of depth in  lesson planning, it is also common for teachers to buy whole sets of exams from another school so that teachers can avoid having to construct meaningful exams. Learners  in high schools are graded on two exams – middle of term and end of term, material being cumulative from Form 1 (freshman year) to Form 4 (senior year).   Because there are very few ways to ask the same questions, especially when using memorization, listing and repeating back said copied notes, the bought exams are nothing more than a money making scheme.

    I explained to my teachers it would be much more effective to get a cadre of teachers from a variety of schools to craft an exam, deliver it, and have another teacher (not yourself) grade your exam and in exchange you do the same.  This process allows for teachers to develop their skill set, to share information and essentially improve/overhaul the education system.

    What I find terribly sad/disturbing about the American purchasing of lesson plans is the lack of effort on the part of teachers to construct a meaningful lesson and improve their skill set in understanding, delivery of ideas to students. No, it is not easy to do lesson planning – it is also not easy to be a neurosurgeon, airline pilot, member of the armed forces or farmer.

    The logic which teachers are using for selling lesson plans (not taking a vow of poverty to be a teacher) is merely obscuring the flagrant misuse of capitalism.  It is this same abuse of logic that allows Kenyan teachers to purchase exams.

    For the sake of education, I look forward to working with teacher colleagues who are willing to put in the effort, time, energy to improve their craft and create a learning environment in their classroom.  Merely facilitating/ imparting a pre-measured portion of information (standards in the states and syllabus in Kenya) is insufficient to raise up students to the level of being ever inquisitive and applying their knowledge.

    I believe the comments American teachers might want to think about would be the implications of being lazy and uncommitted in the face of doing one of the most important jobs in the world- passing on knowledge, culture and improving the conditions of living standards for everyone.  For my Kenyan teachers, it is not necessarily about ease of work as lack of exposure to what actually needs to happen.  Kenya has only had compulsory education for 11 years. It will take somewhere in the vicinity of another 40-90 years to ‘push’ education through the population to make it a force of bringing improvements in Kenya.

    If American teachers truly wanted to obtain recognition and achieve something, they would do a stint in Peace Corps and go to a third world country.  Once one sees what happens when people are not educated (by  politics, government, poverty, etc.) and have to survive by ignorance, then they are able to reframe how they look at the SIGNIFICANCE of their career.  Education is not about test score numbers or profits (those are business concepts – see The Black Swan -by N. Taleb), rather it is about improving the human condition.

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    Remember A:/ and Formatting Floppy Disks? Me Neither

    September 11, 2009 at 00:28 (A Member of the 21st Century, Take Aways)
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    There are times when a developing country can absolutely drive you batty in ways you could not have predicted. Take the following real life situation I am dealing with.

    A complete computer lab with MS Software, printer, server and dish for internet were graciously purchased for my school. The room is beautiful as well as the desks being custom built. Any school in America would be privileged to have this classroom and set up. Getting the internet up and running is a bit tricky however, that is not actually the problem. The problem is that the MS Software is the most current pre-Vista software, and the computers have CD/DVD drives.

    You must really be scratching your head about what the problem might be. Think – look at the title of this blog again. Ponder just another moment. Did you figure it out? If not, read on.

    I need to obtain old (read obsolete) MS software and floppy disc drives as well as floppy discs to run off the new computer so my learners can learn how to format a disc and be familiar with a floppy drive. Why? Why must I find this stuff which is outdated when I have current computers and software? I must find it because the Ministry of Education in Kenya is using a text book and syllabus which is old and has not been updated and my learners will be tested on how to format a floppy disc – something they will never again see in real life. I even talked with the computer science teacher about doing a simulation. That will not work as the learners will need to format the floppy and use it to contain their answers for the Ministry of Education Exam as the Ministry will then load the floppy into an old computer to make sure the floppy was formatted correctly and the learner typed on it.

    My head no longer spins at such things. Rather I find myself wondering how long countries such as Kenya can continue to hold back the advent of modernization and move forward with education. I think back to my Peace Corps experience in Namibia. Probably one year before I arrived, there was limited, if any phone infrastructure. From the time I started until I left, Namibia became the cell phone capital of the universe and the ‘used to be’ pay phones started using cards which had an embedded pre-paid microchip which you could buy in different denominations. Talk about punctuated equilibrium (a concept in evolution). It was amazing.

    Kenyans are by far the most creative, inventive people. Their adaption to technology is wonderful. They could put most Americans to embarrassment with what they have figured out to do with cell phones, etc. When given the slightest new technology, they immediately manifest it into 10 more ideas.

    Why then, given these highly intelligent, creative people, should they be kept in the stone age learning about and being tested on computer components which are at The Tech Museum in Silicon Valley, CA? At times like this, I humor myself by thinking that if only stupidity were a little more painful, people would stop indulging in it.

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    Experience Counts – Sometimes More Than An Advanced Degree

    July 18, 2009 at 20:54 (Economy and Me, Education Observations, Take Aways, What might this person(s) be thinking?)
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    http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/what-is-a-masters-degree-worth/#mark

    Each and every opinion represented here (and all the rest which are not…but people are mulling over in their own heads) has a poignant value/lesson attached.  There is no right or wrong; there seems to be a vast mass of   ‘do what is right for you and your situation’ – who could disagree with that?

    I do not disagree, rather I would like to pose a different idea not quite represented by the four people asked to write on the subject.  An advanced degree which generally represents more focused learning in a particular sphere, sometimes involving lab work/research, is necessary for many jobs and can not be avoided – the other side to this is there are many experiences out there which focus on a particular sphere and afford an individual unlimited access to a particular subject.

    An example of my above paragraph would be Peace Corps.  Mind you I have an M.A. from a prestigious Ivy and would never belittle my graduate school experience – it was one of the most wonderful adventures and learning experiences of my life.  I could, however, state that Peace Corps was also one of the most wonderful adventures and learning experiences of my life sans all the reading, writing and theoretical exploration of said university.   For a long time I actually puzzled over what to answer when people asked, “Where did you go to grad school?” – not sure if  the best answer was Peace Corps or Teachers College at Columbia University in NYC.  My answer became situational – I determined what to say wholly dependent upon what I wished to represent and accomplish for the conversation/interview.

    Over the years, I found that in some instances my M.A. was indeed the right trophy to have for a particular position (applying for a teaching job).  At other times, I found Peace Corps to be the appropriate trophy for a particular situation. What I learned was experience is a valuable thing.

    Experience is sometimes more affordable than the formal education counterpart and opens many doors.  Experience is sometimes what you get when you don’t get what you want – if we are only smart enough to see it.  My example is a friend from Denver (M. O.) who was looking for a city planning job during a particularly bad economic down turn in Colorado. While having the ‘right’ education and background, the job he was looking for did not exist at the time. He got to the point in the job search where he was looking for any job.    The opportunity to be a bus driver came up and I said, “Jump on it”.  Why did I say this? (M.O. thought I was nuts to see this as un upward opportunity).   I wanted my friend to think about what he would gleen from driving around the city as a bus driver – how this experience would affect his perception of city planning in a way few others would be able to share (when was the last time some one asked a bus driver their opinion?).  We had many conversations over this idea. He took the bus driving job (not because of what I said, but because it was the right opportunity at the right time).

    Last I knew, M. O. left bus driving and found the job he wanted. I am positive beyond a doubt he was able to represent a point of view few others could share and has made many important contributions to the community in which he works.

    My other experiences include the times I left teaching (pre-Peace Corps and graduate school) to do all the other things I wanted to try out but had feared I would not have the experience to do – work in the samples department for a major paper company, become a plan representative for a mutual fund house and working with customers to better understand their 401k, 403b, etc., working as a stock broker, gardening on a community plot, summer camp counselor and so on.  Each and every one of the jobs I had made education something  more valuable and it was much easier for me in the classroom to answer the question of, “When am I ever going to use Algebra?” (unfortunately I was not prescient enough to know about the market nightmare of 2007 -?, but I guessed at it and thought Algebra would be practical for my students to know).

    Of course I earned money with some of my jobs (sometimes more than I have made as a teacher with years of experience), I also earned stock options and shares of stock (some of which have taken a hell of a beating since 1995 when I first started to obtain them as an employee), most of all I learned more about the reasons to obtain an education and the significance of literacy in reading and maths.   Ultimately all of these opportunities helped me desire and get into grad school.  I am still paying off the student loan from grad school (and would not trade this for the world), however, I have made both actual monetary and non-cash contributions to my resume and have benefitted my community and self all the way around.

    Experience, the next new-new thing.  When an additional college degree and student loan is not quite what you are after.  My new endeavor, an opportunity in Kenya, came about via experience and putting my hearts desire about a job out into the universe.  The work permit, a technicality solved by my M.A.

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    What Happens When You Are Raised On Peace Corps Teachers…

    July 6, 2009 at 22:34 (Outside, Take Aways)
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    As a young undergrad at CSULB, I was involved in the anti-apartheid movement.  I was involved with human rights issues long before college, however, this was at my heart as I wanted to live in Africa.  There was no sure sense of whether I wanted to be an anthropologist and work alongside the Leakey’s, a biologist and work along Jane Goodall or Diane Fossey or some career in the medical field and work with an organization such as Doctors Without Borders.   What mattered to me was my choice be full of heart and something that would be seen as good and positive in the world.

    It  has turned out that I spend my time as both a formal and informal educator – science, maths, history, citizen of the world, gardening, quilting, friendships and so on.  All of these things seemed to make me human rather than what I may have idealized myself as being earlier in my life.

    Although apartheid was ‘demolished’ and Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa, apartheid continues to be alive and well on the continent of Africa – it just seems to be called something else.  I found this out as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Namibia in 1998-1999.  If you are not clear on the history of this region of Africa, it bears out some research to understand how Namibia became an independent country in the late 1980′s and the relationship Namibia has/had with South Africa.

    Ten years after independence, things were not anywhere near different from the worst of the worst of any inner city in America – in fact, far worse.  Education was just wending its way out of the capitol city, Windhoek, and reaching out into the various village regions.  The movie The Gods Must Be Crazy best reflects what was going on and not what Namibia showed promise to become.  I was amazed that even though the movie was supposed to be funny, it turned out to be more historical fiction and even then, not much on the fictional side.

    When I ended up in the Caprivi Strip (an area I desperately wanted to live in as it was near the Zambezi River and above the Red Line) which was remote, beautiful and perhaps the best representation at the time of Sub-Saharan Africa, I was in love with it all.  I don’t think there was anything which could have dissuaded me from my soon to be long term camping trip/cultural adventure/learning experience of a lifetime/friendship building opportunity.  I met so many wonderful people, I do not quite recall the white S. A.’s or Afrikaaners which drove me crazy at the time; I remember the Namibians – the tribe members of my region and the lessons they taught me.

    I remember my host family in Okahandja, who were Herero and Nama/Damara, of which  one of my Namibian Grandmothers looked very much related to me by skin color, hair and body type.  Natasha and Wilhelm Brinkman were my host parents and there could be no better parents!  My grandparents were wonderful. I felt truly loved. I had cousins/sisters/brothers – a full family!

    I also clearly remember a young man named Peter Simasiku, from Cincimani, the village where two other Peace Corps Volunteers (Abby and Rob) taught.  Peter was not part of my host family in Okahandja – he was a member of a tribe in the Caprivi. He seemed to have been ‘raised/taught’ by various Peace Corps Volunteers over the years and had taken a liking to what he learned of American Culture, or that which Peace Corps Volunteers could provide.  Peter was the little brother we all wish we had growing up – he took to the joy of learning and was always happy. His smile is what always intrigued me – it was both pure happiness with a touch of teen-age naughtiness.   He was sincere, well spoken and genuinely caring.  There was something about Peter which just made you want to be in his presence – his abundant glow about living.

    Peter wanted to become a teacher. The last I had seen of him, he was in teacher training college and I was (and remain) quite positive he would be an outstanding, committed and wonderful teacher.  The last I saw of Peter was about a week before a terrible civil war in the Caprivi Strip.  I never saw him again, but I found out Peter was the person who went to check up on me and many other volunteers to make sure/certain we got ‘out’.  Peter was the one who found what might have been left of our personal belongings and got them to Peace Corps.  Peter was forever etched in my mind – not for what happened after I was gone, but the person I knew and thought the world of while I was in Namibia.

    Peter explained to me that Simasiku meant ‘born in the night’.  Although I know this is a literal meaning, I took it as something more expansive. I have always let Simasiku mean something such as dream come true or what could really happen if one believed because those are also things born of the night.  Inside, I always promised myself that should I ever be fortunate enough to need a name for an organization or business that was about something ‘good’, it would be called Simasiku.

    During the past month I was packing – of all the things I could not part with and feared losing were pictures – particularly those of family and Peace Corps (my other family….).  I scanned and printed copies so the originals could stay at home with my mother – in a safe place.  One of the pictures I stumbled on was Peter and I had placed it by the Book of Ecclesiastes from the Bible and oft sung by The Byrds:

    Ecclesiastes

    A Time for Everything

      There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under heaven:

      a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,

      a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,

      a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,

      a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

      a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,

      a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,

      a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

    There was nothing ‘religious’ behind putting his picture with this portion of the bible – it was what Peter made me realize as a volunteer.  It was the same feeling I had when I stumbled on the picture all these years later.  There is indeed a time for where I am in my life right now.

    It has now been 10 years since Peace Corps and a different ’Simasiku’  is coming to fruition – the dream I have had for so very long, since childhood – to be back in Africa.

    I think I found Peter on Facebook this morning. I have sent an e-mail.  I would like to meet Peter as an adult, as a teacher, as the very embodiment and promise of what I believe Africa has to offer the world.

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    And The Poisonwood Bible Will Guide Me

    June 17, 2009 at 00:01 (Education Observations, Outside)
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    One of my favorite books   in writing style, content, depth and meaning is The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.  I read it after I finished Peace Corps in Namibia and found it clearly articulated my experience of ‘what I thought I needed’  beforehand for surviving in a foreign place much different than my homeland.  I so identified with the book I encouraged all who could not quite ‘understand’ me to read it so maybe, just maybe they would understand the changes I had been through.  T.C. Boyle had written Water Music and I stumbled on it by accident at a used book store. This novel also rang true to  my heart as I had read Before the Mayflower  by Lerone Bennett  long ago and understood the key references to the character names in relationship to the history of the continent.  These three books – two historical fiction and one non-fiction, fact based history with primary sources became my comfort and solace at a time when all I wanted was to be back in my village (I was evacuated due to a civil war).

    In the many years since, as I have mellowed with age and have been able to compartmentalize some memories so they do not look me straight in the face each day, I also continued to feel deep in my being that Africa was ‘home’ or at least home in the sense of where I felt the greatest sense of peace within myself.  Part of keeping the dream of  my ‘return’ home alive meant sharing all the wonderful things which had shaped and changed me with others so they knew I was ready for being back on the continent and held no resentment for having to leave in the first place.

    My opportunity finally arrived – I will be able to have my dream of doing something larger than myself, something that will improve life for many people and have a positive ripple outwards.  My task ahead is not  simple – it is teaching and teacher development. 

    At one point, I thought, even in America where we have all the resources in the world, we can not get education right. How on earth could I ever offer up something on another continent to people who may be lacking in some of the material resources.  I kept pondering my idea and realized over and over as I have been packing for the move, it is not the material resources, it is the passing on of knowledge and experience.

    The Poisonwood Bible reminded me of all the ‘wrong stuff’ I should not bring in the way of physical and emotional baggage. Water Music helped me recall the dichotomy of  western views and tribal knowledge (literally) and Before the Mayflower made me realize, again and again and again, this will be a two way sharing process and I know I will learn so much from my Kenyan counterparts.

    These books again provide me with comfort and solace – this time in strong self reflection and strong internal dialogue about who I am, what are my values, what do I hold to be truth, which way my compass points.  It is not what I bring, rather it is what and how I share.  It is the ability to have intellectual pursuits with others who have lived much of the history and its results.  It is the ability to find within myself my ancestors – those who may very well have migrated out of the Rift Valley, but never really left it. My ancestors gave me my DNA and much like a bird or salmon, I am going homeward.

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