they play bocce ball in heaven

as the sun makes its descent
into western skies,
i make mine
from my cloud
the plane brakes
breaking my stupor

eastern overpopulation
rolling out its electric carpet
sparkling a welcome
back to reality
my 86 hour lucid dream
the most real and therefore,
at the same time, the most unbelievable
the most
and so much more than...

(where was the last place you saw it, dude?)

The middle aged African man in the next room
is shouting and laughing jovially
Yelling, "Where is your faith?"
along with what I deduce to be
a radio broadcast of a religious rejoicing
(for three whole hours at least)

my faith and my trust
-never blind-
sit in the lap of change
and in the beauty of transience
trust in time's passing
faith...
in the moment
faith...
never blind
eyes wide only with love
belief only
in those things
unbelievable.

PISA link

wow, very exciting...
fascinating and potentially something I'd like to get into: Programme for International Student Assessment researches, studies, and measures quality, equity, engagement, assessment in education:

International Student Assessment

and guess what? the assessment questions are not all multiple choice


"PISA assesses how far students near the end of compulsory education have acquired some of the knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in society. In all cycles, the domains of reading, mathematical and scientific literacy are covered not merely in terms of mastery of the school curriculum, but in terms of important knowledge and skills needed in adult life."

oh wow...this too!!!
:"Education Sector is an independent think tank that challenges conventional thinking in education policy. We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to achieving real, measurable impact in education, both by improving existing reform initiatives and by developing new, innovative solutions to our nation’s most pressing education problems. The ultimate beneficiaries of our work are students. Our mission is to promote changes in policy and practice that lead to improved student opportunities and outcomes."

improvhibitions

"...all of a sudden, the musician is generating music that has never been heard, thought, practiced or played before. What comes out is completely spontaneous.”

"“Jazz is often described as being an extremely individualistic art form. You can figure out which jazz musician is playing because one person’s improvisation sounds only like him or her,” says Limb. “What we think is happening is when you’re telling your own musical story, you’re shutting down impulses that might impede the flow of novel ideas.”"

th!nk

"The writer William Faulkner once said, 'If I had to choose between pain and nothing, I would choose pain.' To the best of my knowledge, Faulkner was not a masochist. He didn't literally mean physical pain or deprivation, although he did suffer his share of these. He meant struggle over mind-numbing complacency and pleasure seeking. Faulkner knew that it was only in struggle, through confrontation of one's fears and life's difficulties, that a person became fully human, alive, and growing...
Research has shown that material comfort alone does not ensure happiness. Is-ness is not freedom or release or fulfillment, it just is. To be truly happy a person needs to be engaged, using his or her mind. To be really happy a person needs to feel he or she has accomplished something. Just one act of taking control can expand your moral and intellectual horizons and make you a better critical and creative thinker. It doesn't need to be 'intellectual.' It could be something as simple as riding a bike to the store instead of driving. It could be stopping for a beer at a biker bar. By doing something completely out of sync with what we identify as our 'character,' we stimulate thought and ideas, rediscover plans and goals...
When the primary pursuit in society becomes avoiding risk, seeking one's own, and keeping one's head down, life inevitably resolves itself into a comforting numbness. Out thoughts suffocate, the blood supply to our brains shrinks, as we grow fewer not more synapses. Once again, we aren't compelled to do anything. We can just sit here and collectively allow our brains to shrivel and let the next generation deal with the consequences. However, I invite the reader to consider the benefits of putting on a beanie, grabbing a kazoo, and setting off on a scootering excursion through the streets of his or her peaceful, comfortable neighborhood.
Metaphorically speaking, of course."

-Th!nk, Michael R LeGault

endless fun

deFUNitions

who's driving this train?

The other day, at work in the Admissions office of a large public university, a clerical staff worker remarked, "I've never seen so many low SATs come in before this year...these poor kids, what's going on...have they made the test harder?" At the time I joked that it was just our school, which could be simultaneously true, but the fact simply stands that America is getting dumber.

In discussion with a friend about the untextbooked, untaught truths in American history, covered by this book, I realized that the more time that goes by, the more history accumulates, and so many things will have to be glossed over, an unfortunate and inevitable truth of time perhaps, but still scary.

Yet things keep chugging along the status quo railroad with not enough of us realizing how outdated this form of transportation really is, and how we're on our way to derailing ourselves and our progress as individuals and as an advanced, prosperous country.

"But the one idea with the potential to really shake things up and deliver the best results over the long term is not so much practical as it is philosophical: re-establishing excellence as the primary goal of our educational institutions. This is not just a mission statement or a simplistic, meaningless platitude. It basically requires a generational shift in attitudes and policies in education and child development that have come to predominate in American society. These are permissiveness, a persistent diluting of standards and content, and the embrace of egalitarian education, rather than excellence, as the foundation and informing philosophy of schooling. Making the pursuit of excellence the norm will require grass-roots buy-in from teachers, government, and parents.
If the country is to reach this consensus about the philosophical aims of education, we first need to debunk the myth that striving for excellence means leaving kids behind or limiting access..."
-Th!nk, Michael R LeGault

more about testing:

"What kind of objective evidence should one look for to establish the superiority of any curriculum? One thinks almost immediately of tests. But one must be wary of the significance of mathematics tests. Presumably the mathematics courses have taught students to think through problems, to discover results for themselves, and to acquire insight into the concepts and proofs they have learned. Actually tests do not and to a large extent cannot measure such values. The usual tests require that a student answer a fair number of questions in a limited amount of time. If a question really called for thinking through a new type of problem or discovering a new result it would require so much time that average students would not be able to do well in the time allowed. Even if the student made intelligent and significant attempts to answer such questions his failure to reach a positive result would probably mean that he would receive little or no credit.

Hence, mathematics tests usually and almost perforce call for handing back information that has been learned and is merely being reproduced. The ability to memorize is the major faculty that is actually tested. While the acquisition of information is one objective of mathematics education, it is not supposed to be the sole or most important goal. Though most teachers would deny that they are testing memorization, their behavior belies their words. In Chapter 2 we noted that teachers do not permit their students to use their books during tests. But if the tests call for thinking on the part of the student, what vitiation of the tests would result from the use of books?" -this website

musical discourse...

"so, the point...is that it is a musical embodiment of a philosophy of 'now'"
(thanks pete)

many times an awesome jam totally brings you into that moment so you have no time or inclination to be expecting anything more than the beautifully evolving now.
and many times the song is played very differently...wherever the spirit of the music takes the band that night....another wonderful thing in itself...and also another way in which they bring you into the present...not living in the past with how the song has been played and what the audience may be expecting from those past performances...totally creating something new, innovating on the spot with brilliance...
sometimes that build up feels like amazing foreplay...who needs to go all the way to that climax when you are savoring the anticipatory teasing brings more satisfaction?

"the music plays the band"
-the music never stopped, Grateful Dead

learning and art

“A life-affirming dimension is opening up in neuroscience,” said Dr. Gazzaniga, “to discover how the performance and appreciation of the arts enlarge cognitive capacities will be a long step forward in learning how better to learn and more enjoyably and productively to live.

great speech

This blog quotes all the same things I mention...and is awesome anyway :)

"Creativity is just as important...in education...as literacy."

"We are being educated out of our creatvity."

"Suddenly, degrees aren't worth anything."

Ken Robinson covers a number of subjects, touching upon the shifting of the educational system and necessary changes we need to make in the awareness of our changing humanity:"rethink the fundamental principles upon which our education system is based."

He also gets into the idea that its not all about academic ability, but so many brilliant, creative people end up feeling 'less than' just because their academic ability, which forms much of their self-image in their most impressionable years, falls short.

And he alludes to the idea of letting people be who they are instead of conforming them for the purposes of a uniform education. The kid can't sit still? Don't medicate them...encourage that energy for sports or dance or movement related expertise...Stop stifling natural talents and predilections and looking to measure everyone on the same yardstick...Human potential is unlimited so why wouldn't personalities, interests, and talents be unlimited and varied proportionately?

evolution of a non-thought

i sit.
here.
cross legged.
in a black swivel chair.
at a black desk.
in a brick walled room.
with carpet.
my mind...

[empty]

nothing to think
only observation
people here drive red cars
more than where i'm from
where everything is silver
because no one wants to really say anything
or stand out
not that they do here
all they are probably saying here
may be blind patriotism
or maybe just...
today,
there are lots of red cars.

there are a lot of things i don't know
things i know nothing of
things i couldn't answer correctly regarding
things i don't know i don't know
and perception is a funny thing
and where you are coming from in your mind
will often answer for you
before the question asked, nevermind pondered

and where all of these things may be
uncertain
unimportant
insignificant
is where the
certain
important
significance
of this begins

the significant
importance
of (whatfeelslikebutiwouldneversayis) certainty

my eyelids are so heavy
weighed down
by all the ~unbelievable~ beauty they've (be)held
in the last three days
and tired from staying awake
to savor such scarce magical reality
tired,
-its why i have no brain
with which to think right now-
and without need
-oftimes knowing requires no thought-
its simplicity
truth just is
and allows me
to just be.
peaceful. free. here.