AfterDawn.com: User profiles: Deepskystarlight: Blog archive

Merry Christmas

(25 Dec 2006 18:50)

The only gift is a portion of thyself. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and
philosopher (1803-1882)

However you celebrate, whatever you believe or not, it's still at this time of year, a wonderful time to stop and remember that what really matters is the lives we have touched and what we have given of ourselves. That we love to see our loved one's eyes light up when they open something very special we have chosen for them because we know how much they will like it, but that it's everything we do and say, day by day, year after year that makes our souls light up at the thought of each other. And that no external action can ever take the place of real acceptance of who someone is. Or what a beautiful priceless gift it is to have that kind of acceptance. I am so truly blessed.
It has been a year of endings and of great promise for new beginnings. My father passed away last spring and my sister was engaged this fall. I'm deep into a journey that will take all of the coming year and then a few weeks of the next but will be worth all the effort I put into it when I get to wear the goofy hat.
My wish for all is happiness and the knowledge that you're on the path that is right for you and yours. If you're headed where you belong, you will know it, be strong and persevere. If you're not, may you find your way. You all deserve it. Love and best wishes to all.
Josi

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Controversy- You gotta love it.

(12 Dec 2006 20:45)

If I haven't put up much writing in my blog lately it's because I have been writing so much for my classwork lately. By the time I get here I'm too tired, don't feel like writing more or don't have time. But I wrote another little piece for class tonight that I thought would work here too.

A couple of the discussion topics in class this week have been "teachers as
role models" and the "hidden curriculum": messages we impart to students
through the ways we do or do not do things, things implied although not direcly spoken or necessarily even consciously realized. I read this story in the news tonight and thought it would generate some interesting further discussion related to both
of these issues so I threw my comments and the link into the mix tonight.

Ok how's this for controversial?
Read this before going to the link.
On the one hand, as fine art I think it's kind of silly. However, he apparently does have people paying several hundred dollars a painting for these things, so he can certainly claim legitimacy as a commercial artist. Bear in mind that it's in the very nature of art and being an artist to push the limits and try to do things in a different, creative way. He's not working with little children, his students are in high school. He's kept his work and real identity separate from his role as a teacher. One can make a very legitimate point that he has walked the fine line between promoting his product and keeping his professional life separate from it and should be allowed to continue his work. Note that it is the adults, not the students who have a problem with this. Is this not only a free speech and personal rights issue but also a chance to look at yet another hidden curriculum that our society tries to impose? We are very hypocritical about the human body. We want to study it scientifically. We want to demystify it and take away the myths and rumors so our kids do not have unwanted pregnancies and diseases that they have acquired through misinformation. We admire the beauty of it in classical art and twitter nervously about the reality. Through our fear of the religious right and controversy, we enforce a very puritanical attitude that ends up perpetuating the very confused mixed message conditions that help ensure that our kids will continue to grow up confused and misinformed about issues relating to the human body and its functions. Why are they all twittering like first graders over a butt? Perhaps he isn't so silly after all. It is the job of the artist to make us look at ourselves and ask the hard questions. Is it our job as educators to lie to high schoolers and tell them the job of the artist is to be a Thomas Kinkade who makes something very pretty that doesn't require you to think? Or is that decoration rather than art?

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natural born teachers

(02 Dec 2006 9:06)

One of the things I am enjoying in my class is the discussions. We spend a lot of time having to read serious academic research and articles, writing papers and working on projects. The discussion part of my work is great because the professor poses questions based on the lecture and readings and asks us to post our responses to the discussion threads. Other students then respond to those threads and the discussions are thoughtful, and bring up other issues that are then followed up on. Sometimes the professor will then ask more questions related to those responses. So by the end of each week we have covered a lot of interesting ground. One of those discussions ended up branching into a discussion on what qualities besides all of the formal skills and education make a good teacher. The professor wrote a long interesting response then ended it with this question,

"Sooo....what do you think...is it possible that no matter what some people do...they just ARE teachers? "

I put in my two cents worth.

Oh most definitely! Everyone needs to learn skills and add specific knowledge to be able to work as effectively as possible, but we all know people who are like that. The friend you call when you're trying to figure out something new on your computer or your guitar. The fellow parent that had gone through some of the same issues with his older child that you are going through with yours now. The classmate you always hoped to be paired with for group assignments because you knew she'd help you understand it. And the friend who can always sense how you are feeling and knows just the right thing to do, whether it be to just listen to you talk about what's bothering you in your life till you realize you're a bit less confused about what to do, or if she should give you any advice. It's the friend who is always sending you new links to cool things they found/read/learned on the internet, who is so much fun to be around because you don't just talk about exactly the same things in the same shallow way all the time. It's a combination of empathy, patience, listening and communication skills and a deep down enjoyment of being with others and sharing what you know with them. All of those are elements of a natural teacher. We are lucky to have such people around.

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true acts of love

(01 Dec 2006 5:24)

Our lives improve only when we take chances
and the first and most difficult risk we can
take is to be honest with ourselves.
~Walter Anderson

The best gift we can give ourselves and others is freedom. Recognizing that love is not something that can ever be forced or obligated; that who we are and what we need are too important to deny; and that the happiness we all so desperately need can only come from a life lived in harmony with our true identities. No matter how much we may wish things were different, we cannot forcibly contort another human being into being someone they are not and expect them to be happy and love us for it.

In this season of kindness and gift giving, I do not write this from any desire to hurt but instead because I want the hurting to stop. I have never desired to be a part of hurting and have done my best over time to speak up for a willingness to face the truth and to act accordingly in kindness instead of a blind hatred or bitter desire to get back. The greatest acts of love come from a desire to let others have what is best for them, not necessarily what we would desire for ourselves. I cannot face the idea of going through yet another few weeks of what should be a time of love and see it torn apart once again by such a needless denial of reality.

I too, once stood in the same shoes. I tried to force someone to be who he no longer was and no longer could ever be. I blamed him, I blamed myself, I was filled with anger. Anger is such a destructive emotion. It hurts the one who holds onto it most of all. You rage and rage and then you�re exhausted and then it comes back and you rage some more. And then one day, you find you can let go and that hateful hurtful person you had become goes away and you learn there is life after letting go. And you wonder why you screamed and held onto something dead for so long when there is so much life out there waiting to be lived. Peace, my friends. Because you are all my friends. You may think I hate you but I don�t. I just want us all to have the freedom to be who we are and be happy. Including you.

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December 2006

Merry Christmas

Controversy- You gotta love it.

Living simply, beautifully, happily

natural born teachers

true acts of love


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