- 1. We treat all learners the same despite unique needs and challenges.
- 2. We hold a schedule constant regardless of learning variance (deficiency) OR (my input: we slow the entire train because of several cars).
- 3. Performance data (report cards) comes too late to be truly useful to the learner.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Instructional Design, Public Education, and My Two Cents
Sunday, April 12, 2015
The Linen Sea
The waves toss us about, from one side to the other, sometimes coming dangerously close to sailing over the edge of our world.
The winds drive us in a meandering path, sometimes touching the same waypoint over and over, with no apparent destination or schedule.
We don't mind. It's our intent. We've given up the helm. This is how it's supposed to be. Us, enjoying our journey together, focused on each other, not on a destination.
We are lost, but need no life jackets, no inflatable rafts, no emergency flares; we are lost in each other, happy to be so far from anyone else.
We cling to each other, each rescuing the other from a life of solitude and loneliness, from a life of longing to know love.
Morning will come.
It will bring with it the dangerous calm that so easily besets us; the calm that pulls us down deep into life's stress and business; down into the depths of cold indifference; down to the Marianas Trench of selfishness and apathy.
We must know this, expect it, prepare for it. We rest now, knowing we can't avoid the morning, but knowing we must soon swim and fight our way back to this lifeboat we now hide in, else we drown from lack of each other's air.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Maps and Blueprints
I wish I knew how to fix it. Where's the owner's manual?
Oh, it's not done? We're still building this?
Then I wish I had the blueprints.
I wish I knew where we're going. Where's the map?
There isn't one? This is uncharted water? There is no pre-destination? It's our journey?
Well, I tire of these tempestuous waves, all the heaving and ho-ing. I get sick of the tossing to and fro. I'd like to find some dry and peaceful land to stand upon; some good, solid, and fertile ground upon which to build this thing with no blueprints.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Desires, Disappointments, and Deity
'Disappointment stems from unmet desires.
Anger, frustration, and bitterness stem from unmet expectations.
If you're feeling the latter, relinquish your expectations while acknowledging your desires and disappointments.
Free yourself and them while still remaining honest with both and about both.
Emotional Corrosion
Starbucks Virgins
Sitting in Starbucks this morning enjoying a scone and raspberry mocha. Three young black men were in line ahead of me, obviously on their inaugural visit to Starbucks. They are clearly flustered - if not completely befuddled - by the menu lexicon and options.
I want so badly to ask them why? Why visit Starbucks now? What has driven them here? For me and my social circle, it's no more out of the ordinary (more ordinary, in fact) than going to McDonald's. But for them, here in their late 20s, to be making their first venture into this world...
Is there a girl in the mix (as there often is, when considering out-of-the-ordinary male behavior)? Does she drink Starbucks and he has to find out what it's all about? To try it himself before bringing her here, so as not to embarrass himself?
Is it a socio-economic thing? Is there a sense that visiting this establishment indicates, even on a subconscious level, that they are climbing the ladder? That the American dream is working? That their lives hold more promise today than they did yesterday?
Or am I just being a pretentious prick and it's nothing more than simple curiosity?