holding on

I was excited for last week to begin, but the optimism that I started the week with, was increasingly replaced with pessimism.
I was excited for the Paris Climate Talks, to see so many world leaders coming together to talk about real, substantial change. I was hopeful that after the divisive fears caused by the attacks in Paris, and the angry, hateful rhetoric of the American Republican candidates, that we would start to see a move towards a more peaceful, hopeful wold. But for me, this was not a good week. It was extremely difficult, even though the climate talks were going well, to keep faith in the world.
I'm sure it didn't help that I had sick kids at home, and didn't sleep as well; and I'm sure it didn't help that I had a few frustrated days at work. I probably wasn't at my best, but when your morning newsfeed looks like this, it's hard to believe that things are getting better:
 
But I refuse to give up. I will hold on to the belief that there is more good than bad in the world. I will not let hate destroy hope.

So, as I often do, I read and listen to music to find my grounding. This week the words of Shane Koyczan brought me the encouragement I needed. I bought his newest album, "Debris," and I will share one specific song with you.

I started this blog a long time ago - I switched to blogging on Tumblr for a while (http://ramblerantreminisce.tumblr.com/) - but have returned to blogger.

I have been trying to convince (along with the IT department) how important blogging could be for our students. My attempts have been unsuccessful. The people I talk to still seem to think that credible journalism needs to be paid journalism, and that knowledge needs to be passed on from a 'professional' expert, rather than a shared collaboration of ideas. Our school's VLE has a blog area on each profile, and although our IT dept. are in the process of setting up a WordPress Blog (pending SMT approval), I have decided to use it to share my thoughts on what a blog is, should be, could be, etc.
Here is the first blog post:

Sir Francis Bacon, famous scientist and philosopher, once purported that knowledge is power ("scientia potentia est"). This phrase can easily be interpreted to mean that knowledge empowers the individual to excel in society and achieve personal success. This definition can, and has, been used to stress the importance of free and equal access to education. This definition, embodies the hopes and aspirations of Sir Francis Bacon's England, a world in which scientific development and discovery was gaining a more prominent place in western society than ever before. Science was changing people's world views and making the world a smaller place; knowledge was empowering the individual mind and empowering countries to new heights.

The reality, however, was that knowledge in the right hands was power over others. The reality of Sir Francis Bacon's England was that knowledge was given to the few elite. Knowledge was used to gain individual fortune, and knowledge was used to colonize countries whose navigational and weapons advancements were less developed than others. This mantra of 'knowledge as power' was used to subjugate women and the poor in England and indigenous people around the world. The power of knowledge was used to create a trans-Atlantic slave trade that would lay the foundation to half a millennium of violent white supremacy across the globe.

The control of knowledge by an elite few is still a source of power in today's world. The dream of free and equal access to education is still merely a dream. In much of the world, primary education is not a right, and in most of the world, higher education is reserved for those who have the means to pay for it. Even those who can afford that education are at the whim of the system that controls what knowledge is taught. From the textbook companies that have deals with universities to the monopolized media companies that control the news we see everyday, knowledge is controlled by the elite and is used to keep the status quo.

But I am not a pessimist. I whole-heartedly believe that the world is changing. Knowledge is becoming more and more public; it is shared freely and openly like never before. Take for example, Encyclopaedia Britannica: since 1771 it has been recognized as the ultimate source of knowledge in the English speaking world. This elitist collection of books was "written by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert contributors" (Wikipedia). In a world of 1.8 billion English speakers, how can the knowledge of 4000 be deemed more important than that of the other 99.9998%?

The answer to that question can be found in the way that the Internet is being used to share the vastness of human knowledge and experience. For example, mass media is controlled primarily by four massive corporations: Disney, News Corporation, Viacom, and Time Warner. These companies are funded by politically minded individuals who are not afraid to endorse their own biases. We the public have long been at the mercy of the news that these companies sell us. There are however, more alternatives becoming available. NowPublic is an on-line news source that is completely democratic. Anyone can publish a story, and as stories are read and freelance journalists are subscribed to they become featured on the NowPublic front page.

Another medium also being used to share knowledge is blogging. Although blogs are closer in nature to a newspaper editorial, they are no less credible than what is being published in newspapers. The three most read blogs on the web have over 37 million new visitors every month. Traditional newspaper cannot boast even a fraction of this many readers. This is why many newspapers now include blogs on their websites in an attempt to compete with the fact that the masses, with the use of the Internet, now decide what knowledge will be privileged. The public now has the choice to examine all available information and gather knowledge for themselves, freely sharing it with others.

The way that knowledge is shared and controlled is changing in ways that would have been unimaginable to previous generations. Open-source education is revolutionizing access to not only general knowledge, but specialized knowledge as well. Although Sir Francis Bacon was part of a very privileged and prejudiced system, I believe that his statement, 'knowledge is power', was uttered in a spirit of hope and optimism. I believe that those hopes are becoming more of a reality every day-- and in the words of Public Enemy, I say, 'Power to the People!'

30 before 30

So, I turn 30 tomorrow...

I don't quite know how I feel about that. This morning I was thinking that I should make a list of things to do before I'm 30, but I guess it's a little late for that. Instead, I am going to start a list of things to do before I'm 40, but first in honour of a great run, I will make a list of my greatest accomplishments so far.
Here goes (in no particular order)...

#1. Being born

The odds against being born are outstanding. The miracle of child birth is that humanity has been able to perpetuate itself at all. Nevertheless, humankind has outwitted nature to become quite resilient in its ability to adapt, despite our lack of natural survival skills.

Not only has humanity survived long enough for me to be born, but there is only an 11% chance each month of getting pregnant, and with all of the possibilities of complications it's amazing that anyone is born at all.

On April 3rd, 1980, I beat the odds. My first great accomplishment was being born!
I didn't have much say in the matter, but I did it, and here I am.

Potential:

If I had a dollar for every time a teacher told me that I had a lot of potential, I would not have to work; but obviously that isn't the case. I still like to think that I have a lot of potential, but hope that I am fulfilling more of that potential than when I was a student and not a teacher telling students that they have a lot of potential.

Today was one of those days that I could have done without. It wasn't a particularly busy or demanding day, but my students definitely were not living up to their potential! The day started with reports of cemetery vandalism, continued with a pen-knife incident, and ended with a disruptive racist comment. Despite these incidents, I do feel that my lesson objectives were achieved and learning did take place in my classrooms, but I am mentally exhausted; I am frustrated at students who make terrible choices; and I am disappointed at how cruel some kids are to each other.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at the behaviour I see, but when it all boils down, I am an optimist. I believe that these students have immense potential to make the world a better place, and I believe wholeheartedly that schools have the potential to influence their kids to achieve success in all areas of life.

Christmas Time

I'm officially on Christmas time. That means some late nights, a few sleep-ins and a lot more napping than usual. I have a pile of marking that will probably not leave my bag until the Sunday night before I go back to work, and there are of course the usual travel plans.
It also means that I will be reading Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol -- as it is a holiday tradition my wife and I started our first Christmas together. From that book there is a particular quote that I like to think of as words to live by. They are spoken by Scrooge's nephew in their exchange before Scrooge first sees Marley in his door knocker.

"I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"

The Teacher with the Good Hair

In teaching, as in anything else, there are good days, bad days, then there are days that are just different. Last Friday was one of those days.
I have a class that, behaviour wise, is not my favourite class to teach. It has been a struggle for me to find ways to manage the class in a way that everyone is learning the material. I only teach them once a week, and that is part of the difficulty; building any rapport with them has been difficult.
However, on Friday, at the start of the class they all quieted down much quicker than normal and I made a comment about it and smiled. The remarks they made next shocked me: "Did you see that? Sir smiled;" "He must be having a good day; he smiled."
I stopped and asked them if they really thought I never smiled. I realized that despite trying all of the classroom management techniques I know, I never just stopped and had a laugh with them.
I have decided (and I told them this) that I would be focusing on positive behaviour so that they can see a better side of me. I will send positive postcards home and Respect cards to their form tutors, as opposed to the negative referrals that have been far too common.
There was one other comment that added to the strangeness of the day. Apparently to a group of year sevens, I am "the teacher with the good hair." -- that gave me a good laugh!