Keeping Perspective

So the last week or so has been really hard for me to focus. I have had an extremely hard time writing or studying. And by writing I mostly mean typing in and of itself. I feel like I shouldn't edit this post just so you can get an idea as to how bad my typing abilities have become; however, I won't do that to you. It would be very hard to read and probably not very entertaining for anyone either.

In effort to keep in perspective why I actually want to get good grades and graduate, I bought a book entitled "Letters to a Young Teacher" (I might have also bought it because Boarders went out of business and I got it for like $1.50). Anyway, I have started to read it as 1), an escape from homework, and 2) as a way to remember that I really do want to teach. I have yet to finish this book, but about a hundred pages in and I'm hooked. I love the way Jonathan Kozol brings teaching to most personal level that it possibly could be. He loves the aspects of teaching where the teacher actually learns something of the student, and therefore can help the student better understand the task at hand. Learning and teaching for that matter isn't just a manufactured process to make certain that students make it to the next level and then become successful. Teacher and learning is about relationships, and then building on those to create understanding. I could literally gush about this book for a very long time; however, I won't bore those of you who are not planning on becoming teachers, but I will give you a few snippets that I have found and loved. Most of these probably only make sense in context... but I still liked them a lot!

"That bond of trust and tenderness comes first. Without that, everything is merely dutiful- and generally, deadening. It is not for dutiful aridity that people who love children become teachers."

"... at the end of all those 'ands' and 'buts' there's a piece of hidden treasure where the child tells us something that we never knew about him up to now. And good teachers use that piece of hidden treasure as a key to unlock motivation and to bring the child back into the classroom work..."

"Words like these [proficient, humorous, interesting, colorful] do not teach literacy skills; they teach pomposity... Don't inflict dead verbiage on living children."

There are several more that I have underlined (and yes, I have been underlining things in this book) but those are the ones that I will share for now.

I think Bob Marley Had it Right

Someone posted Bob Marley's song "One Love" on facebook. It's a good song, but it's not just the song that I began thinking about. I recently finished a book entitled A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier written by Ishmael Beah. This book is fantastic. It's heartrendingly truthful, and eye-opening. If you haven't read it, I suggest you do. This is a true account of a boy who was forced to join the army from ages eleven to fifteen. Literally his childhood was gone. Even through this, Ishmael Beah had the opportunity to overcome the horrific details of his past life.

You're probably wondering what this has to do with Bob Marley. Before the time of Beah's "war years" he and his country of Sierra Leone were greatly influenced by reggae, especially Bob Marley. So, there's the tie. This book illustrates humanity. More than that it helps people ten thousand miles away understand someone else, which is probably why I love this book so much. Anyway, read this and then listen to Bob Marley's "One Love," you won't regret it.

A Tidbit

So I've recently been re-reading this book and I just wanted to share a small tidbit from it that just made me stop and think.

"You cannot produce trust, just as you cannot 'do' humility. It either is or is not. Trust is the fruit of a relationship in which you know you are loved. Because you do not know that I love you, you cannot trust me." In reply to this statement, the main character answers "I don't know how to change that." The rejoinder to this: "You can't, not alone. But together we will watch that change take place."

The Giver

Today I re-read this book. I love it. So much. Sadly enough I wasn't introduced to this book until my second year of college when one of my professors began cleaning out her office and gave away various books. This is an incredibly good book. The main theme I've picked out of this book is the difference between "Ignorance is Bliss" and "Knowledge is Power."

My own personal beliefs strongly leave me thinking that knowledge is power, but the arguments of "the community" in the novel The Giver are compelling enough to make one believe that ignorance is bliss. That not knowing would be sublime. No pain, no suffering, neglect, sorrow any negative emotion would be ultimately eliminated in ignorance. With these eliminations of negative feelings you would also have nothing on the flipside. No true happiness, no elation, or warmth. No true love. There would be a seamlessness of the "Sameness."

I don't want to give the whole book away if you haven't read it, but it is beautiful, easy to read, and fairly short. This books encompasses attitudes about knowledge versus ignorance while tying it into humanity (sort of haha). Anyway, it is a good book. I'm determined to teach this one once I get there. This might be the beginnings of a lesson plan. I'm excited :)

Dear C.S. Lewis

This could possibly sum up a lot of my feelings from the past couple months.

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The Alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.