Monday, January 18, 2016

Remembering Dr. King

A poignant way to remember Dr. King is expressed by Michael Eric Dyson in I May Not Get There With You. Among other comments in the concluding chapter, Dyson talks about the King holiday and offers his opinion on how the day should be celebrated. I tend to agree with his position.


 When we celebrate the King holiday, we do not simply celebrate the life of Martin Luther King. We celebrate individuals like Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses and Charles Sherrod, Septima Clark and Harry Moore, Emmett Till and Medgar Evans, Victoria Gray and Malcolm X, Roy Wilkins and Whitney Young, Angela Davis and Huey Newton, Mickey Schwerner and James Chaney, Andy Goodman and Bayard Rustin, Viola Liuzzo and James Reeb, Addie Mae Collins and Carole Robertson, Denise McNair and Cynthia Wesley, Julian Bond and John Lewis, Andrew Young and Ralph Abernathy, Hosea Williams and Jesse Jackson, Diane Nash and James Bevel, Dorothy Cotton and Johnnie Tillmon, and legions of other souls who sought to bring justice and freedom to Southern black doors and Northern project apartments. We celebrate King's insistence that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," as we extend his radical legacy to embrace citizens who are oppressed...

Friday, January 8, 2016

Worth Reading...

Sharing a few highlights from this week's collection.

1. We Need More Curious Dreamers, Tinkerers, and Makers (Fryer)- several great embedded videos and links.

all it takes is a dreamer. Can you imagine the Wright Brothers if one was a lawyer and one was an accountant? Why are you going to build this stupid airplane? It only carries one person. Who’s going to buy it? What kind of a profit margin are we going to get? We’ve got forty percent on bicycles. What are we doing this for? Think about the liability! Everybody can sue us! It’s a bad idea. Yeah, let’s not do it. As long as we have that opinion, we’re stuck. What you have to say is, “Gosh it’s something no one has ever done before. Let’s try it.

2. Denis Dutton: A Darwinian Theory of Beauty- TED collaborates with animator Andrew Park to illustrate Denis Dutton's theory on beauty- that art, music and other beautiful things, far from being simply "in the eye of the beholder," are a core part of human nature with deep evolutionary origins.



3. Looks aren't everything.  Believe me, I'm a model (Russell)-



4. A Radical Rethink of School (Educating Modern Learners)- Jim Calhoun, the principal of Castle View High School in Castle Rock, CO, talks about a school within a school he has helped develop.

5. Maker-Centered Learning and the Development of Self (Agency by Design)- a white paper presented by the Agency by Design.  Identifies beliefs of maker-centered learning for young people.