Writer and SoulCollage Facilitator - Poetry, Blogs, Other Writings

Poetry: Calming of the Dim Candlelight circa 2001

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 02:31:49 GMT

Calming of the Dim Candlelight

Calming of the dim candlelight.
Pen down to paper, preparing to write.
Looking into the boundless unknown,
Searching for balance, emotion overgrown.
With head-spinning speed
Decisions are brought to me.
Contemplating the possibilities.
What are the opportunities?
Looking for calm in the candle flame,
To quiet the voice, a chore untamed.
Like glimpses of dimensional phases,
Names for hidden, shadowy faces.
With a cigarette between parted lips,
Inhale deeply, float the abyss.
Rings of questions enter tomorrow-
Invited to the search of sorrows.
Spiritual heart, earthly mind; clashes.
Life events before me in flashes.
Isolation, a comfortable nest.
Soul experience needs a rest.
Gliding through it, leaving a trail.
Human experience, man-made sail.
A map? A course?
A pioneer, I am the source.
Challenges of power have got to be
Until it's understood, let us be free.
Answers wait to be found.
Align the energies- open the crown.
Search symbology for a theme.
Look and look to know what it means.
Waiting in silence for a guide.
Live your life--you cannot hide.
Guided by questions and choices,
Found in silence, not the voices.
On your path, do not despair.
Highway of connections, it is there.

March 22nd, 2024

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 02:26:54 GMT

Fragile Thread

in fragility
is authenticity

and courage

humanity
only found

too late

Fertility of the Goddess, Manitou Magazine, circa 2003

Sun, 06 Dec 2020 04:05:22 GMT

Within the Spiritual Womb, our true identities are waiting for birth.

By exploring ourselves and our natural powers of femininity, we are directed to tools for reaching and knowing our true identities. "Our Divine Potential" is what Carolyn Myss calls it. Marianna Williamson speaks of it as the "the Goddess Within".

As Priestesses in our own right, we have the strength to reach out to other women and to support each other along the journey of remembering. This identity is given a name: the Divine Potential, the Goddess Within, or our Dharma. This is our very reason for being here.

...

to be continued

Using Humanistic Approaches to Increase Student Motivation, Educational Curriculum Publisher Blog, 2018

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 00:32:01 GMT

Using Humanistic Approaches to Increase Student Motivation

Teachers who nurture a child’s sense of awe, empowerment and communal spirit are highlighting Humanist principles in the classroom. “Humanism learning theories are based on the principles founded most notably on the work of Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) and Carl Rogers (1902–1987).” Nurturing the student as a whole person who is inherently passionate about self-growth and social development is the focus of Humanist teaching. To achieve their goals, Humanist educators tactically establish intentional learning environments, cultivate their role as facilitator, and employ invitational teaching practices. These ideas are examined in turn below.

Intentional Learning Environment

Where traditional teaching designs focus on knowledge transmission and student compliance, Humanistic educators establish intentional learning environments that focus on classroom environment, peer relationships, and intuitive learning techniques. Teaching spaces become intentional as educators tactically construct the learning environment (e.g., space and lighting) and its implicit messaging (e.g., inclusivity in the curriculum) and encourage student exploration. Intentional learning environments emphasize invitational language, safe physical and emotional accessibility, student input, and cooperative learning arrangements.

Intentional learning spaces allow student interests to set the guideposts for education purposes and techniques. Nel Noddings, in Happiness in Education, suggests that students experience a sense of “occupational happiness” in the classroom as they are encouraged to discover and value their learning passions. Humanist teachers help students develop a sense of well-being and a feeling of worthwhileness as they are given the space to question, make choices, and experience risk-taking outcomes in a supportive environment. Howard Glasser, in Quality Schools, suggests that students build self-esteem through supported risk-taking and reflection, a strategy that nurtures the student’s sense of worthwhileness and accomplishment.

Teacher as Facilitator

Where traditional education situates the teacher as the pipeline of knowledge, Humanist educators facilitate student-driven exploration of ideas and experiences that stimulate their natural love of learning and growth. Teachers cultivate their facilitator role as they provide inviting spaces, emotional support, and intuitive inquiry methods rather than rote informational lectures. Teachers as facilitators guide the learning journey by employing thoughtful questioning and by modeling supportive language and inquiry practices that learners are encouraged to emulate. In addition, teachers seek to facilitate student growth within a supportive community through cooperative dialogue and peer risk-taking support.

Invitational Teaching Strategies

Socratic Circle
The Socratic Circle invites students to offer input, ask questions and prompt group talk based on a topic or question presented by the teacher. Students sit in a circle and are encouraged to present ideas and arguments, offer and answer questions and provide supportive feedback in an effort to collectively explore the topic question. Learning as a cooperative process, rather than a competitive outcome, is central to the Socratic Circle. Students learn to be thoughtful listeners, civil question-askers and critical thinkers. The teacher facilitates the discussion by keeping the group on-topic, aiding students to explore passionate inquiry, and energizing the discussion with thoughtful questions.

Think-Pair-Share
Student participation and confidence is increased when they have opportunities to participate in Think-Pair-Share lessons. In this cooperative learning strategy, students clarify their ideas by taking a moment to independently ponder the information presented or question asked. Students then work in pairs to talk through ideas before being bringing their input to the whole group. Ideas presented to the group are now more accurate, more developed and more clearly articulated, a process that animates individual learners and cultivates the learning community.

Discovery Lesson
In contrast to having students memorize information for tests, Discovery Learning encourages students to explore topics and present their findings in creative, personalized ways. The teacher considers each student’s ability level and interest to create a menu of knowledge-building learning activities. For instance, in an American Revolution unit, students might choose from the Constitution, the Boston Tea Party, or George Washington’s presidency and be given a range of activity choices such as model construction, painting, poetry, or a dramatic skit. In doing so, students choose their own topic focus and method of building and demonstrating knowledge, while the teacher acts as a resource and project guide.

Authentic Learning Experiences
Authentic Learning Experiences invite students to design and apply solutions to help solve real-life problems. Students explore a variety of public problems (e.g., a lack of seating in local parks) and traditional solutions (e.g., memorial benches). Then, they choose a problem focus and team-up with other students who have selected that problem. Each team studies the problem, including its causes and effects, and traditional solutions, including their challenges and outcomes. Students devise a solution and generate plans to manufacture and implement their solution. Their project designs are often community-based, but not necessarily. Students are tasked with organizing the resources required to implement the solution they have devised. At the end of the unit, student products have tangible, real-world outcomes that their learning or wider community can see and discuss, lesson results that have value and relevance far beyond abstract grades.

Summary

Humanist teaching methods encourage the most reluctant students to increase their willingness and passion to learn. Intentional learning environments can create paths (access) for learners or learning communities of a variety of abilities to engage in the learning process. Providing students with the power to choose the “what” and “how” of a lesson is galvanizing. Diverse learning modalities, perspectives, and abilities are encouraged with the educator being a primary support person, a resourceful guide for student thinking. Children who better understand their personal values can apply those values to make learning meaningful across the curriculum. Children can learn to push themselves, take risks and gracefully grow.

An Old Poetry Blog, circa 2011-2013

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 01:24:05 GMT

Poetry sample and old blog link-

humanity
in fragility,
is authenticity
and courage.
humanity.
only found--
too late?

Spring Welcome
a baby bee.
suckling.
upon the spring
nectar
of barely a bud.

both growing.
each day
of fresh warmth.
transforms in
rain and sun.

Yellow Truck
Old square truck-
from the forties perhaps.
Wearing a high-gloss,
smiley-face yellow.
Like an evening gown
in old Hollywood.
Flawlessness it wears
as its pearls.

https://indigojourneycenter.blogspot.com/

PreK Finance Curriculum Sample: National Council for Finance Educators, 2013

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 22:28:53 GMT

Google Doc to pre-publication

Dear Families

We write to invite you to another financial learning unit, “Financial Psychology” (FP). Our learners appreciate any assistance from the home and community that is made available. The more involvement from the school community, the richer the learning experience will be for all of the students. Your student will be bringing home more specific instructions from the teacher per activity needs at each grade level.

The main themes of this unit will discuss needs vs. wants, lifestyle choices, consequences and goals, in addition to money identification and valuation. Students will be participating in games and creating collages as well as setting goals, among other activities. Families are asked to send in cut-out magazine pictures for students to use in these activities. The pictures should include representations of food and treats, different styles of homes, toys, chores, living needs, etc.

We hope that you and your child find this to be a pleasurable interactive experience as well as informative and inviting!

Thank you.

Financial Psychology:
“Choice: Needs and Wants
“Values and Decisions”
“Goals”

SI
SI Distinguish between Savings and Investing
SI Understanding the value of a Financial Plan Short term vs Long term
SI “Money Management Tools, Skills and Strategies” (Budgeting?)
SI Lifestyle
SI“Citizenship Engagement and Contribution”
SI Professional Services and Decisions

ICBE
Subcategories:
“Professional Decisions”
“Goals”
“Paystubs and Logistics”
“Entrepreneurial”

(Tune: Ole Christmas Tree)
author: unknown

Oh, needs and wants,
Oh, needs and wants,
We can’t have all the things we want.
We really want
A lot of stuff,
But sometimes there’s just not enough.
Oh, needs and wants,
Oh, needs and wants,
We can’t have all the things we want.

Lesson: Earning Money
lesson link
Lesson: First, Then. Now, Later
lesson link
Lesson: Smart Money System
lesson link
Lesson: Growing Waiting Muscles
lesson link
Lesson: Three-Choice Drawing

A Favorite Grad School Piece, circa 2011

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 22:24:36 GMT

The Corporate Education Model: Its Toxic Effects and Humanist Remedies

Brandi Williams Palmer
University of Northern Colorado



Abstract
The corporate model dominates the educational system in the United States and is having a negative impact on achievement outcomes for students and societal health. While this model has offered insight into the economic and educational system, its emphasis on students-as-products is antithetical to society’s needs with regard to education outcomes. A Humanistic view of education offers a more comprehensive lens to examine the complexities of human teachers and learners. To be effective, education reform and dialogue must be responsive to student experience over student efficiency and productivity.

       There is a mounting concern among progressive theorists that corporate ideals of profit and efficiency now largely shape mainstream educational policy. Most Progressives recognize the power of corporate systems to shape and establish education policy; its subsequent emphasis on individualism, consumerism, and class stratification can ultimately distort curriculum planning, teaching designs, and achievement results. Void of learning aims tied to authentic humanist outcomes, dominant instructional models have become misdirected in a sea of standards and bottom-line expectations. Put simply, the corporate model is shaping education in a way that is antithetical to the concept of education itself. Maxine Greene questions if society is contending with “uncertainty with regard to purpose…anxiety about what is being communicated to the young” (1). This underlying anxiety often goes unaddressed in talk of school aims and standards because the concept of the “authentic learning experience” is neither clearly defined nor usually debated. In response, a line of theorists have defined student well-being and social justice as prime educational values, tenets that hold much promise for the education field (e.g., Noddings).

The educational system in the United States currently promotes an economy-based perspective; many citizens claim to support this perspective as well. Joel Spring in Wheels in the Head claims, “The education system itself is perverted in that it functions to teach conformity of the system that perpetuates the dominant power—in modern times that power is corporations” (43). The educational system can be used to convince the populous to naïvely support a structure that goes against their own best interests as individual citizens and small community groups. Learners must feel safe to take risks. Schools that promote a supportive environment, rather than a market-driven environment, can reap better results for long-term outcomes (rather than short-term test results) as demonstrated by education systems in Denmark and Japan that promote innovation and a creative, life-long learner lifestyle. Research trends suggest that educational systems promoting humanistic, long-term effects are more sustainable. This paper unfolds in three sections: the first section proposes that corporate ideals now drive educational policy; the second section suggests that corporate models encourage mainstream students to fail by positioning them as defective products; and the third section stipulates that a humanist model—with its emphasis on authentically supportive and humane learning conditions—is the guiding model for education.

Systems of power are historically resistant to transformational change unless the change is immediately profitable (proverbially or literally) for the dominant power. This short-sightedness of seeking an “easy fix” is perpetuated by media-ratings and profit. Policymakers, administrators, teachers, parents, and students at each level should be cautious when permitting commercial industry to be a part of the decision-making process regarding curricula in schools and youth development. Corporations now have many opportunities to influence decision-making, i.e., through student incentives, subsidized classroom materials, and massive endowments. According to Ornstein and Hunkins, “Educators need to help students discover their own voices and agency so that they will not be duped into groupthink and uncritically accept the values and views of those in power” (309). Corporate influence has historically operated “under the radar,” resulting in many educators being duped and perhaps uncritical themselves. Commercial enterprise has re-constructed what society reasons customary including influencing the educational system (Greene, 1988). For example, Ruth Malone claims that in some cases, citizen groups “appeared to have worked against their own interest, perhaps without full knowledge of who was funding these organizational efforts” (University of California-San Francisco).
In the example of textbooks and achievement-test producers, corporations have begun to affect a substantial portion of daily classroom agendas. Many new teachers rely on marketed curriculum programs to get them through the day, while some experienced teachers have come to know them well. Educational standards—language choice, for example—are often influenced by the “the ones with the money”--corporatized efforts or politicians connected to corporations. The Texas State Board of Education, whose members “are nominated educators, parents, business and industry representatives, and employers that serve on the review committees,” recently passed standards that included language directly promoting regionally-dominant, conservative, market-driven values. These state standards (implemented in August 2011) literally rewrote the definition and concept of nationality in the United States and stipulated that children name the United States a "Constitutional Republic" not a "Democratic Society." With a broad stroke, a handful of politicians decided against the people on a far-reaching scale. This decision may impact school organizations and students nationally. During a CNN interview, President Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, was asked to respond to the Texas SBOE decision, and he replied, "Ideally, history will be led by the historians, not by politicians.” Why is the administration not taking a firmer stand against allowing a handful of politicians to change educational foundations (i.e., culture)? Ideally, he said. Not absolutely? In November 2010, Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders presented on the Senate floor a speech popularly called, The War Being Waged Upon the Working Families of America, in which he stated,

The very rich want more, more and more and they are prepared to dismantle the existing political and social order to get it. During the last campaign, as a result of the (Republican) Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, billionaires were able to pour hundreds of millions of dollars of secret money into the campaign — helping to elect dozens of members of Congress. Now, having made their investment, they want their congressional employees to produce.
What may happen to the individual student who ideologically opposes a concept mandated by state power (politicians and corporations)? This individual’s beliefs may cause a failing grade or create a reputation for failure and resistance that will plague him/her through schooling (Glasser). The shift in language and cultural expectations the Texas SBOE has proposed serves as an example against which some groups of students and community populations will be ideologically opposed. Which groups of students may be experiencing their education as a storyline in (archetypal, systematic) failure? Or perhaps these students won’t have a storyline in failure; perhaps they will have all the outward signs of success.

Nel Noddings proposes a shift in language when she discusses the competing needs of self and the needs of others. She proposes teaching wise concepts like “love of place” rather than nationalism, Exceptionalism, and ego-centrism. The difference between the language choice of Noddings and that of Texas SBOE is that Noddings’ approach offers a space for dialogue about nationalism as an individual expression or variable of “love of place.” Her approach grants space for individual inquiry and polyfocality, meaning many perspectives. In Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen indicates that social studies textbooks used in public schools have contributed to the re-writing of factual U.S. history by deleting controversial discussions while teaching students the perspective of American Exceptionalism as an “international good guy.” Loewen condemns the “all-is-well” endings themed in many marketed history books. He claims this allowance is sapping the “intellectual excitement” from learning about U.S. government, its history, and its current state of being in the world while also encouraging passive, unscholarly minds unaware of the critical components of citizenship. As global citizens, the United States’ all-is-well perspective may not be as aptly received by other global citizens or other civilizations that may have a longer memory.

Over one hundred years ago, John Dewey (1898) advocated that the “industrial history of man is not a materialistic or merely utilitarian affair. It is a matter of intelligence. It’s a record of how (humans) learned to think, to think to some effect, to transform the conditions of life so that life itself became a different thing” (p. 105). James Loewen (1997) contends that the interests of textbook companies mostly reside in selling textbooks; they promote market sales by indoctrinating students with a viewpoint of allegiance that “all is well” rather than teaching students a critical perspective. Textbook companies tend to avoid taking a stand in an historical narrative that could be perceived as a political preference, thereby reducing potential profit. This shaping of generational ignorance is commonly accepted, like the many silent but apparent racial inequities. This is acceptable under some corporate model principles that value immediate profit, short-term memory, and standardization.

Alphie Kohn stated in a partial republish of a blog,
"When a business ethos takes over education, with an emphasis on quantifiable results, on standardized procedures to improve performance, on order and discipline and obedience to authority, students expect to be controlled with rewards and punishments, to be set against their peers in competitions, to be rated and evaluated by those who have more power than they do. None of this is particularly effective at preparing children to be critical thinkers, lifelong intellectual explorers, and active participants in a democratic society - or even, for that matter, good friends or lovers or parents. But the process is exceedingly effective at preparing them for their life as corporate employees.
Like Greene, Noddings maintains that continuous, transparent discussion will always be needed in a democratic society. As a society changes, adjustments in educational thought and policy will need to echo these changes. Nel Noddings points out that if teachers are taught how to properly employ social histories, this process would produce a better sense of common knowledge rather than the teacher (or curriculum publishers) offering the “truth.” These adjustments most effectively and sensitively arrive through time in evaluative, reflective thinking practice and constant dialogue. However, individuals who have allowed corporations to construct their existence do not have the facility for thinking and therefore do not fully exist as individuals. Educational reality in the United Staes has come to reflect a sense of nationality, history, and identity bought and sold by corporations and taught in schools.

Larry Cuban (2004) illustrates that schools and business have similarities with distinctively different purposes. Cuban uses comparisons between expected outcomes for students and business to define students as products; the results can be framed as defective products blamed for bringing down the bottom-line. The next step occurs when these “defective products” begin to be defined by race, traditional-school-valued abilities, and socio-economic opportunity and how they affect the bottom-line. Loewen (1997) discusses the idea of children being too busy to think. Dewey asserted that standard education provided in the United States could potentially do harm to the child if it encourages him/her to anticipate emotional fulfillment that never comes.

William Glasser (1998) criticizes coercive, yet efficient mainstream punitive measures that lead many students to feel like failures. Noddings, like Glasser, promotes fewer grades and common standards with more time given for consideration of development and evaluative thought. To become certified as a Quality School a no-grades contract and structured time for self-evaluation with an adult facilitator is required. Noddings promotes the idea of quality work when she discusses “occupational happiness” as being engaged and interested. Glasser has spent much of his career studying student motivation and quality work. In the end, both endorse giving students a greater sense of well-being and feeling worthwhile. Central to this process is a warm, caring relationship (Glasser, Greene, Sidorkin) between teacher and student.

With all of this knowledge regarding the negative impact of the commercialism mind-set and the knowledge of characteristics that nurture an educated society, commercial enterprises still find ways of in invading and molding children’s lives. As a society, we have been enticed, tricked, and pushed to the point that our current selections for adequate school funding have exposed our children to more commercialism. Corporate powers are more often in a strategic position; they hold purse strings, sway decisions, and help to create a bewildered population that will have difficulty thinking critically. As Jon Stewart recently said at the 2010 Rally for Sanity, “If we amplify everything, we hear nothing”; this is how the corporate model maintains the status quo. Students are too busy to learn; society is too distracted to see and hear; the rest are taught how to not quite exist through a bland version of American Exceptionalism wrapped in a handsome bow of passive-conformity training.

Polyfocality Research and Perspective

Research can yield many sides of the same issue as can policy-makers with educational curriculum. When observing impacts of educational experiences on students, research directs an examination of data with a humanistic lens. For example, researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology claimed that “collective intelligence” could be defined by how well a group works together. Groups whose members had higher levels of social sensitivity (how well group members perceived each other’s emotions) were judged more collectively intelligent. In this study, the intelligence level of the individuals did not predict the collective intelligence of the group or their ultimate performance on task competition.
In a contrasting study, research conducted at the University of Southern California examined whether shifting blame to others was socially contagious:

When we see others protecting their egos, we become defensive too…we then try to protect our own self-image by blaming others for our mistakes…(blaming) becomes common when the perception that one's self-image is under assault and must be protected…and when people are worried about their safety in an organization… publicly blaming others dramatically increases the likelihood that the practice will become viral.

The researchers also found the “tendency for blame to spread was completely eliminated when…participants had the opportunity to affirm their self-worth” (italics added); they concluded that organizations should display “behaviors that help to foster a culture of psychological safety, learning, and innovation”. This study was designed to research business-organizational environments that support ideas outlined by decades of curriculum theorists like Dewey, Glasser, Greene, Noddings, Sidorkin, and Spring.

Empirically, research has demonstrated that self-image and belief in personal potential can impact achievement outcomes. For example, expandable intelligence theory—the belief that intelligence is developed rather than fixed—had an effect on student achievement. Carol Dweck presented findings that indicate students who are taught expandable intelligence theory are better able to reverse decline in math performance and test significantly higher than peers who had previously similar skill levels, with the gap widening in the following years. Steele and Aronson found that African American students scored lower on achievement tests when they were asked about ethnicity before the test, indicating a peril exists for the bottom-line when people are subjected to an awareness of perceived or feared weakness, e.g., stereotype threat. These accounts of internal mental health and well-being, demonstrated through emotional expressions and achievement results, have some profit-driven CEOs taking a look at the effects of human well-being on the bottom-line. i.e., the work climates at Google and Facebook are known for creating happy employees.

Judith Kleinfeld offered a status report on the academic, mental and social health of boys in the United States and confirmed that boys had higher rates of suicide, conduct disorders, emotional disturbance, premature death, and juvenile delinquency. Also, boys tended to accumulate lower grades, test scores, and college attendance rates. From a bottom-line, market-driven perspective, do these studies indicate that many boys are defective products? Trip Gabriel describes,

Projects in Education Research Center estimate that of the approximately four million students who entered ninth grade four years ago, 1.2 million did not graduate with a regular diploma this year. Only about 52 percent of African-American and 56 percent of Hispanic students graduate on time, compared to 76 percent of their white peers (EPE, 2006). By 4th grade, African-American and Latino students are, on average, nearly three academic years behind their white peers. As of 2004, 31% of white students required college remediation compared with 42% of African-Americans, 41% of Latinos, and 41% of Native-Americans. Only 12 percent of black fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, compared with 38 percent of white boys, and only 12 percent of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math, compared with 44 percent of white boys.

Boys and many minority groups obviously affect the bottom-line of corporations. Certainly, this is not the message educational policy-makers intend. It may be increasingly difficult to justify current policy decisions without acknowledging that an accepted level (but non-vocalized) of prejudice exists, which could point toward a need for transformational dialogue, Maxine Greene said, “Lacking such critical perspective, people are not inclined to seek out words” (3). Education designed for learning equity, human well-being, and society betterment seems to be one solution and the antithesis of market-driven educational design. Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders presented to the Senate with what he believes is open war being waged by millionaires and billionaires “against the crumpling U.S middle class…[and it’s time to] bring working families, young people, the elderly and the poor together to fight against these savage attacks on their well-being?...stand together, educate and organize.”

Two perspectives have been explored with which to view education: (1) the lens of corporate-driven bottom-line, and (2) the lens with elements of humanity representing educational spirit such as awe, growth, and inquiry. When looking at the data indicating “defective products” (collectively the majority) through a human lens, it is revealing that most boys and sub-sets of minority groups are not having their educational needs met in the school system as it is—a primarily market-driven, corporate model. The current mainstream perspective generally promoted and funded by corporations will continue to ideologically, psychologically, and materialistically oppress many groups outside the mainstream. Due to market principles customary to the masses, these prejudices often carry on at silently acceptable levels.

Colorado State University professor, Temple Grandin, is internationally known for becoming a highly successful person who has autism. Dr. Grandin was able to gain the communication skills needed to earn a Ph.D., have a career as a university professor in a field outside of autism, prolifically write about her experiences living with an autistic brain, and meaningfully participate in scientific autism brain research. At the 2010 TED conference, Grandin illustrated the differences in her brain when compared to control brains using high-tech imaging; she also discussed her concerns for the many “differently brained” children in the current school system. Students thought of as “differently brained”—autism or otherwise—should have many educational options to extend their potential. Grandin asserts, “The world needs all different kinds of minds…and these kids are not going down the right path”; she believes school systems should keep these considerations in mind when planning instruction and student experiences. Grandin believes mentors are essential and schools should “show kids interesting stuff.” She believes that to teach kids how to be a part of the world and to be engaged includes hands-on involvement with learning and the outside community. If the schools continue to deprogram minds into a model of homogenized conformity, society would be eliminating the kinds of brains that brought human innovations: “if you get rid of the autistic mind, you no longer would have the spears to hunt with, no Silicon Valley, and no solution to the energy crisis”.

Valuing Student Experience

Claudia Wallis published popularly-repeated research in a Time article, How to Make a Great Teacher, suggesting that an effective teacher is the “single most important factor in boosting achievement, more important than class size, the dollars spent per student, or the quality of textbooks and materials.” Teachers, even the most effective ones, are often pressured (if not mandated) to teach the textbook that has been adopted. Students respond most positively to effective teaching and show higher achievement on standards; however, many still leave schools programmed to be consumers (Spring) as well as passive conformists (Loewen) who are not really thinking but just going along with life’s mainstream assumptions and expectations. They partially exist (Sidorkin,) by allowing corporations (including the media) to write the narrative. Perhaps, this lifestyle is a kind of “adult standards” imposed by government and consumerism that may have a mind-numbing, rippling effect on youth. Maxine Greene has said that society has reached a place that it is “stunned by hollow formulas, media-fabricated sentiments and cost-benefit terminologies; young and old alike find it hard to shape authentic expressions of hope and ideals” (3). Through their own rich market-research, corporations know they can continue to make shiny things to distract much of the populace from critical thinking. Perhaps Camus best defines the sentiment between U.S. society and multi-national corporate influences when he said, “It is only tragic at the rare moments when it becomes conscious.”

The question is how much longer the populace will be blindly distracted by hollow corporate incentives. Although the younger generation is enveloped in a consumer mentality, it is also showing signs of an awakening and gaining of wisdom not shared with the aging, dominant, baby-boomer powerhouses or Generation Y “transitionals.” Many of today’s students are in tune with traditional incentives but have become masters at flipping the power, e.g., raising the ante. Adults can utilize a powerful device to influence students by developing an inter-personal relationship with students in an otherwise technologically-cold, standardized, pressurized and isolated, yet knowledge-connected, media-hyped world (Glasser).

An educational ideology that claims schools should be restricted to teaching concepts and promotes leaving social issues, justice, or problems for other organizations completely misses the point--teaching and learning are socially impacted at every level of each existence. Teaching students (rather than animal training) cannot happen without the multi-faceted, complex, ever-changing human component of students and teachers. Finkelman’s and many other studies approximate 25%-65% of children experience trauma though victimization of some kind (i.e., bullying, sexual assault, witness to community violence) before they are eighteen years old. Symptoms that abuse victims may experience (and can affect school performance) include anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem, poor social self-competence, depression, psychosomatic symptoms, social withdrawal, school refusal, school absenteeism, poor academic performance, physical health complaints, running away from home, alcohol and drug use, and suicide (Finkelman, McDougal and Hymel, Noddings).

Research linking bullying behavior to ostensibly positive social competencies has been conducted. Social competencies judged by a market-driven value system could define “being seen by the peer group to be powerful, and popular and showing high social intelligence” in a positive manner (McDougal and Hymel). Nonetheless, bullying is more commonly linked to personal difficulties; those who exhibit bullying behavior can usually be characterized as “angry, depressed, aggressive, hostile, and/or domineering individuals who show high levels of externalizing and hyperactive behaviors with little fondness for school and high conflict within friendships. The risks for those students who are both bully and victim seem even greater (McDougal and Hymel). About 15-25 percent of children are victimized by a bully regularly, which can lead to “depression, anxiety, loneliness, and other negative outcomes” (Society for Research in Child Development). Findings also indicate bullies are frequently “motivated by the pursuit of status and affection… [and by choosing] children who are weak and not well-liked by others… [shows that bullies] care a lot about others' affection and don't want to lose it” (Society for Research in Child Development).

Similarly, abuse and victimization can have complex, multi-layered, short- and long-term effects on the individual’s learning and the systems to which the individual is directly related. These statistics represent typically-developing, normal-range children. The percentages of incidents increase when other variables are factored in, e.g., disability, poverty, and low self-esteem. Students are seeking to be passionately ignited and guided toward further development as a whole human package of collective experiences and interests. Schools are in the most influential place to increase social justice and individual actualization, which may mean a better society for all citizens.

Coming generations potentially have the skills that partially allow them to be de-motivated by traditional profit-driven incentive methods and more motivated by methods perhaps considered post-modern or Eastern-style—i.e., forms of relationship. Most of these consumerist-trained children feel a constant desire for product and profit but also seem more aware than previous generations in other ways, i.e., inter-relatedness, balance, well-being, social justice, and global consciousness.

The current socio-political battles in educational politics show thought-provoking divides. For instance, some of Arizona’s baby-boomer legislators have outlawed some humanities classes in a time when (perhaps in response to) the nation’s demographic is becoming more diverse. Many administrators in school districts across the country are losing ground in student civil-liberty battles. For example, a Mississippi high-school senior lesbian fought for her right to dress in a tuxedo for prom. More and more students are publically speaking out for teachers and being punished for standing up for civil liberties. History reflects the voice of the younger generation coming through waves of students; one prominent instance was Brown vs. Board of Education. This 1954 Supreme Court case included 150 families in five states. Many of these families initially became involved through student movements (i.e., Barbara Johns, Farmville, VA) that resulted in landmark changes for the country’s educational system but also resulted in displacement or death for many of the families involved. The sacrifice a few individuals made by collectively empowering themselves empowered generations to come.
Teachers and administrators can create supportive and encouraging relationships that engage student mind-body-spirit well-being in learning environments. For instance, Dr. Beghetto (University of Oregon) found that as students get older, they generally become less likely to take intellectual risks, such as sharing their tentative ideas, when learning science…students who were interested in science, had confidence in their own ideas, and felt that their teachers supported them -- by listening to their ideas and providing encouraging feedback…were significantly more willing to take intellectual risks…these factors being more important than science ability in predicting students' reports of intellectual risk taking.

Effective teaching can play a primary role in student outcomes and become instrumental in student response as students become more creative thinkers. Teachers, parents, and other adult figures are on the front line in liberating children from corporate-model impositions on their development and learning process. Senator Sanders called it: a “savage attack on middle-class.” Teachers should be more aware of their role in this way and taught how to critically think about pedagogy. If teachers are numb to operating with their own minds (and due to common societal pressures, it is possible), they are unable to critically view reality from a polyfocal perspective. Teachers, like learners, can become cogs in the process of indoctrination rather than creating critical thinkers. Critical pedagogy calls for teachers, students and parents—the communal elements to be served by education—to be more aware of the education not received and learn to speak from a citizen voice.

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