Harry Potter: A Hero for our times

Harry Potter is written in modern times but it's actually a very old story.

In the series the hero, Harry and company live in the 1990s and yet the themes that infuse these books come from out of a chivalrous past (chivalry being the hall mark of the Gryffindor House to which Harry belongs at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry).

Loyalty, bravery, sacrifice, taking responsibility and self discipline are other significant themes. Lots of qualities that are not given much value in our harried times. An old fashioned love of family. Have you noticed there are no single parents, no divorced couples? Interesting. People get married very young, don't they and they stick together.

Again and again, i have to remind myself that these characters are modern day folk.
Yet they write to one another other on pieces of parchments- not though text messaging, or email-how intimate.
They live in community, the sort that is sustainable,vibrant, exciting and diverse- where all kinds of witches and wizards mingle with other magical beings.
Take the vibrant and colourful streets of Diagon Alley or Hogsmead.The author, J K Rowling glories in the eccentric, reveling in their differences and distinctions. The environment is one in which young people aspire to become like their elders-full fledged powerful adults with real skills to offer rather than the adults striving to be like the young .

The teachers are mentors, teaching kids things they need to know in order to become wizards. They look up to them because they need them- the expectations are clear.

In our Muggle (non magical) world on high speed everything, children sense our utter confusion as adults. They know that we do not know where we are heading. When it comes to technology our kids often know more than we do!

Is it any wonder that the appeal of Harry Potter and co is so magical? Old and young alike, we seem to be pinning for this stuff-lapping up the books and movies hungrily.
It's the need again for purpose in our lives, for excitement and yes, danger.
Confronting fear, overcoming challenges and 'keeping going' when the going gets tough.
I often think about climate change and it's repercussions as the big 'Voldermort' of our time. That's the darkness we have to challenge, younger and older alike.
Voldermort is a metaphor for the evil that is overtaking the world. Minister Fudge is ever in denial- a parody of what many people today cannot face; he refuses to believe Voldermort has risen. We refuse to believe climate change is here.
Will we be the brave wizards and witches that confront climate change? Will there be leaders like Harry; wedded to Voldermort as we are to climate change- we caused it-willing to turn it around?
Who will sacrifice herself or himself as Snape does? Who will be prepared to go to the end; to die as Hary was prepared to do in order for others to have a viable future?
These are the values that live on and that many of us long for-instead of consumerism and greed,peer pressure and entertainment land.
The world needs more Dumbledores, more Herminones more Rons. And we could use a Harry-every movement loves a hero.

Jesus Camp

We watched a very disturbing documentary this weekend about the rise of Conservative Christian Fundamentalism in contemporary USA.

The documentary portrayed children from the ages of about 4 to around 13 at a summer camp called Kids on Fire that has as it's goal the creation of a children's army for God. Kids that young are asked to pledge to fight abortion! They are clearly being traumatized by being told they are sinful and that they are hypocrites that must be made pure and holy in Jesus. They babble away in tongues following the example of the fanatical Pentecostal pastor, Becky Fischer (undoubtedly, she would have been a witch hunter in past centuries). She mentions in passing that had Harry Potter been in the Bible he would "have been put to death," because all warlocks are evil." This women is totally cracked but the influence she has over the children is petrifying.
What is really scary is that the parents support this abuse; and get this. In the US 75% of homeschooling families are Evangelical Christians!!
What really caught my attention was the fervor and passion of these kids. It shows us that kids want a purpose in life. The want to feel useful. They want their lives to have meaning. They deserve that with out all this cruel, disgusting crap.

The Real World?

What is this?

I was at the doctor's office with B leafing through a recent Mcleans Magazine article while we waited to be called in.

The article was about how a survey conducted by UK National Trust, a conservation agency, revealed that of 1,651 children aged 10 to 12, half could not tell the difference between a bee and a wasp, and only 47 per cent could recognize a barn owl.

Only 53 per cent were able to recognize an oak leaf. But what could they recognize easily? Nine out of 10 could identify Star Wars characters like Yoda and Jar Jar Binks. It's just as bad over here in North America, the article went on. A study showed that kids were cognizant of up to 1000 corporate logos but couldn't even identify 10 common backyard plant and animals.

And to think, some people get all uptight about home educated kids because "how will they manage in the real world?"

The real world being ..what? Corporate America? Let's just say that world is not the real world folks. Wrong. The real world is the world that we stand on; that we breath in, that we eat from. This real world is fast becoming inhabitable for many of the real inhabitants (animals, plants and people) because of the very real nasty things we do to it. That's the world we need to attend to.

Yes, home educated kids do get inundated with corporate culture and its artificially created desires, wants and needs. No one is safe from that far reaching and damaging grasp.
All we can do is continue working hard to keep the real world Earth in full view.

Words of Wisdom

We have a friend who keeps First Peoples' wisdom coming to us via e-mail. He must get them of a website himself. Anyway, these nuggets of gold in the form of 'Elder's mediations' often suffice for part of the day anyway, to keep me remembering what I already know but regularly forget- and rarely act on.


Elder's Meditation of the Day

"No individual or group can block
another individual's path or change it
against what fits his nature and his
purpose. It might be done for a time, but
in the end it won't work out."


Rolling Thunder, CHEROKEE


Every person is born for a purpose. We may know our purpose very early in our lives, or it
may take us some time. Very often we need to experience many things before our purpose is
clear to us. Sometimes we pick our goals to please others. Sometimes others pick our goals
to make themselves happy. Often this makes us unhappy. We need to pray to the Creator
and ask Him what our purpose is. When we live outside our purpose, our path is full of
obstacles. When we live inside our purpose, our path is smooth. When we are aligned to
our purpose, we are happy and content.

Great Spirit, whisper to me,in terms I can understand, what You would have me do and I will do it.

Open Source Learning

You can not teach a person anything. You can only help him find it within himself.
Galileo Galilei

Philosopher and historian Ivan Illich defined school almost forty year ago as "an age-specific, teacher related process requiring full time attendance at an obligatory curriculum." Not a very flattering definition, but honest none the less.

Despite heroic attempts to create 'stimulating educational environments' plastering walls with colourful illustrations and graphs ('teacher/expert approved' naturally), even though we scramble to provide classrooms with computers, spend millions on revised text books and curriculum, and introduce novel concepts such as 'citizenship education,' education is still about getting schooled rather than getting educated.

Plus ca change, plus ca reste le meme. The more things change the more they stay the same. We're still acting as if a young person is an empty vessel to fill.

Worse, our micro-managing of children's time can lead to intellectual timidity, over-cautiousness, fearfulness and lack of entrepreneurship.

This in the face of all the knowledge we have gained concerning how the human brain works.

"Genius is as common as dirt," is one of my favourite quotes by former teacher and author John Taylor Gatto (Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling and The Underground History of American Education).

But six hours a day, five days a week, most weeks of the year for twelve years spent warming the old school bench does little to support individual talents. It's a sobering thought to think we might be "educating people out of their creativity." (Sir Ken Robinson).

Kids know they can do better than this. We know they can.

Thankfully people are doing something about it. They're putting aside the cookie cutter, one size fits all, standardizing, compartmentalizing, institutionalizing approach in favour of ways of learning through living and doing.

Proponents advocate mentoring self-directed, interest-based learning, initiative taking, questioning and inquiry in contrast to the inane habit of force feeding curriculum on schedule; the doling out of information in small portions less, God forbid the child become ignorant in one area and too knowledgeable in another.

Nobody can know everything- and as knowledge is forever changing the important thing is to know how to learn. As educator and author John Holt wrote "the true measure of intelligence is not what you know but what you do when you don't know something."

What needs nurturing is the intrinsic motivation to learn; it's already in born. Does a gardener keep uprooting the plant to measure and test how much it's grown? Rather than hindering and bothering young people with grading and testing, allow them accessibility to the community's resources.

In a nut shell the kind of education that's stirring in the Zeitgeist, that's taking hold of the imagination is called open source learning.

We have heard of the concept 'open source' in internet circles; anything can be learned over the internet. There is a new openness to educational resources; for example MIT (Open CourseWare) is now offering up to 1800 on line course materials for free - their motto being "unlocking knowledge, empowering minds."

Open source learning as coined by Taylor Gatto is based on extending this idea to all learning, to everyone. The underlying premises of open source learning is that learning is available everywhere in life and not restricted to 'places of learning'-namely schools.

Resources are every where to be found in the day to day world; people, art galleries and science centres, businesses, professional schools, museums, community centres,libraries, the internet, and so on. Much learning happens incidentally and by doing; through games, work, and living. You learn fractions by cooking, history by watching movies, writing by reading books.

Forget Montessori versus Waldorf or homeschooling versus private school. Rather think of it as an alternative vision of the pursuit of knowledge and education. Much deeper than simply another novel way of doing business, it is a different business all together. Open source learning is a shift in consciousness- a fresh wind that is sweeping out the old ideas of what, how and when one should learn.

Questions arise that challenge the entire concept of education at it's roots; whose education anyway? Do we even have the right to impose on another human being our own ideas (the states ideas, the religious establishments ideas...) of what another person should learn? Crazy? Going too far? Still it goes to the roots of freedom. And it's happening the world over.

As John Gatto says, "Nobody can give you and education. You have to take an education." And that means taking here, there everywhere from the world around us, according to what we are interested in, passionate about and not what some one prescribes for us.

"We suppress our genius only because we haven't yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simple and glorious. Let them manage themselves."

Decline of schools?

I was pretty pleased (in a twisted sort of way) to read this post from the Daily Grist about schools going 4 -day week due to high energy costs of running them. There are some unforeseen advantages to the energy crisis-this is one.
Beatrice

Quick Study
More school districts consider four-day week

As energy costs rise, rural school districts across the country may follow the lead of the 100 or so schools in 16 states that offer classes just four days a week. Cutting out a day of heating, cooling, and transportation fuel -- which can be significant in spread-out districts where school buses might travel 100 miles round trip each day -- allows schools to put funds toward valuable programs and staff. Advocates say four-day weeks can also improve student attendance and performance (though at least one district switched back to a five-day week after concluding that effective teaching and learning dropped off at the end of an extended day). Kentucky's Webster County School District switched to a four-day week in 2004, and has cut total costs by 3.5 to 4 percent. "If we were to go back to a five-day week," says Superintendent James Kemp, "the school board and I would be run out of town."

all new radio 4 all!

------ Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 9 Jul 2008 07:48:34 -0400
From: "Shawn Ewald"
To: rp@radio4all.net
Subject: Welcome to the New A-Infos Radio Project

Please feel free to pass on to relevant mailing lists.

Yes, remember us? http://www.radio4all.net/

We've been limping along on limited bandwidth and resources for 12 years now. That's right, we've been online since 1996 which makes us 12 years old this year. We were the first project of it's kind on the internet and our model of open media inspired the developers of the original Seattle Indymedia, as well as other participatory media projects on the internet.

Yes, we've had spotty service in recent years and (as the main administrator of the project) allow me to apologize for that. However, our new site has been designed to remedy many of the problems that plagued our project in the past. This isn't to say that we will now be prompt about responding to people's e-mails -- after all, there are three people working on this project for free and we all have lives
--
what I am saying is the new site will be vastly more reliable and give people less cause to contact us.

Now for the good news: We have new powerful servers! Tim Pozar (http://www.lns.com/) of Bay Area Wireless Network fame has helped provide us with ridiculous amounts of bandwidth from one of the most reliable network providers in the country! And I have spent the last couple months finishing a completely rewritten update to the software that runs www.radio4all.net! This all means that the A-Infos Radio Project is getting a new lease on life.

Special thanks are due to David Josephson (http://www.josephson.com/) for setting up our new equipment, and for making contact with Tim Pozar and negotiating for our new internet connection.

The New Software:

I will not get into excessive technical details regarding the new software, but I will tell you that this version of the Radio Project software is a complete rewrite from the ground up. It is faster and more efficient. It is more secure and extensive measures have been taken to protect the site from spammers and e-mail harvesters while not inconveniencing our users with annoying anti-spam devices. The site's security has been designed to be effective against actual security threats while being transparent to legitimate users.

Searching and browsing for programs has been much improved, with new ways to find programs: by popularity (top 300 downloads), by license, and by content advisory. The latter is particularly useful for radio stations in light of the draconian measures taken by the FCC against U.S. stations who violate the "7 dirty words" or "safe-harbor" rules. Browsing programs by content advisory should make finding programs suitable for radio more convenient.

Other improvements include a better topic directory and easier topic categorization, the addition of creative commons license support (including public domain dedication, and sampling-specific
licenses), better support for international characters, and many other improvements.

Loose Ends:

One issue in particular that I wanted to elaborate on is our past statements that Archive.org would be mirroring our audio archive. Well, when we made those statements we were getting repeated
promises from people at Archive.org, who will remain nameless, that they would do just that. They were "very excited" to mirror our archive, and it seemed like every other week they would promise to begin downloading our archive to their servers "soon". I sent them a copy of our program
database, I sent them a schema of the filesystem layout on each of our archive servers, I contacted them repeatedly over several months, and nothing happened. I don't know why they made promises and did not follow through and I will not speculate because I never found out why, so that's the end of that story. All this is not to say that Archive.org isn't good project that should be supported -- we would still be delighted to have them mirror our audio archive. If anyone has contacts at Archive.org who might be more responsive, please let us know.

In closing, we're looking forward to a long future for the A-Infos Radio Project and we hope you will continue to support us and, most importantly, use our project. And I want to remind you to support us financially or in other ways if you can. This is a free service that has been maintained by volunteer labor for over a decade, but we still need your help to pay the bills. So, please visit our support page to find out how you can help: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/support/

Thank you!

The A-Infos Radio Project Collective
http://www.radio4all.net

Camps Out

Two of my three kids do not enjoy the day camp experience. While my oldest enthuses over Science Venture Camp and wishes it was ongoing (she likes the peer group,the company and the projects) the other two have a different take on the topic.

B flat out refused to attend after day 3. She found it "boring,and too long" and didn't like the way the instructors micro- managed them and had them in competing groups, taking off points for groups that were 'misbehaving'-"Oh oh! I'll be taking off 20 points if you do that again!".

Even the company had much to be desired; "I hung our with two girls that I didn't like."
To the question "why did you hang out with them if you didn't like them?" I got this reply; "There was no one else. I would have had to hang out with the boys. Yuk!"
Okay.

With M, she got back after day 1 saying "I hope this gets better." On day two she was wailing "This is going to make me hate acting If I keep going."
Seeing as this is an expensive gig, I urged her to continue and perhaps she would learn something useful. On the third day she claimed that the best part of the experience so far "was lunch" which I happen to provide
.
Today is day 4 and I wonder what the comment will be when she gets back. The "stupid games they make us play, the dumb clapping they do when they want our attention-it's like a military camp. And they yell."

What does this say about my kids? That I spoiled them by unschooling? That they are in for a shocker this fall when the 2 oldest go to school (their choice) is pretty obvious. But I think what is revealing is that they see the the structure of the institution be it camps,schools or what ever as rather demeaning, controlling and often trivializing to children.

Even when E enjoyed her experience she was well aware of the silliness of certain attitudes; Her friend had to "Go see Carm ('the 'principal')" for being "cheeky." "Big wow!" to quote my daughter. The lack of humour in matters of school affairs is legendary.

When M says the experience is making her doubt she wants to be an actor I point out to her that schooling might have the same effect on her learning. It makes me think of Einstein and what he said happened to him after exams- something like how after his exams he found the contemplation of any scientific problem distasteful for a full year later.

The school they will be attending is supposed to be respectful of the individual's learning process. It's said to be a 'program of innovation." We have yet to see.

it all adds up to a show

Download this week's Radio Free School here http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=27902

featuring an interview with Miroslav Lovric
Associate Professor, Ph.D. (Ohio State)
Dept. of Mathematics & Statistics
McMaster University
http://www.math.mcmaster.ca/lovric/lovric.html

Musical interludes:
Angela Hewitt - BWV1050-Brandenburg Concerto No5-D-I. Allegro

edits - beatrice ekoko
production without morning coffee - randy kay

Complaints Department - c/o Bimbo the Happy Birthday Clown
http://radiofreeschool.blogspot.com

full court press

Toronto, ON - Saturday, June 7, 2008.

Kitty Corner, Curdled Way, and Radio Free School all with zines, all for sale, all the time!
We had a lovely time at the very busy and always interesting Toronto Small Press Fair. Thank you to the organizers for a splendid job, and to all the small presses there who make us feel at home.
The zine creators pictured here with their respective creations did very well in the sales department, and jingled all the way home on the GO bus.

zinesters making the TO scene

Hi - Radio Free School, Kitty Corner and Curdled Way zines will be at the Toronto Small Press Book Fair tomorrow, Saturday, June 7th, from 12noon to 5pm - if you are in the area drop by and say hello - we will have kids' zines and a radio free school zine for sale as well.

Hope to see and meet some listeners there!

From the Small Press Fair web site:
The Toronto Small Press Book Fair celebrates its 21st year highlighting the work of Toronto's small presses this Saturday at the Miles Nadal JCC on Saturday. Christopher Dewdney, Moez Surani, Tara-Michelle Ziniuk, Emma Donoghue, Sky Gilbert, Nathaniel G. Moore, Gianna Patriarca, Valentino Assenza, Shawn Parker, Anna Camilleri, Edward Brown, David Clink, Clara Blackwood and Catherine Graham will perform at the event.


Attention budding writers & poets - the writing doctors are in!

For the low price of only $2, you can take advantage of a special opportunity to have one (1) page of your poetry or prose critiqued by one of these four respected Small Press writers - Catherine Graham, Allan Briesmaster, Edward Brown and Sandra Kasturi. Come to our "Writing Doctors" table with your page of work and $2, and you will benefit from some friendly advice & helpful criticism. And who knows, in a couple of years, you could be attending the Small Press Book Fair as a featured reader!

* Funds go to support the fair's writers/readers.

*MORE INFO: http://www.torontosmallpressbookfair.org/*
Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre
750 Spadina Avenue
Toronto Ontario
M5S 2J2
(corner of Spadina/Bloor)

stuff in your ears

audio version of Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard (used with permission)

interviews - Noa, Bronwyn, Madeleine

music - She's Got All the Friends, WYSIWYG, Chumbawamba

edits - Beatrice

download show -www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=27776

mind the success

Download/Podcast
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=27436

MINDSET with Carol Dweck
Wednesday, April 30, 2008

interviews -Carol Dweck, Psychology Professor at Stanford University. Author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
music - heathens, drive by truckers, decoration day; shout to the top, the style council, the sound of
edits - beatrice

look deep into my eyes...

Hypnotherapy

Download/Podcast:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=27255

interviews - Lara Stewart Panko, Bronwyn

music - I put a spell on you, Creedence Clearwater Revival

edits - beatrice

peak a boo

peak oil show

because you can never be too prepared...

or can you?

interviews - Evelyna Kay
music - You and the candles, Hawksley Workman, Treeful of Starling
edits - beatrice
pasting - randy

A Mathematician's Lament

This 25 page article by NYC mathematics teacher Paul Lockhart (written in 2002) is well worth the time it takes to read it.
You will never think about math the same way again. You may feel bitter about the lies you were fed during your math education (the beauty of mathematics you never knew about, the fact that math is a creative endeavour; like painting and music it is an art, and is about ideas). Still, it is never too late to fall in love with the subject, or at least to gain an understanding of what math is really about.
Read the essay at Delvin's Angle;
http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_03_08.html

What others have said:

"The Lockhart piece, available as a 25 page pdf, is one of the most insightful arguments about what is wrong with how we generally teach mathematics in this country and what we could be doing instead. It should be required reading for anyone connected in any way with the teaching and learning of mathematics or who wants to have a truly informed perspective on what makes sense for teachers and kids to be doing in mathematics classrooms."
M. P. Goldenburg

Rational Mathematics Education " An essay you must read."
http://rationalmathed.blogspot.com/

what do Guinea Pigs and Corporations have to do with each other?

...nothing really, other than they are the two subjects explored on today's Radio Free School show.

If you go here you can download or podcast the show.

Here's the detail:

Guinea Pigs - Tessa, Brownyn, Madeleine with Liddel (pictured below) and Griffin (pictured above)
New York Times Bestselling Author, John Perkins' lecture, Changing the Dream; Changing the World,
is part of Moments of Insight COLLECTION at the Global Dialogue Center at http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/insights

music - gotta travel on, Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys

editing - Beatrice

un-school-animated

Just saw this on the NFB Citizenshift "Unschooling Dossier" and liked the simple but effective juxtaposition of learning styles. Well done!

Gatto again

One of our most popular shows (over 2,300 downloads at www.radio4all.net) we've posted it at Citizenshift's Unschooling dossier:

Enjoy it here (hear)!

waiting on a friend

It's sort of like hiking with someone who doesn't walk as fast as you, but they are carrying the water - you are thirsty until they show up - so it seems that the venerable radio4all.net is back in action. So go and drink deeply of the new radio free school show - http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=26610 and remember Henry David Thoreau's "If a man does not keep pace with his companion, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer..."etc (This would, I am sure, apply to other genders as well.