passion

What would you be willing to give up for your passion?

Would you give up certainty?

unless and until

April 23rd is UNESCO's World Book Day. 
In celebration, tomorrow I will be placing books around town.
More to come...

and no one comes

Today I picked up the book, Wonder by R.J. Palacio. I was setting it aside to loan out and began thumbing through its wonderful pages. While I was reading, I was thinking of part of a poem by Marie Howe:


... You come upon the person the author put there
as if you'd been pushed into a room and told to watch the dancing -


pushed into parties, into basements, across moors, into
the great drawing rooms of great cities, into the small cold cabin, or


into here, beside the small running river where a boy is weeping,
and no one comes.


One by one the readers come and watch him weeping by the running river,
and he never knows,


unless he too has read the story where a boy feels himself all alone.


Do you ever feel that about a book, "pushed into a room" ? 
It can be wonderful and beautiful... or... I have closed books and thought to myself, "That is not something I need to see."


Anyway, the poem by Marie Howe is called Why the Novel Is Necessary but Sometimes Hard to Read. Wonderful books, beautiful poems... the amazing life of a reader.

old man

I'm reading the book Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change The World by Tony Wagner.

And though I feel that some part of my mind is always spinning around innovation and education, this book and Seth Godin's Stop Stealing Dreams have taken my thoughts to a new level.


Case in point...


Watch this cool video:

the old man and the sea from Marcel Schindler on Vimeo.

Under our current system of education, here's how The Old Man and the Sea is usually graded:

• Was there a clear thesis?
• Does the thesis maintain focus?
• Were there well-chosen details that ensure clarity and add interest?
• Was there an interesting, thought provoking introduction?
• Were there well developed, illustrated paragraphs?
• Was there varied sentence length and structure?
• Was there precise and interesting word choice?
• Was the style appropriate for the subject and audience?
• Were there grammatical errors?

Here's how I would like to see my child assessed:

• What was the most surprising thing the student learned from this?
• What would the student have added if they'd had time or resources?
• What would they have eliminated?
• Was the student agile & adaptable?
• Did they show initiative and entrepreneurship in assessing and analyzing the information?
• Did the student show perseverance and/or a willingness to experiment?
• Did the student take calculated risks? Did they tolerate failure?

Anyone can do a Google search on Hemingway and The Old Man and the Sea... but only a life long learner can bring dreams to life.

Dreams are difficult to build and easy to destroy.

As Seth Godin says: 

The future belongs to the impatient. To those who refuse to wait and will take things into their own hands, build their own value, and produce that which others will gladly pay for.

You can't change the mission of education without also changing the method.

give a compliment

SoulPancake: Listen Up!

We're often so preoccupied that we don't take the time to compliment the people around us. And yet, a few unexpected kind words have the power to change someone's day. So SoulPancake set out to give people a fun way to give a compliment.

one small candle

Better to light one small candle

 than to curse the darkness.

- Chinese Proverb

curious talent

‎"I have no special talent. 

I am only passionately curious."

 - Albert Einstein

put the money in the bag...

Spoken word poet, Carvens Lissaint, shows how to use language, metaphor and imagery to express a powerful idea.

hurry?

Hurry

BY MARIE HOWE

We stop at the dry cleaners and the grocery store   

and the gas station and the green market and   

Hurry up honey, I say, hurry,   

as she runs along two or three steps behind me   

her blue jacket unzipped and her socks rolled down.   

Where do I want her to hurry to? To her grave?   

To mine? Where one day she might stand all grown?   

Today, when all the errands are finally done, I say to her,   

Honey I'm sorry I keep saying Hurry—   

you walk ahead of me. You be the mother.   

And, Hurry up, she says, over her shoulder, looking   

back at me, laughing. Hurry up now darling, she says,   

hurry, hurry, taking the house keys from my hands.