Culture

11 Oct Words to Ponder #30

Posted at 22:50h in Creativity, Culture, I Like This, Politics, What's New, Words to Ponder 1 Comment

Today's words are from Jackie Salit, President of IndependentVoting.org, the country’s leading strategy and organizing center for independents. Jackie's columns, talks and conversations cut through the mist that the news and its talking heads cover us with. This quote is from her essay, "Making Sense of the Senseless" (October 11, 2017). "The...

05 Oct Words to Ponder #29

Posted at 14:40h in Culture, I Like This, What's New, Words to Ponder 0 Comments

Today's words are from Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963), the Turkish poet, novelist and playwright who was repeatedly arrested for his political beliefs and spent much of his adult life in prison or in exile. ON LIVING Living is no laughing matter: you must live with great seriousness like a squirrel, for example— I mean without looking...

01 Aug The Social Creativity of Language

Posted at 15:15h in Creativity, Culture, Language, Learning Environments, Look and Listen 2 Comments

The latest issue of Idiom, the newsletter of New York State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Language (TESOL) contains an article by my friend and colleague Gwen Lowenheim. Congratulations Gwen! The entire newsletter issue can be read here. Magic Yet Mundane: The Social Creativity of Language By Gwen Lowenheim As humans, we...

14 Jul Musings on Ways of Being Human (and Empathy)

Posted at 15:16h in Culture, Philosophy, Psychology of Becoming 5 Comments

It’s been awhile since I wrote a post. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say—far from it! I could have written about the wonderfully developmental-for-all June residency and graduation of the East Side Institute’s 13th International Class. Or what it was like to be a panelist at the New...

14 Jul Words to Ponder #27

Posted at 01:19h in Culture, Language, Philosophy, What's New, Wittgenstein, Words to Ponder 5 Comments

These days, we could all use a a little Wittgenstein. Like this gem. One is often bewitched by a word. For example, by the word "know." Ludwig Wittgenstein ...

20 May 28 Minutes on Play

Posted at 01:29h in Creativity, Culture, I Like This, Look and Listen, Play, What's New 0 Comments

Listen to this BBC radio show on play...

03 May Words to Ponder #26

Posted at 13:51h in Culture, What's New, Words to Ponder 9 Comments

A little Walt Whitman for early Spring, 2017 “This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,...

22 Apr Words to Ponder #25

Posted at 18:50h in Culture, Human Development, I Like This, Philosophy, What's New, Words to Ponder 5 Comments

Here's a provocative take on anger from Fred Newman (who often advises us to look in the mirror). Dialogue 52. Dealing with Anger as Activity (From Psychological Investigations: A Clinician's Guide to Social Therapy) Student 1: I understand that you believe that expressing anger is a choice. I know that if I...

02 Apr More on Police and Teens: Venturing beyond “the narrow circle and narrow boundaries” of their individual experience

Posted at 01:01h in Community Organizing, Creativity, Culture, Human Development, Outside of School, Performance Movement, Psychology of Becoming 0 Comments

My last post, “Police and Teens, Connecting” (March 29, 2017 ) pointed to an article that appeared in The New York Times that same day. The article featured a unique kind of “connecting” of police and teens—Operation Conversation: Cops & Kids, a program of the All Stars Project in partnership with the...

30 Mar Police and Teens, Connecting

Posted at 17:58h in Community Organizing, Culture, I Like This, Outside of School, What's New 0 Comments

Article in The New York Times (March 30, 2017) on Lenora Fulani and Operation Conversation: Cops & Kids, a project of the All Stars Project. What happens when you bring together 10 teenagers from poor communities and 10 police officers to try to get them to talk? Read more ...