THERE IS NOTHING WRONG HERE

Well today I start a new school year in a new classroom in a new school. After 14 years as a teacher in an alternative middle school program, I start work as a math/science/technology teacher in a vocational high school. The AMS classroom had 6-8 students, to whom I taught 5 subjects. The vocational school program has 43 students, but I will only have to teach 2 subjects. I am looking forward to introducing Web 2.0 tools to the vocational classroom and the shop classes. The students split their day between academics and vocational classes. The academic teachers want to work with the vocational teachers to support each other and the students.

I will also be teaching a series of workshops on wikis. The LPVEC wants to begin using more Web 2.0 tools to support the academic and vocational education of students. It will be interesting to see how many ways we can use wikis in the vocational programs.

My 94 year-old father had a heart attack over the weekend (8/4)and is still in the hospital. He is recovering and he should go home in a few days. This is hard because we live in Massachusetts and he lives in New Mexico, so there are a lot of phone calls.

Before my parents moved into an assisted living complex I communicated with my dad through email. He has had a computer for about 5 years and it became another source of connection between us. Not only the electronic connection, but the connection of a shared experience with technology. Whenever I would go to NM to see my parents I would spend time with dad at his computer installing some software or trying to fix something he had screwed up. He is a tinker at heart, like me, and can not leave well enough alone. And, of course, mom would complain that he spent too much time on the computer.

We have had conversation about how much the world has changed since 1913. Dad grew up in Pittsburgh, my grandfather was a draftsman and worked for the steel companies. So my father grew up during the growth of the American industrial revolution, the end of WWI to the end of WWII. He saw the explosion of the auto industry (he became an auto mechanic), the interstate highway system, the airlines, the electric grid, communication systems, TV, and computers. I remember the first TV my parents bought and the first time I saw a transistor radio. My father grew up at a time when most people in the US did not have a telephone now we all carry one in our pocket. Before WW II most people did not travel far from home, now the skies are crowded. It took days to send a letter to a friend, now email is almost instantaneous.

I don’t think we realize how much people of my parents generation (born 1910-1930) have had to adapt to a changing “flatting world”. For most of their childhood and early adulthood their world changed very little and what changes there were came slowly. By the end of WW II that change had began to speed up and has continued to increase.

As an adult and educator living at the beginning of the 21th century I have to make my own adaptations to the rapidly changing world of technology. The “digital natives” in my classroom seem to be adapting to the ever quickening pace of technological innovation. Watching my peers try to adapt to the digital age has given me a new appreciation for my father. He has had fun learning to use a new tool/toy and maybe that is a key to living a long life, have fun and adapt.

This weekend (7/27-7/29) I went to the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies for a meditation retreat. Nena suggested I go as a 61^st birthday present. I have wanted to visit BCBS for over a year because it is an important center for Buddhist studies and it is so close. Mark Hart teaches there and many of the members of the Bodhisara community attend workshops and retreats at BCBS, and the Insight Meditation Society campus, which is associated with BCBS, is close by.

The retreat I picked to attend was titled “Learning Meditation from Within” by Jason Siff. The catalog description was intriguing, but I really did not know what to expect during the weekend.

Learning meditation from within one’s experience of meditation requires looking at what goes on in one’s meditation sitting more carefully and thoroughly. . . to increase discernment and investigation, and to examine the various conceptual frameworks we bring to our meditation practice.

By the end of the weekend I was wishing there was more time to sit and talk with Jason about not only my meditation practice, but about what ever came up in the conversation. Jason was able to point me in a direction that Mark had started. Neither of them “teach” a meditation technique. Both Jason and Mark are along for the ride and act as conductors to make sure you are comfortable and answer questions about the passing scenery. Jason spoke directly to the idea of the meditation teacher as a guide. He does not want to lead people, but he feels he can help mediators find their way.

The first evening Jason said that the narratives we have going on are important and to trying and stop them should not be the purpose of meditation. Like Mark, Jason wants to hear about your meditation experience and then asks questions that can help you find deeper meanings in the experience. I now feel empowered to directly look at my thoughts as I meditate and examine what is behind the thoughts.

Both Nena and I recently read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. For those who don’t know about the book it is the story of how Greg, who was attempting to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world, ending up building dozens of school in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The book is on the best sellers list and we have been telling everyone we can to read it.

His story is so compelling for two reasons. The first is the old theme of a person’s struggle to overcome adversity. In Greg’s case the adversity takes many forms; personal, physical, and cultural. The second reason is it tells the story of the people living in tribal areas of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. Greg give these people a humanity that balances the demonization of them that has happened in this country since 9/11.

His book is compelling because it show how the efforts of one man can change the lives of thousands of people. He has not only changed the lives of the people in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but the lives of anyone who reads the book. By bringing some understanding and humanity to people half-a-world away, maybe we can find ways to solve problem without using violence.

Greg started the Central Asia Institute to build school using local resources and labor. Many of the schools are for girls. The girls are more likely to stay in remote villages as the young men leave. By training the girls in basic hygiene, the death rate of children can be cut significantly.

As a teacher I was struck by the story of the children gathering in a open field to do their lesson; they were writing in the dirt because they did not have any writing materials. The village was so poor they had to split the $1.00 a-day fee for the teacher with another village.

As Nena and I were watching the new Harry Potter movie last night (the best one so far), Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry started to look very familiar. Mr. Fudge is the school committee, who is more interested in holding on to his power than seeing the problems (Voldemort). The administrator who is out for a power grab is played by Dolores Umbridge. Once she becomes headmistress school becomes “by the book”, and she uses intimidation and pain as teaching tools. As a students asks in the Dark Arts class, “When can we learn real magic we will need in the real world”. Because the students are not learning the real skills they will need, they turn to Harry to teach them.

Are the leaders at the national, state, and local level more interested in power and getting reelected than looking at the real problems in education? Are school leaders more interested in looking good for their peers or solving real problems. The students are telling us they want to learn real skills for the real world. Maybe if we listen to the students we will learn together.

Seen so far this summer in our yard.

• black bear - twice - we have to make sure we bring in the bird feeders at night
• moose - twice - I saw the moose when I was getting something out of my car, I heard a noise, looked up and standing 6 feet a way was a moose.
• wild turkey - we call her Henny Penny, she comes to feed under the bird feeders 3 or 4 times a week.
• fox - had its eye on our big yellow cat Nellie

Seen around Knights Pond

• otter
• bobcat

Today, Memorial Day, on the news there were several “heart lifting” stories about wounded solders and how they were coping with life. One story was about a solder, triple amputee, throwing out the first pitch at the Chicago Cubs baseball game. Another story about a solder who lost both legs and how brave his young wife is.

If you gave these men and women a choice, three limbs for a first pitch, or two legs for a brave wife, I am sure they would give up the first pitch and the brave wife.

Why are we not grieving for these solders and their families, instead we are cheering them at the ball park and telling them how wonderful it is to have a supportive family.

Where is the outrage that these people will have to suffer for the rest of their lives. WE get to feel good about ourselves because we cheered for the wounded soldier as he walks on two new artificial legs. We hug the brave wife and tell her how wonderful she is, but what happens when the cheers and hug are not there? WE get to look the other way and forget about the daily suffering that is heaped on people in OUR name.

For my first podcast I have chosen the topic of the soul. The soul has been a mystery for centuries, but recent research has raised some interesting inquiry into connections between the soul and quantum mechanics.

Soul Search

While teaching a class on atomic structure I explained that everything is made of atoms. One of the students asked, “Where do atoms come from?”
I said, “They are just here.”
He then asked, “How are they made?”
“They are not made, they just change form.”
“Then how do things grow more atoms?”
“Atoms are just transfered from one place to another and added to growing things.” I replied.
He still had a puzzled look on his face.

I have continued to think about the concept that we are a bunch of atoms that were some where else and now they make up a body and mind. Everyday we are adding and shedding atoms. When we die the atoms that make up this body (I began to write our atoms and our body, but who really owns the atoms?) will join up with other atoms to make something else. Is this reincarnation?

This particular configuration of atoms will only last a blink of an eye in the history of the universe. The atoms that have come together in this particular form have been around since the beginning of the universe and will be around until the end of the universe.

So why do we think we have any control over anything? There is nothing wrong here.

The following is in the May ‘07 Friends Journal, it is a reprint from a Oct 1984 issue.

When I ask you to listen to me and you start by giving advice, you have not done what I asked.

When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings.

When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem, you have failed me, strange as it may seem.

Listen! All I ask is that you listen, not talk or do - just hear me.

When you do something for me that I can and need to do for myself, you contribute to my fear and inadequacy.

And I can do for myself, I’m not helpless. Maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless.

But when you accept as simple fact that I do feel what I feel, no matter how irrational, then I can quit trying to convince you and get about the business of understandind what’s behind this irrational feeling. And when that’s clear, the answers are obvious and I don’t need advice.

Irrational feelings make sense when we understand what’s behind them.

Perhaps that’s why prayer works, sometimes, for some people - because God just listens and lets you work it out yourself.

So, please listen and just hear me. And if you want to talk, wait a minute for your turn, and I’ll listen to you.

Ralph Roughton