May
27
crafting graduation gifts upstate
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May
21
supervised a kindergartener for in-school suspension…
May
20
me this weekend
geld girl #2!!
I made a thing!
“To the Lighthouse” By Virigina Woolf hardcover turned into a purse. (I haven’t read the book. Yet?)
Inspired by a DIY post.
Feb
12
Was just sent this old birthday photo — need to dig up that crazy shirt.
Feb
9
“Within days, the salad bar at the embassy dining hall ran low. Sometimes there was no sugar or Splenda for coffee. On chicken-wing night, wings were rationed at six per person. Over the holidays, housing units were stocked with Meals Ready to Eat, the prepared food for soldiers in the field.
At every turn, the Americans say, the Iraqi government has interfered with the activities of the diplomatic mission, one they grant that the Iraqis never asked for or agreed upon.”—“US Planning to Slash Iraq Embassy Staff by Half,” NY Times, Feb 8, 2012
Before I ate this plate of fish sauce fried chicken wings, I shed a single tear for the brave men and women not in uniform over in Iraq—you know, the ambitious State Department climbers and ex-cops pulling in six figures for teaching Iraqi policemen Tae Kwon Do or stocking the embassy salad bar.
Imagine these same Americans living in a place where they are only allowed six chicken wings—on chicken wing night, no less!
When our brave non-military contractors and NY Times correspondents find themselves in a Baghdad mess hall devoid of Splenda, we have to turn and ask ourselves the tough questions:
Have the terrorists won?
Feb
8
This piece on Brazil’s re-instituted high school philosophy curriculum looks into how deep questioning may enable an long-overdue sense of citizenship. The full article, venturing into classrooms in private and public schools in historically complex Salvador conveys the country’s socio-economic momentum, and that famous, wild sense of promise that makes me want to pack up and move home tomorrow…
Most of the four million slaves shipped from Africa to Brazil were sold in Salvador, the first residence of Portugal’s colonial rulers. It’s still Brazil’s blackest city. In Ribeiro’s neighborhood, children play football or do capoeira, pray in Pentecostal Churches or worship African gods. Many are involved with drugs; “every year we lose students to crack,” she tells me. And they study philosophy two hours each week because of a 2008 law that mandates philosophy instruction in all Brazilian high schools. Nine million teenagers now take philosophy classes for three years.
“But seeing things as they really are isn’t enough,” Ribeiro insists. As in Plato’s parable inThe Republic, the students must go back to the cave and apply what they’ve learned. Their lives give them rich opportunities for such application. The contrast between the new luxury hotels along the beach and Itapuã’s overcrowded streets gives rise to questions about equality and justice. Children kicking around a can introduce a discussion about democracy: football is one of the few truly democratic practices here; success depends on merit, not class privilege. Moving between philosophy and practice, the students can revise their views in light of what Plato, Hobbes, or Locke had to say about equality, justice, and democracy and discuss their own roles as political agents.
To foster that discussion, Ribeiro must take on a deeply rooted political defeatism. Voting in Brazil is obligatory, but many think it’s useless. In 2010, the largest number of votes for any member of congress went to Tiririca, a popular TV clown, who ran on the slogan, “I don’t know what a congressman does, but vote me in and I’ll tell you.” João Belmiro, another high school philosophy teacher, finds this outrageous. Philosophy, he hopes, will bring change before long.
“Citizen Philosophers — Teaching Justice in Brazil” by Carlos Fraenkel, Boston Review
Birds with arms
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