Action #2 Politics

I read an editorial in the Elkhart Truth recently by Dr. James Dobson. The article in question was excerpted from a book of his titled "Solid Answers". In it he asserts that,

• right factual information can and should lead to conceptual learning.
• "Obviously, I strongly oppose the perspective held in some academic circles that says, 'there's nothing we know for certain so why learn anything?' Those who feel that way have no buisness teaching. They are salesmen with nothing to sell."

Who acutally believes that there's nothing worth learning? I for one have never heard any teachers express that, even privately. Are we being smeared by someone perpetuating incorrect perceptions to the public? He would say that he is defending his position that memorization of facts is a legitimate form of learning. I would say that it is, but it is only one form. Don't stop there!

It is unhelpful at best to put words in teacher's mouths in a venue such as this. It only serves to deepen the mistrust many have of public education in this country. We as teachers can cicumvent this kind of attitude by building connections with the families of students. We can take advantage of opportunities such as conferences to dispell this particularly virulent myth.

Action #9 / Allies

I've Joined the National Art Education Association. I'm really looking forward to reading the associated journal. I've been out of academic art circles so long, and this offers a realistic update on current thought.

Coming back to college after such a long time, I am just soaking up all the ideas floating around. I relish reading the theoretical stuff, and getting practical experience at the same time. I've connected with an English teacher in my neighborhood who has turned me on to a couple of books I plan on reading this summer. Another teacher I spent time this semester observing gave me no less than five titles about classroom management strategies, ADHD, and more.

Before I came to Goshen College, I was a stay - at - home - dad, which is wonderful, but not very stimulating intelectually. Before that, I drove truck for a living, and let's just say that truckers and related workers aren't always the most curious folk. No wonder I'm enjoying building these bridges!

Action #2 / Politics

Oh yes we did.

I can hardly believe it! We finally elected someone who can represent (hopefully) all of us with authenticity, not just old white guys. For the first time in my voting life, I cast a vote for someone I was really in favor of, not just against someone I thought would be bad for the country. I was so excited! What an honor! It felt like a high priviledge, not a duty.

He's smart enough to place experienced people in key positions where his experience is lacking. He's an inspiring orator, which makes him a good representative for us in the world. As a citzen of said world, that makes me happy. I'm tired of cringing in embarrasment.

I hope he delivers on his idea about education, voiced near the end of the last debate with Senator McCain. There he exposed the false split between reform and funding:

"we need both."

Yes we do. Now follow through.

Action #6 / Not Like Me

Mosaic is a group of teachers, students, and faculty, working on race issues on Goshen College campus and with it's relationship to the local community. Currently we are working on how to bring various speakers to campus, and building relationships with other civil rights organizations in the community.



I'm happy to say "we" because I joined up. I have a small role to play, as a learner and a helper for now. I'm going to watch closely to see how this works, or doesn't work, and carry the useful ideas forward wherever I go.

It will be interesting to see if some of the speakers on the roster inspire thought and action or just a defensive stalemate. My concern is that we lay good groundwork. This can be done in the notices we send out about events, building a context for the speaker to "do their thing." I want to bring light not heat, even though this seems to be the preferred means of some. When people go into a defensive posture because of that though, we will help no one.

Action #6 / Not Like Me

I had to reconsider the story of Saul, the Jew, and his conversion into Paul the Christian in order to unpack the meaning in the name of the weekend seminar I attended in October. His conversion experience happened on the Damascus Road, where he was travelling. He went from seeing to truly seeing in an instant, and it changed him forever. Well, that and the voice of God calling out to him, telling him to change his ways.

Damascus Road is an anti - racist training seminar, often meeting over a weekend, and hosted by colleges, churches, and other organizations interested in working on issues of race in America. Specifically, the weekend is designed to help participants consider how they might join the struggle for equality, and to spur us to action. There were three moderators: two African American Women, and a white man. We were divided into small groups of six to eight, with about eight groups total. The group represented a wide variety of backgrounds, from all around the midwest. The moderators led us in a series of lectures, discussions, and activities which required us to examine our historical knowledge and attitudes related to race.

I've long seen myself as socially progressive to one degree or another, and looked forward to engaging and developing further. I consider this experience to be a milestone. I've heard a lot of critique of the role of white men in history, and a lot of complaints about "The Man" running the show now. I haven't felt like an insider in that structure.

The "white man's burden", and "white priveledge" have proven to be elusive concepts for me before now. The burden is a kind of joke, a crippling, self imposed state of guilt over our bloody history with, well, almost everyone. I resented being made to feel guilty.

"I didn't commit those crimes, and I don't condone or carry those attitudes now, so why is everybody blaming me?"

I thought white privelege was a joke too, coming from a family where my mom once pawned her wedding ring for groceries. "Where is the privelege in that? And what's being white got to do with anything?" As far back as I can remember, I've always thought of all people as equal. I never did see, and still have trouble seeing myself as anyone important whos'e whole existence is one of priveledge. I understood priveledge to mean royalty or something along those lines.

Well, good questions. Over the course of the seminar, I came to the understanding that race is a social construction. When we see that genetically we are so very similar, that is the only logical conclusion one can draw. If it is indeed constructed, then who put our common understandings into motion? Answering that question requires us to answer another - who benefits?

I benefit from being a white guy every day. I never asked for it and I don't feel guilty about it. I'm not to blame for it either. After all, I didn't plant our flimsy collective understandings about race. That said, I'm as guilty as anyone else of abusing the priviledge if I do nothing to help others into equal opportunity.The key for me is to recognize priviledge and to behave accordingly. Thatwouldmean,forinstance,that not everyone grows up believing that "anything ispossible." Most parents probably build this assumption into their kids, without really believing it themselves, having bumped into various invisible barriers over and over again.

My experience with white priviledge in the past has always been all heat and no light. A heaping of guilt has been piled on my shoulders and left there. Blame left me hopeless; the point of the concept of white priviledge is to change attitudes, and inspire action, not shame white people into self image problems.

If I benefit from this priviledge, then I want to use it to for good. I will find ways of undoing whatever barriers I can find. I will learn to undermine flimsy assumptions with facts and context. I will actively seek out the good and celbrate it wherever I find it. I will even look in places and people I wouldn't have before.

I'm an optomist, probably to a fault. I can change myself with a little effort, and humbly seeking His help, instead of waiting to be knocked off of my horse. I could see a little before. Now I see more.