Just don't understand it. I smile at 'em, jolly 'em along. I pay attention not to spill their food. Just don't understand it. I believe in my educational role. I even organise outings for some of 'em. I smile at 'em, jolly 'em along. I pay attention not to be unfair in my comments. They just don't pay attention. They just don't play the game right. They just don't put their heart and soul in it. They don't take their work seriously. They're just looking to score enough points for smokes. I put my life into the job. I read those books. I tried all those motivating tricks and the like. I even did research like... a while. The guvnor thought I was crazy. "This is a bloody prison not a kindergarten," he said. I thought that was pushing it a bit. I am more than sympathetic to their plight. I was in their shoes once. I don't see difference between black and white, man or woman. I am open-minded, I'm empathetic even. I smile at 'em, I jolly 'em along. Anyone would think that they'd be pleased to see the back of me. Just don't understand it. Cellnotes.
“Is it surprising that the cellular prison, with its regular chronologies, forced labour, its authorities of surveillance and registration, its experts in normality, who continue and multiply the functions of the judge, should have become the modern instrument of penality? Is it surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals, which all resemble prisons?”
Michel Foucault.
Footnotes
Inspired by Terry Elliott's reading of a Bertolt Brecht Fable.
To what extent do we need to deconstruct "own direction"?
I asked a Romanian girl what her ambition was.
She replied that her dream was to be a cleaner.
I didn't dream of being a cleaner when I was her age.
I have been reading Boris Cyrulnik's autobiography.
He was sentenced to die for being Jewish at the age of six.
He didn't even know what Jewish meant.
He only knew it was bad.
Was that his "own direction"?
Are these dreams "our own"?
As a teacher in an institution how can we focus on "independence" of students when often the only reason they spend time with us is that they depend on us for a grade.
@davecormier@SenorG that's an interesting one :-) the easiest way not to risk dependency is not to have a relationship :-)
Yeah, you're right to be wary on the WWW (the Wild West Web).
Just Google Dave Cormier for a full press pack and glowing references...
Thanks to Mr MC MOOC David Cormier esq you will be able to meet plenty of suitably genuine people.
They'll be just dying to share their obscure blog posts, to speed crowd chat on Twitter with those cool #rhizo hashtags and get deep down on the thousand plateaux with those classy continental kings of chaos Deleuze and Guattari.
YEAH!!! OH OUI!!!
Dave Cormier preparing another Matchmaker meet up.
Dave hosts special events every Tuesday night when he speaks to y'all from the fireside of his Canadian log cabin and talks cosy like.
It may not last long but, god damn it, he's good.
It may not last long cos we are talking MOOC (matchmaking openly online cheaply).
That's why we are able to charge so little...
(Yeah Dave makes money on the drinks and the peanuts.)
Sure there are competing Matchmakers...
None of them are as Maassiive!
None of them are so openly open!
None of them are as between the lines!
None of them are so diversely connected!
Sure there are some corporations who are trying to blind you with that phoney MOOC 4 science.
They even pretend to have invented a new advanced form of MOOC!!!
HA HA HA HA...(etc)
DON'T listen to those charlatans!!!
DAVE is UNIQUE! (often copied never surpassed)*TM
Thanks to his recipe of Canadian charisma, deeply tricky challenges and crazily mindful games, people just let loose and start singing, dancing, opening up their hearts, writing poetry and sharing true rhizomatic looove.
Y'll never know who y'll meet in the Rhizomatic Matchmaker Bar...
Y'll never know who'll put that special comment on your blooog...
Y'll never know who'll be your curriculum baaby...
And y'know what?
Before you know it, that crafty MC has disappeared to munch peanuts and drink Molson, leaving you to it.
I know it sounds odd but he's a MOOC magician.
CONTENT is PEOPLE!! *TM
Y'know we like to say in the bar that CONTENT is people.
Yeah... CONTENT by the people, for the people, with the people in the end y'know...that just makes people CONTENT.
And when we say CONTENT we mean CONTENT.
Special needs?
There's even a Rhizomatic Matchmaker Email list for those of you still living in the 20th century.
Rhizome?
Yeah get lost in the rhizome, map your path, unleash those multiple identities.
Undiscerning members can join a busy Facebook group.
More reserved members can seek out the quieter corners of a Google Plus Community.
Curation fetishists have even started up a Diigo dungeon.
(we have no idea what goes on there)
If you are really wanting to get cosy, then just nip out of that hashtag stream and let fly a DM or even have that special private hangout.
So in the end, guys, y'll know who to thank for that special education!!
Yeah!!!
That's our boy....Dave Cormier.
And now join our girls from our RhizoRussia branch for that classic Karaoke chartbuster.
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose practitioners have, from antiquity, claimed it to be the precursor to profound powers.
The defining objectives of alchemy are varied but historically have typically included one or more of the following goals: the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone; the ability to transmute base metals into the noble metals (gold or silver); and development of an elixir of life, which would confer youth and longevity and unimaginable wealth. The alchemist. Take raw materials. develop some sort of pseudo-scientific method and attempt to create the conditions to capture the essence of life.
The raw materials remain inert.
Night after night, the alchemist prepares processes which will transform base metal into solid gold.
Centuries pass, ever more elaborate spells appear scrawled and scribbled in his books of spells.
Hope burns bright.
Maybe this time.
The raw materials remain inert.
In vain the alchemist's best practices?
Is there even a gleam?
He frantically turns pages in his collection of spells.
All his efforts for nought.
Maybe he is missing something?
A brutish form appears unexpectantly.
He stands aside the alchemist.
He speaks as if to persons absent:
"Why, as I told thee, ’tis a custom with him,
I' th' afternoon to sleep. There thou mayst brain him,
Having first seized his books; or with a log
Batter his skull; or paunch him with a stake;
Or cut his weasand with thy knife. Remember
First to possess his books, for without them
He’s but a sot, as I am, nor hath not
One spirit to command. They all do hate him
As rootedly as I. Burn but his books."
We are magically transported to an isle of wonder: The brute continues: "Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open, and show riches Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked, I cried to dream again".
The lines are drawn up, the roles are defined, the territories are determined. At one side of the class-room, stands a teacher. The students are grouped together waiting for any lull in the content offensive to engage leisurely conversation.
The teacher draws up a plan of action for the new campaign on the board. The exercises are ready, the instructions are well-rehearsed, the number of future failures are statistically modelled. Survival is for the fittest. Success is for the elite. Cohorts of students are evaluated, streamed, trained, tested, decorated. Competition is good for the character, team-work is carefully regimented, unsupervised collaboration is suspect.
I was a reluctant RAF cadet, the uniform was scratchy, I was a poor shot, I loathed dehumanising drill. Taking orders from a teenage moron who gleefully made us march into a brick wall killed off my Action Man dreams of becoming a commando...
A breezy Anglican church school, the bravery of fallen heroes in the World Wars was celebrated here, the dates of battles were memorised; critical analysis was viewed dimly.
Glorious were the victories on the rugby field, the cricket pitch,the hockey shore!
Somewhere else,further afield, Paolo Freire would write,
"Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world."
Technology plays a vital role in enabling the change of relationships in society. With the railways came massive industrial expansion, the public school, the public holiday. With the machine gun and heavy artillery came the trenches, the Somme. With the railways came mass-mobilisation and monumental casualty counts. The 'in between' enemy lines, countries, or classes would become 'No man's land.'
No man's land is a term for land that is unoccupied or is under dispute between parties that leave it unoccupied due to fear or uncertainty. Wikipedia
This space, allotted for daily butchery during the Great War was also spotted with odd outbreaks of peaceful dialogue. Bizarre truces would be negotiated when troops from the opposing sides would exchange presents, souvenirs and a passion for football. Such events remain eery tributes to the absurdity of a system.
With new technologies come new challenges, new opportunities for transforming societies or maintaining conformity. Ubiquitous connectivity enhances peer to peer communication, disrupts old hierarchical organisations, blurs the lines between work and play, challenges the roles of teachers and learners. It is not sure that we are for the moment in any way freer.
If drones have replaced soldiers, shiny interactive tablets might deliver expertly conceived global uniformity to hungry pupils. Games which let you win engage. Such edutainment however seductive does not necessarily enhance independent criticism or creativity. If predictably achieved 'educational outcomes' are reassuring for the stake-holders, they may be useless to the individual in the long-term. Curiosity requires peace to develop.
Should we venture into the Noman's lands which exist between individuals, between informal and formal learning, between physical and virtual presence,between generations and cultures, we might aim to imagine a more diversely sustainable future.
"Through dialogue, the teachers-of-the-students and the students-of-the-teachers cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-students with student-teachers." Paolo Freire.
Learning together, Noman's land might just become Everyman's land. Lines can diverge~converge. Conversation, however leisurely will inevitably be more essential than content.
