I have not blogged much recently. I have put more of myself into teaching, and I have decided to make some major changes in my life.
As some may already know, on December 30, I took my first ever yoga class, at Flow Yoga Center on P Street, near Logan Circle, in DC. I had prior to that driven the woman who served as my wife's caregiver after her stem cell transplant to and from classes there, particularly picking her up late at night. She persuaded me it would not hurt to try, so I did. After that first class I made a number of commitments, starting with deciding to continue with yoga - It is now not unusual for me to take classes five or more times per week. The hour or more of a class requires me to slow down my mind, to be present in what I am doing, to pay attention to what my body is telling me.
At the same time I decided to change how I consumed. I have effectively given up meat, although I will partake when invited to someone's home, and on a rare special occasion when we are out. I have given up beer, having had exactly one since December 30, when t a get-together at a bar famous for its wide assortment. I had had no ice cream, and few other sweets.
There are multiple changes that have resulted.
First, I have lost a ton of weight. Before my weight now fluctuated around 200 pounds, occasionally rising to as much as 210. Now I am persistently around 175. I have lost more than 2 inches from my waist, and I am going to have to buy a new belt, and perhaps some new trousers as well. I was last this light some 30 years ago, shortly before we were married.
Second, I am sleeping better. It is not unusual for me to sleep 5 hours without waking up. Before, it was rare that i slept more than 2 hours at a stretch.
My sinus problems have almost disappeared. My wife noted that this past week.
But it is the other changes that are important.
I realized that I could not merely change physical aspect, because I am integrated - body, mind, psyche.
I tend to eat mindfully, which means I eat less.
I eat more healthily. I no longer snack on crackers at school. I take 3-4 pieces of fruit, and school has a basket of fruit for the staff as well.
I am more patient, starting with myself. This of course carries over both to my marriage, and to my teaching (more about the latter anon).
Because I am slower to anger and to outrage, I am ironically less inclined to write here. I no longer think it important that I be the one to inform people about the latest column offered by Krugman or Blow, or Kristof or Robinson, and if no one else chooses to do so, only then will I decide whether I still need to offer something.
I post less often to list servs.
I actually listen to music, not merely as background accompaniment to what else I am doing.
I now have the energy, the time, to put more of myself into teaching.
I am thinking about how I reach my students, to help their time with me be more productive.
Perhaps my favorite of the six classes covering 4 preps for which I am responsible is STEM Policy (STEM standing for Science,Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). It is a required course for the majority of the students in our STEM program. I am fortunately that it includes some of the most outstanding young people in our school, which challenges me to provide an educational experience worthy of their talents and attention.
It lasts only a semester, the students are juniors.
Their culminating project is the production of a policy brief on a topic of their choosing, and presenting that brief to outside evaluators.
They also have several guest speakers. Last semester their speakers included an atmospheric chemist who has both taught graduate students and worked for NASA and NOAA, including international work, as well as the man who headed NOAA for 8 years under Clinton. This term the first speaker will be a man who was in the diplomatic corps starting as a science attache and wound up as Vice President of the US Institute of Peace. I am working on two other speakers, maybe more. The two in queue include a man who served a number of terms on the House Science Committee, and a woman who was vice president of research at Glaxo Smith Kline among her other positions.
These guest speakers are in tune with my practice of connecting my students with the real world wherever possible. In the past my Government students at my previous school heard from Congressmen from NY and FL, journalists such as Candy Crowley, Byron York, Ari Berman, Chuck Todd, and David Broder,; and people who were Congressional Staffers, local government officials, lobbyists, political party officials at state and local levels, etc. This coming Thursday my students will hear from a good friend who also spoke to students at my previous high school, Mary Beth Tinker of the famous Tinker v DesMoines Supreme Court Case in 1971.
My STEM Policy students have no real idea about policy briefs when I get them. We start by examining a LONG (29 pages) policy brief on the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers (and yes, I am being a bit sneaky in choosing this, but it is also a brief I know well, having written about it here when it was released, at the request of its authors. It is also relevant in that this course includes NO tests, which means anyone wishing to evaluate my effectiveness as a teacher will have to find some other method!).
The students are now doing some exploration in groups of 3 or 4 of topics for which they will outline what would be necessary to do a policy brief: what are the issues,what are possible solutions, what are possible problems,who would be the stakeholders, etc.
I have assigned these topics.
- Net Neutrality
- should all schools receiving federal funds requires students to take and/or pass a course in swimming or drown-proofing as a condition of graduation from high school?
- should the federal government require collision avoidance technology on new vehicles?
- should the federal government require backup/rear-view cameras on new vehicles?
- should schools /school systems be required to provide nutritional information about what they serve so that students can learn how to use that information to make choices?
- should school systems receiving federal funds be required to ensure that students take and pass courses including instruction in evolution and the big bang theory?
- should the Affordable Care Act be changed to require providing/offering coverage for dental, vision, hearing?
These are all real world issues. All have financial and political implications. That is the real world in which policy is made. As students work on these topics, for the equivalent of two class periods (90 minutes each) and coordinate their work outside of class pursuant to preparing a brief summary and presentation for the following class, they are working on research, evaluation, cooperation, identifying issues, expanding or contracting their area of focus, etc.
We will as a group debrief- examine what was said/offered, ask questions, help them evaluate.
Each student will then do an individual reflection.
This is real-world learning.
This is understanding how topics neither operate nor can be fully understood in silos, in separate categories.
It provides a real opportunity for students to engage with the world, to invoke their interests and passions.
Which lead me to note something else.
I have again changed my sig.
I have been reading a book co-authored by the Buddhist teachers Robert Thurman and Sharon Sazlberg. Sharon is a friend and a registered member of Daily Kos. I encountered in that reading some words from the great American theologian Howard Thurman which powerfully struck me:
Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it, because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.
There are many things that make me come alive, among them music and poetry.
Most of all what makes me come alive is connecting with adolescents.
That is why I am a teacher.
I want to empower them, give them the chance to come alive.
What I do as a political actor and as a writer flow from my passion for the young people, that we leave them a world and a society that can still be at least saved, perhaps redeemed.
I want it to be inclusive.
For me to do what makes me come alive, I must first be alive, physically to be sure, but metaphorically as well.
I must be healthy as is within my power, in body, in mind, in spirit.
I began with yoga and diet, because they were the preparation, tilling the ground, so that when the seed of the words of Howard Thurman landed I was able to grow them into something that now infuses my being, even on a weekend, when I am notorious for my "down" periods because I am away from my students.
I do not know if what I have offered here will speak to many. Hopefully it will speak to at least a few.
I will now turn to my tasks as a teacher - I have papers to read and upon which to comment; I have lesson plans to prepare, based on what my students have been able to do.
I will will read any comments you choose to share.
Thanks for reading.
Peace.