Role Playing to Kill a Mockingbird

I just finished a short adventure with a group of my students where Atticus was left in a ditch after Calpurnia had hit on him, and the kids discover a dungeon and rescue Dill; Nathan then turns out to be a serial killer.....

A lot of fun and I'm convinced that this method has enormous potential. Here, as elsewhere in school work the effort and concentration is lacking, but it's possible to make up for that as you go along. Even though they had forgot their character sheets and were really sceptical a story was created, we reflected on the characters and English was spoken throughout....

I'll be gathering more points shortly....

Spirituality, education and letting being be

In one of my favorite philosophy books by one of my favorite philosophers, Paul K. Feyerabend (on whom I have blogged earlier) he has this idea that when Being is addressed it answers, and the answer is in line with, takes the form and shape of the address. Thus true science, art, religion and spirituality are addresses to Being: and all such addresses receive answers that may seemingly 'prove' the various systems that they stem from. This is a kind of relativism, and yet it isn't.....

I am concerned about education and the way it's headed. I worry that too much policy, evaluation and ideology are detrimental to true education; true education being and address to Being. I also think that too much interference in the work of teachers and parents in the name of some overarching ideal on morality, health etc. is dangerous. I find that some kind of Panopticonal Big Brother lurks behind a lot of this stuff... and all this stuff fogs our minds and hinders us in addressing Being with our own true voices.

Of course: this idea of a 'true' address - or a 'true' voice is not relativism, and yet I feel no need to explain - I think people intuitively know it when they see it; and overexplaining it kills it.

So: education is about all kinds of people engaging with all kinds of kids and people in ways they see fit creating a multitude of voices who have an opportunity to address Being in their own voices - some loud and clear, others weaker: yet striving to be authentic....

Democratic Schools and incidental learning

I've recently been unschooling myself on unschooling, and particularly been watching videos and reading stuff on the Sudbury Valley School. A very telling part of the documentary is this piece on 'the sleeping student'. I'm not entirely and in all ways convinced that this is the best way to organise a school, but by golly it's interesting to think about. I find that a student could just as well sleep like this instead of sleeping in a classroom.... I also believe that their idea that most true learning is incidental is an important one, especially in languages and most important life skills - special 'classes' in for example happiness are therefore completely bogus. I find that my learning in life has primarily been incidental, and I think that more time spent on following one's interests and passions would be time well spent.... this is very important to me with the upcoming test period which I find to be an enormous waste of my and students' energy.... more on that later if the great spirit moves me to write on that ....