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Character vs IQ in Education

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Paul Tough has written a book arguing that developing character is more critical to a child’s future success than IQ.

National Public Radio has the story: “Tough explores this idea in his new book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character.

” ‘For some people, [the] path to college is so easy that they can get out into life and they’ve never really been challenged,’ he tells NPR’s David Greene. ‘I think they get into their 20s and 30s and they really feel lost — they feel like they never had those character-building experiences as adolescents, as kids, that really make a difference when they get to adulthood.’

“That wasn’t true for the teenagers Tough met during the time he spent in some of Chicago’s roughest neighborhoods. There, he worked with teenagers overcoming unimaginable challenges. One young woman …  was getting into fights in school and was on the verge of dropping out. But then she entered an intensive mentoring program that changed her life.

” ‘She made it through high school, overcame a lot of obstacles and now is getting a cosmetology degree,’ Tough says. ‘For some people, that wouldn’t be a huge success. But for her, she overcame obstacles that won’t only set her on a path for material success, but also psychological success.’

“The difference-maker really depends on the person, Tough says. Mentoring programs that focus on goal-setting can be helpful, and he also says parents should try to help their kids manage stress from a very early age.”

Do you agree with this? Overcoming obstacles is important, but the obstacles that some of the students Tough met were so severe, I can’t help wondering if the consequences have yet to play out. I’m for kids overcoming normal, age-appropriate obstacles that are part of any life — as they say in Italy, “the things that happen to the living.”

More at NPR, here.

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No Weepy Folksiness in New Canadian Poetry

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on September 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »

This Canadian critic doesn’t think much of the aurora borealis or the “noble sorrow of being descended from rugged settlers” as subjects worthy of poetry. That is perhaps why he is rejoicing at the current poetry trends in his country.

Russell Smith writes at the Globe and Mail that Canadian poetry is experiencing a renaissance.

“You know where Canadian literature is excelling? In its poetry. There hasn’t been so much challenging work around – so much that is playful, amusing, dazzling or simply exasperating – for as long as I can remember. Some of this has to do with a new generation of tough-minded editors, some of it has to do with the fading of a certain kind of weepy folksiness, and a lot of it has to do with the Internet. Quite simply, it is easier to read and share poems now, and people are actually doing it.

“Exhibit A: The Walrus magazine, a general-interest journal that bravely publishes poems every month, has been spreading the word online about their ‘readers’ choice’ competition. They asked for submissions of individual poems, then their poetry editor, the truculent Michael Lista, selected his five favourites (blind – that is, he saw no names). Lista has posted the five finalists and is asking for a public vote on the best. (You can vote at the Walrus’s website; voting ends Sept. 30.) The winner gets $1,000. More importantly, the poem will be widely linked to and forwarded, which means it will be read, unlike prize-winning poems of my youth.

“Also unlike the prize-winning poems of my youth – which tended to be about aurora borealis and the great noble sorrow of being descended from rugged settlers – the ones selected for this shortlist are amazingly, some might say frustratingly, dense and intellectual. They are not about birds. (Well, only one is.)” Read more.

I have to thank ArtsJournal.com for linking to wonderful stories like this in newspapers I would never see otherwise. (P.S. I personally have nothing against poems about birds.)

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Three Families Help Vets

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 20, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Maria Di Mento writes in The Chronicle of Philanthropy about a new fund to help military families.

“Three affluent families are forming a fund with the purpose of raising $30 million to support programs that serve military veterans, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America announced [in July].

“The families have donated more than $1 million and plan to seek contributions especially from other wealthy people, including those without personal connections to any service members.

“Philip Green, president of PDG Consulting, a health-care consultancy,  and his wife, Elizabeth Cobbs, chief of geriatrics at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C., joined with their friends Glenn and Laurie Garland and with the Jim Stimmel family to create the fund, Mr. Green said in an interview with The Chronicle.

“The money raised for the new Veterans Support Fund will be funneled to five nonprofits that help returning service members and their families.” Read more.

I think it’s interesting that the donors are reaching out to those who have not been personally touched by the wars to solicit funds. On a blog at work we were just discussing the fact that so many men and women were risking their lives, their families’ stability, and their mental health for the last ten years while so many of the rest of us were mostly untouched.

Hats off to these philanthropists! It’s one thing to see the unequal contributions of Americans. It’s another to do something about it.

Photograph: Sarah Conard/Reuters/File
Sgt. Audrey Johnsey (left) greets Sfc. Joshua Herbig (right), who she served with in Afghanistan, during the Welcome Home Heroes Parade in St. Louis in January.

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My Cousin the Tree Artist

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on September 19, 2012| 2 Comments »

She doesn’t do only trees, but she knows trees inside and out.

Katherine Pacchiana has a nice update in the Daily Voice, a newspaper in North Salem, New York.

“Sally Frank was in the middle of the Maine woods as she talked, via cell phone, about her collection of tree art, now on display at the Ruth Keeler Library.

“ ‘Most of what I do is make prints,’ she explained. ‘Unfortunately, I have a day job, but I like to do monotypes which are spontaneous and don’t take a long period of time.’ Monotypes are a form of prints, dating back to the 17th century. Each is made individually.

“Frank has been drawing all her life and has trained in many places, including Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, Mass., and Long Island University, where she earned a master’s in fine arts. At the age of 19, she was apprenticed to Tom Bostelle, the American painter and sculptor who was a colleague of Andrew Wyeth.

“ ‘I’ve always drawn trees and the natural landscape. I went from focusing on the architecture of a tree – its sturdy trunk and the strong presence it has on the landscape – to what is left when a tree dies away and leaves forms behind.

“ ‘I’m fascinated by the texture and light that trees create, the  patterns – a tree’s essence.’ ” Read more.

Today I happened to be in Great Barrington for a work conference on affordable housing in rural areas. It was my first visit since Sally’s parents’ wedding, which I remember as being in a Unitarian church. I was hoping to get a picture I could post, but I saw only St. Peter’s and the Congregational church.

The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge looked vaguely familiar, and I wondered if that was where we were staying when my father, as best man, realized he’d forgotten the wedding ring and raced back to fetch it while Uncle Jim paced anxiously, muttering words I recall as, “He always does this”!

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Wish List for Foster Kids

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 18, 2012| Leave a Comment »

David Karas writes at the Christian Science Monitor, “When Danielle Gletow adopted her daughter Mia, she began to learn about the American foster care system – and the challenges faced by more than 100,000 children and young adults who are part of it.

“Determined to do something to help them, Ms. Gletow made it her mission not only to educate others about the challenges these children and teens face, but also to give people an easy way to lend a helping hand.

“That’s how One Simple Wish was born.

“Founded in 2008 out of Gletow’s home office, One Simple Wish is a nonprofit organization that connects foster children and vulnerable families with potential donors who grant their wishes online or at the organization’s Ewing, N.J.-based ‘Wish Shop.’

“The wishes, which typically cost from $5 to $100 to grant, encompass everything from a desire for a musical instrument to a movie ticket, new clothes, or horseback riding lessons. …

“To date, Gletow has seen more than 2,800 wishes granted by her organization. And while each is special, Gletow enjoys remembering some of the first wishes that she herself helped to grant. …

“When Sarah, a girl who had grown up in foster care, was graduating from basic training in the US Army, Gletow was able to help arrange for her caseworker to fly to South Carolina. … Sarah was the only student who didn’t have family coming to the graduation, Gletow says. ‘She had no way to pay for [her caseworker] to come.’ ”

Read more.

Suzanne’s friend Liz has been something like a Big Sister and Legal
Guardian for many years to a girl in foster care who is now a young woman. Liz says that the transition out of foster care is an especially vulnerable period, as young people are thrilled to be “free” but still need the kinds of support that young adults with families have.

Photograph: Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor
Danielle Gletow, founder of One Simple Wish, stands next to a wall of thank-you notes.

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Artists in spite of Jim Crow

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I liked Jacki Lyden’s story at National Public Radio about some unusual artists in the 1960s.

“If you traveled by way of Florida’s Route 1 in the 1960s, you might have encountered a young, African-American artist, selling a lushly painted oil landscape from his car. They weren’t allowed in galleries during Jim Crow segregation — but motels, office buildings and tourists would buy their vivid works.

“Together, they formed a loosely associated band around Fort Pierce, Fla., that came to be known as The Highwaymen. At $20 a painting, they made their way out of agricultural jobs like citrus-picking and defined the cultural look of an era.

“Their paintings departed from an earlier tradition of landscape painting in Fort Pierce. A.E. ‘Beanie’ Backus, considered the father of the landscape movement there, caught the clouds and savannahs and inlets that were falling to developers in the mid-century. He would teach many youngsters who came to his studio, including the teenage Alfred Hair, leader of The Highwaymen.

“These artists would take off in their own direction. But success has brought enduring tensions on their home turf, raising questions about art, race and cultural legacy. …

“The who’s who of The Highwaymen can be tricky. (A curator named Jim Fitch coined the name in the ’90s and it stuck.) Gary Monroe, author of The Highwaymen, Florida’s African-American Landscape Artists, counts 26 original painters — 18 of whom are still living. That’s how many were inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2004.”

Lots more.

Photograph: Gary Monroe
Alfred Hair (left) and Robert Lewis

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New Bedford

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 16, 2012| 4 Comments »

My husband and I are often drawn to New England’s older postindustrial cities, with their walkable town centers and their old brick warehouses. They are sometimes called Gateway Cities because for generations they have served as immigrant gateways into the American life. We explored North Adams, Massachusetts, with Suzanne and Erik a couple years ago, and this weekend we went to New Bedford with Suzanne.

Once the whaling capital of the world, New Bedford today is home to an anxious fishing industry, clothing manufacturing, and tourism. We went to the Whaling Museum and came out feeling glad that most countries are more focused on whale preservation than whale hunting.

We sought out Portuguese restaurants and sat on the patio near an outdoor fireplace at one place. We knew there would be Portuguese restaurants as Portuguese speakers have come to New Bedford for generations — from Portugal, the Azores, Cape Verde, and Brazil.

At our beautiful Bed & Breakfast, the hosts (who have spent most of their working lives doing economic development overseas with US A.I.D.) told us that a large Guatemalan community has grown up in the city. They said that most of the Guatemalans speak an indigenous language, Spanish being a second language for them. That’s a particular challenge when Guatemalans go to the hospital as none of the staff speak that indigenous language.

My husband and Suzanne and I walked around. We passed lively Pentecostal churches and a storefront church full of dancers and clowns. We noted lamp posts bearing inspirational banners on how to be a good citizen or how to volunteer. I include one on “Responsibility.”

We also liked the cooperative shops run by members of the local arts community. And we had fun checking out a salvage warehouse for cool architectural bits, here. Among other things, it has rather a lot of bathtubs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Arts for Underserved Children

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Gwarlingo pointed me to Time In, an initiative that provides arts experiences for children who might not get such enrichment any other way.

“Time In brings some of the youngest, most at-risk public school children OUT of underserved classrooms and INTO the world of the living arts every week of the school year.

“Starting from Pre-K, children {try] hands-on art in our studio one week, with hops to the world’s best galleries and museums the next! Regardless of their backgrounds, children are children. The world of imagination, creativity and fantasy is their most fertile ground. Time In acknowledges children’s phenomenal gifts and innate abilities and is dedicated to developing learning environments that stimulate, rather than stifle.

“We are proud to have changed the lives of more than 1,000 underserved Pre-K-2nd graders since 2006, and look forward to working with over 400 children this year. Time In will continue to foster not only wonderfully conceptual thinkers, but perceptive and aesthetically sensitive children, each of whom will be poised to nourish our society in the days to come.”

Read more. Or vote for the nonprofit on Facebook as Part of Chase Community Giving.

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Majoring in Philanthropy

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on September 14, 2012| Leave a Comment »

“Indiana University’s trustees voted [in June] to create a school of philanthropy, the first in the nation and a sign of both the growing amount of scholarship on the nonprofit world and intense demand to offer rigorous training to people who work at charitable institutions.”

So writes Maureen West in the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

“Leslie Lenkowsky, a professor of public affairs and philanthropic studies at Indiana University, said the decision to start a school was a profound development for nonprofits.

“ ‘It’s a coming of age for the study and teaching of philanthropy — just as we have schools for government and business, this will be the first school for the nonprofit sector.’ …

“Indiana has long been building a serious academic program in philanthropy. It created the first philanthropy doctoral program, and last month it graduated the first students in the United States to earn bachelor’s degrees in philanthropy.”

Time will tell how much innovation the program inspires. As William Schambra, director of the Bradley Center of Philanthropy and Civic Renewal for the Hudson Institute, says, it needs to be more than a “technical training school for nonprofit managers or fundraisers.”

Read more. I think they are making a great start.

Photograph: Nguyen Huy Kham/Reuters/File
Students in Hanoi were glad to perform for philanthropist (and New York City Mayor) Michael Bloomberg during an event marking the donation of motorcycle helmets.

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Dayton Welcomes Immigrants

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on September 13, 2012| Leave a Comment »

You might be interested in this article about how Dayton, Ohio, is welcoming immigrants as part of its effort to spur economic growth.

Dylan Scott at Governing magazine writes, “In contrast to some states’ anti-immigration policies, a few cities are actively trying to attract immigrants to boost their own economies. …

“City officials estimate that 10 percent of the Ahiska Turks in the United States have established themselves here in Dayton. But they aren’t alone. There are also immigrants from Mexico, Vietnam, Samoa and elsewhere.

“Watching some of these residents’ difficulty in adjusting to their new surroundings — some encountering language barriers and others struggling to secure housing — convinced city officials they needed to do more to help.

“Dayton’s Human Relations Council, a city department that investigates discrimination complaints, started in 2010 by initiating a study into allegations from Hispanic residents regarding housing discrimination. Around the same time, City Manager Tim Riordan and City Commissioner Matt Joseph resolved to make public services more accessible for those who spoke English as a second language.

“It didn’t take long for Dayton’s leaders to figure out that incremental steps wouldn’t do, that the immigration issue needed a comprehensive solution and the involvement of the entire community.

” ‘It requires a huge partnership. There are only so many things we can do as the city,’ Joseph says. ‘And the big thing is an attitude change. We have to make sure we’re encouraging people to be more welcoming and that the incentives are running the right way. That’s our role.’ …

“Dayton officials seized on a growing academic consensus that embracing immigrants is beneficial to the country as a whole and specifically the economy. A June 2011 Brookings Institution report concluded: ‘U.S. global competitiveness rests on the ability of immigrants and their children to thrive economically and to contribute to the nation’s productivity.’ The U.S. Chamber of Commerce wrote last year that research shows ‘immigrants significantly benefit the U.S. economy.’ ” Read more.

Photograph: Tim Witmer
Sarvar Ispahi, his son Uzeir and their family moved to the United States from Russia in 2005 after Ahiska Turks were granted refugee status by the federal government. They chose Dayton because a refugee community was already forming there.

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Tortillas for Somalians

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I liked this multicultural story by Fernanda Santos in the NY Times. It demonstrates that people from different cultures can adapt to one another’s foods and customs very nicely in the U.S. melting pot.

It is all happening at the Ranch Market in Phoenix.

“Tortillas are a Mexican staple of transnational appeal here, bridging divisions carved by Arizona’s tough stance on immigration and reaching far beyond Latin American borders.

“The factory, at the Ranch Market store on North 16th Street, employs a pair of Iraqi refugees to whom flour tortillas have become a replacement for the flat bread known as khubz. There are also Cubans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans and, of course, Mexicans manning the machines like the rounder, which turns the masa into balls that are then pressed and cooked in 500-degree ovens at a rate of eight dozen disks a minute.

“Refugees from Somalia buy Ranch Market tortillas as a substitute for a pancake-like bread called canjeelo. Koreans have taken to using them to wrap pieces of spicy barbecued pork, like a taco. Foodies like them because they are the closest thing to an authentic tortilla that they can find at a supermarket here.”

Read more here.

Photograph: Joshua Lott for The New York Times
The Ranch Market on North 16th Street in Phoenix churns out eight dozen tortillas a minute, cooked in 500-degree ovens.

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Random Hacks of Kindness

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Do you have techie talents? Consider joining the folks volunteering their technology skills for unusual causes.

“At Random Hacks of Kindness events,” writes Cody Switzer for The Chronicle of Philanthropy, “technology experts volunteer to solve problems facing nonprofits and other organizations interested in doing good.

“Programmers in San Francisco and Berlin got together recently to attempt to build a system that would allow immigrants to tell their families they’ve arrived safely at their destination without anyone else finding out.

“In Nairobi, a similar group worked on a system to report election results in real time, including incidents of election violence and accusations of voter fraud.

“In Toronto, others worked on a system that could allow Nepali women to send ultrasound pictures via mobile devices.

“All of them were volunteers, willing to lend their technological expertise to nonprofits and causes.

“These projects and others were part of the Random Hacks of Kindness weekend, a twice-yearly, 36-hour work session for designers, programmers, and technology experts to solve problems facing nonprofits and other organizations interested in doing good. The most recent events, held [in June 2012] in 25 cities worldwide, drew 900 participants, according to organizer SecondMuse, a consulting firm that works with companies and individuals on better ways to collaborate.”

The Christian Science Monitor reprinted the story. Check it out.

Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters/File
Employees at Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other technology companies volunteer for Random Hacks of Kindness.

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How We Build Neighborliness

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on September 10, 2012| 2 Comments »

Jay Walljasper appeared recently in the Christian Science Monitor (by way of Shareable). Designated one of The Monitor‘s “change agents,” he has written about ways to build a sense of community in a book called The Great Neighborhood Book.

Walljasper believes that “providing people with ways to come together as friends, neighbors, and citizens creates a firm foundation that enables a neighborhood to solve problems and seize opportunities.

“The neighborhood is the basic building block of human civilization, whether in a big city, small town, or suburban community. It’s also the place where you can have the most influence in making a better world.”

Tips are provided here.

My own neighborhood has block parties on an annual basis. It hasn’t led to solving any major problems, although we did manage to get a rabid raccoon carted away not long ago. Even though most of us meet only once a year, I think we would help one anther if there was a disaster.

Pictures of Sunday’s convivial block party are below, followed by a photo of neighbors somewhere else actually working together on a project. That kind of collaboration probably produces deeper bonding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photograph below by Manuel Valdes/AP/File
Two volunteers hold the top of a spiral slide being installed at a neighborhood park in Kent, Wash., in 2011.

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Instrument “PettingZoo”

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

A woman in my tai chi chuan class yesterday mentioned that she was taking her son to an “Instrument PettingZoo” this weekend to see if he could find an instrument he’d like to study.

What a great name for the event! With a title like that, no one needs to explain that the idea is to help children learn about different instruments — and have fun at the same time.

This weekend’s Instrument PettingZoo is at Powers Music School.

The school’s website provides some history:

“Powers Music School is a regional, not-for-profit institution established in 1964 to provide superior music instruction and performance opportunities to all interested students. Each year the School also provides musical outreach opportunities in the community through programs such as Belmont Open Sings, the Stein Chamber Music Festival, the Peter Elvins Vocal Competition, and the Mildred P. Freiberg Piano Festival.

“The founding principles, that all students are entitled to high quality musical instruction and that music is an essential part of our lives and belongs in the community, continue to guide the School today. During 2010-2011, the School worked with over 1,000 students who traveled from 50 surrounding communities. In addition, Powers gave over 70 student recitals/community performances.”

I love the school’s dual-meaning slogan, “A great place to play.”

Makes me realize my off-and-on-music education may have left out the playful side of “play.”

Photograph: PowersMusic.org

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Mixing Up Poems

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on September 8, 2012| 2 Comments »

Just realized I have long had a kind of mental mixtape of Alfred Noyes’s “The Highwayman” and Walter De La Mare’s “The Listeners.” This is disturbing as I always supposed myself to have a good memory.

The mixtape begins “The road was a ribbon of moonlight/ Toss’d upon cloudy seas” and ends ” ‘Tell them I came and no one answered/ That I kept my word, he said.’ ”

But today I reread the Alfred Noyes because it was the selection for the Poem-a-Day e-mail. It’s completely different from what I remembered. It’s all about a fair maiden [spoiler alert!] shooting herself to warn her highwayman lover that the red coats have baited a trap.

“The Listeners” is closer to what I remember teaching to a sixth grade class at Swarthmore-Rutledge Union Elementary School.

This is how “The Highwayman” really goes:

“The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
“The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
“The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor …”

Close, but no cigar.

“The Listeners” does have the line about keeping his word, but it is not at the end.

I think maybe the poems really should go together. I could make up a whole new version. That would not be so different from, say, creating a medley of show tunes, in which songs are put together in a way that brings new interpretations to the surface.

What do you think? Have you ever made a poetry mixtape?

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