End of a blog

I've moved my blog to another address. This one will no longer be updated.

The Katrina debacle--A Spike Lee Documentary

This is really worth watching. Much of the footage is from the international press and has not been shown on U S television.

"When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," the documentary on Hurricane Katrina by Spike Lee, premieres today and tomorrow, Aug. 21 and 22, for two hours each night.
It airs again in its entirety on Aug. 29. For details see:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14322933/site/newsweek/?GT1=8404

Wonderment

I've spent some time with children under age 7 recently. I rarely have an opportunity to do that and it was a rather nice experience. I wish adults could hold on to some of the qualities I observed including:

Wonderment/Fascination: These kids were asking questions about everything and they were actively involved in their environment.

Joy: By the time many students reach my classroom, their joy has been muted if not completely extinguished. I teach classes that are considered "deficiencies" in our program which doesn't help the students in the "joy" department, either. I've been suggesting for three years and counting that the word deficiency be changed. No action yet. Perhaps I need someone who is more valued in our department to suggest it. I'll work on that this year.

Gentleness: These particular children have been taught to treat the people and things in their world with care. I know children two to three times their age that do not have that training. I've met kids who've talked about me in the third person when I was right next to them. I felt as though they were referring to me as a servant....but I digress. Heck, I know adults who don't appear to value gentleness. It was refreshing to see how these children respected their world, their parents, and the other adults they dealt with.

So that whole andragogy thing: Perhaps not just for adults anymore.

AE Conferences

Since my website is no longer operable, I'm back to making this blog a way to disseminate info. So, here are a couple of conference you may be interested in.

http://www.aera.net

The Adult Education Research Conference will be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in May, 2007. Proposals are due in October, 2006.

http://www.adulterc.org

Humans

We're one crazy race--the human race that is. (I did a presentation today on White Privilege and there's lots crazy about that..but that's for another time and another blog).

Ever have one of those days when people surprise you? Either in a negative or positive way? Either way you gotta laugh. I was having one of those days recently. I thought someone was initially being helpful and really this person was just needing to be right. Not helpful....I understand that fallibility in us as humans. We're wrong a lot. So needing to assert "rightness" seems...well... right...?? Our right??? Maybe it makes us feel superior. Maybe it's an alpha dog thing. Anyway, it struck me as funny. I actually laughed.

Then there are opportunities to laugh for joy. My neighbor cleared my driveway in a matter of about 15 minutes after the most recent storm. (It takes me 1.25-1.5 hours to shovel this driveway.) He refused to be paid.

I lived in Buffalo NY for three years. 110-150 inches of snow a year. I was pleased to find my driveway cleared a few times. My neighbor actually felt sorry for me after he saw me outside for the 5th or 6th time trying to keep 7 feet of snow off my driveway during a course of three days. I'd lost the will to shovel. I was so happy I didn't have to go outside yet again, I laughed in joy.

We certainly have a wide range of behavior towards each other.

Seeing things as humorous is often (but certainly not always--obviously) a good way to survive and thrive in the (human) race.

Opinions

Hi all,

I've been away for awhile mainly putting up a very basic web page and managing post-Adult Ed retreat/end-of-semester duties

I wish you a great New Year.

I've also been occupied with learning about the distortion of the media on certain subjects, signing petitions for a variety of causes and wondering what the United States will look like in 20 years. Will the rich continue to get richer and the poor get poorer? How will global warming affect us? How do we get our reputation back as good Americans and not "the bully nation?" Will teachers ever be respected as they once were a generation or two ago?

What is the role of the adult educator in all of this? I find it ironic that Adult Educators are needed more than ever and some AE programs have closed. We are necessary and yet marginalized in many settings. I've decided to focus on working on a couple of intiatives that interest me in order to make a difference and to stop worrying about what others think of Adult Ed. It's amazing what people say when they have no clue how challenging our work is.

I suggest you continue on your mission or find a mission and work on preserving the freedoms that our ancestors fought for. Work for fairness in voting, the first amendment, women's rights, the rights of people of color etc. Fight for environmental issues. Whatever you want. Look at alternative news sources such as www.alternet.com

Fight. Fight. Fight.

Our freedoms of speech, freedom to demonstrate against the government and women's freedom to choose whether to have a child or not are NOT freedoms to take for granted. Look at what happened to African Americans after the Civil War. Hard fought rights were essentially erased between 1865 and 1877.

AAACE/Commission of Professors

I just returned from the annual AAACE conference and the semi-annual meeting of the Commission of Professors of Adult Education.

Those of you who have been in the field of Adult Ed for some time know the trials and tribulations of AAACE during the late 1990s. During that time attendance was down and money was stolen from the organization.Things have straightened out and I'm happy to report that attendance was WAY up at AAACE with 900 people registering for at least part of the conference.

For those students wanting to enter the professoriate, the Commission of Professors Special Interest Group presentations and the CPAE meeting are good things to attend. This year attendance was down at the CPAE meeting.

I'm also happy to report that I was selected by the Commission of Professors Awards Committee to win the Early Career Award which is given to a person at the assistant professor level who has made contributions to the field through publications and service and shows potential for leadership in the field. I'm pleased to have received the award and thank all who have supported me in my studies and in my career.