STSD Curriculum & Technology Update

Regular updates and musings on curriculum and technology in the Salisbury Township School District in Allentown, PA.

Life & Music - Alan Watts

Definitely worth a few minutes time! What do you think of the ideas in this little animation?

Comments

What an essential reminder for us that meaningful learning is a daily active dynamic process moment to moment and day to day.  Therein joy and love for learning.  Should we send this to NCLB bureaucrats and to the Harrisburg folks currently crafting new high school graduation requirements with even more required GCAs (graduation competency assessments)?

I absolutely loved this - It reminds me that Life is the journey, not the destination. A thought occurred to me - what happens to the kids who have aspirations that do not include college?  There are so many who only expect to slog their way into one job after another...Seems defeatist, but the majority of kids don’t go on.  Message aside, I enjoyed looking at this, and listening.  It makes the message more palatable, and I would love to know how to create these.

This video, delightful, direct, and wonderfully metaphoric on Start and Finish, Begin and End, reminded me of the “and"--that short word between the beginning and the end of living in a fully engaged way in the world.  It also reminded me, yet not as sadly as what follows would suggest, of the eulogy that a lay canon gave at my aunt’s funeral, just about a year ago, so this video is timely for me as well.  He spoke about the hyphen on a tombstone as representing a life, and how small the hyphen is, yet how large the life can be measured.  I was the next speaker, and I had far too few minutes to recompose what I had practiced I would say about my beloved aunt.  But the English training in me and the teacher by profession kicked into high gear, and I spoke about my aunt’s “hyphen.”

This video reminds me of several things.  I had no music education in my K--post-graduate education, nor, for that matter, art either--serious absences never fully rectified by the cultural phenomena of the “King,” the Beatles, or Andy Warhol.  I cannot imagine school or life without the beauty of music and art in our lives, because they help shape who we are as individuals and a culture.  Both become a part of the fabric of who we are.  Just check anyone’s mp3 playlist or image and video list on an iPod video and it’s a window into understanding them.  But more than anything else, this video reminded me of a moment when a community celebrated a life that was fully, richly lived in a family that truly appreciated the music and art that she brought into our lives.

This is all so very true.  I believe NCLB has robbed us of our focus on looking at the whole child and helping a person to develop all of their attributes and focus on a full life where career/financial success is a piece of it, not the whole thing.
Susan, I agree with your remark about the child not going to college.  So many other avenues are open and our responsibility as educators is to help the child and family know what those avenues are.

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