Imagine

Since February, I've made my way to school on Mondays and Thursdays by crossing Central Park at 72nd street, which means that I walk right by "Strawberry Fields" and its Imagine mosaic. And every Monday or Thursday, rain, snow, sleet, or shine, there are at least three or four people there taking a picture. Sometimes there's a large group. Like yesterday, in the rain, there they were, a group of twenty or so French speaking middle aged tourists huddled around the mosaic, like it was Something That Matters, which, I guess it is?

Before I started walking by Strawberry Fields regularly I thought I understood what a big deal John Lennon was, but I guess I didn't. I mean, I bet for many, the stop at the Imagine plaque is just one more stop on a tour of Central Park that includes Bethesda Fountain and the Boathouse along with a drop by at the Delacorte Clock. They stop and take their pictures of the word there because they're supposed to and when they get home those pics will never make it out of their cameras. Maybe for just a handful, those in small groups of two or three, visiting the Imagine mosaic is like a trip to Lennon's grave. Like a very, very American, very very small Pere La Chaise or something.

Earlier this spring, I read Lois Lowry's The Giver. If you've read the book, you know where I'm going with this. The book is a dystopian young adult fantasy novel about a boy who lives in a world where there's no heaven, no possessions, no greed or hunger, no religion, too. People die there, sure, but in a very orderly fashion and never for a cause. You see what I mean? It's a fairly blank world with no pain, no love, no memory, and the boy's having none of it.

Does anyone really ever think about the lyrics of Imagine? They're so familiar they hardly mean anything at all, and maybe that's for the best. I don't know. All I know is if I didn't live in New York City, I sure wouldn't schlepp out in the rain to look at a twenty year old mosaic.

(Note: I didn't take that picture. It's from literalmayhem.com.)

And On Israel

Peter Beinart has a something to say on the hapless state of Israel in the age of the Arab Spring:

"Zionism, which at its best is the purposeful, ethical effort to make Jews safe in the land of Israel, has become—in this government—a mindless land grab, that threatens Jewish safety and Jewish ethics alike."

Climate Change

Will it really, finally, actually get on the political agenda?

Really?

According to the LA Times, public school librarians in LA are being put on the witness stand in basement courtrooms and asked the last time they taught a physical education class. Why? If they can't teach in a classroom (or a gym), they're probably going to lose their jobs because of budget cuts. And guess what happens to the library if there's no certified librarian in the school to run it? That's right. The books and computers go under lock and key and stay there. Meanwhile, Wall Street is booming.

I don't even want to talk about teacher evaluations in New York.

The Semester's End

I apologize for not posting more this week. The semester is winding up and time, she slips right through my fingers. There will be more time very soon. In fact, Monday, I hand in a stack of assignments, after which, I'll have what to say and the time to say at least some of it here and not just in my head. In the meantime, from the department of really creepy things kids do, there's this.

Cake

The other day I was meeting a friend for coffee at around 4:15. I was tired and hungry but not super hungry. I wanted something that would be easy to eat, something flavorful that didn't require too much thinking about, something just sweet enough. I wanted a slice of yogurt cake.

Can I just say? It feels very civilized and just slightly decadent to have a slice of cake at 4 o'clock. Eating a slice in restaurant at 4 with an espresso would make me feel like a woman of a certain age, a woman with her chin length possibly blond but maybe white hair swept up and back, a woman who can really wear red. Eating a slice of cake at 4 (for 10) in my kitchen just makes me feel like cake is a really great thing to bake. That day last week, the restaurant didn't have the cake I wanted and, unfortunately, no one had thought to leave one cooling on the kitchen counter for me. I will take care of that, as my kids would say, "toot sweet." In the meantime, there are apples.

Classroom Cameras

In today's New York Times, a biostatistician named R. Barker Bausell has a big idea for evaluating effective teaching: "Measuring the amount of time a teacher spend delivering relevant instruction -- in other words, how much teaching a teacher actually gets done in a school day." He'd figure out how much time is spent doing what by videotaping teachers.

Here's the thing, maybe when R. Barker Bausell was in elementary school (he is an emeritus professor) his days were spent doing a lot of listening, but in the classrooms I've been in learning doesn't happen only when the teacher is talking. Students learn by - get this - talking to each other and working together. Crazy right?

Bausell has more to say:
"A focus on relevant instructional time also implies several further reforms: Lengthening the school day, week and year; adopting a near-zero-tolerance policy for disruptive behavior, which classroom cameras would help police; increasing efforts to reduce tardiness and absenteeism; and providing as much supplementary and remedial tutoring (the most effective instructional model known) as possible."

As I read this, what the professor recommends is kids sit still and listen more during longer days and if they're disruptive at all, they're out. And just to make sure teacher and students are acting according to script, there will be a camera in the room. Great! Big idea. Not a good idea, but, for me, at least, it's always nice to have some idea of what I really don't want to do when I'm thinking about what I do want to do.