There might be a little activity here over the next few days- if I can get to a computer. We are off to Boston, for a black belt test and a wonderful visit with friends and fellow travelers up in Shim Gum Do world. On the coldest weekend of the year...
I love winter. When I am cold, I store the cold in my bones, and release it slowly throughout the summer. David Hinton, one of my favorite translators of Chinese poetry, refers to what he calls "a Taoist ecology" that emerged fully in the eighth century poems of Wang Wei:
"...all things arise and pass away as nonbeing burgeons forth into the great transformation of being. This is simply an ontological description of natural process, and it is perhaps most immediately manifest in the seasonal cycle: the pregnant emptiness of nonbeing in the winter, being's burgeoning forth in spring, the fullness of its flourishing in summer, and its dying back into nonbeing in autumn."
He write of "tzu-jan", which he transliterates as "self-ablaze", the myriad things of this world "emerging spontaneously from its generative source, each according to its own nature...each dying and returning into the process of change, only to reappear in another self-generating form".
Hinton states that "tzu-jan recognizes the earth, indeed the entire universe, to be a boundless generative organism..."
Wang Wei was one of the most influential painters and poets of all of Chinese history. Hinton's translations are among the best.
Ending a cold watch, drums announce dawn.
A clear mirror gazes into my haggard face.
Wind startles bamboo outside my window,
and outside the gate, snow fills mountains,
its empty scatter in a deep lane all silence,
its white drifting my courtyard all idleness.
I'm wondering abou the old sage master:
are you content there, gates buried in the snow?
There is alot more to Asian poetry than haiku. Poetry is absolutely at the heart of zen. More on that sometime.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
This guy could have used a little mindfulness training...
You've likely heard some brief mention of Marcus Schrenker, a penny-ante Bernie Madoff, who tried for the spectacular getaway as his life of scheming and defrauding began to crumble around him. 
Flying from Indiana to Florida, he radioed in a distress call from his single engine plane, telling air traffic controllers a cockpit window had imploded leaving him bleeding profusely. He then donned his parachuted and jumped out of the plane at roughly 2500 ft. (Just jumping out of ten story building and being done with it is so passe.) Waiting for him not far from his landing zone was a motorcycle he'd prepositioned in the Alabama pine barrens.
The plan hit a fatal flaw when the military jets scrambled to intercept Schrenker's plane noticed that there was no one flying it and that the door to the cockpit was open.
After a few days on the run, officers from the Gadsden County Sheriff's office caught Schrenker tonight.
--Josh Marshall (tpm)
It is so hard to disappear these days. I recall that when I was hiking around the mountains of central China back in 1996 I was inaccessible. I couldn't be reached and I could not reach any one. That world seems long gone.
Used to be, if you didn't give a damn about what anyone thought you could at least vanish to Paraguay and relax on a villa with unrepentant fascists. No longer. A more gracious time has sadly gone.
Are There Other Buddhist Schools?
Yes. But they are ethnic Chinese and Japanese and on the west coast. Or so it seems. I have sent emails, and have gotten no response. Perhaps I should call!
This article from several years ago is interesting. A call to ethical study, to social justice. I fear that we, at TAS, have been so occupied with making our school a just place for our students that we have done little to call attention to serious issues outside of our world.
To be fair, some of the students are looking for guidance. This Christmas, several of the students led a gift drive for teens displaced by domestic violence. They went shopping (and shopped smart) and donated they own money, as well as money from the student fundraising fund. We attempted to do outreach to local elders last year, and though it was a good experience, we found it difficult to maintain for a number of reasons.
But it is time. There are many ways in this world. But being engaged with social justice issues is very important for young people.
The curriculum at a new Buddhist high school in Honolulu is likely to teach more about the likes of Mohandas K. Gandhi than Napoleon Bonaparte, says the school's principal, Pieper Toyama.
"Given what is happening in the world today, it is high time that there is a Buddhist school that is focusing in a serious and significant way on peace," Mr. Toyama said.
Called Pacific Buddhist Academy, the college-preparatory school opened Aug. 20 with 17 9th graders. Its founders hope to add a grade each year. The school is located on the same campus as the Hongwanji Mission School, a K-8 Buddhist school run by members of the Jodo Shin Buddhist sect, which originated in Japan.
Mr. Toyama is a former Episcopalian who became attracted to Buddhism through his interest in martial arts and eventually converted to the religion. The academy has three full-time faculty members, one of whom is Buddhist, and three part-timers, two of them Buddhists.
All but one of the school's 17 students are of Asian heritage, and most come from families that either practice Buddhism or are familiar with its culture, according to Mr. Toyama. He said the school welcomes students who aren't Buddhist.
Pacific Buddhist Academy, which charges annual tuition of $7,000, offers a standard college-prep curriculum with a few twists. Students and staff members are required to attend a Buddhist temple service for 20 minutes each week during the school day. Students must also take a class in Buddhist education; the class teaches them such values as interconnectedness, compassion, and mindfulness of the "unrepeatable moment," Mr. Toyama said.
The curriculum includes classes in the Japanese language and Japanese drumming. And students may take martial arts on-site as an after-school program.
Mr. Toyama said he and the staff are trying to foster a culture in which students learn to feel at peace with themselves and the world.
For example, before entering their classrooms, students are asked to pause, take a deep breath, and reflect on how they are connected to everyone who set up the classroom.
The nation has at least two other Buddhist high schools, the Developing Virtue Girls' School and the Developing Virtue Boys' School in Ukiah, Calif.
This article from several years ago is interesting. A call to ethical study, to social justice. I fear that we, at TAS, have been so occupied with making our school a just place for our students that we have done little to call attention to serious issues outside of our world.
To be fair, some of the students are looking for guidance. This Christmas, several of the students led a gift drive for teens displaced by domestic violence. They went shopping (and shopped smart) and donated they own money, as well as money from the student fundraising fund. We attempted to do outreach to local elders last year, and though it was a good experience, we found it difficult to maintain for a number of reasons.
But it is time. There are many ways in this world. But being engaged with social justice issues is very important for young people.
The curriculum at a new Buddhist high school in Honolulu is likely to teach more about the likes of Mohandas K. Gandhi than Napoleon Bonaparte, says the school's principal, Pieper Toyama.
"Given what is happening in the world today, it is high time that there is a Buddhist school that is focusing in a serious and significant way on peace," Mr. Toyama said.
Called Pacific Buddhist Academy, the college-preparatory school opened Aug. 20 with 17 9th graders. Its founders hope to add a grade each year. The school is located on the same campus as the Hongwanji Mission School, a K-8 Buddhist school run by members of the Jodo Shin Buddhist sect, which originated in Japan.
Mr. Toyama is a former Episcopalian who became attracted to Buddhism through his interest in martial arts and eventually converted to the religion. The academy has three full-time faculty members, one of whom is Buddhist, and three part-timers, two of them Buddhists.
All but one of the school's 17 students are of Asian heritage, and most come from families that either practice Buddhism or are familiar with its culture, according to Mr. Toyama. He said the school welcomes students who aren't Buddhist.
Pacific Buddhist Academy, which charges annual tuition of $7,000, offers a standard college-prep curriculum with a few twists. Students and staff members are required to attend a Buddhist temple service for 20 minutes each week during the school day. Students must also take a class in Buddhist education; the class teaches them such values as interconnectedness, compassion, and mindfulness of the "unrepeatable moment," Mr. Toyama said.
The curriculum includes classes in the Japanese language and Japanese drumming. And students may take martial arts on-site as an after-school program.
Mr. Toyama said he and the staff are trying to foster a culture in which students learn to feel at peace with themselves and the world.
For example, before entering their classrooms, students are asked to pause, take a deep breath, and reflect on how they are connected to everyone who set up the classroom.
The nation has at least two other Buddhist high schools, the Developing Virtue Girls' School and the Developing Virtue Boys' School in Ukiah, Calif.
Here Comes a Busy Day...
It likely to be a few days of light posting. It is a busy time of the school year, and my oldest son has a black belt test up in Boston this weekend. Unlike some martial arts, Shim Gum Do, the branch of Korean Zen that I study and the one that our school is originally founded upon, a black belt takes anywhere from 2 to 4 years. And there are 33 levels. It is a real commitment. The test is a big deal. It is also the Founding Master's 65 birthday celebration this weekend.
So taken together, I may not get to all the posting I hope to.
So taken together, I may not get to all the posting I hope to.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
File this under "justice", and then file it away...
From an ethical perspective, isn't the poor training of so many police, as well as the long periods of boredom and sudden periods of stress, a big problem? Thousands of men and women, dealing with highly complex and sometimes dangerous situations have to become acclimated to and make sense of quite a lot of violence. Sometimes the "they are all victims" perspective is glib and evasive. But here, does anyone not get hurt?
Nearly 98% of emergency room physicians report that they believe some patients were victims of suspected excessive force by police, a national survey concludes. Yet most of the suspected incidents went unreported because no laws require physicians to alert authorities.
Nearly 98% of emergency room physicians report that they believe some patients were victims of suspected excessive force by police, a national survey concludes. Yet most of the suspected incidents went unreported because no laws require physicians to alert authorities.
The survey of 315 physicians, contained in the Emergency Medicine Journal's January issue and based on 2002 data, is believed to be the first doctors' account of suspected police brutality, says H. Range Hutson, the lead author and assistant professor of emergency medicine at Harvard.
The responses were based on interactions with patients who were brought in by police or who said officers caused their injuries. Ninety-five percent of the doctors reported injuries caused by fists and feet. Hutson says the survey and analysis of findings were in the works for years.
National police groups challenged the survey, saying it would be hard for physicians to know if injuries resulted from excessive force if they were not present during the encounters.
Unlike cases of suspected domestic violence, elderly abuse and child abuse, which doctors must report to authorities, physicians are not required to notify anyone of suspected excessive force by police, Hutson says.
The report says the findings suggest national emergency medicine groups and police should develop guidelines for "this complex issue."
Criminal justice analysts say the survey represents an important new source of information.
"Excessive force is a huge issue," says Geoff Alpert, a criminologist at the University of South Carolina.
"This is another angle on excessive force that hasn't been looked at."
Hutson says the survey does not necessarily mean abuse is rampant. (see CrimeProf Blog, Jan 8, 2009)
There are real victims here, criminals or not. One thing that I particularly respect about many Buddhist organizations is the commitment to prison outreach. For instance, the movie Dhamma Brothers, about significant emotional changes in a very hard to reach cohort. Or the River and Mountains Order prison sangha. Prison populations are uniquely traumatized, with a huge over-representation of long-standing psychiatric and emotional problems. Many of these men and women grow up having been victims, then are victimized during arrest, and victimized in prison.
Meanwhile, beatdowns by police are common. Police officers need to see themselves as more than just agents of control. Many do, of course. But our justice system is completely crazy and hurts everyone involved. What about a police sangha? Mindful Policing. That is a whole 'nother subject.
There are real victims here, criminals or not. One thing that I particularly respect about many Buddhist organizations is the commitment to prison outreach. For instance, the movie Dhamma Brothers, about significant emotional changes in a very hard to reach cohort. Or the River and Mountains Order prison sangha. Prison populations are uniquely traumatized, with a huge over-representation of long-standing psychiatric and emotional problems. Many of these men and women grow up having been victims, then are victimized during arrest, and victimized in prison.
Meanwhile, beatdowns by police are common. Police officers need to see themselves as more than just agents of control. Many do, of course. But our justice system is completely crazy and hurts everyone involved. What about a police sangha? Mindful Policing. That is a whole 'nother subject.
Scholarships for Buddhist Students
It isn't much, I know. But opportunities are modestly growing for serious young students of Buddhism. TAS is one of three Buddhist high schools in America. It is the only Buddhist school that could be considered "alternative" (a term whose meaning has been slowly draining away), and the only one that is based in Zen.
Sometimes we seem quite so, sometimes not. But one thing I would like to do is to create a course of study for students who are serious or, at least, would like a serious introduction to Buddhist studies.
Buddhism's influence in the U.S. has a significance out of all proportion to the number of its practitioners. In advertising (zen this, zen that, blah blah blah, organic, green). In psychology (mindfulness, meditation studies) and education. The Dalai Lama is more respected than any single religious figure in the west, among the secular, at least.
But there is a serious danger that comes with popularity. For instance, the Catholic Church, which despite leaving years ago still commands my attention and respect (except in some notable instances), seems to be moving in a direction away from massive appeal and towards a rigorous definition of faith and doctrine. This is very understandable, and in a sense, quite daring. It will change the geographical and linguistic make-up of the church.
Christianity is such a bewildering welter of sects that they even disagree on the most fundamental doctrines (sin, forgiveness, the nature of God, the role of prayer, justice, social action, sex) that it seems merely a historical necessity to even call it Christianity. Or as one rather arch evangelical once told me: "I am a Christian, NOT a Catholic". Ouch.
Buddhism sells. Much like American Christianity does. Both have a highly entrepreneurial aspect (and sometimes major boundary issues see SF Zen Center or poor Ted Haggard) and often get uncomfortably beyond the slow pace of scholarship, lineage, and deep spiritual practice. Both have remarkably dynamic relationships with capitalism ,though in Evangelicalism there seems to be less ambivalence about money making (prosperity ministries being only an extreme example, here is a far more interesting one); on the other hand, Buddhist wealth-prayer scams still abound.
For a different, academic take on wealth and materiality, through a Buddhist lens:
The Buddhist Theory of Impermanence and Marketing
(edit: one unclosed, recursive parenthesis. Oops. how zen.)
Sometimes we seem quite so, sometimes not. But one thing I would like to do is to create a course of study for students who are serious or, at least, would like a serious introduction to Buddhist studies.
Buddhism's influence in the U.S. has a significance out of all proportion to the number of its practitioners. In advertising (zen this, zen that, blah blah blah, organic, green). In psychology (mindfulness, meditation studies) and education. The Dalai Lama is more respected than any single religious figure in the west, among the secular, at least.
But there is a serious danger that comes with popularity. For instance, the Catholic Church, which despite leaving years ago still commands my attention and respect (except in some notable instances), seems to be moving in a direction away from massive appeal and towards a rigorous definition of faith and doctrine. This is very understandable, and in a sense, quite daring. It will change the geographical and linguistic make-up of the church.
Christianity is such a bewildering welter of sects that they even disagree on the most fundamental doctrines (sin, forgiveness, the nature of God, the role of prayer, justice, social action, sex) that it seems merely a historical necessity to even call it Christianity. Or as one rather arch evangelical once told me: "I am a Christian, NOT a Catholic". Ouch.
Buddhism sells. Much like American Christianity does. Both have a highly entrepreneurial aspect (and sometimes major boundary issues see SF Zen Center or poor Ted Haggard) and often get uncomfortably beyond the slow pace of scholarship, lineage, and deep spiritual practice. Both have remarkably dynamic relationships with capitalism ,though in Evangelicalism there seems to be less ambivalence about money making (prosperity ministries being only an extreme example, here is a far more interesting one); on the other hand, Buddhist wealth-prayer scams still abound.
For a different, academic take on wealth and materiality, through a Buddhist lens:
The Buddhist Theory of Impermanence and Marketing
Abstract: The Buddhist theory of impermanence bears a high level of relevance to the many cyclical theories in marketing and economics. This article attempts to connect these two areas, both of which have general and wide-ranging implications, and explain the utility of the concept of impermanence to business managers.
Clearly, the grafting of Buddhism upon Euro-American rootstock is now bearing fruit. TAS is part of that. Though, to be honest, we are an awkward and very provincial expression of this remarkable cultural process.(edit: one unclosed, recursive parenthesis. Oops. how zen.)
You, who philosophize disgrace, and criticize all fears...
William Zanzinger, a name that I as a teenager I figured Dylan had made up, has died. Granted, the man seems like a creep of the first water, as P.G. Wodehouse might put it, but you have got to feel a little something for a tinpot small town reactionary who winds up the subject of a devastating Dylan song.
The whole song seems to just barely hold together. Were his name different, could it work so well...
Sammy Bellweather killed poor Hattie Carroll...
Doubtful. William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll. Because he was a punk and a drunk. And he served six months. But he is remembered for one thing.
My favorite part of the article:
In 1991, The Maryland Independent disclosed that Mr. Zantzinger had been collecting rent from black families living in shanties that he no longer owned; Charles County, Md., had foreclosed on them for unpaid taxes. The shanties lacked running water, toilets or outhouses. Not only had Mr. Zantzinger collected rent for properties he did not own, he also went to court to demand past-due rent, and won.
The whole song seems to just barely hold together. Were his name different, could it work so well...
Sammy Bellweather killed poor Hattie Carroll...
Doubtful. William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll. Because he was a punk and a drunk. And he served six months. But he is remembered for one thing.
My favorite part of the article:
In 1991, The Maryland Independent disclosed that Mr. Zantzinger had been collecting rent from black families living in shanties that he no longer owned; Charles County, Md., had foreclosed on them for unpaid taxes. The shanties lacked running water, toilets or outhouses. Not only had Mr. Zantzinger collected rent for properties he did not own, he also went to court to demand past-due rent, and won.
He pleaded guilty to 50 misdemeanor counts of deceptive trade practices, paid $62,000 in penalties and, under an 18-month sentence, spent only nights in jail.
Information on Mr. Zantzinger’s survivors was unavailable. Though he long refused interviews, he did speak to the author Howard Sounes for his book “Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan” (2001) , telling him of his scorn for Mr. Dylan.
“I should have sued him and put him in jail,” he said.
Um, shameless? Sure. And outside of Texas I don't think you can hire prosecutor to clap someone in jail much less sue to put him there.
Still, as a guy cultivating compassion (me, that is), there is something to hang to here. On an unrelated note, I never quite registered that Zanzinger and Dylan were about the same age.
Um, shameless? Sure. And outside of Texas I don't think you can hire prosecutor to clap someone in jail much less sue to put him there.
Still, as a guy cultivating compassion (me, that is), there is something to hang to here. On an unrelated note, I never quite registered that Zanzinger and Dylan were about the same age.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Nine Ways to Stop Obsessing
Some sensible advice...High school is obsessing time for most.
The French call Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder folie de doute, the doubting disease. That’s what obsessions are–a doubt caught in an endless loop of thoughts. But even those not diagnosed with OCD can struggle with obsessions. In fact, I have yet to meet a depressive who doesn’t ruminate, especially in our age of anxiety. Every day gives sensitive types like myself plenty of material to obsess about. So I’m constantly pulling out the tools that I’ve acquired over time to win against my thoughts, to develop confidence–the antidote for doubt–to take charge of my brain. Maybe they’ll work for you, too.
1. Name the beast.
My first step to tackle obsessions: I identify the thought. What is my fear? What is my doubt? I make myself describe it in one sentence, or, if I can, in a few words.
2. Pencil it in.
A while back, when I was especially tormented by some obsessions, my therapist told me to schedule a time of day where I was free to ruminate. That way, she said, when you get an obsession, you can simply tell yourself, “Sorry, it’s not time for that. You’ll have to wait until 8 in the evening, when I give you, My Head, 15 minutes to obsess your heart out.”
3. Laugh at it.
Laughter can make almost any situation tolerable. And you have to admit, there is something a little funny about a broken record in your brain. I have a few people in my life who struggle with obsessions in the same way I do. Whenever I can’t stand the noise in my head anymore, I call up one of them and say, “They’re baaaaaack…….” And we laugh.
4. Throw it away.
One behavioral technique that works is to write out the obsession on a piece of paper. Then crinkle it up and throw it away. That way you have literally thrown out your obsession. Or try visualizing a stop sign. When your thoughts go there, remember to stop! Look at the sign!
5. Learn the lesson.
I often obsess about my mistakes. I know I messed up, and I’m beating myself over and over again for not doing it right the first time, especially when I have involved other people and hurt them unintentionally. If that’s the case, I will ask myself: What is the lesson here? What have I learned? Then I will describe the lesson that I have absorbed in one sentence or less.
6. Reel it in.
Buried within an obsession are usually pieces of truth. But other parts are as accurate as a juicy celebrity tabloid story: “Celine Dion meets ET for drinks.” That’s why you need some good friends that will help you separate fact from fiction. When I call up my friend Mike and tell him my latest obsession, he usually laughs out loud and says something like this: “Wow. Reel it in, Therese. Reel it in…You are way out this time.”
7. Imagine the worst.
I know this seems wrong–like it would produce even more anxiety. But imagining the worst can actually relieve the fear triggering an obsession. Because you’ve hit bottom. You can’t sink any lower! Isn’t that refreshing?
8. Put it on hold.
Sometimes I start to obsess about a situation for which I don’t have enough information. So I put my obsession “on hold,” like it’s a pretty lavender dress at a boutique that I saw and want but don’t have enough money to buy. So it’s there, waiting for me, when I get enough dough–or enough data.
9. Interrupt the conversation.
An obsession is like a conversation over coffee: “This is why he hates me, and this, too, is why he hates me, and did I mention why he hates me? I’m sure he hates me.” So I can be myself and rudely interrupt. I don’t even have to say, “Excuse me.” I can ask a question or throw out another topic. And, best of us, no one will tell me, “Let her finish.”
Therese J. Borchard writes the daily Beliefnet.com blog Beyond Blue (voted by Psych Central as one of the Top 10 Depression Blogs) and moderates Group Beyond Blue, the Beliefnet Community online support group for depression. Her memoir “Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes” will be released in May of 2009. Subscribe to Beyond Blue here or visit her at www.ThereseBorchard.com. This article was originally published on Beyond Blue at Beliefnet.com and is reproduced here with permission.
New Tibetan Center In Quakertown
Quakertown, PA has long been a center of spiritual practice. The Rosicrucian Temple is there, as is the Clymer Clinic, a well known holistic health center. Now this: Studio 116. They have some interesting programming; I plan on checking them out.
I have always been wary of the intensely syncretistic tendency in American spiritual practice. On the other hand, being an amateur anthropologist can't be a bad thing, can it?
I have always been wary of the intensely syncretistic tendency in American spiritual practice. On the other hand, being an amateur anthropologist can't be a bad thing, can it?
Banana Republics
The Reagan years for me were observed from high school and college. And the lens through which I came to see those years were our Central American policy. My intention is not to go into that topic, but rather to point out that our moral/political world view is very much actualized during the teenage years. For me Vietnam and Watergate merged seamlessly with the geopolitics of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.
It still resonates. My high school education (Jesuit Catholic) emphasized ethics, history, and textual analysis. I came to my political conclusions (at that time) via my parents' politics (liberal, and for a time, Reagan Democrat), my own anti-authoritarianism, and the social justice doctrine still emphasized by the Jesuits at that time. Not very sophisticated, I grant you, and very emotional.
I wonder about some of my students. Perhaps one's political bent is largely a combination of these factors: parents, temperament, and the immediate political atmospheres of adolescence...
With this in mind (see the whole post):
Below the headlines about rocketing food prices and rocking governments, there lays a largely unnoticed fact: bananas are dying. The foodstuff, more heavily consumed even than rice or potatoes, has its own form of cancer. It is a fungus called Panama Disease, and it turns bananas brick-red and inedible.
It still resonates. My high school education (Jesuit Catholic) emphasized ethics, history, and textual analysis. I came to my political conclusions (at that time) via my parents' politics (liberal, and for a time, Reagan Democrat), my own anti-authoritarianism, and the social justice doctrine still emphasized by the Jesuits at that time. Not very sophisticated, I grant you, and very emotional.
I wonder about some of my students. Perhaps one's political bent is largely a combination of these factors: parents, temperament, and the immediate political atmospheres of adolescence...
With this in mind (see the whole post):
Below the headlines about rocketing food prices and rocking governments, there lays a largely unnoticed fact: bananas are dying. The foodstuff, more heavily consumed even than rice or potatoes, has its own form of cancer. It is a fungus called Panama Disease, and it turns bananas brick-red and inedible.
There is no cure. They all die as it spreads, and it spreads quickly. Soon - in five, 10 or 30 years - the yellow creamy fruit as we know it will not exist. The story of how the banana rose and fell can be seen a strange parable about the corporations that increasingly dominate the world - and where they are leading us...
The Life of Reading
Andrew Sullivan referenced this very interesting post:
Despite the attention once paid to the so-called digital divide, the real gap isn’t between households with computers and households without them; it is the one developing between, on the one hand, households where parents teach their children the old-fashioned skill of reading and instill in them a love of books, and, on the other hand, households where parents don’t. As Griswold and her colleagues suggested, it remains an open question whether the new “reading class” will “have both power and prestige associated with an increasingly rare form of cultural capital,” or whether the pursuit of reading will become merely “an increasingly arcane hobby.”
Head over to The New Atlantis for the whole entry...
Despite the attention once paid to the so-called digital divide, the real gap isn’t between households with computers and households without them; it is the one developing between, on the one hand, households where parents teach their children the old-fashioned skill of reading and instill in them a love of books, and, on the other hand, households where parents don’t. As Griswold and her colleagues suggested, it remains an open question whether the new “reading class” will “have both power and prestige associated with an increasingly rare form of cultural capital,” or whether the pursuit of reading will become merely “an increasingly arcane hobby.”
Head over to The New Atlantis for the whole entry...
The Age of Numbers...
There is a lot of data out there, and some creative people crunching it. For instance, Freakonomics, and the NYT column of the same name. There is Nate Silver, who was brilliant in the last political campaign. And me being a baseball nut, I see a lot of innovative analysis being done all over the sport.
The latest entry, and a pot stirrer no doubt, is outlier. You don't have to be into a sport to see the implications for education here:
In his latest bestseller, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell argues that great success is driven not purely by talent or genius, but by a combination of ability, determined practice over a long term, and fortunate circumstance. The book is full of challenging ideas and conclusions, some of them debatable; one of its most provocative and irrefutable arguments comes in regard to sport, and is broadly applicable to baseball. Gladwell notes that an overwhelming preponderance of high-level athletes are born in the days and months immediately following the annual cutoff date for youth sports leagues.
The example he uses in the book is hockey. Canadian youth hockey programs have a January first birthday cutoff date. That means a kid born on the first day of the year will play on the same age level team as a kid born on the last day of the same year, even though he is practically a year older. Not surprisingly, the kid born on January 1 has a big advantage—he's basically a year older, stronger, faster, and more experienced than the kid born on December 31, even though they're on the same team. When the league those kids play in choose its all star squads, guess who's more likely to get selected: The older kid. And then you have a self-reinforcing loop. Because the older kid is perceived to be more talented, he gets better coaching and spends ever more time playing the sport under ideal conditions. Soon what was only the advantage of age develops into real advantage, thanks to all the extra work and coaching.
To prove his point, Gladwell only needs to look at the birth dates on Canada's youth hockey championship teams. The kids are all born in January and February. Baseball is a little different. The youth baseball year in the US doesn't begin on January 1. It begins on August 1. He notes that in 2005, MLB had more than 500 players born in August, and just over 300 born in July. That's a huge discrepancy. And it does make you wonder about Alex Rodriguez, born on July 27, just 4 days short of the cutoff. Did he somehow manage to get himself put into the post-August 1 group? That would have given him a big advantage on his peers. Or could it be that his talent was so immense, that he is such an outlier, that he somehow developed into the generational player that he is despite being one of the youngest kids on his youth team? Food for thought.
(swiped from Yankee Fan vs. Sox Fan)
The latest entry, and a pot stirrer no doubt, is outlier. You don't have to be into a sport to see the implications for education here:
In his latest bestseller, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell argues that great success is driven not purely by talent or genius, but by a combination of ability, determined practice over a long term, and fortunate circumstance. The book is full of challenging ideas and conclusions, some of them debatable; one of its most provocative and irrefutable arguments comes in regard to sport, and is broadly applicable to baseball. Gladwell notes that an overwhelming preponderance of high-level athletes are born in the days and months immediately following the annual cutoff date for youth sports leagues.
The example he uses in the book is hockey. Canadian youth hockey programs have a January first birthday cutoff date. That means a kid born on the first day of the year will play on the same age level team as a kid born on the last day of the same year, even though he is practically a year older. Not surprisingly, the kid born on January 1 has a big advantage—he's basically a year older, stronger, faster, and more experienced than the kid born on December 31, even though they're on the same team. When the league those kids play in choose its all star squads, guess who's more likely to get selected: The older kid. And then you have a self-reinforcing loop. Because the older kid is perceived to be more talented, he gets better coaching and spends ever more time playing the sport under ideal conditions. Soon what was only the advantage of age develops into real advantage, thanks to all the extra work and coaching.
To prove his point, Gladwell only needs to look at the birth dates on Canada's youth hockey championship teams. The kids are all born in January and February. Baseball is a little different. The youth baseball year in the US doesn't begin on January 1. It begins on August 1. He notes that in 2005, MLB had more than 500 players born in August, and just over 300 born in July. That's a huge discrepancy. And it does make you wonder about Alex Rodriguez, born on July 27, just 4 days short of the cutoff. Did he somehow manage to get himself put into the post-August 1 group? That would have given him a big advantage on his peers. Or could it be that his talent was so immense, that he is such an outlier, that he somehow developed into the generational player that he is despite being one of the youngest kids on his youth team? Food for thought.
(swiped from Yankee Fan vs. Sox Fan)
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