Milton Erickson

There are a lot of very interesting Miltons out there. John Milton Cage, John Milton, Milton Friedmen (this is not an endorsement of his economics!), and Milton Erickson. Who?
There are a lot of therapists who consider this self-taught American one of the very greatest clinicians ever. Here is a passage I stumbled over this morning:

At age 17, he contracted polio, and was so severely paralysed that the doctors believed he would die. On the critical night where he was at his worst, he had another formative "autohypnotic experience".

E: As I lay in bed that night, I overheard the three doctors tell my parents in the other room that their boy would be dead in the morning. I felt intense anger that anyone should tell a mother her boy would be dead by morning. My mother then came in with as serene a face as can be. I asked her to arrange the dresser, push it up against the side of the bed at an angle. She did not understand why, she thought I was delirious. My speech was difficult. But at that angle by virtue of the mirror on the dresser I could see through the doorway, through the west window of the other room. I was damned if I would die without seeing one more sunset. If I had any skill in drawing, I could still sketch that sunset...

I saw that vast sunset covering the whole sky. But I know there was also a tree there outside the window, but I blocked it out.

(interviewer): You blocked it out? It was that selective perception that enables you to say you were in an altered state?

E: Yes, I did not do it consciously. I saw all the sunset, but I didn't see the fence and large boulder that were there. I blocked out everything except the sunset. After I saw the sunset, I lost consciousness for three days. When I finally awakened, I asked my father why they had taken out that fence, tree, and boulder. I did not realize I had blotted them out when I fixed my attention so intensely on the sunset. Then, as I recovered and became aware of my lack of abilities, I wondered how I was going to earn a living. I had already published a paper in a national agricultural journal. "Why Young Folks Leave the Farm." I no longer had the strength to be a farmer, but maybe I could make it as a doctor.

Another Glorious Day, this time on a Wednesday...

And we open with great news for TAS from SCOTUS. The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling, held that a school district can be required to reimburse a family for private school if the student's need were not adquately met. This includes situations in which the student did not have a prior IEP. Here is a quote from the dissent:

“Special education can be immensely expensive, amounting to tens of billions of dollars annually and as much as 20 percent of public schools’ general operating budgets,” Justice Souter wrote. “Given the burden of private school placement, it makes good sense to require parents to try to devise a satisfactory alternative within the public schools.”

Obviously, that sort of reasoning, were it guiding the majority opinion, wouldn't help TAS very much. But thanks to a combination of conservatives (Alito, Roberts), quasi-progressives (Ginsburg, Stevens, Breyer) and the usual swing-vote Kennedy, the interests of individual students are being asserted over that of a school district's management problems. Interestingly,
both pro-voucher and usually reactionary justices joined Souter's dissent. Go figure. I look forward to reading the whole opinion.

Here is a good summary from the reliable SCOTUSBLOG (and here for the NYT article)

Today, the Supreme Court held that parents of disabled children can seek reimbursement for private education expenses regardless whether their child had previously received special-education services from a public school. By a vote of six to three, the Court held that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) authorizes reimbursement whenever a public school fails to make a free appropriate public education (FAPE) available to a disabled child. Interestingly, the Court granted certiorari on the same question in 2007 but affirmed the opinion below by an equally divided court (Justice Kennedy recused himself), indicating that at least one Justice changed his or her vote.

A dispatch from Iran, fascinating

via Washington Note:

Dispatches from Iran -- sent 7:15 am, 22 June 2009

The Coward -- Saturday afternoon

I come out of the coffee-net and the first thing I see is the row of green and white police trucks lined up perpendicular to the square. I scan away toward the square itself and there behold an impressive sight: row after row of cops in riot gear. All of the maidoon is occupied, the four roads that led in and out marked at their corners by uniformed police wearing dark green. Inside the stone and grass plaza located in the central part of the square, a place where just a week ago Mousavi supporters had nightly gathered to chant and cheer, there are police in Robocop riot gear standing, waiting, looking back out towards the perimeter of the traffic circle.

"Az enqelab mirisim be azadi!" From Revolution we'll get to Freedom! The kid in the internet cafe had minutes earlier made a clever pun, referring to today's march from Revolution Square to Freedom Square. Saturday afternoon was to be a repeat of last Monday's millions but after the most recent Friday Prayers and the Leader's injunctions, the march had been called into doubt. Around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, there came word that another warning had just been issued to not come, that patience had run out. The kid was putting on a strong, defiant face.

Standing outside, looking at this show of force, his bravura and mine seemed silly. Power is about this. It is quickly becoming about place, about who can stand where and when.

Spooked, I walk away from the square and make my way home using alternate routes.

Back at my apartment, I realize that, like an idiot, I had left a newspaper (Karrobi's Etemaad Melli) with notes scribbled all over it (in English) in the internet cafe, source material for these dispatches. I go back to retrieve it, taking back alleys.

I call a few folks along the way, the cell phones for some reason are working, perhaps so that people can tell each other not to go to the march. That is more or less the message I received from my friends. It's becoming less and less worth it, only the fully committed to seeing this thing through would show and their numbers would no doubt be dwindling...

I go back, I get the paper. Time to make the return walk home again. I stiffen my spine, walk right into the circle, the newspaper curled up into my hand. I need to do this. I make a point of walking pass a row of the officers waiting at one corner of the plaza. I need to do this. Some are bored, others are keeping themselves busy with stupid things. They help each other strap and tighten their helmets, one taps his fingers against the top of his plastic shield. I see that one or two of the guys have on fashionable glasses, vestiges of their other life...

As I pass, I look them in the eye. Iranians in general stare. It took me a long time to realize that this habit wasn't antagonistic or "mad-dogging"...Fixed eye-contact is a normal thing, part curiosity and partly a way to size up the person walking towards them. A friend observes that Iranians have been lied to so much the only device left to them for ascertaining Truth is the zaher, or appearance. Like the ancient Greeks, the assumption is that the external reveals true character.

The cops look back at me with little interest.

I receive a very different response from the young basijis coming up the road. They show up after the police, in beige cammie trucks traveling in convoy. Today, under daylight, they emerge from whatever hole it is they hide in wearing uniforms to go with their oversized helmets (think Spaceballs).

Really, it's becoming more and more like the original Star Wars, by the end they were coming up with new uniforms for the same old Stormtroopers just to be able to market more action figures to punk kids like me. In the back of each transport truck a large red flag is flapping, casting yellow and green print of faith into the wind.

When I fix my eyes on them, the look is deadly, menacing.

Basijis. The lesser cousin of the police, they are more the serious of the two. For the cops it's a job, and so far at least their hearts don't seem to be into it. For these basijis, today's a hobby. They bring an enthusiasm to their "work" that only an ardent hobbyist can. A member of my family notes, This is their good time. They don't screw, they don't drink or smoke pot (bet you didn't know that went on in Iran), what else are they going to do with all of that energy? For 360 days of the year basijis don't do shit, but for those
5 days...

Ke chi bishe? What's the point? It feels so unnecessary. Every rally had been peaceful, folks had really done their best, truly taken great care to not antagonize. They deserved better than this. Delam vaghan misooze. My heart aches...

You notice the pronoun? Up until now the stories have been replete with "we" and "they," references to the collective. Feeling isolated, seeing nothing going on, I lose my nerve, I figure it's all over, I give up.

The Shit Hits the Fan -- Saturday evening, not yet sunset

The little guy was cracking himself up silly. "Moo...! Moo...! Akharesh shod...Mousavi!" I sat in the front of the shared taxi ride. The small boy wraps his hands around my headrest and repeats the chant. "Moo...! Moo...! Akharesh shod...Mousavi!" Moo...! Moo...! At the end it became Mousavi! His mom sitting in the back, her voice barely above a whisper, tells him, "Na azizam, aqasare agha ye Mousavi na shod..." No dear, at the end it did not...

The three of us, the adults in the car, groused about everything that was happening. Ba zoor hamichi ra mikhand...Yemosh havoon...They want everything by force...Animals...

We are on Sattar Khan Street, heading south towards Tohid Square, or Unity Square. Tohid, formerly known as Kennedy, was once an up-and-coming neighborhood, a fashionable enclave for young and newly-married couples to make their first move outside of their parents' home. Duplex-style housing from the mid and late 1970s still lines the street, the bottom floors of many now converted into offices and small shops. Later, in a different context, the area around Tohid would be where the first fast food joints opened up, some of the original pahtoghs, or hangouts. Though no longer unique in Tehran, on Thursday nights certain stretches and bends of Satter Khan above Tohid are full of cars filled with families. Tehran has elements of the small-town in America. For want of better options, diversions consist of cruising and hanging out at burger and ice cream joints late into the night.

The traffic was horrific. No one was moving. Cars stop, engines turn off, people get out to see what is happening. There is dark smoke ahead. We can see at least two helicopters circling above. I see families gathered on the rooftops, everyone is looking south towards the square. What has happened?

On the other side of the street comes a pack of protestors chanting. I didn't expect this. I was wrong. It is not over: "Marq bar diktator! Marq bar diktator!" Unable to move, the vehicles have effectively become the fixed seats of a street theater. With nowhere to go, drivers and their passengers get out, they stand up on the edge of their doors to take pictures with their mobile phones.

One of the marchers points across at us, her face screwed up in anger and frustration: "Hemayat, hemayat, Iraniane BIGHEIRAT!" Help, help, Iranians WITHOUT honor!

What's going on ahead? Why aren't we moving? Motorists coming back the other way tell us that Tohid is on fire, they've burned Cinema Bahman, they tell us to turn back, turn back. Our taxi driver, a young man sporting a beard ("I just grew it out so that they won't mess me!"), pulls a classic Tehran move and wheels the old Iranian-made Paykon 180 degrees. He cuts into an alley. Maybe we can get to Tohid this way. He's not the only one with this idea and as he pulls the car down towards the square we get stuck again, this time it's worse.

It's not looking good, cars are backing up and we're off the main road. Our driver gives up. "Sharmandam, I am deeply sorry, but I've got to go back home. Please, forget the fare, I'm so sorry..." The mom and her son get out, she tries to take his hand but he rushes forward between the cars, then stops. Karate stance.

Shit. I get out. Ahead I see a group of basijis. They are lined up against a wall, awaiting their orders. I notice that one holds a lead pipe at his side. The pipe is the length of his leg...

Can anyone help me? I am trying to find a way to Tohid. I want to go to Vali Asr. "Go that way, but I don't think that you''ll make it, Tohid is a mess, they say that they burned a 13 year old girl..." I keep cutting south. Cars that have come off of the main road and into the warren of this neighborhood remain stuck, not moving. I weave my way through the grid, leaning into windows, asking here and there how things are from where they've come. Agha, in var shoolooq e? Sir, is it safe? The answer is always, "Yes." I begin to worry...I don't know this neighborhood, I don't have anyone to take me in just in case, and it's getting close to sunset. I have to laugh. It's like a disaster and zombie movie all rolled up in one. I am Snake Plissken and Candide set off on my uncertain adventure...

I continue to cut south towards Tohid. The black smoke coming from Satter Khan and the square grows thicker, continues to climb into the pale evening light. The neighborhood that I am in is faring no better. At a corner I see an incredible sight, two street battles raging perpendicular to each other. I stand at their juncture. In one direction, at least three fiery heaps stretch out straight down the middle of the street, there is smoke everywhere, and beyond the haze a crowd of men marches towards a line of armed and waiting basijis...At the top of the street is the burned and tinny carcass of a motorcycle, a basiji mount, its rider nowhere to be found...

To my left, at the end of the street, another group of young men face off against the paramilitaries. They show no fear, the chants come faster and faster...

I turn back. This is not going to work, I need to get back home.

Back on Satter Khan, now heading north, it only gets worse. It's really an unbelievable scene. Every 50 to 100 meters there is a confrontation or a fire, people are chanting, they are defiant. And in between there are the cars, in both directions just sitting there, not moving, engines off. Everyone is out and watching. This has become an accidental march. Everyone, without planning to, has taken the side of protest.

What are they going to do with all of these people? What's going to happen when the cops pour in? I wonder. These people can't move. At bus stops I see citizens sitting on the benches and railings, either waiting for the bus or hanging around until the commotion passes. One old lady is peeling oranges and sharing with her husband and the others seeking refuge inside of the shelter. Car horns up and down the road are honking, nearly in unison, "doot-doot-de-doot-doot, doot-doot-de-doot-doot." There is no let up.

Near Patrice Lumumba Street I stop to get something to drink. I've got several kilometers to go yet. Bottled water is out at all of the stores and kiosks. All that is left is Rani, a juice drink (with real but unnervingly way-too-big fruit chunks inside) and Delster, Iranian non-alcoholic beer. It's quite a sight, people kicking back a few brews, watchin' a riot, no
worries at all...

A pedestrian asks me what is happening further down the road, using the alliterative phrasing that Iranians are so fond of: "Bezan bezan hast?" "Na, bekosh bekosh." Is it hitting hitting going on? No, comes the answer from a man standing next to me, it's killing killing...

***********************************

Across from a police sub-station, officers stand poised with their plastic shields in front of them, facing north. Rocks are being thrown at them, one by one, then two by two. The officers stand their ground. I am on the other side of the street, watching. Two young men turn the corner and walk towards me. They are both eating chocolate-glazed donuts. I tell them, Bi khial, Wow, you two are really taking it easy! One of them answers, Come on man, gotta take care of the stomach first...

The rocks now start to rain in by the dozen and the police run. They rush to their motorcycles and hop on, flying south. Protesters pour down the street, a full assault. One of the officers awkwardly throws rocks back at his tormentors. Unable to get off a good shot he wheels towards us and throws in our direction and I, the Donut Brothers, and about 20 other people run away, around the corner.

******************************

This is a glimpse of what is to come. The decision to prevent people from marching calmly and peacefully through the squares and main boulevards has thrown the action into the kuches and mahals of Tehran. It's gone into the neighborhoods, the alleys and corners of where people permanently live, not the public squares and intersections that they occasionally pass through.

You have to understand the importance of the "kuche" or alley if you want to understand Tehran, especially now. Sar e kuche, too ye kuche, boro kuche...the beginning and end of everyday life happens in a kuche, the alley.

"Alley" as it is used here isn't the same as what we might imagine in the U.S., the dark and dangerous spaces of New York, for instance, where bad things happen. Back in the day, neighborhoods consisted primarily of single-family homes, many with a hayat or yard with a central hoz, or fountain (the film "Children of Heaven" is a good depiction of what I'm talking about).

The buildings were close to each other and the kuche served as the shared ground between entrances. You had to walk down an alley to get home and the odds were that you would run into your neighbor along the way. Likewise, the alley provided a crude form of security. If someone had no business being there or was up to no good it would be immediately known...

Neighbors knew who belonged there. Years ago Tehran was like a live version of those black and white Italian movies from the 40s and 50s, neighborhoods were populated by men with colorful names: Behrooz Sibili (Moustache Behrooz), Ali Hezar Dawshi (Ali 10 Cents), Mahmad Damagh (Mahmad Nose), Jangir Khiki (Fat Jangir). Neighbors simultaneously spied on and looked after each other. A patriarchal code of honor, with all of its blessings and vices, held sway and woe onto the young man who wandered into the neighborhood. Hava ye ham digar ra dashtand. While this code has dimmed considerably because of shifts in demographic and housing patterns---more and more people live away from their families in apartment towers, the familiarity remains. As I noted in an earlier post, Tehran, despite its size, remains an intimate big city, the reason no doubt being that the base of social life outside of the family remains the kuche. Even if they don't personally know their neighbor nor care to, residents of a block will come to each other's aid when threatened from without (Asef Bayat's important book, "Street Politics" captures well what I am talking about).

The geography of Tehran's urban life is going to play a big role in the coming days and months. Every time the police manage to squeeze down on protestors on the main road, the kids run sideways and backwards into the criss-crossing alleys. It will be different now...

*********************************

Under a bridge a crowd is chanting. Half of a car is on fire and a host of people has gathered to watch. A fire truck shows up, the crowd hoots and whistles. They rush over and surround the truck. Do they want it to leave? Before I can figure it out the truck abandons the street.

*****************************************************

The walk is many kilometers and it takes me nearly two hours. Along the way there is wonderment. I smell freshly sliced cucumber. A young boy sits on a storefront stoop and sees about the business of eating folded flatbread with feta and cucumber. Kids on bikes race each other. Three boys walk past with me on the sidewalk with ping pong paddles, they are coming back from the park (Tehran's parks, like those of Paris, come equipped with ping pong tables). Satter Khan Park is filled with families and couples on blankets eating seeds and sharing tea. Many are enjoying traditional ice cream, Akbar Mashti made with pistachio and cardamom. There is a guy selling fish, a guy selling meat.

Old men stand outside their fruit stand. The car wash under Satter Khan Bridge continues its business. A father and his daughter come plodding down the sidewalk, three grocery sacks hangs between them, cucumbur, tomatoes, watermelons.

I finally make it to where I need to be. I spot a man selling DVDs. Iranians are notorious film buffs (a topic worthy of its own post) and before this ruckus began if you were to see a crowd gathered on the street in Tehran odds were they were buying up the latest Hollywood film, frequently while the picture was still in the theaters. I flip through the pile of plastic sleeves and choose "Night at the Museum, Part Two" and "Frost Nixon." How's business in all of this haye hoo, I ask the man? Eh, it's not bad, what can I say?

Don't you want to buy more, he asks me. No, this'll do...

******************************************************

That night, with reports coming in of the newly dead and wounded, they sang "Allah Akbar" with renewed verve. "ALLAH u AKBAR!!!! ALLAH u AKBAR!!!!" The calls had never been louder. We sit in the kitchen and listen. A girl's voice leads. Tonight she is without restraint. She doesn't wait for the response. Voices heave, swinging back and forth, call and response.

Natarsin! Natarsin! Ma hame ba ham hastim! Don't be scared! Don't be scared! We are all in this together...

-- Anonymous Student in Tehran, Shane M.

Some Ron Miller

Within the public system there are now many alternative programs for students "at risk" of dropping out because they are so completely alienated by the impersonal routines of conventional schooling. And there are still significant pockets of progressive educators and related groups--such as those promoting whole language and cooperative learning--who remain determined to infuse public education with more democratic, humanistic purposes. But despite these oases of student-centered learning, the educational climate during the past decade has been affected by ever tighter state and federal control over learning, leading to still further testing, politically mandated "outcomes," and national standards. There is some hope in the relatively new concept of "charter schools," which allow parents and innovative educators to receive public funding with less bureaucratic intervention, although it remains to be seen how much freedom such schools will be allowed if national standards begin to be enforced.

As government school systems become increasingly yoked to the purposes of the corporate economy, it is likely that thousands more families and educators will turn to the more democratic and person-centered values represented by alternative schools and home education. For the past century and half, alternative schools have been isolated countercultural enclaves with little influence on mainstream educational thinking and policy. But in the "postindustrial" or "postmodern" era that appears to be emerging now, the industrial-age model of "social efficiency" is possibly starting to become obsolete.

Perhaps, as Ivan Illich envisioned in his 1970 book Deschooling Society and James Moffett describes in his recent book The Universal Schoolhouse, the idea of a public school system may have outlived its usefulness. According to these and other authors, in a democratic, information-rich society, learning should take place everywhere in the community, and young people should have access to mentors who nourish their diverse personal interests and styles of learning. We have a long way to go before this sort of system is in place, but if our society does in fact move in this direction, it may well be alternative educators who show the way.

read the article

It is Tuesday, and it is not raining.

Another beautiful day, and like last year, summer began on just about the first day of summer. After all these years of summer starting so early, it is finally fixed. Whew.

One of my goals for TAS over the next year is to create a more formal feedback/criticism system for the students. They do have quite a lot of input into their schedule, their curricula, and in many classes, the day to day direction of the classes. For instance, the first part of my psychology class was very reading heavy. This was objected to on many reasonable grounds. For one thing, it really limited how much certain students could participate. Of course the could do the reading...but on the other hand, we are quite different than other schools and many of our students suffered enormously under the read-a-pile, write-a-pile regime. So we switched to another mode altogether: to watching certain movies in a particular way, discussing them, as well as doing some basic peer counseling training and role-playing. It worked out well. Was it a rigorous class? No. But all the student indicated that they learned quite a lot and now feel more comfortable in helping situations.

Here is an article from Edutopia, a public education reform organization, with a nice little item on using feedback in the classroom:

At the end of the year, the student survey can be your best friend -- that honest and supportive friend that gives you meaningful feedback and leaves you with something to think about. Your job is to set the stage for your friend to perform on, and then listen with an open mind. I've given surveys to every group of kids I've ever taught -- as young as second graders -- and I've found them invaluable in improving my practice.

First, let's consider the purpose of the survey. Though it can be a tool for reflection, primarily, it's a way for students to give you feedback...

This isn't rocket science. But in psychology having a clear and formal avenue for a client's negative feedback is one of the strongest predictors for success. After all, in a trusting relationship negative feedback is appreciated, and in psychology the quality of the relationship is far more consequential than any technique or theory or medication. This is absolutely, quantifiably the case. Why would it be any different for education?

Welcome, Monday!

It isn't raining. That in itself is news. General strikes may be called in Iran by the reformists, this, and the mourning cycle that is set to begin for the many dead, will be the backdrop for the next phase of the struggle. Absolutely fascinating.

The new school year begins around now, with several of us poking away at all sorts of sundry tasks, both at school and at home. For my part, I have settled on Thursday afternoon for Shim Gum Do classes and meditation periods. Please feel free to drop by. I will have the times set by this Wednesday. Please email me if you have any preferences.