Beginning Conversations

  “E Pluribus Unum” (out of many, one). Barzun, Matthew. The Power of Giving Away Power (p. 4). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.  I share the following synopsis to illustrate the power and reality of what a country held and likely continues to hold to be implicitly beholden, E Pluribus Unum, and to offer commentary that the awakening of our nation was followed by a period of growing up: an awakening that was presented as a holarchy and a growing up reflected in hierarchy.  --------------------------- I am reading, The Power of Giving Power Away , by Matthew Barzun (2021). The opening speaks to the formation of the United States by speaking not to the challenge of winning the war but to what came afterwards. The Founding Fathers realized that the Declaration of Independence (1777) was necessary but the words had more influence on what was experienced within and less on with-out: a nation needed to project its value internally and externally to be believed. A tas...

Center of Gravity https://www.typepunchmatrix.com/pictures/39423_6.jpg?v=1592661697 Spiral Dynamics It is an interesting exercise, identifying self in a real way- an honest way. So often, the self we present is a self or selves, not the Self. I suppose it is the Self that directs the selves, recognizing immediate need of others within context and pushing forward an identity that is truly just part of an unknown whole.   I think in systems: systems driven by need. Values, however, drive. It is at the value level that clarity comes.    The values of orange with sights on green appear to be and have been at my center of gravity. Orange is where I have lived for years, really decades. While I can see how and when I’ve progressed through each level, I can’t help but think that orange was a silent partner in progress. They say that animals that engage in great migrations pass on routes in their mitochondrial DNA to their young. Orange, for me, feels like such a vestigial relic....

  Developmental Line When walking the stage to receive my masters, my Myers Briggs profile was taped to my cap, just as it was taped to my cohort’s caps. For me, the tape read: INFP, with TJ just on the cusp (literally and figuratively). On the DISC assessment, I am an SC, relatively high and towards center. Strength’s Finder has me as leading towards Learning and Analysis. Each personality profile describes me. Over the years, I have used these strengths to my advantage. At the outset, however, I wished for different strengths. The worth of my traits not necessarily valued at an institutional and social level and my deep, needed call for change and to enact change characterized by traits I did not publicly express. It has only been recently that such a premise in leadership and in social change have called these assumptions into question. Who really gets to decide such things. https://miro.medium.com/max/5100/1*gTti7FuA5ncdwXnoqb5Xmg.jpeg I learned long ago that I alone could find...

To open this series of posts that speak to ideas of Integral Theory and Practice, I share what was one of my last posts that was in DRAFT until I resurrected this blog for this course. I can help but see the thinking of was is the thinking that now and that this thinking did not stifle but expanded. I can't help but think metaphorically. All brains are wired to see connections and make sense of the world by fitting round things in any shaped hole. It's a scary thing if ignored. My brain does this but does so as if always on steroids; I just hope that round is with round...most of the time. We learn through our mistakes. This is an overwhelming task that requires commitment and respect. I won't go into this, as this is what I speak to in other posts. I want to talk about the what-we-SHOULD hold-on-to, in spite of  dis-confirming 'evidence' or really, because of it. The world we live in is a crazy place- let's think about the core values that are non...

I'm disappointed that so many days have passed between my last posting. There certainly hasn't been a lack of thinking on this end, just carving out the time to write. Today I'd like to consider the role of teacher in instruction. It always boggles my mind when teaching is perceived as a spectator sport. The stance of teacher as one of observer and disseminator, rather than seeker and transformer. I realize this sounds a bit trite but, in a way, we should probably think about where we stand when it comes to teaching- literally and figuratively, every now and then. I often describe good teaching as being the ability to target instruction that keeps the learning as close to home as possible. This means a number of things. One, that learning is a private endeavor, where the mechanisms supporting learning are completely child-dependent. Two, that learning requires relevance. Good teaching capitalizes on cognition, which means that instruction should require students to consid...

The Common Core is presently servicing education as a change agent. Standards-based reform encouraged a way of thinking that centered on what we teach. Educational research focused on how we teach. The Common Core presents itself as a means to fill the invisible gap answering the question, why teach what we teach.

http://www.emergingedtech.com/2012/01/seven-online-classrooms-teachers-can-use-to-augment-their-own/ So often it's not knowing where to go to find an answer but having a place to go that makes you question. I love that about technology- that there is always something out there that might prompt an idea you never even knew you had, much less interested in. I think that's the beauty of digging in and investing time in scanning the digital world. I feel a sense of liberation that I can learn more easily. It excites me. What I find just as interesting is that this notion of going out into the virtual landscape is something that you can't preach, only experience. In other words, as excited as all you techies can get and all the sage advice you can give, until someone 'goes on' and 'gets connected' your words are just memories. You techies forget that we've lived many years fulfilled and invigorated without any digital investment. How do you get around thi...