NADEC this Week

I will be leaving town early tomorrow morning to join my fellow free schoolers from across the country in Albany, NY. This will be our second gathering. It may be a welcome relief from the NYC heat as the weather forecasts show Albany to be about 10º cooler.

Also, before I go, I wanted to recommend listening to Jerry Mintz’s interview from WFAN [http://aeroeducation.org/2010/06/19/jerry-mintz-appears-on-wfan-in-new-york-audio/] It is a good outline as to some of the facts about democratic education versus standard public schooling. A friend told me yesterday that all his daughter does in school now is drill for the test. She has been piled up with homework even though there is only one week left to the public schools. I no longer engage in arguments as to which system is better. But the national public school system needs to get its’ mind wrapped around the idea of drastic reform in order to salvage the intelligence of our future society.

BFS Rocks the house at Vox

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End of the Year Party at Vox Pop

Quote of the Day

Children are by nature smart, energetic, curious, eager to learn, and good at learning…they do not need to be bribed and bullied to learn.” —John Holt

Perplexity

I am going to expose myself here. It has been that kind of morning. That in order to move past my current state of mental infarction, it will have to be done by the outflow of words.

Words. Those tiny unmeasurable forces that swirl around the brain in perpetual motion. Chaotic motion. Cerebral motion. And every so often, those words fall from my lips. They move my fingers across a keyboard. And ultimately, they can help clear the mind and the emotions.

This morning, as I was returning from dropping my son off from school, I was attacked by a wave a tiredness. Although I slept well, my rising time was 5:30 am. That is a good and quiet time to collect oneself. The buses in the distance have not started their rush hour parade. If the delivery guys keep their radios off, then I am made in the shade. A quiet, meditative part of the day, when everyone else in this apartment is asleep.

But then a sequence of clumsiness and ineptitude followed. The garbage can was overflowing, with fruit flies that had formed during the heat, swirling around. We juice a lot and there is plenty of organic matter in our trash to give rise to the swarm. I took the stinky heap out into the hall and brilliantly placed the sweltering load right on top of my son’s sneakers. That made him very happy later when he went to put on his shoes and found them under the garbage. I stank up his shoes. I ruined his fashion plans for the day.

While juicing this morning I kept dropping pieces of watermelon on the floor. I reprimanded myself for being a klutz. “What is wrong with you?” I asked myself. It seemed I was constantly mopping up the mess.

Getting to school was no event. The bus came in exactly 4 minutes after we got to the stop. We arrived at school earlier than usual. There was another “boo-hoo” breakfast out on the table. To explain, most mornings there is either fresh baked scones or pancakes. A “boo-hoo” breakfast is merely bread and butter.

When I got on the train going back to my office, the fatigue over took me and I dozed off. I was fully awake as I watched the doors of the G train close at my stop. No problem. I will just go to Church Avenue and catch a different bus. I like the change of scenery occasionally. As I step out onto Church Ave, all chipper and upbeat, I stepped into a dip in the sidewalk and twisted my ankle. I recovered quickly, but by this time I am feeling that I need to be watchful. Maybe there is a Mars transit hovering over me and I need to be more careful in how I move about. Now every thing and everyone is a threat to my physical well being.

I caught the B103 bus back to my place, but again my state almost had me miss that stop as well.

Coffee. I need coffee.

So now I wrote it. Now I drink the coffee. And I am not moving from this desk until a sense of equilibrium returns. I am looking for balance in my life. Today I acknowledge my lack of it.

Brooklyn Blogfest 2010

Last night I attended the 5th Annual Brooklyn Blogfest at the Lyceum Theater in Park Slope. It was my first. Actually I have attended no events where it concerns my blog. It is coming up on the one year mark when I inadvertently became a blogger. I had no real plan when I started. Just to write what I feel to be the greatest wasted resource in the world: children. The event was well attended.

It is hard for me to say if it was good or not. It seems that my blog falls into the narrow category of social activism. I am not out waving signs, or marching on anything. But my posts almost always venture into the area of attacking, insulting and insinuating things about public education. I do this with as much abandon as I can gather, with the guidance of individuals who have far more experience at it, and the feeling in my heart that democratic education has a positive future in America.

The thing that was difficult for me last night was that my perception of many in attendance, was that they  have a different agenda with their blogs. Granted, my hat goes off to all those creative folks who have taken to the internet with a creative and literate incentive. But I feel that there was not enough support for the activist origins of this forum. In our breakout sessions, the social activism group was just 3 of us. Compare that to the 25 people across the room gathered for arts and entertainment. I am an artist, but this blog is an expression of passion, and not an exposition of my visual or audible works. In a sense, this blog may be a form of self promotion for the eventual ideal of profit, but I have tried to stay true to my original purpose. Write about the things that I care about. If it comes off as some form of self promotion, then that is what I care about at the moment.

But in truth, what I find is, I care about people. Not humanity per se, but individual human beings. The Free School Apparent came into being as a way to gather those who believe in the ideals of free school education, and to find a way for us to connect up. My unique perspective is not that of an educator, but as a parent, and artist who has struggled for meaningful existence in a society that does not appreciate meaning. As we speak, I am in the process of forming a second blog, which will be humanity specific. So here I am, the unintended blogger, now branching off into new unwritten territory…literally.

It would seem that as these words flow out, the sense that I did receive a charge from last night’s happenings, are real. It is becoming obvious that in talking with people, I have found a new purpose. My financial concerns still remain, but the fact that this has now emerged as a new project in my life has gained acceptance from its most important participant—myself.

I was somewhat unimpressed by the guest speaker, Spike Lee. But impressed that he did make the effort to be there. I just do not think he really brought out anything other than to speak on behalf of the sponsor (Absolut Vodka.) The appearance Marty Markowitz always makes me uneasy, as his unbridled and naive enthusiasm occasionally give rise to a foot-in-mouth moment. He behaved, as he did also at our Democracy in Education Symposium earlier this year. But most times his mixed idealism runs counter to my own. Especially where it concerns the construction of the future abomination at Atlantic Yards.

My breakout session included Anne Pope of Sustainable Flatbush and Ken Lo of Connected By Nature. Our group was small, but somehow we attracted the attention of BCAT TV. We were all interviewed and the cameraman was the same who visited me in my apartment last year for the Flatbush Artists Tour. When the news reporter finished her interviews with us, she asked us to speak informally amongst ourselves, which we did automatically and sincerely. Though our main interests for blogging were different, there seemed to be a large area for common ground.

After getting my free glass of Vodka and my free taco, I headed out. The event as a networking venue had ended for me. The music in the basement was loud, and in no way supported natural conversation. It still boggles my mind how it is understood that loud music and the need for social interaction got mixed up together in the same idea. It is like pouring water on a candle wick when you want to light a room.

But given my comments, I will look out for the next one and preregister again. Networking has always been a good thing for me. But preferably without the disco atmosphere.

Regards.