5.15 - 7.00 Room 1West 3.15 University of Bath, Thursday 8/12/11
Looking forward to catching up with your news, writings, readings, books, and ideas you'd like to share. Before we respond to any writings you bring along I'm hoping that we can respond to Mark's questions below. Mark has posted the two questions in our web-space, "Living Values, Improving Practice Cooperatively." See - http://www.spanglefish.com/livingvaluesimprovingpracticecooperatively/ click on login at the top right hand corner and type in the Password livingtheory99 then click on the login box below the Password box. I've made the url a favourite in my browser so I can access our space quickly. Here are Mark's questions:
How can I, through my presence and interaction with young people and in my professional teaching practice, help young people to become more aware of, and to engage more critically with, the prevailing economic and commercial discourses to which we are all subject? How can I help to shift the balance of power so that young people become active and critical participants in the commercial world rather than passive consumers?
and I've responded:
Hi Mark - very good questions. Let's focus on these on Thursday evening. I'll give some thought to the contexts where you might explore your first question. We could look at some of Erich Fromm's writings in relation to your second question. I'm thinking of his insights in his work 'Man For Himself', 'The Sane Society' and 'To Have and To be'. We could also look at some of Foucault's work on Power/Knowledge in relation to understanding how to shift the balance of power as well as Habermas' work on the 'Legitimation Crisis', and Edward Said's work on Culture and Imperialism' to see if these help with understanding how to shift the balance of power…..
Maureen's Foreword to the special issue of the journal she has edited is now with the printers and we should be able to get a copy of the special issue by the end of December. On Thursday I'm hoping that we can all share an understanding of the 6 organisational values and 4 ethical values that are being used by Maureen and others to distinguish cooperation in learning and education.
Sonia - if you can bring any video-clips you'd like to share with us that would be good.
Here is a note that came through this week and that I've got permission to share. I'm hoping that it resonates with our responses to Tara's video as Tara expressed her embodied values/understanding of attention and mindfulness with her pupils:
(Only some names and places have been changed from the original)
From: Anna Smith
Subject: Twenty seconds
Date: 1 December 2011 16:06:05 GMT
To: Jack Action Research
Hi Jack.
I have always had a suspicion that every action may evoke a reaction of some kind, that everything we do is open to meaning and therefore, we must try and act deliberately and from motives that enhance life and not diminish it. Once, in 2002, I did something that changed someone's life and I only found out a few days ago. I had no idea what I'd done. Here is the letter I received from China.
Dear Professor Anna Smith.
Since 2002 I carry a picture of you in my wallet and in my heart. You came to the number one Middle School in Wuzhong in the autumn of 2002, and you taked to us. We were all studying English and you stood in front of us and told us about England and then we were allowed to ask questions. I remember so well how nervous I was. You were the first foreigner I had met and I knew that this moment was always important to me. I stood up and I was shaking from head to foot. I thought perhaps I wouldn't be able to speak, that I might be sick and disgrace myself. But I spoke up. I asked you whether one day I might be able to realise my dream and become a student in Beijing University. I think I was nearly crying with fear that you might laugh at me. But you didn't. You came up the steps of the lecture theatre and I was sitting close to the aisle. You put your hands out and held my hands. I thought my heart was going to burst with happiness. Then you said:
"Since the beginning of time, no one like you has ever been here on this planet. You are unique. No one will ever be like you if the planet lasts for another billion years. And because that is a fact, you are the most important person in the world, in the same way that everyone else is also the most important person in the world. And because you are so precious, you can make things happen. You have to believe in yourself. I have just met you, but I believe in you completely. 100%."
You squeezed my hands and you looked at me straight in the eyes and I saw there were tears in yours. I knew that you believed every word you were saying. I trusted you. I followed your words and kept them deep in my heart for always.
You won't remember me (actually, Jack, I do remember him), but I sat down in that room afterwards and felt as if someone had given me the moon. I went home afterwards and I wrote every word down. I wrote it in Chinese and English. I had to keep reading it. For days afterwards I played the scene back in my mind time after time. And I read the words you spoke to me. I couldn't believe that I had been so lucky. That of all the people in the room you had spoken these words to me. And some teachers had taken pictures of you when you were talking to us and I got a copy of the picture and I carry it everywhere with me.
My name is Song Fengyin and I am writing this from my study-dorm at Beijing University. It is because of you that I am here. And knowing that you came into my life like fate, what else I am writing here only proves it. I was meant to meet you.
In my first week here at the university I met a Ph.D. student, Tom Ma (Ma Guoyi , remember him, Jack?). He is also from Wuzhong, and when I realised that, and that he worked at the university in Wuzhong, I brought out the photograph of you and he looked at it and was very happy. Because he knows you and worked with you for four years there, he gave me your address, and now I can write to you and tell you from a grateful heart that what you did for me was the best thing in my whole life. I love you. I am so grateful to you. Please accept my feelings and my gratitude to you. I looked at your picture every day, especially when times were hard and I felt I would not achieve my goal. My whole family worked hard for me to earn the money to study here because it is very expensive. Every single day after your visit I studied, even when I was ill. I studied and studied. And when I passed the examination to come here, I knew that my trust in you was right. Not that I had doubted it.
I am studying for a Masters degree in translation and next autumn I have won a scholarship to come to the UK. I am going to study at Exeter University. I am such a proud man. Thank you for believing in me...
***
I don't attribute to myself what he does, I'm not that vain or stupid, but my actions, very small, very insignificant, were a catalyst in his development. I remember the incident vividly, and after I'd read the letter, I searched all over my walls - still covered here with pictures from my China-days - and found a picture of him. I wrote back and told him that I was deeply touched by his letter, and that I hope when he comes to this country, he can pay me a visit.
Twenty seconds of my life, and this is the effect they had. It's a sobering thought, and one that makes me ever more careful to trust in the moment, and to act in small ways with love and kindness, so that big things might come of them. That's my basis for hope in education. That we touch people's lives in ways that help them to become more of what they could be and want so desperately to be.
Have a lovely evening. Take care. Love from,
Anna xx
'Be the changes you want to see in the world!' Mahatma Gandhi
'Bach opens a vista to the universe. After experiencing him, people feel there is meaning to life after all.' Helmut Walcha
"Freedoms are not only the primary ends of development, they are also among its principal means." Amartya Sen
Any news to share do post it in the blog or send it on for me to share with the group, especially if you can't be with us this Thursday. This helps us to bear each other in mind, even if we are not physically present.
With APEX finishing at the end of August 2012 because of the cuts, Marie, Andy and I are hoping that we can continue to work on the development of a 'living legacy' that enables the values and understandings gained during the life of APEX as an educational service, to be continued…...
Love Jack.
