I began to think about what I might post today and, as a good fortune would have it, Eddie’s post showed up and answered my question.
Eddie shares a lovely quote from Chief Seattle about humankind’s interconnectedness with the web of life. We have not woven the web, but a thread in it, binding and connecting us to one another and to the universe.
Hannah Arendt wrote about how our actions, including speech, transcend the time and space we currently inhabit. This is particularly the case for teachers. We are connected and bound to a future we cannot predict, that is far more complex and larger than the immediate environment we inhabit, which is incredibly complex and large.
A word spoken in haste to a student, a parent, a colleague has the potential to resonate in ways we cannot anticipate, regardless of profession or role in someone’s life. How we each treat our local environment has considerable impact on those downstream in terms of time and place. Cutting down old growth forests has more than an immediate impact. It resonates for generations. As humans, we have free will to act and speak in responsible ways. How we do these things has great meaning about who we each are as a human.
This video echoes Chief Seattle’s message of interconnectedness and how, in recognizing that point, we find our way to the peace train arriving from the darkness. Yussuf Islam (Cat Stevens) has received several awards for his work in the area of peace.
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope and its anticipatory relationship with the future, and hope as an essential element in learning.
Yes, careless words, spoken in haste are damaging. We need the pause, take a breath, and start again. I always liked Cat Stevens, loved and shared the Peace Train, thank you.
Yes, I listened to Cat Stevens when he first came out. He was living in Canada so got play time on our radio stations. He always had a playful and meaningful message, which is an interesting combination.
I read her in passing, although I don’t think we read Arendt and other philosophers just in passing and returned to Human Condition for my dissertation. Her concepts of labour, work, and action were helpful. Now, I find myself going back to her for other writing and alongside interesting partners e.g. bell hooks.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
I love this post, I read what you do today can change all your tomorrows, which means every moment is extremely powerful. C
They are for sure. Social media amplfies this.
Sure would like to ride that Peace Train into the future.
As a gypsy, it would be fun and worthy.
Yes, careless words, spoken in haste are damaging. We need the pause, take a breath, and start again. I always liked Cat Stevens, loved and shared the Peace Train, thank you.
Yes, I listened to Cat Stevens when he first came out. He was living in Canada so got play time on our radio stations. He always had a playful and meaningful message, which is an interesting combination.
And I’ve been a long time fan of Hannah Arendt…sending peace Ivon happy weekending ~ smiles hedy ☺️🤗
I read her in passing, although I don’t think we read Arendt and other philosophers just in passing and returned to Human Condition for my dissertation. Her concepts of labour, work, and action were helpful. Now, I find myself going back to her for other writing and alongside interesting partners e.g. bell hooks.
Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
STEVENS IS A REALLY WISE CAT—YOU TOO, IVON! I SAW A TRAIN AND A TRAIN OF THOUGHT!
Love the metaphor of a train as life.
WOO-WOO-! 😀