I did not see any snowdrops this morning and it is a beautiful day. I did see flowers blooming suggesting that spring is here and won’t be denied. Enjoy your day.
Elizabeth Leaper is a poet and has several blogs, one of which can be found at simply elfje
This is a great acrostic poem that starts my day thinking about what Life is. Whitehead and Dewey said Life and all its manifestations are the only necessary curricula for education.
Mathieu Ricard who is mentioned and quoted above is a Buddhist monk who also holds a PhD in molecular genetics. I am just beginning to read his work on happiness and it is fascinating. Letting go is so important to our happiness. We cannot simply wish and want to be happy. It comes effortlessly with much work. Happiness is a form of paradox.
This is such a simple message with such a powerful underlying idea. What it means is largely idiosyncratic. We are unique and beginning will look so different from person-to-person.
Start.Alfred North Whitehead advised that all the patterns necessary in living life were to be found in nature. This suggests we are not outside nature, but an integral part in full relationships with all other aspects that exist in nature. Humans are not virtual observers, but living partners in these relationships.
We used Escher’s work in the classroom as part of exploring points of view and perspective. Students would design and draw their Escher-like diagram. I found that the students enjoyed the opportunities to be creative and explore in ways that art reveals the world to us.
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Thanks again to ‘K’ at Kirsten Uninterrupted for introducing me to Acrostic and so many other Poetry Forms.
M.C. Escher – The Official Website is here.
There are some great images of flowers accompanied by hopeful and spring-like quotes. Enjoy.
Ranunculus (Please click to enlarge).
The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year?
Mark Twain
Rock Rose
Behold, my friends, the spring is come: the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love-
Sitting Bull
Rose of Sharon
Spring has returned. The earth is like a child that knows poems~
Rainer Maria Rilke
Lions Ear
With the coming of spring I am calm again~
Gustav Mahler
Foxglove
April has Put a Spirit of Youth in Everything~
William Shakespeare
Peace Lily
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt~
Margaret Atwood
Mexican Evening Primrose
Why not get some dirt on your hands, and everywhere else too??? Hope the joyful blooms of spring…
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These are behaviours and attitudes we should immunize ourselves against. Leading a thoughtful and mindful life can go a long way to helping in this work.
Quite often, I find that the difficult and trying times have proven more beneficial in my learning and forming as a human being. I think we pay more attention to what is happening when things are not going well. When we look back, we can see that it was for the better.
.
I know a woman
who keeps buying puzzles
chinese
puzzles
blocks
wires
pieces that finally fit
into some order.
she works it out
mathematically
she solves all her
puzzles
lives down by the sea
puts sugar out for the ants
and believes
ultimately
in a better world.
her hair is white
she seldom combs it
her teeth are snaggled
and she wears loose shapeless
coveralls over a body most
women would wish they had.
for many years she irritated me
with what I considered her
eccentricities-
like soaking eggshells in water
(to feed the plants so that
they’d get calcium).
but finally when I think of her
life
and compare it to other lives
more dazzling, original
and beautiful
I realize that she has hurt fewer
people than anybody I know
(and by hurt I simply mean hurt).
and she has had some terrible times,
times when maybe I…
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Although I am far from finished my first chapter in the dissertation, discipline, as a theme, is an overarching aspect that of good education. Both John Dewey and Alfred North Whitehead proposed that self-discipline in children and youth education. Teaching, as the last line in this post suggests, is vital to the forming process involved. Word and action is essential to teaching and learning.
By Jackie Saulmon Ramirez | March 26, 2014
When we teach children properly they learn self-discipline and self-restraint.
‘Punishment’ is a very ugly word and I wish parents would take that word, write it down on a sheet of paper, then wad it up and throw it in the trash because that is where it belongs. The word itself feels heavy on the heart and begs to be spat out of the mouth. When a child hears the word they feel dread and become less than they were before. I want parents to stop using that horrible word. The word I want parents to use in place of that word is DISCIPLINE. Discipline is lyrical, strengthening, uplifting and educating word.
When most parents say punishment, what they really mean is discipline; discipline means ‘to teach…
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ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 