The kids are all right.

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Tuesday March 31, 2020 · 4:08 PM PDT

2020/03/31 · 16:08

379693 07: Teacher David Nieder of "Knowledge is Power Program" (KIPP) Academy takes questions from his class October 4, 2000 in The Bronx, New York. The Knowledge Is Power Program educates 200 middle-school students, mostly poor black and Latino neighborhood children, housed in a hallway on the fourth floor of a regular Bronx public schooI. Because of strict discipline where each student gets two hours of homework a night and a regular school day runs nine-and-a-half-hours, including Saturdays and throughout the summer, test scores are the highest in the Bronx. Governor George Bush of Texas, where another KIPP school is run, singled out KIPP for praise during his presidential debate against Vice President Al Gore. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Newsmakers)

In the midst of the s...storm around us, a short, anecdotal account. My large, KY university moved the classes to online (KY has done some right in this current craziness) before Spring break, for the two weeks after break till April 6, and then it was moved to online for the remainder of the semester.

The dash into the digital delivery (only one week till liftoff then), the relearning after 35 years in the classroom, the concern for teaching the students what the course (and I) expected, and some personal reservations about where it would lead, all fell aside after the first week, after the students attended the online lectures and discussions, after the sky did not fall, after students -- as far apart as CA and Germany (having returned home) were all together again in our digital classroom.

Their enthusiasm, their camaraderie, their engagement with the literature, their apparent need to have some tasks to complete and complete well have made me smile again and again. Some have family endangered, some have a home that they had not expected (or wanted) to return to, some with difficult connections to the internet (tubes), and none expected this readjustment. Still, we are in the class, together.

In a way, we have become a tribe, dancing to the digital words of Eudora Welty, Richard Wright, or Tennessee Williams around the fire of our laptops or PCs or other devices. I am proud of them, and have hope, as always, for the future.

When We Need a Reminder ...

timbermanx

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Saturday November 10, 2018 · 3:38 PM PST

2018/11/10 · 15:38

This is an undated photo of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. (AP Photo)

The North Star, an important and unique for its strong voice in 1847, is being brought back to life by Shaun King. In an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered Weekend, Mr. King described the importance of not falling into bothsiderism. The early 19th century abolitionist journal, which did not voice the side of the slave holders, had a side, and told its side. In the interview, Shaun described how he had reached out to descendants of the amazing Frederick Douglass for their blessing to use this title for his new on-line news source, which was given.

Too often, the msm fills pages, teevees, and radio with the faux debate, not a simple look for fact. Even earlier in this Saturday, 11/10, same NPR program, the host, Michel Martin, interjected into another segment, The Barbershop, that some see the press as the enemy, so Acosta’s “rude” and aggressive questions and loss of credentials was accepted by some “who believe” that a decorum was not followed (fuck the 1st Amendment), so even in Nice Polite Republican radio, the “sides” are examined. Though several magazines and journals find a perspective, another source and reliable seeker of knowing on the side of fact and not simply belief is refreshing.

Great luck and hope for a new North Star, and Mr. King’s venture with the reawakened journal, another light that shines on face, on reality, on the true world that we are dancing in.

I have no links to the site, since it was not given, so lets look for it or maybe this is it heavy.com/…

but in my Luddite way, not sure if it made a link. The voice of all is swelling and the shouts of the few will become the sound of an annoying fly buzzing in the lamp.

Something from something leaves something

timbermanx

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Saturday May 21, 2016 · 4:46 PM PDT

2016/05/21 · 16:46

Among the delights of this or that, is the life, the world we have, the world around us. Easily, I could ride a horse, claim a truth, make the world bend my way.

But ( here a “but,” a conjunction, a connector that turns a direction other), I only want to tell that my garden grows, the forest vibrates around me, never mine though is in my name, and sings the song of wind in trees and birds. This evening, this setting sun, this day (among all the few days we in the end have) is passing into another beautiful wonder, tomorrow.

We might fight, like the jay bird that follows me to the garden each morning coughing his song for me. I know, no matter the harsh voice, that he is happy to jump up and down on the branch as he talks to me, knowing “the branch will not break.”

I hope sometimes, we can all listen to these songs of the other.

Happy this day, another day we feel our own heart alive.

First diary, so excuse any missteps.

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