li-young lee

Arise, Go Down

It wasn't the bright hem of the Lord's skirts
that brushed my face and I opened my eyes
to see from a cleft in rock His backside;

it's a wasp perched on my left cheek. I keep
my eyes closed and stand perfectly still
in the garden till it leaves me alone,

not to contemplate how this century
ends and the next begins with no one
I know having see God, but to wonder

why I get through most days unscathed, though I
live in a time when it might be otherwise,
and I grow more fatherless each day.

For years now I have come to conclusions
without my father's help, discovering
on my own what I know, what I don't know,

and seeing how one cancels the other.
I've become a scholar of cancellations.
Here, I stand among my father's roses

and see that what punctures outnumbers what
consoles, the cruel and the tender never
make peace, though one climbs, though one descends

petal by petal to the hidden ground
no one owns, I see that which is taken
away by violence or persuasion.

The rose announces on earth the kingdom
of gravity. A bird cancels it.
My eyelids cancel the bird. Anything

might cancel my eyes: distance, time, war.
my father said, Never take you both eyes
off of the world, before he rocked me.

All night we waited for the knock
that would have signalled, All clear, come now;
it would have meant escape; it never came.

I didn't make the world I leave you with,
he said, and then, being poor, he left me
only this world, in which there is always

a family waiting in terror
before they're rended, this world wherein a man
might arise, go down, and walk along a path

and pause and bow to roses, roses
his father raised, and admire them, for one moment
unable, thank God, to see in each and
every flower the world cancelling itself.

In case Yall forgot!

Whoops...

Dr. B,

I am the student in your class who argued in support of deficit theory of understanding minority achievement during the discussion tonight. I would like to clarify that it was not my intention to support the value judgments that are commonly and mistakenly made by proponents of this theory. I believe these judgments are motivated by racist views rather than scientific evidence. The point I was trying to make is that genetic differences are present and should not be disregarded because of their presumed usefulness as a tool in culturally bigoted argumentation. Indeed, those who are in power throughout history have never needed science to justify their claims to power. I realize that this is not a science class and we don’t have the resources or time to examine every issue too deeply.

I would like you to know that I have a deep respect for the differences that exist in the cultures and peoples of our community. I believe it is through description, and the understanding which follows, that the courage to value difference comes. We can not pretend to be the same when we are not. For that, I am thankful, because it is beautiful to be different.

Sincerely,

James Lyons

The Ethic of Fairness In Contemporary Public Education

Fairness in the classroom is a difficult, but necessary, topic for discussion. The ideas of impartiality and equality are deeply ingrained in the minds of young students and the revelation of the falseness of these ideas is hard to receive. I believe fairness to be the treatment of all students equally, in accordance with their specific needs. It is a lofty belief and whether many or few hold it, it is certainly not held by all.

Either as a result of belief or biology, humans behave differently from each other. At times, these differences are large and, at times, they are small. Regardless, the various behaviors we exhibit are the evidence for the inconsistency of moral beliefs in our world. Does this inconsistency in the world warrant the teaching of a different kind of fairness? Some people work their entire lives to own their own home only to see it all wash away in the fury of Mother Nature. Bill Gates says, "Life isn'’t fair, get used to." Is this something our students should be sheltered from or taught openly? Is Bill Gates a good role model? Can we overcome the natural world?

The good, or bad, news is that educating forces are already at work in our classrooms. Humans have an incredible ability to teach themselves and shouldn't those forces be harnessed? Rather than setting up mini moral utopias, we might consider preparing our students for the kind of inconsistencies they will inevitably encounter. Will we do our students a disservice by attempting to convince them otherwise?

Robert Palmer's Logical Syllogism - 80's music in Review

Premise 1: Your lights are on, but you're not home
Premise 2: Your will is not your own
Premise 3: You're heart sweats and teeth grind
Premise 4: Another kiss and you'll be mine
Premise 5: Whoa, you like to think that you're immune to the stuff, oh yeah
Premise 6: It's closer to the truth to say you can't get enough,
Therefore, you know you're gonna have to face it, you're addicted to love