Category: News

Web-IDEC 2020: Reconciling pandemic and the passing away of Sir Ken Robinson: A clarion call for the transformation of education.

Two events in recent times have been points of my personal introspection.  The Pandemic and the death of Sir Ken Robinson. Trying to draw some kind of confluence of these events could appear to be an odd effort, but as an educator the convergence is apparent. The point of convergence is the “transformation of education” and this call has been able to contain my emotional outburst.

All of us are going through horrible circumstances, and we must admit that it has been harshest on people with low income and especially citizens of developing countries like Nepal. But, if we had to steer ourselves through this hazy “timemark”, thoughts and appropriate actions to make radical changes in our lifestyle, the world economy and primary education would be the guiding headlamps. 

As educators, we can fill the void left by the passing of Sir Ken Robinson, by taking advantage of the pandemic to make radical shift and transformation in education. In the case of normalcy, we remain hesitant to take bold steps to make changes that we want. Aspiring change-makers also fall in the trap because we aren’t sure if the need to change in the way we educate our children is urgent, and obfuscate from our own wish and desire; but worry not, the pandemic has us covered, it is there to take the blame if we aren’t quite courageous enough yet or we “fail”. 
If we want, we can make this an opportunity to cross point-of-no-return. Ken Robinson emphatically said, “schools mustn’t return to normal after the pandemic subsides.”  When the students go back to the school,  standardized tests, a narrow one size fits all curriculum, or following the banking education model can really become a thing in the past. Of course, it’s not going to be an obvious outcome, it will take a while before we can find how everything fits in to form a harmonious wilderness. With a collective effort, we can “prepare” ourselves and our children much better to learn the rawness and the wilderness of  Education. With pandemic providing us the cover, and the responsibility Sir Ken Robinson has left to us; we must drag out feet and take a step. This is an opportunity for many like us, who kind of nod along to the idea that education can happen outside of the school as much as in the school if not better, to actually get the feel and be enlightened of this reality. Shall we take care of our baby named creativity and then our wealth named literacy, in that order?  While many are aware of the work of Sir Ken Robinson, it definitely isn’t the majority.  Each culture or country has their own Sir Ken Robinson.  The passing away of “the” Sir Ken Robinson is a clarion call for all of us to reflect upon the work of such people and act.  Conferences on education like the AERO conference, IDEC, APDEC, EUDEC, and others have emphasized such need. 

The energy in IDEC is remarkable, but the participation of people is limited in many ways,  it’s an expensive event (travel and stay) and for some it is time-consuming.  I am not being hysterical in saying that many Asian and African nations are underrepresented in  IDEC, and in educational communities as such.  But, I have to rightfully mention that many people from the majority have been putting a lot of effort into making it as much inclusive as possible. Every IDEC conference organizers have taken measures such as funding travel costs for people coming from developing nations like Nepal, India, and other African nations; but it isn’t that easy. Despite the genuine effort by the community  we haven’t been able to achieve the diversity we want simply because of the financial constraints. 

When we thought of free Web-IDEC, it hit a chord, we simply felt empowered because we could reach out to people as the opportunity to participate cuts across social, economic, geographical diversity to a large extent. It could be a step towards building an inclusive narrative about education. There is a lot of excitement and euphoria around Web-IDEC. We have been in regular conversation with Jerry Mintz, Yaacov Hetcht, Cecelia Bradely and other pillars of IDEC conference. Yaacov Hetcht in a zoom meeting said, “ Web-IDEC has the possibility of bridging students around the world together and share their culture”. Jerry Mintz in a Skype call said, “giving people the opportunity to create spontaneous workshops should be the key of Web-IDEC”.  We had an extremely interesting and engaging conversation with Prof. Helen Lees, she was extremely forthcoming and she said, “Let’s turn the ship around” and in fact titled her Keynote to be “Where are the Missing Women Leaders of Alternative Education?”.  This is what Web-IDEC offers, we can play a pivotal role in empowering people living in another part of the world. 

Another heartfelt aspect of this Web-IDEC has been the humble acceptance by very well known people to deliver Keynote at the conference. To be honest,  without their presence, Web-IDEC would be a mere name. These people are not leaders in the political sense, but these people help us unwrap the leadership and passion that each of us possesses. With all this opportunity, Web-IDEC isn’t really a far fetched dream before it becomes an annual event. Yet, we must realize that “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time” as said by Abraham Lincoln. 

ALTERNATIVE TIMES IN EDUCATION

Declaration of the Alternative Education Networks of Argentina

In this new situation that we are going through worldwide and that especially concerns education, from our schools and unconventional learning experiences we are in a position to make a great contribution, since decades ago we have been renewing the practices of teaching and learning in tune with the needs imposed by each new context. In this sense, we express our will to contribute to the search for solutions that the present and the future demand. Therefore, we request to be included in the instances of consultation of educational public policies in Argentina from now on, as one more sector that can contribute from their experience.

In general, we can see that our spaces, where closeness and physical contact are highly relevant, have been able to adapt to this remote modality with ease, and we understand that this is because there are deep ties that persist despite the physical distance and that have facilitated communication. Something that we were able to make clear is that the relevant learning is what allows us to acquire the skills and tools to understand and know how to perform in the world, in the place and time that we have to live. So, life in quarantine was no longer something to reject but something that could and should mean deep learning.

Returning to face-to-face school may be an excellent opportunity not to return “to the same”, and that many of the practices and tools acquired at this stage can enrich future activities in all schools. We are facing a magnificent opportunity to take advantage of this forced break to unlearn and look at education and learning, the way to re-evaluate and recognize knowledge in such a way that education is not simply a tool for control and duplication but instead allows for greater freedom and can be transformative on a personal and social level.

The unconventional educational spaces, arising from the bosom of civil society organized collectively in various ways, we want to contribute to that educational transformation that is urgently needed, contributing our experiences, which have been operating as true “laboratories of the possible” in every corner from the country.

We value the presence of the State guaranteeing rights and addressing the profound inequalities in our society and, at the same time, we see that it is necessary to provide the facilities to operate without hindrance of our social organizations that have a connection, a privileged knowledge due to proximity and a valuable diversity that they can contribute within an educational system that brings us all together. In this sense, we request that Social Management Education be implemented, as established by Law 26206/06, sections 13, 14 and 140 to provide a proper framework of legality and financing for these experiences, so that their gratuitousness is made possible.

Argentina, July 2020

This Declaration is signed by the following Regional Alternative Education Networks gathered in the Network of Networks of Argentina: Entre Ríos; Santa Fe; Buenos Aires; Córdoba; Northwest; Northeast and South.

To support this statement, please sign with your name or your organization´s name and country here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeNCQ_fBU_XWiQPkvcyjmL5ewWVsIQleafGXqU2XOMxzWCL5w/viewform

I was almost killed by a car yesterday.

I’m usually very careful crossing Roslyn Road, and I’ve warned many people about how dangerous it is. While I’ve lived here it has gone from a quiet country road to a heavily trafficked four lane highway. But when the pandemic came it reverted to very little traffic and perhaps, I got a bit careless. Traffic has gradually returned.

I decided to go for a walk last night later than usual, because it was so hot yesterday, about 8:30. While I walked in the quiet S section I talked to my sister on the phone, and I was still talking to her as I approached Roslyn Road to return home.

I looked both ways and saw no traffic coming. In the past we would press the button to stop traffic, but it hasn’t seemed necessary lately. As I got half-way across, I saw someone pull into the driveway of the house on my left, which is for sale. As that distracted me, along with still talking to my sister, I began to continue crossing the far side of the street.

Suddenly I heard a frantic horn and saw a speeding car about 20 feet from me. I was square between the headlights and it was headed straight for me. I immediately began to run toward the other side, but the car started veering toward me in that direction, attempting to avoid me. I don’t think he ever hit the brakes. I managed to outrun it. It was traumatizing! About 2 seconds had gone by.

Standing on the other side of the road I saw the car slow down, then speed ahead. I stood there for a while, realizing fully well that if they had not hit their horn, I wouldn’t have seen it at all, or if I couldn’t still run fast, I would simply be dead. The car was going so fast that death was more likely than injury. But even though the car was speeding, it was 100% my fault.

Back in the house, I began to try to digest this trauma. Of course, I determined that from now on I wouldn’t use the phone while crossing the street and would start using the crossing button again. The problem with that particular spot is that it is just beyond a small rise and I can’t see cars coming from my right until they are fairly close. Sometimes I can hear them coming, and ordinarily I quicken my pace as I cross the far side in case something is coming fast from my right.

But that wasn’t enough. I was still traumatized. I went outside again to look at the site of the near fatality but decided not to cross again.

I began to think about other times in the past that my life had been threatened. One obvious one was when I had a heart attack 5 years ago. But actually, I didn’t realize how close to death I had come. I had a 100% block from a blood clot in the LAD, the main artery out of the heart.

But I never took it seriously. 20 years earlier I had angioplasty so I had an idea what a heart attack might feel like. I was playing in my table tennis league and said to my opponent, “I’m going to have to default. I’m having a heart attack!” Someone else said, not believing me, “Jerry, can you play me first?” I had a young player drive me to the hospital. I somehow walked in. Then they said they didn’t have a catheter lab, so they took me by ambulance to another hospital where the doctor said he removed “The biggest blood clot I ever took out of a heart.” But I never thought I was going to die.

I thought about car accidents. Once, a drunk, speeding driver, in the exact same spot on Roslyn Road, crashed into the back of my car as I backed out of my driveway. It spun the car around 180 degrees and totaled it. I didn’t think I was going to die. I walked out of the car. But it did do some damage to my spine, and six months later the disk ruptured, causing me the greatest pain I’d ever experienced. They had to put me in a stretcher and bring me by ambulance to the hospital. But I never thought I would die.

One scarier moment was when the brakes on my car failed as I started to go down a big hill from my house in Starksboro. As I picked up more and more speed, I was worried I might crash into a tree and be seriously injured. When I would see some brush at the side of the road, I would steer through it to slow it down and I did the same at the bottom, when the car came to a gradual halt. It was totaled from underneath. But I never thought I was going to die.

I was once hit from the passenger site by another drunk driver and was in about 5 or six other crashes over many years of driving. But I never thought I was going to die.

The greatest tragedy and trauma of my life was when my younger brother Bill died on a college outing in a canoe on Lake George when he was only 20 years old. I can never forget the call I got from my father when I was in college in Ohio. It was incomprehensible that this could happen, but it did. The flight back was one long nightmare. I didn’t fly again for ten years. Every time I’ve flown since then I simply expected the plane to crash and I always have to fight that to fly. I think my father never got over it. My mother took as constructive approach as she could reaching out to any people she heard about who had suffered a tragedy.

In this covid era it’s easy to think about death. And since my heart attack I’ve followed the radical diet of Dr. Joel Fuhrman, and I’ve exercised and practiced table tennis a lot. None of that would have keep me alive if that driver hadn’t honked his horn.

I do remember one time, after my second heart procedure in in 1994, I woke up with some kind of pain in my chest. It went away, but I wrote this short poem:

And then one morning you don’t wake up.

Everyone says how surprised they are.

You would have been the most surprised,

but nothing surprises you anymore!

But my real philosophy was expressed in a long poem I wrote as part of a paper on freedom and self-determination. It is called “Freedom and the Moving I.” The concept is that there really is no constant self. It is constantly moving as time moves. So, we are continuously making our reality and definition of who we are.

And finally, there is the essay my grandfather, Bill Blatt wrote, called “Funerals are fun.”

It starts out, “You have the pleasant knowledge that this funeral is not your own. If it is, you don’t know it…..”  We read it at his funeral.

But for now, I think I’m going to just press the crossing button, look both ways, not talk on the cellphone, and not cross after dark!