I finally had the chance to watch the much vaunted Sarah Palin reality show in which she flies 600 miles to kill one caribou. As a man who grew up with a hunting family and has spent the last 15 years living on mostly venison and elk I feel I can speak with authority on this eco porn episode. My first thought was trying to calculate how much per pound that caribou cost. They flew 600 miles to the base camp and then had to take three individual flights deeper into caribou country. This is not including the expensive tents, backpacks, meals for the trips and of course state of the art Cabela's type camouflage clothing, boots and of course the invisible camera crew.
A principle of sustainable hunting is that the taking of the animal should not consume more energy than the animal will provide.
Each fall during hunting season I walk off my porch carrying only a gun and a knife. In order to honor the spirit of the animal I fast and pray on the days that I hunt. When I am tuned in I will often have dreams about the animal and the place I will find it. When I finally encounter the animal I look in its eyes for a minute and then I take careful aim and shoot. One shot one kill is my motto. Sarah Palin relied heavily on the wise father archetype in her episode. She referred frequently to all the life lesson he had taught her. Apparently, however, he never taught her the value of sighting in your weapon, be it rifle or bow, before you head out to hunt. Maybe she just wasn't listening. Maybe both are true.
Hunting basics include sighting in your weapon before you head out to hunt.
I still have in my possession my father's machete from the Korean War.On the thin side away from the sharp side are multiple indentations. Those dents came from sharpshooter practice. We would shoot at the thin side from distances as great as 100 yards with everything from muzzle loading rifles to the Remington 30.06 I still hunt with to this day. My father took great pride in his marksman skills and although I never got so formal as to earn the patch or join the NRA I still take great pride in my shooting skills. I try to minimize the suffering of the animal by taking a head shot. I can say with pride that 8 of the 10 last seasons I shot a deer with a head shot. This sounds brutal but it minimizes suffering . In order to keep my hunting skills sharp I shoot from the same distance that I could kill with a bow.
Hunting is not a "sport."
Life is sacred. Life is Spirit. Spirit is Life. Food is Spirit. Spirit is Food.To me hunting is a prayer. I connect directly with my food. I pray for it before, during and after. I am continually amazed that the pro-life crowds' reverence for life does not extend to coyotes and other wild things.Nothing irritates me more than the hordes of drunk overweight slobs who infest the woods during deer season. They give this ancient ritual a bad name and their disdain for life will eventually lead to more and more restrictive hunting laws. Whenever I see hunters on television my stomach turns and I turn to something with more honor. Even "Jerseylicious" has more honor.
Although my childhood was filled with hunting we never had a mounted animal anywhere in our house. I took this even further when I grew up. In order to honor that life I have taken I don't snap any pictures of those animals. If I don't brain tan the hides myself or make a drum, I give it to friends who will use it. After butchering the animal myself, I cook all the meat off the bones and make stock. In the way of my ancestors everything gets used.
The one aspect of the show which may have turned the stomachs of the more effete members of the audience was when she showed the animal being butchered. People got to see what real meat looks like. I reflected on a kayak expedition I led in 1989 down the Syr Darya River in the former Soviet Union territories of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. We ate lamb and some sort of fish every day. Halfway through the trip we encountered a shepherd. We were most likely the first and last Americans that man had ever met. To honor the occasion, he offered the pick of any lamb or sheep from his flock.
He gave the honor to Paul, a yuppie from Seattle who spoke the best Russian. In an almost biblical fashion he paraded the entire flock by us. He was not a rich man and this clearly was a great honor. But Paul couldn't do it. He could eat meat but he did not have what it takes to take responsibility for his own meat. Most of the flock had nearly passed by us and Paul stood there immobilized. We were just about to insult the humble and generous shepherd when Yuri, my Soviet counterpart, yanked a fat lamb from the flock. The crisis was averted.
We still had plenty of food so the lamb went in the support raft. It traveled alive with us for two more days.At night the Russians would stake it out to feed inside our circle of tents. The American who were mostly urban Seattle yuppies talked of releasing the lamb. It clearly caused them great consternation. I pointed out the sounds of jackals in the distance which we heard every night. As diplomatically as I could I informed them that either the jackals or us would be eating that lamb in the not too distant future. A few days later there was the absence of a lamb's bleat and fresh tender lamb meat on the menu. They all ate it. After that experience I came to a simple conclusion.
If you cannot kill an animal perhaps you should not eat meat.
All these thoughts were swirling around my brain as I forced myself to watch the rest of the Sarah Palin "Reality?" Show. A lifetime of hunting, conversations with others around meat and food and life.I became grateful for the experiences life had offered me. I became grateful that I lived in a place where I could still to some degree follow the traditions of my ancestors. I became grateful for the intimate connection with my food whether it was spinach from my garden, mushrooms from the forest or venison from the fields.
I began thinking of another prominent female figure who was talking to Americans about food: Michelle Obama . Michelle has a dignity and grace not often found in political figures. Intelligent,educated and insightful, she has not taken on something dainty like libraries or roadside beautification. She has taken on childhood obesity and the health epidemic that our way of eating has created.
Gardens are not glamorous or exciting. They are quiet and peaceful. They offer a place for intimate connection to the earth. They offer places for reflection. Yet it is that small backyard garden with it abundant produce grown with love that will change this country for the better if we allow it.
I love my way of living in the forest with game close by but I also realize that this way of life is no longer possible for most Americans. But a garden, be it a pot with herbs in a window, a school or community garden or the skyscraper gardens of a fantasy future, is accessible to all Americans. I think I'll go with Michelle's dream.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
Change and the Seven Levels of Awareness
I have been a conscious change agent for over 20 years now and I have learned along the way that few groups of people ever change at the pace I wish they would. Whether it's trying to get a kid to go to treatment or getting the administration to understand the connections between behavior and food, no group of people has ever changed at my pace. As I pondered this over the years I developed a way of of understanding how groups and people change. I call it the Seven Levels of Awareness:
The Green Revolution began after the Great Depression generation watched their friends and relatives go hungry and in some cases actually die of hunger. They did not want to see that happen again so they began experimenting with synthetic fertilizers derived mostly from petroleum. Living now in the age of peak oil this seems insane but at the time petroleum was plentiful and cheap. Science was seen as the messiah for modern times. All of these factors combined synergistically to create incredible surpluses in food and eventually incredible surpluses in our waistlines.
As Peter Senge often points out, however, today's problems are yesterday's solutions.It seemed like a good idea at the time mom! The result of these shifts has been that the way of thinking of the Green Revolution became the new normal. The new normal since the 1950's is a massive disconnect between our food and us. Seeing a 32 ounce sugary soda as an adequate substitute for breakfast would have seemed ludicrous to my farming ancestors but that is exactly where we are at. Soda pop was an expensive luxury during the depression. Now it's just normal.
Three generations later, this grandchild of the depression generation has to bring to awareness the common knowledge of my great grandparents. I begin with just talking about things with the people I am around. I loan out books like "The Omnivore's Dilemma" to the person who purchases the food for the school. I leave informational fliers on the staff table. And of course I blog. This is the Exposure stage.
The principal of one school finally acknowledged that the school sign which has three foot high Pepsi letters above the 8 inch letters of the name of the school bugged him too. That school sold $5,000 worth of Pepsi products last year, they get free advertising on public property, and the Pepsi company made the school pay $300 for new Pepsi letters!
Getting people to commit to inquiry, whether it's an alcoholic contemplating sobriety or a school contemplating health requires the change agent to raise the discomfort level so high that they are forced to think about it. One young man developed an inflamed liver and kidney from his daily diet of soda and energy drinks. He went to the AMA doctor but finally started thinking about his habits. The doctor gave him pills but the real change occurred when he switched to drinking juice instead of pop, He inquired pretty much on his own.
The holiday season is when the Storming and Fever stage looms large. Deprivation issues arise when people think they will be missing out on their sugary goodies. Some of this results from values. I would much rather have a lean mobile body than a quick sugar rush but this perspective emerged over time. When people feel like they are going to be missing out on something, resentment can set in. Feelings of loss set in. It's the same when an alcoholic gives up alcohol for awhile and relapses later on. There is a grief during this time. Many alcoholics refer to quitting drinking as the loss of a friend. Seeing that our food practices today are essentially addictions, the same process takes place when I suggest to staff that perhaps that there might be an alternative to doughnuts at staff meetings.
I remember when I was in junior high back in the 1970's watching the teachers sitting in their staff room smoking and playing poker during lunch. Today schools are tobacco free zones although I have observed some old diehards still sneaking a smoke behind the buildings. Not everybody catches up to the new ways of thinking.
There is a relief that results when new ways of thinking are finally integrated into daily life. There is still a great deal of resistance to the notion of health at school. When I suggested at one staff meeting that we remove the pop machines, several teachers commented that the kids would just go buy the same products at the local junk mart. I responded quickly that following that logic, perhaps the school should sell cigarettes and alcohol because they could just go get them somewhere else anyway. The school may as well get the money!
- Exposure: A person gets exposed to a different way of thinking.
- Acknowledgment: The group or person acknowledges that perhaps their mental models no longer function effectively.
- Commitment to Inquiry: There is a conscious effort to examine the issue(s).
- Storming or Fever: When the budding awareness conflicts with existing beliefs and practices.
- Experimentation: The group or person tries on new behaviors on practices.
- Practice: The group or person consciously tries to integrate the new beliefs and practices into their daily life.
- Integration: The new behavior or belief becomes a natural part of group or person's daily life.
The Green Revolution began after the Great Depression generation watched their friends and relatives go hungry and in some cases actually die of hunger. They did not want to see that happen again so they began experimenting with synthetic fertilizers derived mostly from petroleum. Living now in the age of peak oil this seems insane but at the time petroleum was plentiful and cheap. Science was seen as the messiah for modern times. All of these factors combined synergistically to create incredible surpluses in food and eventually incredible surpluses in our waistlines.
As Peter Senge often points out, however, today's problems are yesterday's solutions.It seemed like a good idea at the time mom! The result of these shifts has been that the way of thinking of the Green Revolution became the new normal. The new normal since the 1950's is a massive disconnect between our food and us. Seeing a 32 ounce sugary soda as an adequate substitute for breakfast would have seemed ludicrous to my farming ancestors but that is exactly where we are at. Soda pop was an expensive luxury during the depression. Now it's just normal.
Three generations later, this grandchild of the depression generation has to bring to awareness the common knowledge of my great grandparents. I begin with just talking about things with the people I am around. I loan out books like "The Omnivore's Dilemma" to the person who purchases the food for the school. I leave informational fliers on the staff table. And of course I blog. This is the Exposure stage.
The principal of one school finally acknowledged that the school sign which has three foot high Pepsi letters above the 8 inch letters of the name of the school bugged him too. That school sold $5,000 worth of Pepsi products last year, they get free advertising on public property, and the Pepsi company made the school pay $300 for new Pepsi letters!
Getting people to commit to inquiry, whether it's an alcoholic contemplating sobriety or a school contemplating health requires the change agent to raise the discomfort level so high that they are forced to think about it. One young man developed an inflamed liver and kidney from his daily diet of soda and energy drinks. He went to the AMA doctor but finally started thinking about his habits. The doctor gave him pills but the real change occurred when he switched to drinking juice instead of pop, He inquired pretty much on his own.
The holiday season is when the Storming and Fever stage looms large. Deprivation issues arise when people think they will be missing out on their sugary goodies. Some of this results from values. I would much rather have a lean mobile body than a quick sugar rush but this perspective emerged over time. When people feel like they are going to be missing out on something, resentment can set in. Feelings of loss set in. It's the same when an alcoholic gives up alcohol for awhile and relapses later on. There is a grief during this time. Many alcoholics refer to quitting drinking as the loss of a friend. Seeing that our food practices today are essentially addictions, the same process takes place when I suggest to staff that perhaps that there might be an alternative to doughnuts at staff meetings.
I remember when I was in junior high back in the 1970's watching the teachers sitting in their staff room smoking and playing poker during lunch. Today schools are tobacco free zones although I have observed some old diehards still sneaking a smoke behind the buildings. Not everybody catches up to the new ways of thinking.
There is a relief that results when new ways of thinking are finally integrated into daily life. There is still a great deal of resistance to the notion of health at school. When I suggested at one staff meeting that we remove the pop machines, several teachers commented that the kids would just go buy the same products at the local junk mart. I responded quickly that following that logic, perhaps the school should sell cigarettes and alcohol because they could just go get them somewhere else anyway. The school may as well get the money!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Another School Garden!
There is something slightly anarchist about using boxes which used to contain Monster energy drink and junk food from the local junk mart to begin creating a lasagna garden bed. That's exactly what we did yesterday. I had liberated several bags of leaves from the Hood River Library so we used those and the cardboard to begin sheet composting the Klickitat School Garden.
blasagna garden
Some of the kids focused on tearing down on old fence. I grimaced as I watched the boys swinging a sledge hammer but nobody got hurt. The alpha female ran around giving directions to her classmates but generally didn't listen to me. Another girl raked leaves and cleaned up the area around our first garden plot. I tried to direct the kids to help me with the sheet composting or lasagna gardening but it became clear they had no idea what I was talking about so I just started laying down cardboard and dumping the bags of leaves on top. Some would call this modeling. It worked. Once they saw what I was talking about they started helping.
When I began explaining what I was doing, I realized that I was starting at ground zero with several of these kids. This became even more apparent when I started talking about adding manure to our lasagna gardening. One young man was incredulous. "You mean we're putting poop in our garden?" He had a series of questions after that. He was very concerned that I not touch the manure with my hands. As the process unfolded I began to see that we were creating much more than a garden here.
Knowledge which I just take for granted, knowledge which I consider second nature was absolutely startling to these kids. They did not know the connection between the deposits from the south end of a mule going north and spinach. Any why would they? Most of what they called food came from the double-deep-fried-brown-everything section of the adjacent store. Much of their "food" came in a box and got reheated in the oven.
But they learned quickly and grasped on to what I was doing. As I reflected on the process yesterday I realized I had made some assumptions. Although these kids lived in a beautiful rural area, they were actually urban. The term "rurban" came to mind. Rural kids with urban disconnectedness to the great wheel of life.
Some of these kids hunted so they did have the life experience of looking their food in the eye but vegetables and gardens were another matter. A lot happened yesterday. The kids were excited. They learned something and they began creating something which is theirs.
blasagna garden
Some of the kids focused on tearing down on old fence. I grimaced as I watched the boys swinging a sledge hammer but nobody got hurt. The alpha female ran around giving directions to her classmates but generally didn't listen to me. Another girl raked leaves and cleaned up the area around our first garden plot. I tried to direct the kids to help me with the sheet composting or lasagna gardening but it became clear they had no idea what I was talking about so I just started laying down cardboard and dumping the bags of leaves on top. Some would call this modeling. It worked. Once they saw what I was talking about they started helping.
When I began explaining what I was doing, I realized that I was starting at ground zero with several of these kids. This became even more apparent when I started talking about adding manure to our lasagna gardening. One young man was incredulous. "You mean we're putting poop in our garden?" He had a series of questions after that. He was very concerned that I not touch the manure with my hands. As the process unfolded I began to see that we were creating much more than a garden here.
Knowledge which I just take for granted, knowledge which I consider second nature was absolutely startling to these kids. They did not know the connection between the deposits from the south end of a mule going north and spinach. Any why would they? Most of what they called food came from the double-deep-fried-brown-everything section of the adjacent store. Much of their "food" came in a box and got reheated in the oven.
But they learned quickly and grasped on to what I was doing. As I reflected on the process yesterday I realized I had made some assumptions. Although these kids lived in a beautiful rural area, they were actually urban. The term "rurban" came to mind. Rural kids with urban disconnectedness to the great wheel of life.
Some of these kids hunted so they did have the life experience of looking their food in the eye but vegetables and gardens were another matter. A lot happened yesterday. The kids were excited. They learned something and they began creating something which is theirs.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Friday Rant: Who Would Jesus Feed?
Like most Americans I quote the Bible to suit my purposes but know very little about it. I read the whole thing a time or two and I don't remember much but I do remember that story about Jesus dividing loaves and fishes up so a whole unexpected crowd got fed. That made a big impression on me.
Consequently I am flabbergasted when shortly after the Pledge of Allegiance (one nation under God) I hear a person who publicly identifies with the religion of the dominant culture question whether or not it's the school's job to feed children..
Wow!
The logic of these tea bagger types is that if we provide money and food for these children, then it merely enables the parents not to do their job and feed their own children. A crasser version of this came from a now forgotten millionaire who said something to the effect that when we feed poor people they just multiply. So we shouldn't feed poor people.
Wow!
In case you were curious about the dollar figures, here's a few stunners: The federal government spends 11 billion on school lunches and 2650 billion on the military....wars past, present and future....So following the logic of the conservative faithful perhaps we need to quit funding the military so much......After all, if we do, they will just breed and multiply.
Have a good weekend. Namaste Jeff
Consequently I am flabbergasted when shortly after the Pledge of Allegiance (one nation under God) I hear a person who publicly identifies with the religion of the dominant culture question whether or not it's the school's job to feed children..
Wow!
The logic of these tea bagger types is that if we provide money and food for these children, then it merely enables the parents not to do their job and feed their own children. A crasser version of this came from a now forgotten millionaire who said something to the effect that when we feed poor people they just multiply. So we shouldn't feed poor people.
Wow!
In case you were curious about the dollar figures, here's a few stunners: The federal government spends 11 billion on school lunches and 2650 billion on the military....wars past, present and future....So following the logic of the conservative faithful perhaps we need to quit funding the military so much......After all, if we do, they will just breed and multiply.
Have a good weekend. Namaste Jeff
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Integrated School Health Tip: The Appreciation Circle
In case you ever wondered whether or not it was a bad idea for substitute teachers to play dodge ball with highly agitated middle schoolers a week and a half before Christmas break......it is.The game resulted in one physical fight, two major conflicts and an entire class that could not focus on anything for the rest of the day.
I had been asked to lead a mousetrap activity from my book but I picked up on the energy right away when I walked into the classroom. Accusations were flying back and forth. People had chosen sides, of course, and the sub was at a loss....the dark side of anarchy.
The plan was to watch the last part of a movie and then do a trust activity with mousetraps but the gods had different plans. I started by just asking what happened and received a multitude of field reports with interesting variations on reality.Of course most of them felt obligated to give their view point and that took awhile. It was starting to drag until one student suggested we do a compliment or appreciation circle "like we do in yoga class."
I first learned this technique from Lynn Duus who called it "strength bombardment." I changed it to appreciation circle and was reintroduced to it again from Lynea Gillen at Yoga Calm who called it the "compliment circle."
By any name, the idea is the same. One person stands in the center of the circle and receives compliments from the rest of the group. I had not often done an appreciation circle in whole classes. I preferred to save it for smaller groups where some degree of intimacy and connection had already been established. My intuition said this could really backfire but I often venture into territory where angel, demons and fools fear to tread.Certainly nothing of any educational nature was going to happen.
I picked the first of the two girls who had been squabbling about something all day and placed her in the center of the circle. Generally I do not allow kids in yoga class or group to "pass" but I told them in this case I would allow it. I also do not allow any qualifiers. "You are nice but......" I did not ask for elaborate compliments either. I could clearly see that we were starting from ground zero. Anything would be progress at this juncture.
And it worked.
Five or six kids (one at a time) were blessed by standing in a circle of their peers and receiving compliments. The mood shifted almost visibly. It seemed like they were starting to recenter so I told them it was time to start the movie and finish the lesson. There was a clamor to continue. I thought it about it for a minute and then told them I would continue on one condition: no more passes and everybody had to agree.
We continued the rest of the period giving compliments with only one complaint: not everybody had a chance to go.
Instructions for Appreciation Circle
I had been asked to lead a mousetrap activity from my book but I picked up on the energy right away when I walked into the classroom. Accusations were flying back and forth. People had chosen sides, of course, and the sub was at a loss....the dark side of anarchy.
The plan was to watch the last part of a movie and then do a trust activity with mousetraps but the gods had different plans. I started by just asking what happened and received a multitude of field reports with interesting variations on reality.Of course most of them felt obligated to give their view point and that took awhile. It was starting to drag until one student suggested we do a compliment or appreciation circle "like we do in yoga class."
I first learned this technique from Lynn Duus who called it "strength bombardment." I changed it to appreciation circle and was reintroduced to it again from Lynea Gillen at Yoga Calm who called it the "compliment circle."
By any name, the idea is the same. One person stands in the center of the circle and receives compliments from the rest of the group. I had not often done an appreciation circle in whole classes. I preferred to save it for smaller groups where some degree of intimacy and connection had already been established. My intuition said this could really backfire but I often venture into territory where angel, demons and fools fear to tread.Certainly nothing of any educational nature was going to happen.
I picked the first of the two girls who had been squabbling about something all day and placed her in the center of the circle. Generally I do not allow kids in yoga class or group to "pass" but I told them in this case I would allow it. I also do not allow any qualifiers. "You are nice but......" I did not ask for elaborate compliments either. I could clearly see that we were starting from ground zero. Anything would be progress at this juncture.
And it worked.
Five or six kids (one at a time) were blessed by standing in a circle of their peers and receiving compliments. The mood shifted almost visibly. It seemed like they were starting to recenter so I told them it was time to start the movie and finish the lesson. There was a clamor to continue. I thought it about it for a minute and then told them I would continue on one condition: no more passes and everybody had to agree.
We continued the rest of the period giving compliments with only one complaint: not everybody had a chance to go.
Instructions for Appreciation Circle
- Instruct students in how to give a pure compliment. By pure I mean there are no qualifiers. Often I give an extreme example. "You used to be a jerk but now you're nice." That's not OK.
- One person at a time stands in the center of a circle and receives compliments.
- That person's only response is "thank you."
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
A Different Kind of School
I had a dream last night about a different kind of school. We all remember school. Endless hours hunched over workbooks, textbooks, textbook and now of course netbooks. Lines, rules, regulations, codes, policies, rules, procedures, hierarchy, and of course rules.
This was a different kind of school. There were no long dark narrow hallways reminiscent of hospitals. This school had large airy south facing windows and skylights in every classroom. As I walked around the structure I caught snippets of conversations. The ninth graders were engrossed in a unit on sacred geometry. They were studying the sacred geometry of the pyramids and speculating on whether or not there was contact between the Egyptian pyramid builders and the Mayan Pyramid builders.
The English class was getting a little noisy with their poetry slam so the principal walked down the hallway and quietly closed the door. The students were engaged in a vigorous rap, hip hop and beat poetry competition. Yes kids were excited about English class!
The science teacher was concerned about the ph level of the chicken feed so he sent a student out to the school garden to measure the level. That student recorded the levels and emailed them back on his iphone to the classroom so the class could come up with solutions. Emailing saved a trip back and then she could help the Sustainable Futures class (formerly called Consumer Education) gather eggs for the mid morning school snack.
Another science class was across town wiring the solar shingles into the new Habitat for Humanity straw bale home. The home had been built as part of a learning expedition. The Sustainable Economics class had raised the initial funds through an innovative cottage industry program and then invested those funds in environmentally responsible stocks and bonds. After a year, they had enough to start. They sure had to be patient that year! The math class had decided after a consensus session to build the home based on the principles of the Golden Mean. This gave the home a feeling unlike any other. Almost everything in that home came from the local area. The poles to make the framework had been salvaged from a slash pile in a nearby logging operation. The straw bales came from a local farmer.
As I continued walking I noticed things I had never seen in school before (at least no school I had ever seen). The civics class (were they teaching that again?) was extremely nervous about their upcoming test so the teacher was leading them through some breathing exercises and a few sun salutations to help them prepare. Of course one student had to be different and insisted on doing a head stand instead. He wasn't punished but the teacher did insist on a few spotters.
Each week the school had different kinds of music piped over the school wide intercom. The music was sometimes chosen by consensus but at different times of the year there were silly competitions between classes and clubs to determine what music would be played. The FFA (was that back too?) had won the bubble blowing contest this week so the hipsters were suffering good naturedly through Taylor Swift and Merle Haggard.
I found the principal again in the enormous greenhouse that provided both heat and food for the building. She was engaged in a vigorous debate with the permaculture class over whether today was the optimal time to harvest the basil. They wanted to wait three days. She thought the time was now. The students won.
Then I woke up. I never did get to see the rest of that school.
Was it just a dream?
This was a different kind of school. There were no long dark narrow hallways reminiscent of hospitals. This school had large airy south facing windows and skylights in every classroom. As I walked around the structure I caught snippets of conversations. The ninth graders were engrossed in a unit on sacred geometry. They were studying the sacred geometry of the pyramids and speculating on whether or not there was contact between the Egyptian pyramid builders and the Mayan Pyramid builders.
The English class was getting a little noisy with their poetry slam so the principal walked down the hallway and quietly closed the door. The students were engaged in a vigorous rap, hip hop and beat poetry competition. Yes kids were excited about English class!
The science teacher was concerned about the ph level of the chicken feed so he sent a student out to the school garden to measure the level. That student recorded the levels and emailed them back on his iphone to the classroom so the class could come up with solutions. Emailing saved a trip back and then she could help the Sustainable Futures class (formerly called Consumer Education) gather eggs for the mid morning school snack.
Another science class was across town wiring the solar shingles into the new Habitat for Humanity straw bale home. The home had been built as part of a learning expedition. The Sustainable Economics class had raised the initial funds through an innovative cottage industry program and then invested those funds in environmentally responsible stocks and bonds. After a year, they had enough to start. They sure had to be patient that year! The math class had decided after a consensus session to build the home based on the principles of the Golden Mean. This gave the home a feeling unlike any other. Almost everything in that home came from the local area. The poles to make the framework had been salvaged from a slash pile in a nearby logging operation. The straw bales came from a local farmer.
As I continued walking I noticed things I had never seen in school before (at least no school I had ever seen). The civics class (were they teaching that again?) was extremely nervous about their upcoming test so the teacher was leading them through some breathing exercises and a few sun salutations to help them prepare. Of course one student had to be different and insisted on doing a head stand instead. He wasn't punished but the teacher did insist on a few spotters.
Each week the school had different kinds of music piped over the school wide intercom. The music was sometimes chosen by consensus but at different times of the year there were silly competitions between classes and clubs to determine what music would be played. The FFA (was that back too?) had won the bubble blowing contest this week so the hipsters were suffering good naturedly through Taylor Swift and Merle Haggard.
I found the principal again in the enormous greenhouse that provided both heat and food for the building. She was engaged in a vigorous debate with the permaculture class over whether today was the optimal time to harvest the basil. They wanted to wait three days. She thought the time was now. The students won.
Then I woke up. I never did get to see the rest of that school.
Was it just a dream?
Monday, December 6, 2010
The Wild Wild Wild West of School Lunches: Eggs For Breakfast?
The school breakfast menu read something like this:scrambled eggs, toast, milk, apple sauce. That sounded like a reasonable breakfast. Protein, grain and juice. What could be wrong with that?
I found the box that had contained the "scrambled eggs" and of course I squirreled it away and back up to my office. On the cover of box was a picture of a bucolic farm setting reminiscent of Old MacDonald's farm. It made one think that the eggs in my meal might have been gathered by sturdy and robust children before being brought lovingly to the school.
This intrepid label reader found the following in your child's "eggs"
This intrepid label reader found the following in your child's "eggs"
whole eggs, egg whites, whey, skim milk, soybean oil, salt, xanthan gum, citric acid, .15% water as a carrier for citric acid
64% cholesterol
10% fat
16% sodium 380 milligrams
2 grams sugar
11 grams protein
1% carbohydrates
This is in a 1/2 cup serving. How many kids do you think will only take 1/2 cup? The ingredient list starts out harmlessly. Egg, eggs, milk, soybean oil (not great but ok, although most likely that oil comes from genetically modified soy beans), salt, and then that mysterious stuff known as xanthan gum. Xanthan gum is strange looking gooey substance that is formed from three "corn sugars." To make things simple xanthan gum is a derivative of corn syrup.
"Caloric availability and digestibility studies indicated that xanthan gum is not utilized by the body. This conclusion was substantiated by the finding that practically all of the gum fed during a & -day period could be accounted for in the feces." (Booth et al.,1963)
Friday, December 3, 2010
Landing and Launching: 101 Checkins and Checkouts: Installation #11
21 Sand Tray
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour. William Blake
Preparation time:Fifteen minutes
Materials:
(1) A shallow 2x2 box capable of holding sand.* (Dimensions can vary. If you are always in a classroom I would suggest creating a permanently stationed box 3x3 or larger.)
(2) Miniature garden tools (check toy stores)
(3) A variety of miniature props
(4) A small stone or two
Procedure:
Short time option: Best if you are in a classroom or other institutional setting
(1) Explain to participants that the sand tray represents our group and individual universe.
(2) Instruct participants one at a time to place an object from the props in the sand tray.
(3) After this is finished, ask participants to draw a shape in the sand.
(4) The prop and the drawing represent their present reality and emotional state.
(5) In the round or “popcorn” participants may share the shape and object they chose.
More Time Option: If you are at the beginning of a long day or weekend retreat you may want to consider this option.
(1) You will want a larger more visibly present sand tray 4x4 or larger if you have the space.
(2) Instruct participants to go outside and find two stones. One stone represents their present perceptional reality or emotional state. The second stone represents their wishes, goals, hopes and dreams.
(3) One at a time either in the round or popcorn style participants share both their present reality and their future state.
(1) You can also reframe this with three stones. They represent past, present and future.
Alternatives: If you really enjoy this activity you want to consider helping your students create their own sand trays for home and school or both. The best option I have found for this is old lunch pails. They generally have a colorful theme and can be closed to keep the family cat from using the tray when nobody's around.
Notes: Use your imagination and creativity when creating a box. Since I am so mobile I use a smaller jewelry box and keep the sand, tool and props in baggies. Nine by twelve glass Pyrex baking pans are a functional size and they usually come with a plastic cover. You don't really need it to be more that two inches deep. You will most likely find that a sand tray leads to wonderfully imaginative journeys.
*If you are a craft type person you can go to our website for several different plans to make your own sand tray.
Activity Credit: Adapted from Jean Sutton’s therapy practice.
High Concept
22 High Ropes Course Gear
Preparation time: None!!! Providing of course that you are on a high ropes course.
Materials:
(1) Helmets: Who leads but does not have a title? The head of the organization/group, not necessarily titles
(2) Carabiners: Who links things, ideas and people together?
(3) Ropes: The lifeline. Who/What is your lifeline?
(4) Harnesses: Who keeps everybody safe?
(5) Shear Reduction Devices: Who reduces or mediates conflict?
(6) Figure 8: Who helps you float and gives you a sense of freedom?
(7) Rescue 8: Who rescues others from difficult situations?
(8) All the different elements: Ropes courses all have different elements but think about what each could represent. Most courses have a jungle gym. What jungles do you have in your life?
(9) Pulleys: Who makes your job easier?
Procedure:
(1) Explain to the group that each thing we use on the high ropes course represents a useful function of each member
Notes: These metaphors can easily be used as checkouts. You might consider using these metaphors at the beginning and end of your high ropes day.
Activity Credit: Adapted from 10 years of running ropes courses with Bill Smith.
23 Matruska Dolls
Preparation time: Five minutes or less
Materials: Matruska doll preferably unpainted. A matruska doll also called a nesting doll consists of anywhere from 5-10 hollow wooden dolls of increasingly smaller sizes. Traditionally they were elaborately painted and then lacquered. You way want to paint yours or obtain a painted one but I prefer mine unpainted.
Procedure: With the five layer doll explain that each layer represents a layer of ourselves:
(1) Social: Church, school, sports, clubs
(2) Family: Biological family, adopted family, those taken into the family “like family”
(3) Friendships: Our larger circle of friends, people we most often hang out with
(4) Intimate relationships (for younger audiences best friend)
(5) The true self: the me that nobody sees and few know
Ask participants to explain how they are in each situation. Are they loud, funny, hostile, relaxed, withdrawn, secretive, revealing, completely honest?
Alternatives: You can also teach other models of the layers of the self
Notes: This activity is an example of finding meaning anywhere and everywhere. The unpainted matruska doll I now possess sat on a shelf in the Wishram teacher's lounge. When I came in for my bi-weekly visits I would ask who it belonged to. Nobody knew. After a few weeks of this the book keeper asked “if you want it why don't you just take it?” I took this as permission and it's been traveling with me ever since.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Integrated School Health Tip #9: Classroom Mental Health: Kerplunk
One of the most difficult things for most teachers to get a handle in the classroom is the constant stream of slurs, put downs, slams and clever one liners that disrupt the peace and serenity of the classroom. If you want to move your classroom toward being a more supportive environment, the slur, both casual and intentional.
My personal pet peeve is the use of the word "gay" to describe anything kids don't like. I find it more offensive than the "f" bomb or the "s" word. Yet it is used with impunity and the kids seem to have beaten the teachers into submission on this one. It happens so often that it just becomes part of the background scenery. It has to stop.
But as even the most amateur behaviorist knows, as soon as you tell kids not to do something, they immediately do it more. You have to be smarter than the kids and use gimmicks to create awareness. A simple tool to increase awareness of put downs is the game kerplunk.
Th game Kerplunk consists of a clear plastic cylindrical tube with a lot of holes drilled in it, marbles and colored slender plastic sticks. The sticks are inserted in the holes in various directions so they create a framework to support the marbles. The framework of support creates a wonderful metaphor for the support each student needs in the classroom.
My personal pet peeve is the use of the word "gay" to describe anything kids don't like. I find it more offensive than the "f" bomb or the "s" word. Yet it is used with impunity and the kids seem to have beaten the teachers into submission on this one. It happens so often that it just becomes part of the background scenery. It has to stop.
But as even the most amateur behaviorist knows, as soon as you tell kids not to do something, they immediately do it more. You have to be smarter than the kids and use gimmicks to create awareness. A simple tool to increase awareness of put downs is the game kerplunk.
Th game Kerplunk consists of a clear plastic cylindrical tube with a lot of holes drilled in it, marbles and colored slender plastic sticks. The sticks are inserted in the holes in various directions so they create a framework to support the marbles. The framework of support creates a wonderful metaphor for the support each student needs in the classroom.
- Explain to the class that the game Kerplunk will be used as a scientific measuring device to track the number of put downs in the classroom.
- Put all the sticks in and one marble to represent each class member.
- Every time somebody makes a put down remove one stick.
- If you get to the point where a marble or two drops, stop and explain to the class that those marbles represent people the class did not support.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Integrated School Health Tip #8: The Crisis/Christmas Season
It's as predictable as corrupt politicians. It begins a week before Thanksgiving break and ends sometime in early January. Not all kids experience Hallmark holidays with smiling relatives and June Cleaver icons running around dishing out gravy and marveling over their new hand warmers under the Christmas tree.
Holidays bring out dump truck loads of emotions in kids at school. Sometimes they get shuffled from mixed family setting to mixed family setting. Sometimes absentee dads randomly show up or don't show up at all. Sometimes absentee Disney land dad shows up with an armful of presents and disappears shortly afterward. Sometimes mom or dad's recent or latest partner shows up. Even in the most functional of families, holidays can be a reminder of who is not there: a recently deceased grandparent or sibling overseas in the military. Sometimes, especially in this economy, there's not enough money to buy all the stuff TV land wants you to buy.
When you throw a little substance abuse into the mix, things get even more complicated. Seems like most families have at least one alcoholic relative. Sometimes the entire event whether it be Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's is one long drinking event. More than one kid has told me they'd rather go to school than stay home.
Teachers and other school staff see the end results of this angst in their classrooms. A friend of mine told me about two girls fighting in the cafeteria of a school she works in. One threw her taco salad (a subconscious rejection perhaps?). She was surprised. I wasn't. In another school I was about to enter a middle school classroom to get kids for a yoga group when a girl leaving the classroom in tears nearly knocked me over. Yoga that day turned out to be a conflict resolution session.
People under stress go to their default or survival strategies. Middle schoolers with few skills will resort to basic defensive strategies unless somebody takes the time to teach them something different. In the next few weeks I am going to provide some mental health tips to help you manage those roller coaster emotions of childhood and adolescence.
Holidays bring out dump truck loads of emotions in kids at school. Sometimes they get shuffled from mixed family setting to mixed family setting. Sometimes absentee dads randomly show up or don't show up at all. Sometimes absentee Disney land dad shows up with an armful of presents and disappears shortly afterward. Sometimes mom or dad's recent or latest partner shows up. Even in the most functional of families, holidays can be a reminder of who is not there: a recently deceased grandparent or sibling overseas in the military. Sometimes, especially in this economy, there's not enough money to buy all the stuff TV land wants you to buy.
When you throw a little substance abuse into the mix, things get even more complicated. Seems like most families have at least one alcoholic relative. Sometimes the entire event whether it be Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's is one long drinking event. More than one kid has told me they'd rather go to school than stay home.
Teachers and other school staff see the end results of this angst in their classrooms. A friend of mine told me about two girls fighting in the cafeteria of a school she works in. One threw her taco salad (a subconscious rejection perhaps?). She was surprised. I wasn't. In another school I was about to enter a middle school classroom to get kids for a yoga group when a girl leaving the classroom in tears nearly knocked me over. Yoga that day turned out to be a conflict resolution session.
People under stress go to their default or survival strategies. Middle schoolers with few skills will resort to basic defensive strategies unless somebody takes the time to teach them something different. In the next few weeks I am going to provide some mental health tips to help you manage those roller coaster emotions of childhood and adolescence.
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