Something familiar struck me about a passage I crossed in the Pedagogy of the Oppressed the other day: Humans, however, because they are aware of themselves and thus of the world—because they are conscious beings—exist in a dialectical relationship between the determination of limits and their own freedom. As they separate themselves from the world, […]
Read more "Limit Situations, Double Binds & Transformative Learning"This content was cross-posted on the Philosophy 12 course site. “It is to the reality which mediates [people], and to the perception of that reality held by educators and people, that we must go to find the program content of education.” Paulo Freire As we set out to encounter Metaphysics, my ambition as teacher is to […]
Read more "Metaphysical Emergence and the Discussable Object"As I continue to wade through Paulo Freire‘s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, it is easy to see its range of influence within faculties of education across North America. The intentions expressed in Freire’s praxis of critical pedagogy form the basis of (what I sense to be) most teacher-certification programs, graduate diplomas and masters programs. And yet we continue […]
Read more "Liberation Citizenship for the 21st Century"“There isn’t a profession in Canada that shouldn’t be required to understand the aboriginal experience.” So says the Commissioner of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission yesterday, a statement that will likely rankle those in Conservative conservative circles, but which I believe may not go far enough in addressing the Commission’s mission and mandate. From the […]
Read more "On Reconciliation"Part of my summer plans to reread a few formative books of my university years. It’s been ten years almost since I consciously “outgrew” Jack Kerouac’s singular influence on my young mind. Having long exhausted myself of his optimistic early work, I petered out through Desolation Angels and Big Sur as Jack faded into alcoholism […]
Read more "On dipping a toe…"For a formative period in my youth, I was made of books and words. Half a continent from home at the end of my adolescence, I filled the blank slate of my life in Arkansas with the stories and poetry of the literary zeitgeist of people like Jack Kerouac, Jim Morrison or Douglas Coupland. Such […]
Read more "The Summer Book Project"“People who hear about the types of trips we take with young people invariably have two responses,” I told the class just over a week ago. “They either say, ‘You’re crazy,’ or ‘Wow! How lucky are you to have such a job?’” I understand each of these responses. Maybe we are a little crazy: we […]
Read more "On outdoor trips and trust"Last week, the TALONS classes presented audio documentaries their small groups had been preparing out of individual threads of personal inquiry into the history of the Canadian Northwest (if you’re just joining us, here is a brief introduction to the project). Personal explorations became reflective and highly professional collaborative radio documentaries that were broadcast – via […]
Read more "Northwest Inquiry Radio Documentaries"Organizing Inquiry Topics These last few weeks, the TALONS have taken their study of Socials 10 west, from the fledgling union of Confederation to Hudson’s Bay, Manitoba, and the resistance that unfolds along the Red River Valley. In seeking out the story of Louis Riel, and how his execution – as well as the subsequent relationship between the government and the Metis, Inuit and other First Nations of the Northwest […]
Read more "Inquiry into the Northwest"I had the great pleasure this morning to speak with TALONS alumni Liam St. Louis, Jonathan Toews, Clayton Dowdell, Megan Edmunds, Zoe Fajber and Iris Hung (along with Verena Roberts & the #ETMOOC crowd via Google Hangout) about the experiments and experiences in Open Learning we’ve embarked on in their four years at Gleneagle. We mostly […]
Read more "TALONS Panel: Open High School Learning"