This Book is Not Required

...but I wish it was. I wish this book were assigned to me when I was in college. I am half-way through this book and the only reason I haven’t finished it is because I have much to say about it and probably should have been blogging after each chapter (the topics are great)! It is somewhat of a "living document" as it has been updated over the years with contributions from students.

Basically, the book examines “participatory” education and what the author calls “Buddhist sociology” and has some great reading and even some exercises to do. (Anyone who works in higher education - administrator, professor, everyone - should read this book.) It’s not full of citations and references, it’s incredibly readable, and will make students actually think about their education.

Here’s a brief rundown of things I’ve wanted to discuss:

Grades

I definitely agree with the premise that the grading system (particularly for young children) doesn’t really help people learn as it makes the grade the reward instead of the process of learning itself. I do have a couple points of view on this topic that I would like to share:

First of all, I am someone who has had to deal with what I will call the “perfectionism” disease, and it took me time to come to terms with the fact that I am me, not my grades. But, I think that journey was a valuable one. Yes, there may have been points in my life when I thought grade was more important than the learning, but as I’ve gotten older, I found that if I study what I love and enjoy the process, the good grades usually follow.

That said, I am coming from the perspective of someone who has generally always enjoyed school and never had any difficulties in the learning process. I think for people like me, perhaps the process of coming to terms with the fact that I am not my grades is a good lesson, but what about other students out there that may not be as naturally inclined in the academic realm for whom grades are a source of anxiety? I think grades can then start an incredibly negative cycle of self-worth and confidence in young children that should really enjoy “discovery” and “process” and feel good and excited about learning instead of living in fear of bad grades and stress from parents and teachers.

The Standardization of Education

As much as we like to discuss the diversity of the different types of colleges and universities out there, higher education is standardized. - This is not (in my opinion) a good thing. While I do enjoy college campuses (particularly older ones, like MHC), I think it’s important to understand that as “diverse” as types of colleges and universities are, the education system itself is standard. Learning takes place (generally) in classrooms. Students receive grades for their work. Academia is full of “gatekeepers.” Learning shouldn’t be confined to this format (how limiting!) and furthermore, it makes education appear so inaccessible!

Wisdom & Knowledge

Wow, I’ve got many pages in this chapter marked. Okay, so the authors compare wisdom to knowledge where knowledge is all the information thrown at us in school and wisdom is self-knowledge that involves not just the self, but the world around you. A good example from the book is the difference between studying something from a book vs. living it. The author taught a course on race relations - now you can read, and read, and read all you want and get to know all kinds of facts and opinions on the topic. Then the author brought a black activist to talk to the class. After that, the students better understood that, “Intellect alone could not fathom the phenomenon of black anger. The word is not the thing” (p. 71).

The author also talks about how students separate knowledge from wisdom and become “learned fools - people who can rattle off the ideologies of countless groups but still naively trust that their own version of truth is immutable and not to be questioned” (p. 72). Personally, I think the first topic discussed, grading, can lend itself negatively to this problem. Perhaps students think, “Well, I’m graded on the ideologies of others, I’m not graded on how this information influences me.”

Religion is discussed in this section and the author brings in some discussion of Buddhist and Hindu philosophies. While I haven’t particularly looked at my view on knowledge (or my values on a whole) from this perspective, I have to say it makes me feel quite zen. See, as time goes by, I’ve found that to be a good learner, you need to be open. And this is not just in the academic sense, but in life-learning as well. At one point in my life, I thought holding on firmly and tightly to convictions was important. -But if everyone does this, how can there be common ground? How can there be respect? How can we live together? How can we agree to disagree? It’s okay to believe what you believe. But perhaps it is more important to keep your mind open to other perspectives and other views and not just immediately shut other ideas out. It’s important to always have a critical eye - to question things - but you need to question what you know and what you think you know with as much scrutiny as you are critical of other people and unfamiliar ideas.

It’s kind of like “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” - how sometimes teaching a beginner (let’s use playing the violin as an example) is easier than someone more advanced. It’s easier to teach a beginner from scratch how to correctly do something than it is to teach a student that has learned something incorrectly to “un-do” the incorrect way they learned to do something previously. So yes, this idea but applied to the mind - seeing things with a “beginner’s mind” - open, and fresh. Not full of what has been pounded in our brains by parents, school, and the media. Staying open. Questioning what you know. Questioning what others know.

The author advises students to not separate themselves from the process of learning and to always ask, “What can it teach me about myself?” when learning any subject. I think this is sound advice, not just for school, but for life in general.

Pursuing Wisdom in the Academy

This chapter relates similarly to the previous chapter, but gives advice to students on how they can use college to pursue wisdom, not just knowledge. Some of the main ideas here are:

You need to meet others of different views to understand that you have a view of the world (p. 86)
Internal experience combined with other peoples’ outsides lead us to misperceive the world (p. 89)
Attaining wisdom requires engagement of the senses, not just reading and writing (p. 102)

Adventures in Desocialization

This chapter offers up some activities to try to undo, or at least understand the ways we’ve been socialized. “Sociologists study this process in great detail, demonstrating how we are, completely, creatures of our culture. However, they never seem to step beyond this stage and actually try to free us from social conditioning, nor do they point out that this freedom is even possible” (p. 108). The focus of this chapter is to understand the ways we’ve been conditioned in society.

The activities are great and do focus on “The Self” - ideas we have of our “real self” and our “ideal self,” self-criticism, and expectations. I think the idea that the “real self” and “ideal self” are both illusions is interesting - as the book says, “Buddhism tells us that, to get rid of the problematic self, we need not change any aspect of it. We only need to accept what is there” (p. 115). This idea is freeing in a way. This chapter also discusses the idea of “the critical voice” as an enemy (so true) and that expectations ruin satisfaction (again, also true).

In retrospect, since reading this chapter, I honestly think I’ve been less critical of myself and I have tried to focus more on the present (though it is difficult). I have come up with my own exercise as a result of this chapter. I will call it the “apple” project. Assuming I’ve gone grocery shopping, I get an apple (occasionally a plum or nectarine) for everyday at work. Usually, I eat it, absentmindedly while I am working or playing around online. From now on, I am going to try to focus on the present while eating my fruit. Savoring the flavor, thinking about the crunch in my mouth, enjoying where I am - and occasionally eating my apple at different locations on campus, enjoying my surroundings. :)

Ed Admin vs. Ed Foundations and Other Things...

Recently, I’ve been spending my lunch breaks at work at the campus bookstore, perusing the texts that are trickling in for the fall. I must say, my heart skipped more than just a few beats when I saw the texts out for some courses in the educational foundations department. So, confession: I probably do belong in the EDEF department more than I belong in the EDEA department. I do enjoy my courses and my professors, but I think my academic interests lie more in the foundations of, the philosophy of, and the social contexts of education more than within education administration. –Had I really put more thought into it, I probably would have concluded that I belonged in the EDEF department with a focus in the social & cultural contexts of education, and taking my electives in higher education administration.

From the “credits” perspective, I’m half-way through the EDEA program – and I know almost all the EDEA professors. It hardly makes sense to switch departments. –And I could take some classes in EDEF…I just feel that my lack of time for classes makes it incredibly difficult for me to do this!

Here are the courses I’m drooling over:

EDEF 685 – International Development Education
Texts:
Expanding the Boundaries of Transformative Learning
Transformative Learning

EDEF 698 – Advanced Topics: Feminist Studies in Education
Texts:
Feeling Power: Emotions and Education
World, Class, Women: Global Literature, Education, and Feminism

EDEF 762 – Seminar on the Social & Cultural Contexts of Education
Texts:
Durkheim on Morality and Society
Durkheim – The rules of Sociological Method
Das Kapital
The Great Transformation
(I'd really love the chance to read more Durkheim...*sigh*)

It’s okay. Perhaps I’ll have more of a chance to foray into these topics when I go for my PhD. ☺

In the meantime, I picked up the texts for the intro course to my program (go figure that I’m taking it now that I’m half way done…). I also did the smart thing and emailed the professor for the syllabus! I’m planning to squish the course reading (and perhaps some of the writing, at least the journaling) into my summer reading to make my fall more manageable.

Speaking of summer reading, I’m half-way through “This Book is Not Required." It’s a great, practical read that I think would be beneficial to all college students – and honestly, everyone. Discussion on this book will be forthcoming. I’ve also got some more books on their way (I was hoping they’d arrive today but I’ll have to wait until Monday).

An idea popped into my head while at the bookstore today – to read several books around a central theme from the perspectives of different subjects, and discuss the common threads or subject-specific insights they may offer. Since flipping through Schwartz’s “The Paradox of Choice” and thinking – “Hey, I’m not that burdened by choice…” the more I came to realize that, “Hello, yeah, you are!” From choosing my major, to my career, to where I’ll go to grad school, to what I’ll eat for dinner and even to which book I’m going to read next! Isn’t it odd that I actually feel stress in choosing which book I am going to read next for fun??? And in the big picture of it all, my major didn’t really matter so much, and which book I’ll read next is irrelevant…so why do I feel stress in making that decision? Anyhow, that will be the theme – choices/decisions. The books I’ve selected are:
The Paradox of Choice (Barry Schwartz) - sociology
Blink (Malcolm Gladwell) - psychology
Nudge (Richard Thaler) - economics
Sway (Ori Brafman) – business/marketing

I may not read all four of them, but I will be choosing at least 2, likely 3 of these books for this fun little project.

Banker to the Poor - Discussion

Okay, so it’s been a long time coming, but finally, here is my discussion on Banker to the Poor. I’ll start with a very brief synopsis of the book and the ideas that Yunus discusses. I’ll then talk about the ties I see between his book and the way it relates to technology & social justice. Finally, I’ll talk a little about some observations made my myself and people the book club I joined. ☺

On the whole, I’d say that the beginning of the book is probably the most “exciting.” We hear the story of Yunus’ childhood – what it was like growing up in Bangladesh, from family stories to his education - progressing through different universities around the world, as well as the independence of Bangladesh. The book then proceeds as sort of a timeline, from Yunus’ first ideas of ways to help the poor, to the growth and expansion of Grameen bank.

Yunus contends that credit should be a human right – along with food, clothing, and shelter. Unfortunately, only those that have the collateral are able to access credit. What the Grameen bank does is lend credit to those living in poverty to buy what they need to make a living. For example, someone who makes chairs would be able to buy the supplies to make the chairs that they then sell. –This is opposed to taking out loans from other money lenders that charge such a high rate of interest that the poor can never benefit and just continue living their lives in poverty. The Grameen bank allows the opportunity to grow – where they are able to pay back their loans and profit from their businesses. There are requirements, of course – they must sign up as a group of five. In a sense, this is the collateral – everyone feels the pressure from their friends to keep up their end of the bargain, and if one person is unable to pay for some reason, the others must find a way to pay up. Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention, the Grameen bank focuses on lending to women. His idea for this was that women are the ones that are often in charge of the family and the household and are the ones living in the worst conditions. He found that men that get money will spend it on themselves while women will instead use the money to better their family and their communities.

While a professor at Chittagong, Yunus noticed the dichotomy between the university – a place full of wealth and knowledge – and those in the surrounding areas – illiterate and stricken by poverty. He sees the university as having a responsibility to its surrounding community, “If a university is a repository for knowledge, then some of this knowledge should spill over to the neighboring community. A university must not be an island where academics reach out to higher and higher levels of knowledge without sharing any of their findings” (p. 34).

When he first discovered the plight of those suffering in poverty, he came in contact with a woman who was suffering, essentially, because she did not have twenty-two cents. Yunus realized that he could easily just give her the money, but that would not solve the problem permanently. Here begins a theme that runs throughout his book: charity is not the answer. Yunus calls charity as “a way to shrug off our responsibility” and that it “appeases our consciences” (p. 249). People (including myself) donate to causes they wish to support but oftentimes, charity just perpetuates the cycle of poverty. If we look at the welfare system in the US and really think about it, it’s almost as if it’s designed to keep those living in poverty poor and to then pass this on to their children and their childrens’ children. The benefits they receive from the welfare system help them – but it’s incredibly difficult to get off welfare because jobs they often get pay less and offer fewer benefits than welfare does! –Giving people the opportunity to take out a microcredit loan so they can improve their own lives can offer not only a long-term solution, but can improve their morale and self-esteem.

Related to this is the idea that technology can help. Of course, technology cannot change a situation when it is just presented and given to a community. In a sense, this is like charity – throwing money or technology at a problem does not solve it. For technology resources, effort, and education are essential. Yunus noticed this as one community had large amounts of land that was not being used – it was because the government had brought in modern irrigation technology but it broke, and nobody new how to get it fixed! Access to information is, of course, the key – that all groups of people might have access to the same information is one of the most wonderful things about the Internet.

Okay, let me step back a minute. I just spewed out a bunch of information about microcredit lending, charity, welfare, and technology, but what’s the bigger picture here? In my eyes, the bigger picture is that people can change their lives and become citizens capable of political action. When Yunus started this project, it was really just trying to find a solution to a problem – there was no desire for personal or political gain – it was just a problem that needed a logical solution. Yunus really had no idea how big this would get and how drastically he could change the lives of these people – who eventually proved to play a large role, politically!

Think about it – if you are able to give people the opportunity to make an honest living for themselves and improve their standard of living, they will have higher levels of self-esteem and self-respect. They learn and grow and have a desire to educate their children (Yunus even found that Grameen families even started to choose to have fewer children!), educate themselves, find value in their own opinions, and exercise their political will! In fact, Grameen borrowers (who are predominatly female) voted in the 1996 election and were able to almost wipe out a political party out of the Parliament that was against women’s rights! In fact, more females voted in that 1996 election than males did!

So where does this leave us now? Some of the ideas we talked about in the book group were that this did not (for understandable reasons) work out in the U.S. – part of the problem is the welfare system and part of it is cultural. We also discussed how much time and energy Yunus put into changing the lives of these people. He literally started one person at a time, one village at a time. He exercised incredible patience with women who would not speak to a male – showing up day after day after day just to start his bank out. It is as if he saw every little bit of improvement as positive, and every negative situation he faced as a challenge – incredibly impressive. We also liked how he came at this from neither the left nor the right, but from a position of logic and social-consciousness. He just wanted to help people and was willing to work hard, through trial and error, to find a solution.

Yunus proposes a future of social businesses, a new sector that is driven by social-consciousness because, “We don’t have to put everything on the shoulders of the government. Governments are limited; they cannot do everything and we have responsibilities as citizens” (p. 266). I look forward to reading his next book, Creating a World Without Poverty, to find out more about his ideas of social businesses.

Last couple days of the Booksale

I managed to make my way over to the booksale both yesterday and today - and I'm so glad I did! Yesterday, everything was half-off and today, everything was 50 cents! I've learned something new about myself - I have an odd taste for non-fiction that nobody else in Hawaii seems to have. -All the books that I put back earlier in the week were still there on 50 cent day! While I am happy I was able to pick these books up, I am somewhat disappointed that nobody else wants these books as I do! Oh well.

Yesterday's treasures included:
Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver (Lucky I found this!)
Simple Abundance - Sarah Ban Breathnach (The words of a friendly stranger standing next to me encouraged me to get this book - only a dollar!)
Cecilia Bartoli - Rossini Heroines (CD) - One of my favorite mezzo-sopranos, and definitely the best when it comes to early music...another lucky find for only a $1.50!
Banker to the Poor - Okay, yes, I have this book already, but here's the story: I find Banker to the Poor in hardback in the economics section. A co-worker/friend had recommended it to me but last I talked to her, she didn't have it yet. I thought I'd pick it up for her. Well guess what? She was at the booksale, too! And she didn't need the copy, but her friend (who she always talks to me about) was at the booksale and so she introduced me and I gave the book to her. It always works out. And besides, it's the kind of book you'd just pass on to another person, anyhow. They told me about a book group that's meeting to discuss it in a couple weeks. I'm looking forward to it. :)

Today's treasures:
Moyers on America (Bill Moyers) - I didn't even realize there was a separate section for journalism/media - how did I not find this before? My mother picked up a different Bill Moyers book earlier in the week from the politics section. Perhaps we'll do a switcheroo once she's done.
Development & Social Change a Global Perspective - So this is a text from 2004 so it is slightly out of date, but it was priced at $4! Anyhow, after this class I've become more interested in the digital divide from a global perspective, and I'm hoping there might be some of that in this book.
Can We Talk about Race? (Beverly Daniel Tatum) - I remember when she was "Dean Tatum" at MHC. You had to write an essay just to get into her classes in the psych department because the demand was so high!
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools (Jonathan Kozol) - I was picking between this and Kozol's "Amazing Grace" earlier in the week. Now, I've got both of them!

The past two days bring my book total up to 16 books and one CD and the cost up to about $22. Not bad! I have to say, as I was picking up those 4 books today, I was feel guilty that I had too much. I already have so many books. I decided it was okay. The education books that are in good condition will be donated to my grad department and others will be given away to interested friends.

The booksale was great fun this year. I look forward to reading all my new books!

Thoughts on Information Literacy at the Booksale

It's Tuesday, and day 4 of the Friends of the Library of Hawaii booksale and I have gone 3 out of the 4 days. :) Books are organized in broad categories (literature, hobbies, art, philosophy, sci-fi, etc.) but aren't always necessarily under the category you'd figure they would be in. Furthermore, broad categories are as organized as it'll get...no Dewey decimal system there! As I wandered through the tables of books today I thought - you know, this is kind of like surfing the internet in a way. There's a ton of information there and you try your best to search where you think you'll find what you want - but really, you've just got to search and dig. You can pull out a book of interest because the title looks interesting, or maybe because the spine or cover appeals to you somehow, but really, until you pull it out and look closely, you really don't know. You need to use some critical thinking and information literacy skills to find what you want and decide whether the book you picked up is what you want.

I picked up some excellent books from the bookfair a few of which I was actively looking for, and some that...how shall I put this...I didn't know I wanted until I found them! I was judicious in my decisions, of course, I put back some books I was definitely interested in but thought that they wouldn't be high on my reading list and perhaps they would be higher up on someone else's list.

Here are the treasures I came away with:
1) Tuesday's With Morrie - Mitch Albom
2) Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
3) Amazing Grace - Jonathan Kozol
4) Research Design - John Creswell
5) This Book is not Required (revised edition) - Inge Bell & Bernard McGrane
6) Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington - Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein
7) Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell (SCORE!!!)
8) The Accidental Asian - Eric Liu
9) Waiting for Snow in Havana - Carlos Eire
10) Zami A New Spelling of My Name - Audre Lorde

--All of these for about $16!!! :)

While completely engrossed in Banker to the Poor (while walking to the office) I ran into a woman who wanted to see what I was reading. I came away from that conversation with yet another book recommendation, "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson - I will have to get it, it's totally up my alley. "Reading Lolita in Tehran" is also now on my list. Man, I'd kill for a "pause" button for my life so I could stop everything for a bit and just READ.

I've decided that someday I'll have a (small) library. I haven't figured out where I'd put it. It might be cool to have a library as a room all by itself - but if I ever have kids I doubt I'd have the space. Maybe I'll just have the library in the living room? I could definitely live in a library. The bathroom is (obviously) a logical choice but for sanitation reasons I think I'll pass on that one.......

Too many books, too little time

The problem with bookstores is that every time I go into one, I find more books that I want to read – and there’s no way I’ll ever be able to read everything. In my trip to the bookstore today I came across more books I’d like to read:

The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz – Isn’t it true? I think this would be a nice read to go along with some Malcolm Gladwell books and Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.” Personally, I don’t feel that I have an added anxiety due to the amount of choice I have in my life – but maybe I do and I’m just not as aware. As I read the synopsis of “The Paradox of Choice” I thought back to the Pew Internet Report we read for class and their findings that some people find the vast amount of information on the internet to be burdensome or overwhelming. So my question now is does everyone feel an added stress due to the amount of choice available to them? Or is it possible that this is something that is generational? How does it relate to ones thoughts about their ability to control their life?

Savage Inequalities & The Shame of the Nation by Jonathan Kozol – Both books discuss educational disparities at schools across the nation (specifically, with regards to race and class). While much of my personal interest is in regards to higher education access, these books are incredibly relevant to me because post-secondary education does not exist in a bubble. The disparities of the K-12 educational system are inextricably linked to higher education access issues and I think that both of these books would be excellent reads.

Tastes Like Cuba: An Exile’s Hunger for Home by Eduardo Machado – I found this book while perusing the biographies and memoirs section of the bookstore. I love reading people’s stories and the language of the portion on the back cover was just beautiful. It was only perhaps a paragraph or two but in it, he compared the complexities of flavor to the inherent complexities of the idea of “home” and identity.

As the title of this blog says, there are just too many books and too little time.

PS. Don't forget, the Friends of the Library Booksale starts this weekend at McKinley High School!!! (Not like I need more books!)

How I've Been Feeling Lately