Tuesday, November 02, 2010
It's no good reading when your brain is leaking
That said, there is still plenty more to read and 5 weeks left in the semester. There is a certain level of saturation that happens when you aren't used to being in graduate school. Regardless of the reading, I feel that I am beginning to get a better handle on my program of study. The center is a truly supportive community and I am enjoying the friendship and collegiality of my classmates and professors. I was asked to give a short presentation on Safe Passage today at our weekly dialogue and it was very well received. Our discussions and material all help me to better understand my experiences at Safe Passage as well as options for the roads forward. It's an amazing program to be a part of and I feel very fortunate to be able to relate much of the theory in readings to contemporary challenges and opportunities at the program. Off to bed.
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Back at the Tiller
It's been nearly two years since I posted and quite a bit has happened since my last post. I've been around the world and worked and played and got married and now I'm back on the blog. I have been prompted to write after receiving very sad news from Guatemala. A friend reported to me that one of my former guitar students, Luis, was shot dead this week in Guatemala City. This is the second of my former guitar students to have been shot in the last few months. The first, Jaime (who barely made it out alive), lies in a hospital bed with a colostomy bag and many new challenges for the future.
To be perfectly honest, when I heard about Luis, I wasn't able to completely digest the news. I have been on the computer so frequently lately and absorbing so much information that it didn't fit in at the time. It took two days for me to fully realize the scope of this tragedy and to connect it to other recent events that have happened with other former students. On my bus ride home today, I had forgotten my wallet with my bus card in it and of course any paper money too, but the bus driver smiled and told me not to worry about it as he signaled for me to get on the bus. For some reason, his act of kindness derailed my immediately pending need to read as much as I could on the ride home to the news of Luis' death. I felt far away. Not only geographically but mentally from the time when Luis was a 4th grader. I remember his cheerfulness and curiosity to learn guitar, perhaps because he had been inspired by his older brother Jonathan who was also learning at the time.
My wife and I are living in Northampton, MA now and it is such a beautiful town - wonderfully ornate, large homes with slate roofs; the Smith College campus; the winding Connecticut River; the Holyoke mountain range; bike paths and farms. I think about the neighborhood where Luis was shot and the stark contrast between Northampton and his former living environment.
I recently started a Masters program at UMass Amherst to study International Education, focusing on development education in Latin America. One of my classes this semester has started out by exploring how we learn and our readings have exposed us to new theories of learning that are the result of a blend of subjects including neuroscience, evolutionary biology, sociology and anthropology, to name a few. A central idea seems to be that if we want to achieve a higher level of understanding about learning, and just about anything else, that nothing can be truly understood in isolation. In The 12 Principles of Learning by Caine & Caine, they assert that, "Part of our identity depends on establishing community and finding ways to belong. Learning therefore, is profoundly influenced by the nature of the social relationships within which people find themselves." In the article Constructing Open Learning Communities to Inspire a Changing World by Manish Jain, Jain quotes Fritojof Capra's book "The Web of Life" stating that "living organisms derive their essential properties and, in fact their very existence from their relationships to other things." This is talking specifically about ones immediate environment.
When I think about the environment that inspired Luis to join a gang vs the environment provided by Safe Passage, it's a challenge to think of why one would choose gang life over the the supportive and vibrant culture of Safe Passage. It is a true testament to the challenges that we face as educators to continually engage young people in spite of the incredible peer pressure, threats, manipulation and violence that push them towards other forms of community. Even before reading Caine & Caine, Jain and Capra, I knew that environment played an incredibly important role in the formation of the individual. What is sad is that Luis had so much potential and that most of his peers right now are finishing up their last years of school, preparing to look for jobs and to strengthen the future of Guatemala. The reality is that there are external factors that can negate our efforts to steer young people away from gang communities, and very sadly, not all students will be able to see education as the pathway to a brighter future.
Ending on a positive note, on a recent visit to Guatemala, a fellow Board Member ended up sitting next to a UMass Amherst alumnae. Travis, who recently graduated, works in Guatemala City on a newly formed composting program. One of the people that they recently hired, in conversation, told Travis that in fact he had spent time at Safe Passage. He said that it had changed his life and that the only reason he was alive today was because of their intervention to provide him with the support that he needed which included a safe place to live and study. The impact that Safe Passage, as an organization, has is not easily measurable and we won't ever know all of the outcomes of our efforts. We can be very proud though of our continued, dynamic efforts to support our families and students so that they may find for themselves a brighter future.
To be perfectly honest, when I heard about Luis, I wasn't able to completely digest the news. I have been on the computer so frequently lately and absorbing so much information that it didn't fit in at the time. It took two days for me to fully realize the scope of this tragedy and to connect it to other recent events that have happened with other former students. On my bus ride home today, I had forgotten my wallet with my bus card in it and of course any paper money too, but the bus driver smiled and told me not to worry about it as he signaled for me to get on the bus. For some reason, his act of kindness derailed my immediately pending need to read as much as I could on the ride home to the news of Luis' death. I felt far away. Not only geographically but mentally from the time when Luis was a 4th grader. I remember his cheerfulness and curiosity to learn guitar, perhaps because he had been inspired by his older brother Jonathan who was also learning at the time.
My wife and I are living in Northampton, MA now and it is such a beautiful town - wonderfully ornate, large homes with slate roofs; the Smith College campus; the winding Connecticut River; the Holyoke mountain range; bike paths and farms. I think about the neighborhood where Luis was shot and the stark contrast between Northampton and his former living environment.
I recently started a Masters program at UMass Amherst to study International Education, focusing on development education in Latin America. One of my classes this semester has started out by exploring how we learn and our readings have exposed us to new theories of learning that are the result of a blend of subjects including neuroscience, evolutionary biology, sociology and anthropology, to name a few. A central idea seems to be that if we want to achieve a higher level of understanding about learning, and just about anything else, that nothing can be truly understood in isolation. In The 12 Principles of Learning by Caine & Caine, they assert that, "Part of our identity depends on establishing community and finding ways to belong. Learning therefore, is profoundly influenced by the nature of the social relationships within which people find themselves." In the article Constructing Open Learning Communities to Inspire a Changing World by Manish Jain, Jain quotes Fritojof Capra's book "The Web of Life" stating that "living organisms derive their essential properties and, in fact their very existence from their relationships to other things." This is talking specifically about ones immediate environment.
When I think about the environment that inspired Luis to join a gang vs the environment provided by Safe Passage, it's a challenge to think of why one would choose gang life over the the supportive and vibrant culture of Safe Passage. It is a true testament to the challenges that we face as educators to continually engage young people in spite of the incredible peer pressure, threats, manipulation and violence that push them towards other forms of community. Even before reading Caine & Caine, Jain and Capra, I knew that environment played an incredibly important role in the formation of the individual. What is sad is that Luis had so much potential and that most of his peers right now are finishing up their last years of school, preparing to look for jobs and to strengthen the future of Guatemala. The reality is that there are external factors that can negate our efforts to steer young people away from gang communities, and very sadly, not all students will be able to see education as the pathway to a brighter future.
Ending on a positive note, on a recent visit to Guatemala, a fellow Board Member ended up sitting next to a UMass Amherst alumnae. Travis, who recently graduated, works in Guatemala City on a newly formed composting program. One of the people that they recently hired, in conversation, told Travis that in fact he had spent time at Safe Passage. He said that it had changed his life and that the only reason he was alive today was because of their intervention to provide him with the support that he needed which included a safe place to live and study. The impact that Safe Passage, as an organization, has is not easily measurable and we won't ever know all of the outcomes of our efforts. We can be very proud though of our continued, dynamic efforts to support our families and students so that they may find for themselves a brighter future.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Family Day
My last day was a family day which is when all of the mothers and a few of the fathers come to listen to announcements, check in with social workers and receive their food baskets. There were about 400 people there and Jonathan, the only guitar student who has stuck with me since the very beginning, performed Hotel California for me as well as Corazon Espinado(Mana). It was so amazing to see him do this for me in front of so many of his peers expecially since it was his first performance in front of a crowd that big. He has been an excellent student and friend during my two years there and it was tought to say goodbye. We still keep in touch via email. It was a day of many mixed emotions. Sad because I was leaving and saying goodbye, happy because I had met so many wonderful people, and a bit of a relief also because I had been saying goodbye to all of the staff and children for over a week. I'll never forget it. Allthough I will not be going back to volunteer this coming year, I plan on visiting and staying in touch.
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