Ethics or (doing what we do)

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4 responses to “Ethics or (doing what we do)”

1. 

   July 5, 2009

   mike

   we teach who we are……..

   a favorite……

   Self Portrait

   It doesn’t interest me if there is one God
   Or many gods.
   I want to know if you belong — or feel abandoned;
   If you know despair
   Or can see it in others.
   I want to know
   If you are prepared to live in the world
   With its harsh need to change you;
   If you can look back with firm eyes
   Saying “this is where I stand.”
   I want to know if you know how to melt
   Into that fierce heat of living
   Falling toward the center of your longing.
   I want to know if you are willing
   To live day by day
   With the consequence of love
   And the bitter unwanted passion
   Of your sure defeat.
   I have been told
   In that fierce embrace
   Even the gods
   Speak of God.

   ~ David Whyte ~

   (Fire in the Earth)

   mike

   Reply
2. August 27, 2008

   » Brain-Based Carnival of Education, 186th Edition   « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains     

   […] Q: As educators, what inspires us to do what we do? A: Tracy suggests, "Hope for the future". […]

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3. 

   August 16, 2008

   Tracy

   Michael,
   I really appreciate this comment and the imagery you provoke with the lightning bugs. That is what I see – we are attracted by each other’s light. We recognize it as our own.

   I secretly hope that is what children look for and try to guide them to seek their light and need to stop myself sometimes from trying too hard to show it to them.

   Do you know Humberto Maturana?
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humberto_Maturana

   Reply
4. 

   August 14, 2008

   Michael Doyle

   Wow!

   Let me preface some random thoughts by thanking you for your work here. You open yourself so wide that the “self” part dissolves into something larger (community? love?). While reading your blog, the image of fog nets used to catch water on mountains in Chile drifted into my thoughts. I do not know if you are the water or the nets–maybe it’s the process itself. You leave yourself exposed, and that is a strength.

   Thanks for mentioning me in the post—I spent a good chunk of my youth studying biology and ethics, and cured any pretensions to academia when I butchered a thesis developing biological basis for rule utilitarianism. What took me months to fail you successfully summarize in 3 words– “caring is biological.”

   “I do not barter my words or my silence. ”
   This is the crux, words to live by both here on the screen as well as out under the sun. This is far more difficult to follow than a lot of folks realize—it requires a blazing flame of self-awareness, and most of us prefer vicarious fire (and like voyeurs we gravitate to sites such as yours who put into practice what the rest of us would rather just preach).

   And now to your question: “What are you looking for?”
   In the classroom, I am looking for children to ask themselves this very question: What are you looking for? It’s why I push for kids to think beyond imagined limits, and why I try to keep my opinions out of the room.

   I am not sure I can answer this question directly, but I will tell you that I am closer to it when I am sitting at a pond’s edge at dusk watching lightning bugs attracted to their own reflected light than when I am in my cortex, trying to approach this rationally.

   I also closer to it when looking at the photo “morning hug”–a wonderful vision of an idea betrayed by my clumsy attempt at words.

   (Here’s a picture of the fog nets: http://www2.volstate.edu/kbell/Figures/FogNet.htm)

   Michael Doyles last blog post at http://doyle-scienceteach.blogspot.com..Why I Teach: modeling atoms

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