mt. Zion

Mt. Zion is incredibly awesome. I never knew how many people they help. Talk about community literacy ... Mt. Zion is a Magnolia extending limbs of service. Children are buds in bloom. Staff is the rain to grow from. Knowledge is sunshine.

Have you heard the news? Good things come in groups. The potential for Mt. Zion Human Services to transfigure human life is touching. A breeze is felt in positive interaction, and the day is stifling.

Mount Zion has given me the choir loft of their old church. Where creative expression through reading and writing will be fostered. I am so excited. These children are economically disadvantaged, below expected reading level, and uninterested in school. I tutor them and see the hope in their eyes. When creativity is involved, children become interested.

I close my eyes and imagine a room where innovative learning and interactive activity occur on a daily basis. Children pouring in and out, with colors and words sparking their imagination and interest.

Every art activity will relate to a term currently taught in school. Hands-on experience and creativity should teach kids the term, once they relate it to life.

Philosophy of education

Theoretically speaking, my philosophy of education can be summed up in one word: experience. How does one really learn until they try for themselves? I am not saying there is no value to studying a text or listening to a lecture, but it is in the practical application of what was studied or heard that the true learning takes place. Although it is thought to be a Chinese proverb, most of us are familiar with Ben Franklin’s wisdom: “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” Henry David Thoreau mocked the lecture-style method of learning favored in colleges: “To my astonishment I was informed on leaving college that I had studied navigation!--why, if I had taken one turn down the harbor I should have known more about it.” And the example I use for my students: “One cannot learn how to swim without getting wet!” Examples of this are everywhere. A student may be able to tell you how to write a five-paragraph essay, yet it is in the execution that will determine his/her grade. I taught English in Japan and Thailand. Even though my students had been studying English for over 10 years, they were unable to have even simple conversations. This is because there is too much emphasis on text book learning and not enough on the application of that learning.

-Rich Lauria

Learn by doing!

Humans have been on earth roughly 40,000 years, and writing dates back to 6,000 years ago when writing materials were clay, parchment (animal skin), and papyrus (bark of tree), pens (quills) were from wings of birds. Written word is now fact, regulates value, and is supported by oral language, in our culture. Writing trades sound for sight, an ear for an eye, alters our communication and ultimately changes community, especially if one can not read the written word. Writing turns spoken language into a thing, a word, and categorizes (newspaper sections, dictionary, encyclopedia). Before writing, we relied on dialogue for understanding; now humans have the ability to learn through listening, reading, and writing: the one mastering rules of the three is said to hold the power of language. Oral language teaches student to learn by doing and listening. Written language teaches student to learn by reading, studying, memorizing, and opens opportunity to go back to written language and put forth greater consideration. A majority of schooling for economically disadvantaged children is now done through written language, while schooling for economically advantaged children incorporates oral and written language; affluent children have greater opportunity for comprehension of class lessons because hands-on technique is applied to written conversation and reading. Incorporating oral and written language into school is beneficial for student because intelligent assessment is encouraged. This project aspires to improve communication between students and staff in public schools by making creative necessities available for incorporation of oral, the doing, with the written, reading and reciting.

It takes longer to say a word than it does to read a word. Imagine what the written word has done to our speed of life.

The challenge and collapse of creativity is only seen in economically disadvantaged schools; the downfall is schools do not have materials needed for expressive activity or the supplies needed to engage students in a lesson; children learn by doing.

Education in lyric

This paper investigates effective ways to learn, acquire knowledge, and teach. The goal is to reinforce critical thinking and discernment (problem solving).

Education

In a deep dark jungle, long time ago

Lived a lonesome caveman

He was a solitary soul

And he spent his playtime

Chewing meat from bones.

He did not know how to talk much

He only knew how to groan

Then he lifted up his hands and reached to the sky

Let out a yell and no one replied.

Frustration and torment tore him inside

Then he fell to the ground and he cried and he cried.

But then education saved the day.

He learned to speak and communicate

Education saved the day.

He thanked God for the friends he made.

Because everybody needs an education

Everybody needs an education.

Black skin, red skin, yellow or white,

Everybody needs to read and write

Everybody needs an education.

Thank the day when that primitive man

Learned to talk with his brothers

And live off the land.

He left his cave and he moved far away

And he lived with his friends in a house that they had made

He learned to think and to work with his brain

And he astounded his friends with all the knowledge he gained

He wrote it down on a rock that he found

And he showed all his friends and they passed it around

And then education came that day.

The day it came was a sacred day.

Education came that day

Well man built a boat and he learned how to sail

And he traveled far and wide

Then he looked up above saw the stars in the sky

So he learned how to fly.

Thanks to all the mathematicians

And the inventors with their high I.Q.s

And the professors in their colleges

Trying to feed me knowledge

That I know I'll never use.

Thank you for the millions of words

That I will never how to use

You can not tell me what I am living for

Because it is a mystery

Teacher, teach me about nuclear physics

And teach me about the structure of man,

But all your endless calculations

Can not tell me why I am.

Everybody needs education,

Open Universities, education.

Every race, and every creed,

Every nation, every breed.

Every nationality, education.

All the little people need education.

Eskimos and pygmies need

And even aborigines, education.

Well, physics and geography, education.

Philosophy and history, education.

Science and biology, education,

Geometry and poetry, education.

Well, education, education, education, education

Culture and Practices

Intricately woven practices are not innate, such as etiquette, how to hunt with rifle, mr. mrs. ms. and miss, language, hand shake, interview process and the correct color to wear, ladylike, masculine, leg crossing, folding hands in prayer, bowing head, floor kneeling, marriage and wedding habits: bachelor and ette parties, father giving away, father last dance, reception after in church, on beach, on cliff, in judge office. People are taught. Innevitably, we are the same. Can you imagine relaxing long enough to learn tons of methods of other people. (Majority of times, like their parents. How your father throws a curve ball or dance moves of your mother. Family recipes of cookies, ham, beans, corn, and turkey. Family tradition passed down. I sleep with the exact of pillows as my mother and hold my fishing pole like my father.) I learn from them, what they enjoy, what I am surrounded with, what I find satisfaction in.
So fine, I enjoy reading, writing, dancing. If an astronaut has the same blood type as me, I can save the astronauts life, with my blood.
Opinions were made to voice opposition to the practice of another.
I speak English. To communicate with others I must learn to speak Spanish. What is scary is how separate we believe we are from people miles away. *Refer to parts of every man. We are not.
I wish to change our current means. Something to bring PEOPLE together. (I think of a bookstore. One person began writing a book. Then many others followed.) Not to take away from accomplished goals, but to spread the possibility for others to achieve their goals too. Helping others brings me so much happiness.

Literacy in community

Keep literacy within community. Only thing mandatory is reporting your daily agenda, portal for member to relate, assess, commend, congratulate, suggest, honor. Write daily thoughts, where abouts, findings, striking facts, research, article read, aspirations, shift in avenues, recruits, change of opinion, changed another’s opinion, how one step closer to goal, pictures, personal testimonies, letters to congress, newspaper, community, text message, blog, email, celebrities interest, songs written, poems.
Established charities coming together. Awareness. Larger effort. No need to choose one. Every effort is step in positive direction. Disabilities. The only people with a real battle. Other struggles, we have created with words through speech and communication. Fantasies: class, wealth, skin color, popularity, beauty, athletic ability: just a competition, religion, name brands.
The separation of people, how are people categorized?
Sex, gender, class,


The parts of every man

By helping others, you are helping yourself.

One does not have to be better than the other. We can have both. Tons of energy, knowledge, health, effort, role models.

My presidential candidate selection. Two men striving to win. Fight. Competition. A winner and a looser. A separation of “parties.” Equality should never be about battle.

How was George Washington selected? What criteria? When did party separation establish and for what?
This is American foundation.
My mind thinks of when earth actually split into different countries, and when and how they were named and who selected person of power. Then there is the thought of religion and how we all grew from two people. And the distinctions in religions.
These are all thoughts of man. Human mind. Brains we all have.
We learn from parents, friends, families, television, computer, games, books, pictures, our environment.

Community is affected

Why we, college students, should care. Community is affected. More money would not make us work harder in school, unless we were paid for A+ papers. Then we would perfectionists on every assignment. So throwing more money at lazy teachers will not improve our education crisis. Awards must be given when goal is reached. Set goal for students the first day of class.
Better to thoroughly teach one subject than breeze over fifty. Quality, not quantity. Students will be experts at key topics of subjects. Allowing more time to grasp a theory is excellent. Let students test the waters of a subject, experiment, hypothesis, create, question, seek an answer, communicate findings and strategies with classmates. I would rather see a preposition master than a jumbled English student. What’s the rush to learn every aspect of a topic? Students need time to understand and interpret, stop and think, apply, research, relate. They’ll get to the next section in the book.
I have first hand experience of this practice. My professor
What’s it all for? Do be thrown into a company working for someone else. I would like to create something where people are working as their own boss, but in a joint effort to reach a goal we have set together. One goal, multiple roads leading to it. People will do their job. #1 they are interested in the topic at hand. #2 they must work for money, but I don’t have to be dictating their format or setting their daily schedule #3 get out of rush hour traffic! #4 do something worthwhile for humanity #5 find your passion and strive to make a difference #5 wow this feels amazing