Banksy tags Detroit

Banksy tags Detroit

Only people from Detroit care about about Detroit.  There's something very special about the place we call home, even when it's a deeply troubled city that makes national headlines for all the wrong reasons.   Well, I was reading about my hometown and came across a familiar name and his street art.  It seems Detroit came up on Banksy' radar as an urban cesspool worthy of a tag.  (Yes, only people from Detroit get to criticize Detroit).

It seems the Banksy tag was just the beginning of the controversy.  The Detroit Free Press originally reported this story in 2010: "Discovered last weekend, the stenciled work shows a forlorn boy holding a can of red paint next to the words “I remember when all this was trees.” But by Tuesday, artists from the 555 Nonprofit Gallery and Studios, a feisty grassroots group, had excavated the 7-by-8-foot, 1,500-pound cinder block wall with a masonry saw and forklift and moved the piece to their grounds near the foot of the Ambassador Bridge in southwest Detroit.

The move -- a guerilla act on top of Banksy’s initial guerilla act -- has sparked an intense debate about the nature of graffiti art, including complicated questions of meaning, legality, value and ownership. Some say the work should be protected and preserved at all costs. Others say that no one had a right to move it — and that the power and meaning of graffiti art is so intrinsic to its location that to relocate it is to kill it."

The Los Angeles Times  reported in 2012 that "the parties recently settled the dispute, and the gallery paid $2,500 for the wall art, estimated to be worth $100,000." 

 Given our studies and interest in street art,  I thought I would ask what you think of the Banksy controversy in Detroit.  I have mixed feelings about 555's action.  I believe the meaning of street art is  its context.  Will the "guerrilla act" of moving the work to "preserve it at all costs" become part of the context and thus a new part of the artwork's meaning?  Or, is removing the graffiti from its surroundings, valuing it at $100,000, and "preserving it" turning it into a neutral thing?

I'm also saddened because there doesn't seem to be anything else in Detroit to care about, much less, to preserve.  Why was this Banksy work deemed so worthy while neighborhoods, historical buildings, and city treasures sit in a state of decay?   Then again, I suppose you have to know the Motor City to understand the Motor City.

I did not intend to make a connection to Michael Gecan's article, but somehow, that's where I'm going.  Maybe I should ignore the media hype surrounding the Banksy art and look at  555's work.  Maybe they are fighting to save their hometown, a place that never gets much attention other than making the news for crime and corruption.  Perhaps 555 is just one small part of a larger network of organizers that I don't see because I only listen to media hype.  I'm blind to the current situation.

 Gecan's passion as a community organizer is evident in his writing, but I did not get the sense that East Brooklyn was his hometown, his touchstone, or his native context.  Maybe, like Banksy, Gecan's passion is in his work, where ever that may take him.  But, his organizers, the people he meets and gets to know, are connected heart and soul to their communities.  I wonder, then, how being disconnected from our communities (hometowns, families, roots) turns us into neutral things like the "stolen" art?   Do we loose interest in what's going on around us because we are out of our contexts, valuing our lives based on the superficial? 

I am left with only one final thought: I wonder if anyone is organizing a raid to return the Banksy work to it's original location?  I'll keep you posted.  Thanks.  Susan 

When's the Last Time You Found Yourself in the Middle of an Unfamiliar Discourse?

A few hours ago I found myself sitting on a cold seat.  As I pulled on my coat, I realized that I was sharing an experience with thousands of people that I did not know.  All of us were huddled together with ear plugs in our ears as exhaust hung in the air; and yet I was separated from this group by one reality.  I am not a true member of the Discourse that surrounds the sport of Nascar racing.  A moment later as a yellow caution sign appeared on the screen in the middle of the track, I watched as everyone jumped up and started to either cheer or yell out in dismay.  I looked over at my husband, the reason that I was here in the first place, and watched his face as he excitedly tried to explain to me what had just occurred.  But while he patiently tried to educate me on the event and what it meant for the race as a whole, I realized that I was in the midst of a Discourse that I may never truly be a part of.

I do not say this with dismay necessarily or joy, but instead with new understanding.  My still novice literary lens really made me take a step back tonight and consider what I knew in that moment about my surroundings.  I looked at the advertisements and sponsor emblems, and struggled to recall what each of them stood for.  I took in all 43 cars and reflected on the true meaning that the numbers that adorned those cars could hold.   Those two stenciled on digits represented a person and a team; a team that fans either chose to love or hate.  Feelings that then drove them to support that driver and show their appreciation through merchandise purchased and worn to symbolize their devotion.  A symbol that, while immersed in this Discourse, could cause complete strangers to stop and speak or offer a 'fist bump' as a way of showing their mutual support and appreciation. So imagine how those fans may feel should they find a 'visitor' in their midst that may, at best, recognize one number and its associated race car driver.   Would they cast me out?  Would they wonder why I was here?

Upon further reflection I realize that I have often been privy to a conversation that is riddled with these numbers, leaving me lost in translation.  I wonder, in that moment, did they notice?  Or was I somewhat hidden because I had 'dressed the part'?  I will, in fact, usually listen to these types of conversations and try to appear interested.   I may even try and tap into the limited knowledge that I have acquired to participate or at least attempt to piece it together in my mind. But I'm afraid knowing terms like 'caution' and 'green flag' can only get you but so far….

I am, like many of you perhaps, constantly in awe of how often I am now seeing the literacy that surrounds our world in a whole new light.  And while I have learned some of the words and phrases that can be found within the Discourse of Nascar, and admit that sometimes the event that surrounds it can be a fun ride; I also realize that I may always be in this Discourse's passenger seat.

Sit and Get

I’ve been doing some reading, and an odd coincidence occurred.  I wasn’t an educator today.  Today I became a "hub worker". 

First my NEA Today magazine came in the mail today.  Although the website does provide interesting reading the site is not updated yet with the magazine’s cover story “An End to ‘Sit and Get’ Workshops”.  Essentially the article describes educators as being low on morale and tired of professional development calling sessions “Spray and Pray”, “Drive By,” or “Sit and Get”.  Worthwhile professional development is considered indispensable, yet the time is “wasted listening to a so-called expert who hasn’t spent a day in the classroom, with participants in a windowless hotel conference room filled with an endless parade of PowerPoint slides.”  (Ah, I’ve see many a deck!)  The experiences are described as ending with “We’re done.  Now, go ahead and successfully replicate what you’ve learned in your classroom.  Good luck?  Follow-up training?  Don’t count on it.  Collaborative time with colleagues?  Hmmm… no.”  The conclusion is so accurate that I cringed from experience. 

Second I picked up Belfiore and Folinsebee and suddenly I was comparing the two discussions.  The similar practices observed included “Sign-off procedures”, “Lecture-style teaching”, “Print materials with dense text”, “Long stretches of reading aloud by the trainer,” and “Written tests”.  Although I don’t want the educational system to be treated as a business, the comparisons in training are huge.  Enter an expert (trainer), leave the work environment (for some office) and enter the deck (training manual – read aloud time).  Although Bozena seemed a little more oriented toward the workers, Janet, for all the wisdom she displayed in reflection, was definitely spraying her employees and praying it would take.  She seemed to have blind faith that they got it, because she was so good at her job I wonder?? 

So if professional learning is to change, regardless of the field, be it business or education, we must “get through to them” as Janet states.  As one of the “them” in the education field, I think Janet is spot on.  In public education I want to get it, I hope to get it, but quite often the administration’s message is lost in test scores, bureaucracy, and a trail of paperwork that proved I performed as one of “them”.  Did I learn as I went along, or did I just check another thing off my list? 

To again reference the NEA article they state that “professional learning needs to be conducted – continuously, collaboratively, and with a focus on teaching specific content to particular learners.”  A remarkably similar quote ends chapter 5 of Belfiore, “Educators’ effectiveness then is greatly dependent on the extent to which they can work collaboratively and strategically with a number of different others in a role that facilitates learning, rather than delivers teaching.”  So maybe today, as I was reading the text, I was framing myself as one of the “hub workers” just trying to do my job with a lack of trainer collaboration. 

Deciding that “collaborate” was a key word in both texts, I looked for a definition and again coincidence struck me.
Collaborate –

: to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor

: to cooperate with or willingly assist an enemy of one's country and especially an occupying force

: to cooperate with an agency or instrumentality with which one is not immediately connected

 

Although “enemy” in definition number two is a strong word, definition number three is the one that fits both of my readings today.  I didn't feel connected to my training, and I couldn't even begin to credit Janet with any wisdom when I have suffered through her "Sit and Get" practices myself.

Music as literacy

We've studied so many different literacies this semester, and I seem to find them everywhere now. Last night I had the opportunity to spend the night with Barry Manilow. Before everyone sighs, I wanted to share with you my literacy view of the concert. I've been a Fanilow for many years. He was very much a voice in my adult formative years. He was part of my time in the Army, my early marriage, my initial foray into motherhood. Last night I felt like I didn't have to apologize for enjoying and sharing the music of that time with others. Yes, most of the audience was my age or older, but we sang along and clapped, and waved the little glow sticks we were given. The music of that time and that artist had a feeling to it, and there was, in my mind, a literacy that we shared. The music was strong, fun, not angry, and didn't hurt anyone. We miss that in a lot of today's music. In that time period, people enjoyed music for the music and the lyrics, not the underlying themes or dark passages. So today I wear my Manilow Copacabana shirt, and for a little while, I'm young again.

Themes in my research project-1-power relationship

Due to my poor time management, I was not able to present my discussion about the findings and how I may deal with the blog assignment in the future. Although we have got a lot of great discoveries in our discussion, I would like to share with you my ideas as an insider in the program, and hope that you can give me some feedback. Thanks!

The first and most obvious theme I see in the assignment is Power. Both in the written blog and in the interviews, all the stakeholders show how power relationship, to some degree, decide what they do and how they feel about the blog. As pointed out by many educators, including Freire, and discussed in our class, not literacy is neutral. Power is always embedded in literacy, and affect how people react to it. Usually, the party who has to power tailors the goal and the process of the literacy to match with their beliefs, while those who lack power receive the literacy as it is and try to work with it. Here, the knowledge of the powerful counts. They know what is right what is necessary, and they direct others to  do what they believe will make their life better. 

The power relationship in my study is very apparent, where the instructors are in the high level and the students are the dominated, whether they agree with the system or not. Some students are very direct about their subordination to the instructor when they say they "should" do it or they "have to" post because it is required by the instructor. But some others, such as student O, who says that he does like the rules created by the instructor, but still wants the instrutor to tell him what is the goal of learning and if he has reached it or not. Subconsciously, he still respect and agree with the power of the instructor. In term of the instructors, the apparent symptoms of their dominant power is that they decide the rules. They choose the assignment, design the goal and the guidelines of it, and grade students based on how well they follow the instruction. FI is a learner-centered program, so that the instructors are relatively cautious about they domination of the classroom. Although they have done a lot to empower the students, they still have the power over them because they are rule-setter and evaluators. 

This makes me think to what degree a instructor should intervene in a learner's learning process. Surely we do not want the banking model of education, where students follows the rigid rules and becomes the results of mass production. However, we should not devaluate the guidance from instructors in one's learning experience. Instructors are usually those who have expertise in the area and can help students achieve their goals by sharing knowledge with them. It is crucial to keep the balance between the two parties. I think that one solution is to always incorporate students' voice in the decision-making process and promote commitment to the final decision. Since students may be ignorant in certain areas and may make bad choice, it is instructors job to bridge students with the new knowledge and present them the whole picture of different choices they have. Eventually, it should students' well-informed free choices.

Learning languages

So this week I'm helping David figure out what class to take this fall; he's been accepted as a non-program graduate student at Virginia Tech. When we learn a language, we learn code. There is so much more socio-culturally to a language, but the base element is translation, initially literal translation. David has trouble with social cues, which are a language all their own. And yet, he speaks English, French, German, Russian, Italian, and Hebrew. People are always impressed that he is so skilled, but what I see is code. He can convert code, and if language is code, which I believe it is, he is able to convert. So he is literate in one way but illiterate in another. Neither has more importance, but in our society, his illiteracy makes it difficult for him to maintain relationships. I think people would be surprised at how much literacy is non-verbal. David's going to take a Comp Sci class in September. He is going to be trying to prove that he is capable of graduate work in order to apply to the Comp Sci department for his major. Comp Sci is probably the best place for him to start, but it will be interesting to see if he ventures into a more cultural environment as well.

Levels of literacy

Yesterday I taught an introduction class. Two of my students had originally signed up for the intermediate class (called "Getting More") and after the first fifteen minutes decided they were in too advanced a class and left. During the day they indicated that they were very glad they had moved back a level, and one student is going to be taking another introduction class rather than a "Getting More" class for a different program. My classes are different than many literacy classes in that my students are expected to have certain literacy skills, and we only have one day to 'learn' the software. I think often of the more knowledgeable other I become in the front of the room. My students are anywhere from 18 to 70 years old, and come in with their own history and skills. I have to kind of corral those skills into a common area and begin to work with the group to bring them up to a common skill level. In the Getting More classes, the zone of proximal development becomes more important. I scaffold the students to become more proficient in software that helps them in their jobs, which is the primary reason people take these classes. Ms. Coiro (got it this time, Dr. M.) discusses literacy in a way that pertains to my work. Eymann's discussion of digital literacy resonated with me, because as I've written in previous posts, the literacy in computers is not the skills to perform the tasks, but the ability to use the skills to acquire knowledge. Everyone used Presi last week, which I've never seen before, but is evidently common in the academic world. So now I am once again illiterate; I will be working on my own to explore the software and see if it is something I can learn without instruction. I am self-taught in most of the software I teach, and students are sometimes amazed (their word) that I can learn software on my own. It's only recently that I realize that other people don't understand software the way I do - I always say it just makes sense to me. And yet there has been so much this semester that everyone understands that I struggle with. Another example of different literacies, the basis for this class. Off to school.

Earth day and the abolition movement

Zinn Education Project

Classmates: since we have all come to "read" the world differently, I wanted to share something with you about Earth Day. This article was in my Facebook feed, and I must admit, I would never have compared Earth Day to the Abolition movement. Curiosity got the best of me; I had to read more and share it with you.   Forgive me for over-posting this week!

To begin, the Zinn Education Project is connected to Teaching For Change.  You can find more on TFC by clicking on their icon in the upper right of our blog.  TFC/Zinn challenge us to dig  a little deeper into what we teach our kids today, question the assumptions we promote, and provide a more balanced, historical perspective.  Hmm, that sounds familiar!  So, by digging a little deeper into the Earth Day/global warming movement, Zinn compares it to the struggles faced by Abolitionists in 19th century America.

Susangale wrote in her blog post about the ways we don't challenge the truths and assumptions that comprise our worlds.  I  am certainly guilty of that.  While I don't know how I feel about global warming, I believe that, in order to take a stand on an  issue, it is necessary to question the many truths, assumptions, and science that surround it.  How else can we be fully informed?  Furthermore, if we propose to teach these "facts" to our children (and adult learners!), we owe it to them to provide a more balanced approach. OK, sorry to be so preach-y.

I hope this post leaves you curious enough to check out the Zinn Ed Project.  It's worth a quick read.  Thanks for taking the time to read this post, "the other Susan."

Take Away Points: Mass Campaigns or One-to-one Empowerment?

As we are coming to the end of – wait, I don’t like that word, “end” – doesn’t seem right. Rather, I think I want to reflect a bit on the things that I will carry forward. As I was going over our generative lists, the questions I will continue to ask with the new lens of my understanding kept landing on two themes. Interestingly, I was struck by the dualistic nature of two.

As I have previously noted, the use of texts in the colonization of nations and peoples is something I have never given much thought to. I don’t know why.  I guess my “eyes” had just never really been opened to the role of written words in codifying the “shared exterior” of my realities – the things I accept as true and right and, well, “normal.” These have all been constructed by “texts” and are not just the “norms” I have taken for granted. I am not sure how I thought “norms” developed, but childlike, I apparently have just accepted the veracity of the social claims of many, many, norms in my lifetime. The longer I live, though, and the more I learn, the more I am struck by how little we (I) question how big T truths have been constructed.   Learning about the role of texts in history by colonizers to promote favored ideologies, justify acts of suppression, even campaigns of war and genocide, will never allow me to “read” a text again without questioning the motives and the message. That is something I will carry forward. 

On the other hand, though, the ability of one educator to empower those they “learn” with will never leave me, either.  I don’t think we can “measure” the outcomes – the potentially far-reaching effects – that helping just one person to find their voice can have. By voice, I mean giving a person, an adult in our case, the tools with which to make sense of their world and to take action in their lives. Even the simple action of understanding how to fill out a form, perhaps, or write a letter, changes a life. And adult educators get to do this again and again. That is more than an occupation, that is a calling. Thank you. Susan

Being an Adult Learner

      We have expectations, we register for a class, we work and we learn.  As an adult our expectations are different than those of the K-12 learners who are essentially forced into education.  We possess some control.  We are paying for academic freedom.  We weigh what we will learn and what we are willing to invest time in learning.  We bring our own backgrounds into the classroom, much broader and more diverse because of our years.  When education happens it is often because our choices as adult learners lead us to question our assumptions about the education we expected and the education we discover.  Preconceived notions about what we’ll learn are often shattered as we make the choice to experience our own education. 

       We may enter into a classroom looking for that formal education.  Yet quite often what happens is the informal learning.  It’s providence that we are led through the educational information (Thank you Bill).  What we discover along the way broadens our horizons more and education happens.  It’s exciting, it’s enriching, and it’s revitalizing no matter our age.

      To make this education happen all of us juggle something.  Maybe we’ve put spouses on hold, or shifted our children’s needs to someone else.  Maybe we take the stairs on Tuesdays because we can’t fit exercise into our day any other way.  We might eat on the run and still feed others.  Our time and our energy may be spread thin, our careers demanding of us.  Yet in my case I knew I had reached a learning plateau in my current field and I was ready for the next step.  It was time to get off that plateau and climb the next mountain.  I needed more.

      Within this program I started with a plan in mind and I’ve already learned that every moment is more.  My experiences and what I’ve learned in class, in my studies and with my colleagues shapes how my plan will evolve.  No matter the challenges of being here, I appreciate every moment of this personal growth that I have chosen to embark on.  Maybe this is just a feel good post, but as the semester winds down I found myself would up.  It’s a journey and it has just begun.  Thank you for joining me.