Current Issues in Curriculum & Pedagogy: May 2015



To be of useby Marge PiercyThe people I love the bestjump into work head firstwithout dallying in the shallowsand swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.They seem to become natives of that element,the black sleek heads of sealsbouncing like half submerged balls. I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,who do what has to be done, again and again.I want to be with people who submergein the task, who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along,who stand in the line and haul in their places,who are not parlor generals and field desertersbut move in a common rhythmwhen the food must come in or the fire be put out. The work of the world is common as mud.Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.But the thing worth doing well donehas a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.Greek amphoras for wine or oil,Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museumsbut you know they were made to be used.The pitcher cries for water to carryand a person for work that is real. Lao-tzu: Tao Te Ching - Chapter Sixty-Seven—Stephen Mitchell TranslationSome say that my teaching is nonsense.Others call it lofty but impractical.But to those who have looked inside themselves,this nonsense makes perfect sense.And to those who put it into practice,this loftiness has roots that go deep.?I have just three things to teach:simplicity, patience, compassion.These three are your greatest treasures.Simple in actions and in thoughts,you return to the source of being.Patient with both friends and enemies,you accord with the way things passionate toward yourself,you reconcile all beings in the world.(a) 天下皆謂我道大 (b) 似不肖 (c) 夫唯大 (d) 故似不肖 (e) 若肖久矣 (f) 其細也夫 (g) 我有三寶 (h) 持而保之 (i) 一曰慈 (j) 二曰儉 (k) 三曰不敢為天下先 (l) 慈故能勇 (m) 儉故能廣 (n) 不敢為天下先 (o) 故能成器長 (p) 今舍慈且勇 (q) 舍儉且廣 (r) 舍後且先 (s) 死矣 (t) 夫慈以戰則勝 (u) 以守則固 (v) 天將救之 (w) 以慈衛之 Did I Miss Anything?Tom WaymanFrom:?? The Astonishing Weight of the Dead. Vancouver: Polestar, 1994. Question frequently asked by?students after missing a class. This is why there is a mark for attendance and participation. Nothing. When we realized you weren't herewe sat with our hands folded on our desksin silence, for the full two hours????????Everything. I gave an exam worth????????40 per cent of the grade for this term????????and assigned some reading due today????????on which I'm about to hand out a quiz????????worth 50 per centNothing. None of the content of this coursehas value or meaningTake as many days off as you like:any activities we undertake as a classI assure you will not matter either to you or meand are without purpose????????Everything. A few minutes after we began last time????????a shaft of light descended and an angel????????or other heavenly being appeared????????and revealed to us what each woman or man must do????????to attain divine wisdom in this life and????????the hereafter????????This is the last time the class will meet????????before we disperse to bring this good news to all people????????????????on earthNothing. When you are not presenthow could something significant occur????????? Everything. Contained in this classroom????????is a microcosm of human existence????????assembled for you to query and examine and ponder????????This is not the only place such an opportunity has been????????????????gathered????????but it was one place????????And you weren't hereI Want to Write Something So Simply by Mary Oliver, from EvidenceI want to write somethingso simplyabout loveor about painthat evenas you are readingyou feel itand as you readyou keep feeling itand though it be my storyit will be common,though it be singularit will be known to youso that by the endyou will think—no, you will realize—that it was all the whileyourself arranging the words,that it was all the timewords that you yourselfout of your own hearthad been saying.Mary Oliver reads “The Summer Day”Rumi—Coleman BarksToday, like every other day, we wake up emptyand frightened. Don't open the door to the studyand begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.Let the beauty we love be what we do.There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. Coleman Barks reads RumiOut beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about ideas, language, even the phrase each other doesn't make any sense.Who makes these changes? I shoot an arrow right, It lands left. I ride after a deer and find myself chased by a hog. I plot to get what I want and end up in prison. I dig pits to trap others and fall in. I should be suspicious of what I want.Today, like every other day, we woke up empty and frightened. Don't open the door to the study and begin reading.Take down a musical instrument.Let the beauty we love be what we do.The mind cannot understand Rumi's poetry. Neither can desire. Mind and desire are not enough. There's something else, some other way of knowing, some deeper part of our being that knows we're not in grief, that knows we're in eternity, you know, that sings out of that. That's the mystery, I think, that cannot be said.Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. ................
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