A student I taught nearly two decades back contacted me recently regarding Teacher Eddie’s YouTube commentary on Boyinaband’s song, “Don’t Stay in School” (lyrics here). In a nutshell, the song indicts the British Education System for its emphasis on traditional learning topics and its neglect of pragmatic, practical, and useful life skills. Eddie offers similar [...]
Long walks take up valuable time. I willingly surrender roughly a dozen hours of that time each week. And surrendering it, I still keep every moment of it, and ponder that very mystery as I go. I never listen to music when I walk--or, at least, music that is not already in my mind. I [...]
When I was a child, I thought life was vigorous enough just having one brother. My brother Mark and I held places in each other’s lives alternately as best friends and bitter enemies. That rendered us similar to many pairs of siblings. As I approached adulthood, my parents had divorced, and my mother remarried. This [...]
The waning year abridges days, The trees grow bright with red and gold Inside, the hearths with logs ablaze Dispatch the looming cold. Some dear ones, dear the more for care-- Contagion rends the world in parts-- Today sit elsewhere as we share The feast of thankful hearts. Our longing for the ones not near [...]
The inspiration for this recipe came to me on a mass-mailing postcard that a local real-estate agent sent out years ago. I actually read what most people consider junk mail, and I determined that for me it wasn't junk. This particular agent sent out her contact information to thousands of people on a postcard that [...]
With the gray light of a November morning Entering the windows at the end of the corridor, She feels the hour is too early To enter her classroom. Instead, she leaves her satchel at the door And walks the full length back To where she thought her day had begun And out again through the [...]
As it becomes apparent that former Vice-President Joe Biden has more than the 270 electoral votes needed to become the next president, the political left---nominally embodied by the Democratic party---will cheer, celebrate, and cast predictions for good things to come. But even for the Democrats, and certainly for true progressives in this country, too much [...]
A pity, when today we write our verse, So often we withhold a formal shape, As if when timeless revelation comes It suffers if we brutally impose The harmful mass of a containing crate. Our fashion favors freer, sleeker lines, So swiftly flying, soaring ever high, Diminishing in distant altitude The revelation it may well [...]
All, hold sacred the morning, Miraculous as the birth of a child, Its strands of potential as numerous and intricate As an infant’s fingers and toes. Let us wish each of our days To grow strong and healthy, Old and wise, Though not all can. Some will die young Impaled on pikes Of rage and [...]
Some weeks ago, I presented a topical explanation of Vedanta, one of the schools of Hindu philosophy that has interested me for some years. I listed the Five Kleshas, or poisons, that Vedanta cites as sources of suffering. Today, I would like to explore Asmita, or as some teachers call it, self-non-recognition. The term Ego [...]
Real Teaching 