Day 59 & 60: The Praxis of Pedagogy

Yesterday I started off the journal write by reading from Thich Nhat Hanh's book "Anger" This is a really good book that explores the roots of anger and really sees it as suffering. Realizing what he was saying has had a profound effect on me because I have a lot of anger. So I read to them this passage about a 12 year old boy that used to have his father yell at him when he hurt himself. The boy always said that he would never treat his children that way, yet when his sister fell and hurt herself he felt the anger well up inside of him. He wanted to yell at his sister the way his father yelled at him. But since he had been practicing he was able to stop himself and be aware of his anger. Hanh talked about transmitted anger. I asked them to explain what Hanh meant by transmitted anger? Did they have any transmitted anger? What was the root of it and how did it play out in their lives? You ain't never seen pens write that fast.

In both my world cultures class I let them finish up their SQ3R questions for the section and then groups shared their questions for each section. Then I talked to them about what were good questions and what were bad ones. I realize that I must constantly model because they won't give me feedback except on tests where they do horribly. By calling groups to tell me their questions I dispersed the embarassment out. It's that whole sociology thing about people feeling less responsible in groups. But after hearing their questions I realized that they had no clue. I mean no clue about what questions to ask. So this was good to know cause then I formulated and modeled better questions for them. Then when they see the kinds of questions they are supposed to ask they could start to get it. Everyone needs to see examples. Their homework was to read and answer the questions then create new questions for the next section. We'll go over those questions on Thursday.

For my Asian American studies class I decided to finish on the Buddhist kick and talk about Buddhism. I gave them a cartoon on Buddha from the Cartoon History of the Universe by Larry Gonick. The cartoon does a rough outline story but I tried to the best of my knowledge to fill in the blanks. Then we went over the 5 precepts, 4 noble truths, and the 8 fold path. One of the things students last year said about buddhism was that it wasn't practical cause it was too hard. I wanted the kids this trimester to understand that Buddhism has goals and that we can not always walk the path but still have the goals to draw us back towards walking the path. Same with Christianity, same with Islam, same with sikhism, and same with santana-dharma. If people were perfect then we wouldn't need religion. Their homework was to write 2 pages on what causes them to suffer? What is the root of that suffering and what ways can they see to stop their suffering. I found this writing assignment to be incredibly powerful when I did it last year.

I realize that my Film Analysis class is really a Film Appreciation class. Allison called me out on it. I talk about the film a bit with them and we discuss themes, shots, and other stuff, but I'm watching a lot of different movies with them. We finished "Enter the Dragon" and I geeked out with them about it. I went back and looked at different scenes and talked about martial arts styles. I know a ridiculous amount of trivia about that movie and I shared it with them. We talked about the racism in the movie. Black man dies and White guy with lead role next to Bruce. John Saxon was put in cause they didn't think people would want to see just Bruce. It's like always pairing the black guy with the white guy. Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte. Sam L Jackson and Eugene Levy. That's why Rush Hour was so great, cause it wasn't about the white guy.

In my capoeira class I taught them more kicks and had them play while I played the berimbau. I have to introduce the music more. But that's my worst thing. I can't fucking play the music. And play and sing... forgettaboutit.