Books as Bridges, tonight

Register before noon to save a seat!  

Reflecting on our Parenting for Peace series helps me better understand my parenting stance today.  Susan Linn introduced is to the importance of pretend play (free from corporate influence);  Sandra Steingraber pushed us to become activists in the environmental health movement; David Sobel reminded us of the important of "Wild Play" for our kids (and ourselves); and Alfie Kohn encouraged us to practice democracy and compassion within our families and schools.  (Use the comments to suggest speakers for next year!).  Although I do not do all these things well, I've tried to incorporate much of the overall theme (more open space, less corporate influence) into my families lives.

I think that our time with Anne Sibley O'Brien and Krista Aronson might feel different from these earlier lectures.  Although we are likely to still leave inspired, thinking a little bit differently, and more connected to our community (goals of the overall program), our whole selves enter the conversation about race and racism in a way that we haven't had to before.  That is, the focus is not simply on what we can do for our children, but also on what we might learn about ourselves.  We all have unique experiences and racial identities and yet we also all swim in shared waters now.  Here at FSP we have a commitment to fairness, equality, acknowledging the light in everyone and doing what we can to have individual gifts shine.  Learning how to talk about race with our kids, and ultimately how to help dismantle racism, is part of that overall project of building inclusive communities. I welcome this prompt and hope that we have ongoing opportunities to learn from each other about personal identity and patterns of inclusion/exclusion for a long time.

We have had a great response to this program - unless causeway traffic is too frustrating we expect we might have a full house - come early, shop the book sale, and enjoy the company!

Alfie Kohn -- Link and beginning reflections

Edit : Link Fixed (I hope) 

If you didn't hear the talk or want another chance, you can listen here.   Alfie, himself starts at 8:50;  At about 120 he begins talking about what we should do; The Q&A starts at 157:16.  Maybe more reflection chunk by chunk later, or by someone else!!!!

First, I must give a huge thanks to the FSP community and Alfie himself -- it was a giant example of team work that we invited, fed and engaged with 60 educators, 7 community co-sponsors and over 200 people in one afternoon/evening. Local Sprouts made an amazing dinner, and extraordinary desserts were donated by Bam Bam Bakery.  The Hilton Garden Inn donated a room for Alfie, too.

I am finding myself thinking a lot about the workshop and the talk, which makes the event feel like a success (it's all about inquiry, reflection, action).  I'm reading "Feel Bad Education," talking to my family and friends about my own childhood and my parenting, I'm following Maine's Education Committee (taking up charter school legislation next week) and the Save Our Schools activism.

Before debriefing on content, I am chewing on  process, passionate and problematic in relation to Alfie's talk. I deeply appreciated his passion, conviction and willingness to provoke us out of complacent thinking. It isn't always easy to acknowledge our responsibilities and, like Sandra Steingraber, he is calling us to take action in service to our stated values. At times I found his tone (slightly belittling - I actually do have the maternal "good job" voice and while I hear the critique I also had the sense that I was being "punished" while learning about not using "punishments" - and slightly dogmatic -while encouraging us to ask more open ended questions) off-putting and at odds with the content of his message.  This does make me wonder how very difficult it is to truly see the light in all of us, and to truly practice non-violent communication, while also expressing heartfelt and deserved anger and frustration at people's behaviors and our larger system.  Alfie asks us to consider what children need to feel loved and safe, and what really motivates children to learn and grow; the same question needs to be considered for adults. This set of queries is at the base of a lot of hard work in activism and will fuel my reading for a while, I think.

Would so LOVE if people wanted to use comments to discuss...