We finished "The Merchants of Cool" and had a short but good discussion.

Some current events. We almost finished the "Merchants of Cool" and had some discussion of it.

Some talk about school year, budget, strike, the current stuff which affects us.

We watched the first half of an excellent PBS Frontline from a couple of years ago called "The Merchants of Cool" which concerns marketing to teens. This is a part of a greater "media literacy" I hope students get in the next few weeks.

I read an antiwar poem by Mary Oliver, I read a brief essay by Eduardo Galeano. We discusses current events. I told the class what was coming up. This week we will be doing some "media literacy" and examining media and advertising. In following weeks we'll talk about "enemies", war, holocaust, and peace.

Assignment due next Monday: write an integrated essay integrating at least 6 elements of what we've learned so far. Some topics: Amazonian rubbertappers, Ladakh, NAFTA/FTAA/GATT/WTO, water, oil, antiAmerican sentiment, war in Iraq, Empire, World Social Forum, antidotes to corporate globalization, nonviolence, ecological footprint, consumption, media, Palestine/Israel, economics, et cetera.

We had some discussion of current events.

After a lockdown drill which lasted far too long for our class which did not hear the ending signal, we did some review. I printed this blog since the beginning of the semester and told students I would be assigning a paper next week which would require integration of many of the things we've learned this semester.

We heard from three more groups presenting their article summaries.

Shannon mentioned a speech given from the Senate Floor by Robert Byrd which passionately and declaratively called for the Bush administration not to continue the drums of war. The Oregonian reprinted part of the speech in today's op-ed section and here's a link to the full speech. When I was searching for that link I came across another speech he made a decade ago under a different Bush with a similar situation. The parallels are remarkable. 1991 Gulf War speech

We had an impromptu discussion about Black History Month. This discussion was disturbing because of the extraordinary lack of awareness of American history. Many people had strong opinions without having much historical awareness, a dangerous combination. I hope to continue this discussion but in a more intelligent way.

We heard short presentations from a few people on their assigned articles.

Assignment: notes on presentations.

We discussed our learning in this class. We are working on a balance between being focused on one particular subject and paying attention to a variety of current events and other global studies topics. We discussed the nature of required curriculum and after some time most of us agreed that the college model would be more effective for hight school. That entails two electives each year, two required core (math/science/English/social studies) classes, and two classes in a "major". More choice would help students to be more focused on their learning because of interest. Though brief, it was a good discussion.

For all of you TV watchers: "60 Minutes" is devoting an entire segment to Michael Moore this Sunday, Feb. 16, on CBS, 7pm ET/PT
CBSNEWS link

We learned from Levi, Lincoln's student body president, about the World Social Forum. He was able to participate in this amazing event in which Porto Alegre, Brazil hosted 100,000 people who want to make the world a better place. He told us (warned) a bit of about traveling alone without planning to a country whose language you do not speak. He told us a bit about Brazil, about anti-American sentiment, about activism, about public art, about FTAA-ALCA, about the "race to the bottom." Check the World Social Forum website for more info or alternatives for a better world.

We spent the rest of the period on some current events and a bit of discussion. I read a piece from today's Oregonian by Barry Lopez concerning the state of our nation and "a consolidation of power in the executive branch of government together with the emergence of an ideology of righteousness" and its 20th century parallels to Germany, the Phillipine's, and Reagan's America. If you'd like to read it, Here's the article.

Talked about some current events, specifically the rest of the school year and bargaining and the possibilities of a strike and furlough, etc. etc. We must think ahead and think about contingencies. The most extraordinary possibility is that March 7th could be the last day of school. A horrible thought, but one we must be aware of.

We talked about "antidotes" to corporate globalization. Fair trade is one way in which producers can be more closely connected to consumers. We watched a video called "Farm to Market" which highlighted some of the ways farmers are connecting directly to consumers. In addition to growing and raising food , farmers are also processing and marketing their own foods. Local economies have been falling to the wayside in in the past 50 years of globalization. This kind of local economics of connecting producers with consumers is a return to that way.

We did a bit of catching up, a tiny bit of discussion, some book sharing.

Assignment: define these words--discretionary spending/budget, regressive tax (& example), progressive tax (& example), deficit, balanced budget, unearned income.

We had a relaxed day. Discussion group dealt with some of the questions of recent concern: school funding, ecological footprint & globalization, responsibility for Ladakhi cultural degredation or rainforest destruction, I versus we thinking, economics.

For the last 10 minutes, we wrote on "what I learned this week."

We spoke of many things today. I read an excellent speech given by Arundhati Roy at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil a couple of weeks ago. She spoke passionately about corporate globalization, more properly called Empire and how we must unite and lay seige to it in the name of justice. Roy won the Booker Prize for an amazing novel called The God of Small Things and has been extremely active in writing and speaking against corporate globalization and for grassroots movements, particularly regarding hydroelectric dams in the southwest of India. I have great respect for as well as amazement at her writing.

I encourage everyone to read it (again), print it, distribute it, talk about it, do something about it. Here's a link: Arundhati Roy's written speech

We talked about ecological footprint, reviewed some old and learned some new acronyms of global importance. Good class today.

We had some general discussion about schooling and learning and education and the frequent disconnections between them. I refered to two educational thinkers/writers I respect and gain inspiration from, both have websites. Alfie Kohn and John Taylor Gatto

I'd encourage you to visit this site to tour the history of American compulsory education.

We talked about a lot of current events today. For the last part of class, small groups filled out a survey, list of questions concerning school funding and other issues from last week.