9of.us

I haven’t written in two weeks, so here are some of the things that have happened, in semi-chronological order:

A Mentor finds Claire

All of the students here have to choose a “mentor” to whom they give weekly reports for the first six weeks of school, from whom to ask advice, and generally have a touch person to be looking out for us. It was fifth week, and I still hadn’t asked anyone (I was waffling whom to ask). I mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to ask Biff to lead a discussion group on Montessorian pedagogy, etc. I did ask him, he agreed, and I sent him an email with a list of questions that I’d brainstormed (on nurturing curiosity; refereeing children’s mini societies; discipline, and such). He emailed back and said he was eager for the discussion, liked the questions, and, by the way, did I have a mentor yet, because he’d enjoy continuing these conversations.
I’m thrilled. He’s down to earth, very intelligent, and flexible (he’s advised me to deviate from the requirements: “That poster’s really boring. Come up with something cooler, and make that.”) So, praise God, I’ve got a great mentor!

Claire Sings Romanian Techno Song to Turtle

The famous Maiahi (Numa Numa) song contains the lines “Alo, alo, sunt eu Picasso” (Hello, Hello, it’s me, Picasso). All of the students have jobs to do in the “classroom”, and mine is to feed the painted turtle, Picasso half the week. So I sing to him under my breath.

New Age Workshop Comes to CMTE:
Montessorians encouraged to “Let the soft animal of your body love what it loves”

A week ago Tuesday, we had a whole school (about 200 people) workshop on “the Spiritual Preparation of the Teacher.” Now, Montessori herself was a little an over-the-top streak (bring world peace through elementary education, for instance), and did hang out with Theosophists in India during WWII, so I wondered a little about how much doodling I would be doing during the workshop. What we got was an hour and a half of a lady from some holistic healing/spiritualism organization, who first talked about the new spirituality that had finally evolved in America, and then led us in some meditations and “spiritual experiences”. Here are some gems that I jotted down:
Old Spirituality vs. New
1) Authority comes from hierarchy, vs “You are your own best authority”
2) God and worship are predefines, vs “listen within to find God and experience worship”
3) There is only one path to God vs. “There are many paths to the spiritual”
4) Some actions, objects, and people are not sacred vs. “All things are sacred”
And here she quoted a nifty little poem by Mary Oliver:
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
Love what it loves.

5) Truth is stable, and never changes, vs “Truth is evolving. The meaning of life changes”
Then she said, “When I say that the world has reached a more universal, new spirituality, of course I’m asked about the rise of fundamentalism in the world and this country. See, that always happens, when something is passing away, it always has a brief resurgence. You could call it the last dying gasp of the dinosaur”

She then led us through some exercises in the four “Landscapes”: Body (pummeling oneself gently “send grateful feelings to your belly! Feel that ENERGY”); Mind (deep breathing, “Feel all the energy congealing into this human self. Now exhale, and feel yourself pervade the far reaches of the universe”); Heart (led meditation: “…walking along a beautiful path… see a spiritual being sitting on a bench. It’s your spiritual guide! Maybe it’s a man. A woman. An animal, or angel…”)

I did not pummel myself, or breath deeply (I’d like to keep my soul in me, thank you, and not all over the universe!) and when she turned the music on and started speaking in a soothing voice I disobeyed her instruction to put my paper and pen under my seat, and sat there, scribbling Scripture verses and hymn lyrics. The room was packed, shoulder to shoulder, and I was rather wedged. I kept thinking it would stop, but the Landscape of the Heart was intolerable, (”now tell your spiritual guide the things you don’t like about yourself… the mistakes… the impatience… now your guide is telling you that those don’t really matter, that’s not your true self… listen to what your guide is telling you…… Actually, that spirit isn’t some supernatural being - it’s YOU! You’ve got that guide within yourself…”) and there were quiet sniffles in the room. I was afraid to find out what the Landscape of the Soul was going to be, so I got up and the people between me and the door politely moved there knees to let me escape.

I was so upset by the whole thing, and outraged that I’d had to sit through it, and flustered and angry that I just started walking across campus, not sure where I was going, and figuring it would be okay to end up on the Glen Island (a mile away). The worst of it was that we’d not been forewarned of what it was going to be, and that I’d heard someone say that this woman was interested in forming a partnership with CMTE to be a regular contributor. I was fighting tears and muttering things under my breath when I came across a nun (the College of New Rochelle is run by Ursuline nuns), and accosted her with “I just came out of a New Age workshop and it was awful and will you pray with me?” She kindly led me to a bench, asked for

clarification, chuckled over the handouts that I still had clutched in my hand, and groped for words, poor woman. We talked for a little while, and she never prayed with me, but the laughing did me wonders, and it really is ludicrous, so I was able to come away (after a kiss on the cheek from Sister Mary) in a normal frame of mind.

Imaginary 6 Year Olds Practice Reading Skills With TennysonI had to prepare a mini lesson for “Shared Reading” - reading with beginner readers to make reading fun. I searched through the children’s poetry anthologies at the college library here, and after I’d already been thoroughly charmed by a particular poem, I noticed that the author was Alfred, Lord Tennyson. I did it anyway. The instructor and my little group of fellow students seemed to like it, and I brought the poster I made back to my room for decoration.

Claire eats a NY Bagel: And Likes It!

A week ago (Sunday, midmorning) I set out down Centre Avenue to get me a bagel. I went into Sammy’s New York Bagel shop (Kosher), and got in line behind the black couple and the 30-something guy in a yarmulke (skull cap). When it was my turn, the Jewish guy was still being served, and I made my customary stranger’s plea: “I’m from Indiana and my friends said I had to get a New York bagel with cream cheese and lox! What do I get?” (I didn’t see “NY bagel w/crm chs and lox” anywhere on the menu boards) The guy behind the counter grinned and shrugged, but the other customer took pity on me. “She wants scallion cream cheese with nova. Do you like scallions?” He turned to me. I nodded. “What kind of bagel should I get?” “Doesn’t matter.” So I got the Black Russian with sesame seeds. “She wants it toasted. Gotta be toasted.” my bagel guide called out, and turned to go to the back of the shop. “I hope I like it!” I said, “Oh, you’ll like it!” He said, and nodding at my thanks, got on his cell phone.

I liked it.

The nova lox was really mild, and had a very tender texture, so blended well with the scallion cream cheese. And the Black Russian was great, although it’s thunder was stolen by the insides. The pink stuff in the picture is the lox (cured salmon). I surreptitiously took a picture of the bagel in the shop, ate half, and went home to take pictures of myself eating it.

Giant prehistoric horseshoe crab found in city park!

Last Friday I betook myself to Glen Island again, and was hopping from rock to rock as usual when I decided the rocks were too small in that part of the inlet, and returned to the path, and just glanced down to see a large, circular brown thing. I climbed down, and it was a humongous horseshoe crab, very neatly scrubbed out, with the tail end intact in the sand below the rock. I took it of course, and continued on my walk. On my way home, I passed an elderly couple on a bench who asked what it was. I explained, and said that I was a teacher. The man (in a thick Italian accent) said, “Teach me!” So I told him that the horseshoe crab was one of the earliest forms of invertebrate life, that it was miraculously jointed, and crawled along the bottoms of oceans, sweeping food into its mouth hole with the little feathered legs. Both man and woman (who was Asian, and also spoke with a different accent) marveled, and when I gave it to him to hold, he exclaimed at how light it was! I had a lovely night, and now I’ve got to figure out how to get my beloved crustacean back to the Mississippi valley.

Claire goes psychedelic with dinosaur coloring

We've been given the posters (timeline of life, composition of the earth) we have to color, laminate, and put on posterboard. We've got all year to do it, but I figure every hour I spend on it now is an hour more to give to the Work College, so I've been coloring all weekend (6 hrs yesterday, 4-5 already today). They recommend that we copy the posters in the Environment (classroom) here but at one point yesterday I thought, "Nobody knows what prehistoric corals looked like! I'm going to color this one orange and purple!" So I did! Now I'm up to the Jurassic Era.