Freelearning

Is Shopping the Answer?

This week we were told that consumer spending had only risen by .1% in the past month, a very low rate compared to previous months.  The implication seems to be that the economy will fall apart because we are buying less.  After 9/11 the President told us to be patriotic and go shopping.  Do we want to live in a world in which our welfare as a nation  continues to be built on "stuff"?

Many elders find themselves wanting to pare down their belongings and to simplify.  I imagine a world in which we share the things we seldom or never use.  Art supplies that pile up, coats and sweaters we don't wear, vases we haven't used in years, desktop sorters of three kinds, and sets of plates or bowls that are tucked away and never used.  This list reveals some of my stored unnecessaries.  With passing things around, could we have more people have the things they want or need and not have lots and lots to store?

Nobel prize winner Yunus has a 2008 book out on ending  world poverty.  He was interviewed on NPR and you can find an introduction to his thoughts here.  He worked with Danone (Dannon in US) to create a social business, i.e., a business designed to make the world a better place in which investors can get their money back over time but do not make any interest.  Profits are reinvested in the company.  This approach to business would certainly avoid the mess the US economy has gotten into by having workers that push financial papers back and forth between institutions making a profit but not creating value.  What if we were instead using a significant portion of our money to make the world a better place.  Yunus provides one vision of a way forward.

Today I received a link to a YouTube video from Barack Obama's campaign about students in the South Bronx learning about politics and coming to see themselves as able to do things -- "Yes We Can."  It shows a teacher who has used Barack's speech on getting beyond race to improve discussion and understanding in his classroom.  The enthusiasm of these students brought tears to my eyes.

What institutional changes will help us get out of potentially catastrophic financial woes?  What will open us to making personal commitments that will create new conditions going forward?  What is it about this teachers way of educating that results in having excited and involved students?

The Spring Pond

Tryangulation has a post today about the freedom for children to get dirty.  In response, I want to share my recent piece on my childhood play in the mud.

The Pond

Today's Saturday.  The sun is out.  I'm in second grade.  I have on my old clothes.  It rained Tuesday, Wednesday and yesterday this week.  It rained lots last week, too.  The path from our front yard to the pond is squishy.  I can see the spot where there aren't any wheels of old Queen Anne's lace.   That's where the pond is.  It always dries up by the end of the summer and then comes back in the spring. 

Last year I caught pollywogs in the pond.  Mommy gave me a Mason jar to put them in.   I watched their legs grow and their tails get smaller.  Every day I'd check to see if they looked different.  I brought them back to the pond when their legs got big.  Frogs can't live in a jar with just water and no rocks.  They'd drown.  And besides we couldn't have them jumping around in my room.

I see the pond.  Crayfish have built little clay towers.  It looks like somebody used a cake decorating tube to squeeze ruffles of mud around their holes.   The holes are big enough for a snake to crawl in. I've never seen any snakes, so far.

Over there it looks like maybe there was a building.  It's a pile of melted clay bricks.  Some come together to make a corner .  The whole mess is the color of the bottom of the pond.

I'm looking for pollywogs. 

There are tiny fish swimming in a group.  They are kind of silvery and many colored like the inside of a shell.  I don't think they're tadpoles. Tadpoles don't turn up in groups.  I see a cloud of dust in the water.  There's a crayfish.  I poke a stick in front of it to see if it will grab on.  It just swims around it. 

A pollywog is near the edge of the shallow water.  I reach around behind me to get my empty jar.  I don't want to scare it away.  As I scoop up the water, the pollywog scoots away.  I try not to get my feet wet but I want to see where it went.  Water is starting to leak in through the sides of my sneakers.  I squat down closer to the water being careful not to get all wet.  I see another pollywog with tiny knobs where its feet will be.  I quickly scoop my jar through the water.  At the last minute, the pollywog swims out of the jar. When the water clears, I watch for another pollywag. 

After two minutes, another tadpole swims near me.  I scoop with the jar and as soon as it's inside, I put my other hand over the top.  I feel the tadpole bumping into  my fingers.   I keep my hand tightly over the jar until it is out of the water.  I look.  There is nothing in the jar.

My hands are cold and my feet are cold.  Does that slimy line mean there is  a snake?  I'll come back tomorrow and bring something bigger to put over the top of the jar.

I take off my shoes outside.  .  Mommy is in the kitchen making cookies.

“What's that pile of mud that looks like bricks next to the pond?”

“That was supposed to be a building but it washed away” Mommy says.

“Why did it wash away?”

“The blocks were made with clay from the pond and grass, she said.  “They were trying to use local materials from the landscape.  But it wasn't practical.”

I thought about that.  “Why would somebody try to do that?”

“Do you know who Frank Lloyd Wright is?” she asks.

“Yes,” I say.  “Daddy has pictures of his houses.”

“It was his idea to use the local clay.  I guess nobody told him how much it rains here,”  she adds.  “Help me roll the balls for these snickerdoodles,” she says.  “Wash your hands first.”

"Okay."