Yesterday at the superbowl (of all places) this commercial was aired, in partial response )Ithink) to the severe abuse of women and children associated with some of the players in the past year

Always #like a girl pertains to every one of us and our children/students/friends

I think most of us could share it with others to raise discussions and send an important message, followed by focusing on other marginalized groups….

http://youtu.be/XjJQBjWYDTs    (3 min.)

אמנם הסרטון באנגלית אבל המסר ברורוכולל גם את העובדה שזה הופיע באמצע משחק הפוטבול הכי גדול וחשוב בארה”ב אתמול בערב (דקה פירסומת עולה 9 מיליון דולר)

ליגת הפוטבול מתמודדת בשנה האחרונה עם התעללויות קשות של חלק מהשחקנים בנשים וילדים. הפרסומת הזאת בחלקה, מתייחסת גם לזה.

מקווה שתוכלו לשתף בשיח ובמסר כמה שיותר אנשים סביבכם – זה כל כך חיוני

אח”כ אפשר להמשיך את השיח\מסר לגבי קבוצות מודרות אחרות

“Andrew Neyman is an ambitious young jazz drummer, single-minded in his pursuit to rise to the top of his elite east coast music conservatory. Plagued by the failed writing career of his father, Andrew hungers day and night to become one of the greats. Terence Fletcher, an instructor equally known for his teaching talents as for his terrifying methods, leads the top jazz ensemble in the school. Fletcher discovers Andrew and transfers the aspiring drummer into his band, forever changing the young man’s life. Andrew’s passion to achieve perfection quickly spirals into obsession, as his ruthless teacher continues to push him to the brink of both his ability-and his sanity. (C) Sony Classics”  (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/whiplash_2014/)

Commenting on the story itself (in Hebrew)(http://mekomit.co.il/וויפלאש-כמייצג-מערכת-החינוך/) Gil Gertal (Ph.D. in Education) writes that the story mirrors the schooling experiences of many: breaking down and disregarding “average” kids to make room for the geniuses. Society, he says, pays dearly for the process of finding the “geniuses” and that price is pushing the rest of us through a sieve, putting pressures on us that ultimately break so many, labeling and negatively categorizing those who do not reach the top… 

I agree with Gil but see this not as a society’s search for the “Best” (who can ultimately benifit society at large) but as more of a process of continuing the marginalization of those who are already powerless and keeping them in that low place for the benifit of those holding the power of writing curriculums and deciding on educational policy…

Priya’s story is one we have, sadly, heard many times: a village girl in India who is raped by a group of men who think they have the ultimate rights over women’s lives and bodies. Her family disowns her, she runs away to the jungle where she ultimately finds her voice, her purpose and her courage to speak out for the rights of all women.

The story was published as a comic book beautifully drawn and detailed and is available free online at

http://www.priyashakti.com/comic/

For those of us who have been listening to others’ voices and working on including them in the social discourse, this is an invaluable resource.

An interview with Dan Rollman in MentalFloss magazine (Dec. 2014, pg. 32-3) caught my “teaching/learning” attention and generated the warm, fuzzy feeling of “Hey, he got it and is gifting it to all of us”.

His website RecordSetter.com is “…a digital platform that allows anyone anywhere to set any world record.” Their philosopy is that “…anyone can be the world’s best at something”.

Rollman himself set the world record for “most bananas to fit into a pair of pants while wearing them” (for a while, until his record was beaten…)

Besides being a fun, imaginative and creative venue, my focus on the concept is as a platform for raising ideas about our own (and our students’) areas of expertese – where we already are and setting goals we would like to achieve.

Maybe stuffing bananas down one’s pants isn’t your goal but it can be an opening of the mind into searching for something I would like to become an expert in/on…or a design question about how best to structure the bananas in the pants to achieve a record number… a social studies quest regarding records and competative behaviors in cultures or societies (remember the Spartans in ancient Greece?)… a site for imagining possibilities and for self-empowerment.

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When there is a will, we can always find a way.

Was alerted to this BBC article about schooling coming to remote villge children on boats.

Education for what? In this case parents say that with an education “their children are no longer being short-changed when selling their catch in local markets”.

Literacy is a situated concept with different value in different places and under different circunstances.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-30019323