A River Between

I finally can now see my “Pass” grades online for my final five credits of graduate school. While I’ve decided to not complete the final steps to getting the “degree” - I’m happy to have accomplished the learning and deep inquiry. Parts of my “portfolio” and transcripts will be sent to Duluth to fulfill requirements for a Massage Therapist license with the city (along with other past transcripts).

I’m happy with my learning, but maybe not the “schooling” portions. The following writing completely sums up my own feelings about “The Culture of Schooling” as it is now.

Source: McEducation for All? - Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development

The Culture of Schooling…

1) Labels, ranks and sorts human beings. It creates a rigid social hierarchy consisting of a very small elite class of ‘highly educated’ and a large lower class of ‘failures’ and ‘illiterates’, based on levels of school achievement.

2) Imposes uniformity and standardization. It propagates the viewpoint that diversity is an obstacle, which must be removed if society is to progress.

3) Spreads fear, insecurity, violence and silence through its externally-imposed, military-like discipline.

4) Forces human beings to violently compete against each other over scarce resources in rigid win-lose situations.

5) Confines the motivation for learning to examinations, certificates and jobs. It suppresses all non-school motivations to learn and kills all desire to engage in critical self-evaluation. It centralizes control over the human learning process into the State-Market nexus, taking power away from individuals and communities.

6) Commodifies all human beings, Nature, knowledge and social relationships. They are to be extracted, exploited, bought and sold.

7) Fragments and compartmentalizes knowledge, human beings and the natural world. It de-links knowledge from wisdom, practical experiences and specific contexts.

Artificially separates human rationality from human emotions and the human spirit. It imposes a single view of rationality and logic on all people, while simultaneously devaluing many other knowledge systems.

9) Privileges literacy (in a few elite languages) over all other forms of human expression and creation. It drives people to distrust their local languages while prioritizing newspapers, textbooks, television as the only reliable sources of information.

10) Reduces the spaces and opportunities for ‘valid’ human learning by demanding that they all be funneled through a centrally-controlled institution. It creates artificial divisions between learning and home, work, play, spirituality.

11) Destroys the dignity of labor; devalues the learning that takes place through manual work.

12) Breaks intergenerational bonds of family and community and increases people’s dependency on the Nation-State and Government, on Science and Technology, and on the Global Market, for their livelihoods and identities.

It’s been in the making for a while, but now that we’ve been able to tell some really close friends, I thought I’d make the big announcement here.

In September, Michael and I (and Junebug) will be leaving Northfield to live in Duluth, MN. We have been talking for a while with the Loaves and Fishes Catholic Worker Community about our desires to someday move to Duluth. At first it was just casual, but then the community gave us an offer we couldn’t refuse. We’ll be moving into Hannah House, helping them out by paying the taxes, insurance, and utilities, as well as helping them out and being involved however we are comfortable.

If you aren’t sure what a “Catholic Worker Community” is - here’s a brief history lesson. Originally founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, the Catholic Worker movement has sought to provide shelter, meals, and hospitality to those who are homeless. They have also been know for their “radical” political stances regarding peace and social justice. Many folks in this movement have been know for their civil disobedience, especially against war, militarism, and nuclear weapons - often from a very radical Christian or spiritual standpoint.

We’re not sure exactly what we’ll end up doing there, but I have a lead on some office space in Downtown Duluth for doing bodywork, and Michael is considering driving for Duluth Transit for a time. Whatever we do for “jobs” we will figure out. This is just an opportunity for us to live on SO MUCH LESS money, and to be around incredibly like-minded friends. Duluth is where Michael lived when we first met, and where he and I did sidewalk chalk drawings all around the city for Hiroshima Day.

We’re incredibly excited! We’re going up this weekend to help clean the house and get involved with a march down the Lake Superior coast. Apparently the military has been dumping some toxic waste in the lake and it’s gotten a bit out of hand.

Wish us luck!

Kombucha is now my biggest guilty pleasure! I love making this healthy,fizzy, fermented tea at home. Kombucha is said to have come from China thousands of years ago. It has been historically a popular health tonic in Russia for centuries. Many people have claimed that Kombucha helped in their illnesses, cancer, the regrowing of hair, the un-graying of hair, and of course, just general all-around well-being.

Kombucha starts with basic black or green tea, sugar, and the addition of a Kombucha “mushroom” or culture. By placing the culture in a glass jar of prepared tea with sugar, over about 5-7 days it literally eats up the caffeine and sugar - then converts it to healthy acids and B-vitamins. The tea begins to taste like fizzy apple cider.

It’s oh so yummy! I’m brewing about 2 gallons a week!

For more information on how to brew your own Kombucha, here are some links:

How to Make Kombucha
Health Claims of Kombucha