Summer reading #7

Funny how certain themes seem to overtake me. I see one book, and then am prompted to balance out what I've learned with something related. This book is directly connected to my reading of The Moneyless Man and Who Killed the Grand Banks? 

In this very detailed book, Cunningham begins by setting the perspective. Until recent years, ALL global economic activity has been built upon using up the earth's resources, and maintaining the things that have been built using those resources. Now, there is a growing amount of economic activity and opportunity built upon re-using, re-newing, and re-storing.

More to come...

Summer reading #6

The author perfectly illustrates how the long-term presence of a performing musical group results in boosting of academic performance across the curriculum. The key idea here is that the musicians are employed NOT just as a one-off entertainment event that pulls kids out of class and into a school assembly, etc. Rather, and this is the key difference, the musicians are involved with the teachers on a long term basis. They sit down with the teacher and plan how their musical activity and the music itself can be used to teach and connect with a wide variety of the school curriculue. For example, concept of patterning in mathematics can be very abstract and difficult to grasp for even the brightest mind. But, when the concept of patterning is illustrated in musical forms and rhythms, there is an instant connection. Likewise, social skills are hard to see as relevant when taught in isolation, but when students understand, see and hear the give and take and sharing/synergy that happens in a musical ensemble, not only in the rehearsal process but in the performance itself, they get it: social skills are the very tools of "life performance," just like musicianship is the basic tool of musical performance. There are hundreds of other equally powerful ways that a musical ensemble can deeply enrich a school program IF (and this is the big if) the teachers and musicians share the responsibility and opportunity to bring their music to the service of all learning, and if the musicians and teachers are willing to be involved in the project on a long-term basis. (At least a full school year, if not two or three.)

I need to read this book again and again. Perhaps then, I will find the courage to try some of these ideas in his own classroom, in partnership with other musicians and teachers.
Five stars out of five.

Summer reading #5

After visiting Newfoundland this past July, it made sense to wrap my head around this important part of the province's history. The one thing that sticks out to me is how close I came to seeing some of the bad policies in action, even though it is 10 years after the cod fishery was stopped. This is a picture of a shrimp boat, heading out of Twillingate Harbour. There are about half a dozen of these big boats working out of Twillingate. They are the mainstay of the harbour activity these days. Problem: The shrimp boats use huge, weighted "dragger" type nets that scrape along the bottom and scoop up everything off the ocean floor, because that is where the shrimp are feeding. It is this very same kind of big boat, government subsidized dragging that killed off the huge numbers of cod in the 80s. Because the gov't gave in to political pressure to help make it happen, all in the name of jobs for Newfoundlanders, the cod fishery was ruined. The draggers dig up the plant and animal detritus that is the basis of the food chain for cod and other species. Now, ironically, the same destructive, dragging method is being used to harvest shrimp, which is even more valuable than cod once were. Hello people? The cod used to eat the shrimp. Now that the cod are gone, you are taking all the shrimp! Will there ever be a chance for the species to renew itself?

Alex Rose says the answer will take political will-power, and a renewal of Newfoundlanders' philosophy of the future: A ban on all habitat-destroying fishing methods, a possible middle term ban on all fishing, and then a move into a quota-based system. Newfoundlanders need to envision a future that is not built around taking and taking and taking. They need to diversify into methods of renewal and enterpreneurship in other sectors. Tourism is one example.

I am now more aware of the issues facing the global fishing business. There is more demand for fish than ever before, and more habitat destruction and deep ocean renegade fishing practices than ever before. National governments need to put fisheries on their agenda right up beside global warming.
Three stars out of five. (A bit too repetitive; confusing in places; rambling in others.)