I liked the quick story. It really brings to light the harsh comparison between the wealthy and poor within a few pages. It describes that crucial moment in which someone realizes they are not part of a form of lifestyle that can afford $1000 toys.
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Community Engagement 
October 24, 2016 at 11:42 pm
I wish I knew who started us off in the comment above (thank you with a bow, anonymous but stellar student!). In any case, I’ve been thinking about the readings from last week and this week together and want to try to connect some of the dots. First, Derrick Jensen’s riff on schooling, from his book, Walking on Water: Reading, Writing and Revolution, goes to the very heart of why so many of us are put off by institutionalized learning— standardization, stultifying structures, the general lack of self-discovery, curiosity and passion that is part & parcel of so many of our school days. One wonders, compellingly I think, why we, continue to support a system which so obviously & continuously fails young people.
But, speaking of institutions, we should also ask if philanthropies do more harm than good. By leveraging their considerable financial power & authority, philanthropies largely dictate (to both non-profits & individuals) what kind of work will be done, & they do so through self-reflexive requests for proposals (RFP’s, in which their own interests, rather than the interests & expertise of their constituents [the funded], are largely represented), quantitative evaluation techniques which leave most everyone short of goals & objectives, & Seed Funding (typically short-term, about three years; just long enough to build a dependent relationship). Gwendolyn Brooks captures well the contingent interests of such “lovers,” who wish for the tidiness & self-gratification of the easy ask & give rather than the messiness of, say, poverty, genuine need & deprivations of various kinds.
Finally, “the drum major instinct” is in all of us, but it is a common, prevalent trap: the desire for individual fame or attention rather than the much harder work of catalyzing for the common good, in which everyone shares in the accomplishment. As the Lao Tzu says, in the Tao de Jing, how lovely to say, “we made this; we made this ourselves” instead of playing follow the leader!
I love “The Lesson,” because, among other things, it aims straight to the heart of what I’ve always called “the want bone,” that unsatisfied desire all of us have in American culture for some kind of gratification outside of ourselves, whether material, emotional or otherwise. More on this later— I just wanted to enter into the conversation in order to invite others in…. consider yourselves invited!
peace, warmth,
rick
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October 26, 2016 at 1:04 am
Fatima: I think we still fallow this institution because it is already set. Schooling is the way that most of us think of education and not one approach reaches all the students. I feel as if the poor with the deprivations it comes along with settle for this educational system because it is the only thing that they can afford. Also the hope that education will lead their kids out of poverty. But even then, how many people actually make it out of poverty? what part of the puzzle are we missing here? mentors? resources? and even when low income students are provided with the above do they take advantage of them or are they too scared to ask for help and admit that they can’t do it alone? how can we reach these students that don’t want to help themselves in so to speak.
As for the philanthropies, I do believe they are not completely devoted to their cause because of the politics of money but they are trying to make a difference to reach even one individual. If one individual is impacted then the mission has been accomplished because the problem can never be erased completely there is always going to be someone missing but if the life of one person is changed then I think it is worth investing. We are all part of a community, we are all humans, a citizen of the world so we all have a civic duty to at least attempt to make a difference in the life of people.
Also sorry if my grammar is not the best. I am trying to write down my thoughts before I lose them during dinner. see you guys tomorrow. ❤
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