Will Brehm Online

2007-07-20T08:25:00.000+08:00

Some times I just want to cry.

What the hell is wrong with all the Congressmen? No one, not even a Republican, can think this war is right.

2007-07-18T22:04:00.000+08:00

Mount Kearsarge

by Donald Hall

Mount Kearsarge shines with ice; from hemlock branches

snow slides onto snow; no stream, creek, or river

budges but remains still. Tonight

we carry armloads of logs

from woodshed to Glenwood and build up the fire

that keeps the coldest night outside our windows.

Sit by the woodstove, Camilla,

while I bring glasses of white,

and we'll talk, passing the time, about weather

without pretending that we can alter it:

Storms stop when they stop, no sooner,

leaving the birches glossy

with ice and bent glittering to rimy ground.

We'll avoid the programmed weatherman grinning

from the box, cheerful with tempest,

and take the day as it comes,

one day at a time, the way everyone says,

These hours are the best because we hold them close

in our uxorious nation.

Soon we'll walk -- when days turn fair

and frost stays off -- over old roads, listening

for peepers as spring comes on, never to miss

the day's offering of pleasure

for the government of two.

2007-07-18T22:01:00.000+08:00

Mr. Bush really makes me understand what the founding fathers rebelled against and wrote against: the fear of an absolute despot in England and the potential of one in America. Yet, Mr. Bush doesn’t understand the ideas of checks and balances. He just understands Fox News; recently he said his decision to commute Libby was “fair and balanced.” Good times if you’re into the whole “I-don’t-like-civil-liberties-make-a-mockery-out-of-Democracy” sort of thing.

2007-07-16T20:36:00.000+08:00

Revised Talking Points for Tour Guides:

Talking Points on Devlin Arrest

7.12.07 - Revised

Let me share what Lehigh knows about this situation at this time…

According to the Delaware County district attorney’s office, criminal investigation division, Lehigh University employee Steve Devlin has been charged with multiple offenses related to the criminal online solicitation of an undercover officer.
Lehigh University has placed the individual on unpaid administrative leave pending the outcome of an independent investigation. He is no longer on our campus.

The university continues to cooperate fully with law enforcement agencies on this matter.

Since this case remains active and the police are leading the investigation, the university is not able to comment on the details of the situation. This is the information that we have at this time.

Here is the email I received:

"Hi everyone,

Here are some revised talking points for the Devlin arrest. Please let
me know ASAP if any parents/students ask about this case during your tours.

Thanks!

XXXXX"

Why does the University need to know ASAP if people are talking about it? Of course people are talking about it!

2007-07-16T00:05:00.000+08:00

Poem of the day:

Bloodletting by Saul Williams.

Here are the first few lines:

"the greatest americans

have not been born yet

they are waiting patiently

for the past to die"

2007-07-16T00:00:00.000+08:00

Bureaucracy. You know it exists in government. Well let me tell you, it even penetrates schools –all the time. It even hits tour guides! This is the problem with, well, the world. Check out the email I received regarding the “talking points” I, a soon-to-be tour guide, should regurgitate on the current arrest of a Lehigh vice-provost.

Hi everyone,

I'm sure most of you have heard about the reason incident involving one of our Lehigh Administrators. Here is the basic information in case you haven't heard:

Background Information:

According to the Delaware County district attorney's office, criminal investigation division, a Lehigh University employee has been charged with multiple offenses related to the criminal online solicitation of an undercover officer.

Should you receive any questions from prospective families in regards to this topic, here are the talking points:

Talking Points:

· Lehigh University has placed the individual on administrative leave.

· The university is cooperating fully with law enforcement agencies on this matter.

· Since this case remains active, the university is not able to comment on the specifics or details of the situation.

Please only refer to the talking points and do NOT talk about any of the details of the case.

Thank you

-XXXXX XXXXX

This sounds like a Presidential press release, not an email for college tour guides. Lehigh University has become too involved in politics and the business of education instead of solely education. Unless this bureaucracy, in all aspects –school, business, and government –disappears, we, as a society, will not progress. It is very disturbing to see this level of ridiculousness hit the lowest employees of an educational institution. I had a very interesting discussion on this topic tonight. I will post on it tomorrow.

Luckily, I will keep telling the truth –the good and the bad –about Lehigh regardless of potential termination threats. Needless to say, since tour guides get paid very little, there really is no incentive to conform. (This also raises the question of money and its pressure to make people conform to shitty ideas.)

2007-07-15T23:04:00.000+08:00

From Coke's Website:

"Did you know The Coca-Cola Company offers more than 400 brands in over 200 countries? "

Sounds impressive. Well, the UN only lists 193 countries in the world. By UN standards, the Coca-Cola company is present in every country in the entire world (plus some). I think we, as citizens of the world, should be frightened by this fact. Coca-Cola Company, found in every country, earned a revenue of almost $25 billion --larger than many countries GDP!

Poem of the Day

2007-07-12T16:17:00.000+08:00

Dream Variations

by Langston Hughes

To fling my arms wide

In some place of the sun,

To whirl and to dance

Till the white day is done.

Then rest at cool evening

Beneath a tall tree

While night comes on gently,

Dark like me--

That is my dream!

To fling my arms wide

In the face of the sun,

Dance! Whirl! Whirl!

Till the quick day is done.

Rest at pale evening . . .

A tall, slim tree . . .

Night coming tenderly

Black like me.

2007-07-11T21:15:00.000+08:00

The Tub Project.

"The tub project is a series of experiential, collaborative and surreal experiments inspired by our growing collection of antique bath tubs.
Below are the results of our interactive performance at the FIGMENT festival on Governor's island on July 8th 2007. Thank you to all our wonderful participants. We hope to see you again at our next tub project (involving 7 tubs!) at the DUMBO arts under the bridge festival in October."

Poem of the Day

2007-07-11T21:03:00.000+08:00

The Chimney-Sweeper

by William Blake

When my mother died I was very young,

And my father sold me while yet my tongue

Could scarcely cry 'Weep! weep! weep! weep!'

So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.

There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,

That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved; so I said,

'Hush, Tom! never mind it, for, when your head's bare,

You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.'

And so he was quiet, and that very night,

As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!--

That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,

Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.

And by came an angel, who had a bright key,

And he opened the coffins, and set them all free;

Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing, they run

And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.

Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,

They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind;

And the angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,

He'd have God for his father, and never want joy.

And so Tom awoke, and we rose in the dark,

And got with our bags and our brushes to work.

Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm:

So, if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.

2007-07-11T00:00:00.000+08:00

Here's my RSS 2.0 feed for just Twittergrams. Enjoy!

2007-07-10T22:53:00.000+08:00

The fly on the wall talks journalism: Murdoch's bid for the Dow Jones.

Let's hope Burkle steps up!

Poem of the Day

2007-07-10T22:29:00.000+08:00

“A Sort of a Song” by Williams Carlos Williams

Let the snake wait under

his weed

and the writing

be of words, slow and quick, sharp

to strike, quiet to wait,

sleepless.

—through metaphor to reconcile

the people and the stones.

Compose. (No ideas

but in things) Invent!

Saxifrage is my flower that splits

the rocks.

2007-07-10T22:25:00.000+08:00

I would like to see an apology from Blitzer and Co. to Michael Moore. As Moore clearly states on his website, the facts CNN presented about his movie, SICKO, were practically all wrong. Wolf even said he would apologize. Please respect the citizens of America by having Wolf live up to the American morals I miss. Apologize Wolf!

Comment to CNN. Let them have it!

Watch Moore give Wolf a lesson (or two).

2007-07-10T21:34:00.000+08:00

Will's Twittergrams

2007-07-09T23:21:00.000+08:00

I’m not a technology guy. I took one class in computer programming (C++) and absolutely hated it. Maybe I should give another language a shot, but heck, I think I’ll stick to English for the time being. Regardless, I believe even those who cannot program can still contribute to the on-going technological conversation. Purely thinking of ideas for this discourse may actually spark ideas for the programmers suffering from writers block. I think it can work.

David Winer writes about all the new technology he wants to see. Why can’t others?

I love SKYPE. But can it go further? I want to see SKYPE be able to leave Twittergrams. Not from the SKYPE OUT service, which costs precious dollars Sallie Mae already claimed, but from the computer-to-computer SKYPE that’s free. This way every time I am abroad, I can leave messages for friends and family back in the states. It should work in my mind: my computer uses SKYPE and leaves a message on the web via Twittergram. Do I have something wrong here?

What other ideas exist in all those minds who thought technology developments were for an elite group?

Poem of the Day

2007-07-09T18:26:00.000+08:00

Politics

-William Butler Yeats

‘In our time the destiny of man presents its meanings

in political terms.’ —Thomas Mann.

How can I, that girl standing there,

My attention fix

On Roman or on Russian

Or on Spanish politics?

Yet here’s a travelled man that knows

What he talks about,

And there’s a politician

That has read and thought,

And maybe what they say is true

Of war and war’s alarms,

But O that I were young again

And held her in my arms!

2007-07-08T23:53:00.000+08:00

Wow.

The Problem with Education

2007-07-08T15:11:00.000+08:00

Since teaching in Taiwan, I have realized the problem of education: numbers. Numbers have hijacked education. Students only care about grades and not material. Yes, grades are needed to determine if the student has improved in a given area and should advance to the next level. However, the idea of grades has changed. Grades no longer evaluate improvement. They now acts as the sole purpose of education: what the final grade looks like (and will it look good on college applications or resumes) overpowers everything.

It is not the students who have changed the meaning of grades; it has been schools and teachers. And, no, it is not Mr. Rogers who has influenced students to actively seek extra credit. Rather, it is the constant message education projects. Alarmed by the growing message of getting into a good college or get a good job; students are forced to beg for extra credit in fear of a “B” or a “C.”

In Taiwan, I have adopted a different message to project to my students: the elimination grades can increase education, and ironically, improve grades in the long run. Without seeing grades, the grades will improve! Amazing. This “no grade” policy may seem foreign to many of these students, but it has truly worked –even in an SAT class where numbers dominate, well, everything. The students have now taken two full exams, never seeing their scores. After each exam I go through looking for trends. Which areas –grammar, critical reading, or vocabulary –need improvement? From these trends, lesson plans are created to meet the students’ particular needs. This does take many hours to compute, but it allows for true learning. Education cannot be standardized; needs vary for every student. Changing focus depending on the students mistakes, the students main concern becomes education, not scores. With the elimination of scores –and stress the scores bring –students have increased their scores by an average of 5% --around 100 points --in only two weeks. (I did a complete percent-change analysis for each student to prove to them the "no grade" policy really works. Some students improved an amazing 50% on a particular section!)

To look at this educational digression from a broader perspective, it is, in my opinion, competition that plagues the system. Since when should education be competitive? Education’s main goal, simply, should be the education of children: to prepare them for the world; to help the advancement of our society. Yes, competition abounds in the “real world,” as it should, but education must exist outside of this world –the reason education never falls in the category of “real world.” Students seem to live within the world of competition –from the basketball court to acting stage to musical concert seats. It makes sense this competition should invade classrooms; however, it is the teacher’s responsibility to erase this idea, focusing on education alone. The results are in: the un-focus of grades works! Now it’s time to see a systemic change.

Vociethread

2007-07-06T23:48:00.001+08:00

Voicethread: free, easy, powerful. How can this be used effectively in classrooms?

Check out my first voicethread: