By Pauline Rose, director of the EFA Global Monitoring Report
As the post-2015 goal-setting process continues, education has increasingly been discussed as not only a development goal in its own right, but also a key way of reaching other development goals. And for good reason: a country that provides free access to quality education for all its citizens is far more likely to reduce poverty, promote economic growth, lower child and maternal mortality and achieve social inclusion.
In the movie Music and Lyrics, Hugh Grant’s character defends his pop star vocation, saying that rock musicians are “real poets.” He tells Drew Barrymore’s character, a literature student, that nothing can make you feel happier, faster than, ”I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day/ When it’s cold outside, I’ve got the month of May.” 
Music is just poetry set to music, so why not use lyrics to teach literature? For example, Johnny Cash lyrics carry a deeper meaning without being overwhelming. His most catchy tune, “I Walk the Line” is a good place to start:
I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you’re mine, I walk the line
Why is Cash keeping a “close watch” and his “eyes wide open?” What is this “tie that binds?” But then, what is the line he is walking? What makes this imagery so powerful? Cash seems to be building a strong contrast between two viewpoints, perhaps to show his own conflicted nature – or to emphasize his devotion. He clarifies in the next verses, before returning to the first verse at the end:
I find it very, very easy to be true
I find myself alone when each day is through
Yes, I’ll admit that I’m a fool for you
Because you’re mine, I walk the line
As sure as night is dark and day is light
I keep you on my mind both day and night
And happiness I’ve known proves that it’s right
Because you’re mine, I walk the line
You’ve got a way to keep me on your side
You give me cause for love that I can’t hide
For you I know I’d even try to turn the tide
Because you’re mine, I walk the line
Also interesting is the driving rhythm of the song, the sound of a freight train – also used in Folsom Prison Blues – for which Cash is so famous. Does this beat support the message of the lyrics or contradict them, adding a new layer to the song?
You could also find parallels to famous works of poetry. For example “As sure as night is dark and day is light” sounds to me reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Sonnet #18 “As long as men shall breathe and eyes shall see.” In general, the imagery of light, dark, day and night is rampant through literature.
Finally, how does this song fit into Cash’s work as a whole, and to his life story? Does the metaphor of walking a line reflect well his struggles? Maybe Cash makes references to his past songs in order to recast them in a new light as he was writing this song directly after his marriage to June Carter.
To celebrate International Art Museum Day, I visited one of those galleries in the D.C. region that is not usually free: the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The last time I was there was for rehearsals of the Viva Vivaldi! All Girls orchestra, back in 1995. That was a powerful reminder of female prowess, and this was no different.
A centerpiece of the collection is a self-portrait by Frida Kahlo dedicated to Leon Trotsky (1937). (I like Diego Rivera far too much to comment further on this dedication.) 
The picture itself is wonderful. It bears Kahlo’s typical proud style: the perfect symmetry of her figure poised between the open curtains, her beautiful peach skirt lying almost triangular – without a wrinkle – and the long, flowing shawl draped elegantly over her shoulders.
But then there are the eyebrows. Why, Frida? Perhaps they draw attention to the intense gaze in her eyes. Perhaps, like Coco Chanel, Kahlo knew she needed a look. As Mademoiselle Chanel put it in a 1990 interview with Douglas Kirkland, “In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.”
There could also be something more meaningful in Frida Kahlo’s signature brow line. Maybe she wants us to remember, to have to remember, that art is not pretty. The beauty that lives in art is borne of suffering, death, destruction. Without those eyebrows, perhaps we could accidentally believe that this is a “nice” picture by a pretty girl. Instead, we must remember that this powerful piece only draws us in with the perfection of the dress and the impeccable posture of its subject to contrast those sharply with the intense fire that rages in her eyes.
Themes in literature have always been difficult for me. I remember being in high school, confronted with a question about the ‘theme’ of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, and feeling very lost. How could I have read and enjoyed the entire work and still have no idea what the theme is?
Upon discovering that a theme could be something as general as prejudice, rebirth, fate, corruption, or marriage, I was bewildered – and a bit furious! If it were a snake, it would have bit me.
Working with a student on the AP Lit exam, I found that she was also struggling with the concept of theme. From my own experience, unthinking the problem seemed to be the way to approach it. Theme is almost best arrived at through a game of free association: “I say 1984, you say… corruption.” “I say Huckelberry Finn, you say… racism.”
This got me thinking: this kind of thinking is ubiquitous in our modern lives! Every time I tag a post “life-long learning” or “essay writing,” I am identifying a theme: a category which sums up some part of the essence of my writing, and ties it into the writing of others.
This is best exemplified in twitterspeak. Whenever you attach a #hashtag to a comment, you are identifying its theme. Perhaps this would be a great way to understand theme:
#rebirth Daisy finally telling Tom she loves Gatsby
#nature Nebraska cornfields are Antonía’s lifeblood
#rebirth first you’re a bug, and then you die @kafka
@homer rosy fingered dawn, because the sun also rises
There was a great article in the Washington Post magazine this weekend in which Washington writer and parent R. C. Barajas goes behind the scenes to ask the questions every parent and high school senior wants to know about the college admissions process.
Barajas profiles several schools, including Goucher college, a liberal-arts program in Maryland, which actually allowed her to sit in on the admissions sessions. Some interesting, and actually very heartening, findings emerged.
First of all, it seems that college admissions departments actually read those essays! The admissions department meets together in a room and goes over all elements of the application, weighing its various merits and shortcomings.
One interesting finding: your college counselor is your best friend. According to the admissions director at Goucher, when the team has misgivings about a student, they often seek clarification from your school counselor.
At least at Goucher, extra-curriculars are very important. The team creates a score for each student: 1-6 for grades and SATs and A-D for all non-academic elements. For example, a 1C is someone who does well in school and on tests, but has not really taken advantage of sports and clubs, or pursued personal interests.
Barajas has a great quote from Goucher president Sandy Ungar: ‘”I’m very interested personally in the kids who are searching and who’ve learned some humility along the way, who know how to learn and who know there’s still so much to learn, and who are not fooled into thinking that taking 12 [advanced placement classes] makes them brilliant.”‘
It is one of the bitter ironies of American education that we begin to offer foreign languages to students just as the window for learning them is closing. Research, and probably all of our personal experience, shows that our brain is most receptive to languages before the age of 12. In American schools, this is the first year that languages are offered!
According to a report by the European Commission, students in Europe begin learning foreign languages by ages 6 to 9, and that age is only decreasing, with some students beginning in preschool.
I have discovered this firsthand. I learned German as a youngster at the German School of DC, and what I learned has stuck with me. So much so, in fact, that when I try to learn a new language now, I find myself speaking German instead!
If you would like to help your student take advantage of this fruitful time in their life, there are some opportunities in DC:
Casa Italiana: http://www.casaitalianaschool.org/children.html
Alliance Francais: http://francedc.org/Kids-0024amp;-Families.aspx
Arco Iris: http://www.arcoirisomos.com/
Spanish school in Vienna: http://www.childrencenterlanguage.com/
Spanish, French, and Mandarin: http://www.langokids.com/
Chinese, French, Spanish: http://www.languageplanetdc.com/
Russian: http://www.metaphorschool.com/
Mandarin, Arabic, French, Spanish: http://www.communikids.com/our-programs-/enrichment-programs
Brazilian Portuguese in McLean: http://abracebrazil.org/portuguese-language-for-children
Arts advocates are always looking for ways in which the arts inform more “practical” fields, such as the sciences. One convergence between these two areas was back in the year 1928, when Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin.
Fleming’s now-famous “accidental discovery” of penicillin was the result of the growth of mold on one of his influenza experiments. Fleming realized that the mold actually halted the growth of the influenza, leading to the development of penicillin, research furthered by Howard Flory and Ernst Chain.
As the story goes, Fleming was known for being a bit of a slob around the office. He didn’t clean up his messes, and these messes lead to his groundbreaking discovery. However, looking at things a different way, you could give him another name. Sir Alexander Fleming was an artist.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is an expert on the creative process (most famous for his concept of “flow.”) For him, the creative process begins with preparation, in which the artist brings together ideas, tools, inspirations. Then, he lets them sit for a while, a process Csikszentmihalyi calls incubation. Then, inspiration strikes, seemingly out of the blue!
This process is borne out in the life of the artist: we all know the story of the writer or painter who strolls the streets for days, trying to summon the inspiration to complete a work. What Csikszentmihalyi suggests, however, is that this is not writer’s block or lack of inspiration, but rather the artist’s process.
Perhaps, in the same way, Sir Alexander Fleming was not merely a lucky slob, but a creative artist of science. He operated by intuition, leaving the flu virus out in the open for reasons even he had yet to discover.
I just saw the move The Music Never Stopped, and it makes some very interesting observations about learning. It is about a man who suffers brain damage and is not able to make new memories. However, a music therapist is able to reach him by playing the music he listened to as a teenager in the 1960s.
By listening to the music, he is transformed from an almost comatose state back into the man his parents knew – a sensitive and thoughtful music lover. As long as the music is playing, he can carry on conversations as if he had never been injured. The only caveat to this is that he doesn’t realize how much time has passed.
While I’m sure some element of the movie has been fictionalized, there is quite a bit of truth to this story. It brings into question the nature of learning. At some level it seems like we learn in bits and pieces, picking up information and storing them as needed. This man’s story shows that learning can occur around something that we really love. In fact, our whole identity can be built around it.
Assignment: Does progress reduce the number of problems in the world, or does solving old problems just lead to new ones? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
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In the preceding post, The Civil Rights Movement was one area that I brainstormed to address this question. Going off of that idea, and since I recently enjoyed watching the film Lincoln, I could use that as one of my examples.
So, in my outline, I would write some quick details that I could use to support my thesis. First, of all, I have to decide on a thesis! Since this question is leading me in an obvious direction, I am going to follow along:
Thesis: Progress creates as many problems as it solves.
Example #1: The Civil War
Subthesis: While the Emancipation Proclamation temporarily freed the slaves, it created problems of constitutionality that could only be solved by a constitutional amendment.
Supporting Facts:
- The Emancipation Proclamation declared slaves living in the rebellious states free in 1863.
- This law was passed under martial law and could only take place during wartime.
- So, in 1865, Lincoln had to garner support for the 13th amendment to the Constitution.
- Many historians believe that the Emancipation Proclamation was unconstitutional and set a dangerous precedent.
- While progress was temporarily achieved with the Emancipation Proclamation, this law created some new problems still being solved today: as a country, we are still deciding the extent of executive power in wartime.
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Of course, on the actual test, such an outline would be too time-consuming. That is why it’s good to create about 10 ready examples prior to the test. You can then mold these examples to any prompt.
Here are two more real SAT prompts for which you could use this example:
1) Is it important to question the ideas and decisions of people in authority?
2) Should people take more responsibility for solving problems that affect their communities or the nation in general?
The upcoming Olympic Games bring to mind the power of dreaming and the role a good coach plays in fostering that dream. The ABC Family show “Make It or Break It” explores this relationship quite profitably.
When the lead gymnast at The Rock Training Center, Payson Keeler, injures her back at Nationals, she is told that she will never compete again. Instead, she receives experimental back surgery and returns to gymnastics within a few months. However, she is told that she can no longer be a “power” gymnast and now she has to become more of an “artistic” gymnast.
Gabby Douglas: Real-Life Gymnast to Watch
This concept is completely antithetical to Payson’s idea of herself as a gymnast. What does Coach Belov tell her? He says that she doesn’t need to see this dream or even believe in it; all she needs to do is show up. Her coach tells her that he will believe in the dream for her. He takes her to the ballet and teaches her to paint continuous lines with her body. After a few months of showing up, she dances a powerful and moving routine to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.
Coach Belov gives an excellent example of what a coach should be. He takes responsibility, not just for his gymnast’s conditioning or technique, but for her mindset. When Payson does not believe it is possible for her to achieve her Olympic dream in this new style, Coach Belov tells her that he will harbor her dream for her. What a lovely image: a dream harbored in a safe port while it awaits the fair winds that will carry it safely to its destination.
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