Education Corner: All I Really Need to Know (About Education)

... I Learned in Spain

(or: in which the musings about Spain continue until you want to throw things at me).

As you may or may not know, I used to be an elementary teacher and still am at heart. So everywhere I go, I notice what kids are doing. When I was very young -- about 8 or 9 - I got it into my head that I (and everyone else) was responsible for setting the tone for what kids think about the world. Even at that age, I knew that I wanted younger kids to believe that the world was a place of peace - or could be - and that they were surrounded by love.

As you might imagine, I was a huge nerd.

But I began really observing kiddos, smiling at them, saying hi, frightening their parents. This behavior continues to this day.

When I was in Spain, I took the opportunity, whenever possible, to notice what kids' schooling was like. Since we were in the capital of Spain, visiting a lot of "the sights", we got to see a lot of school kids out on field trips.

Here are my very unscientific data points:

French teens are relentlessly hip. This is to be expected, I suppose.

A tiny ham sandwich is a delicious after-school snack. We walked past several schools just as they were letting out for the day, and a lot of the parents brought their kids a ham sandwich as a snack (it was about 5 o'clock, and if the kids eat dinner at the same time as the adults in Spain, dinner was a long time off). It's the perfect sort of snack - carbs for short-term energy and protein for longer-term. Contrast that to the snack of radioactively orange "cheese" crackers that most of my students got.

Exposure to the arts at an early age is a good thing. As we approached the Museo del Prado, we saw this group of tinies:

Then, inside, we came upon a group of kids who looked to be around 7 years of age, plopped down in front of Velazquez's Las Meninas. Their teacher was speaking animatedly to them about the painting, and then all of the kids broke into song!

This really struck me, because often in America: a) there's no consensus that art is relevant (just the other week, Bill Maher said: "Highways and hospitals save people's lives, and art is a diversion."); and b) often, we don't expose little tykes to fine art because we want to wait until they can "handle it" and "take it seriously." Plus, you know, we're Puritans, and if we let our kids go to the art museum, they'll see marble penises.

But at the Prado, there were tons of little kids on school field trips. Their teachers obviously carefully planned their museum itineraries to feature the pieces that spoke to the kids' background knowledge and age.

On the same episode of Real Time With Bill Maher, on which Bill made that lame statement -- and I usually agree with him -- choreographer Bill T. Jones was speaking up for the need to fund arts and include the arts in education. He said: "The government is responsible for the material welfare of the people... government is also responsible for a certain type of education of the people. ... Art - when it is really doing what it should do -- teaches abstract thinking; it teachers teamwork; it teaches people to actually think about things that they cannot see."

Panelist Dana Loesch (grr) stated that people who like the arts will contribute to them. Gee whiz, like the parents of my students who couldn't always afford to feed their kids? Do you know why the kids got free breakfast? It's because their parents were contributing so much to the ballet.

I think back to my 8-year-old self, and the message I wanted younger children to hear about the world. If we made art a priority for our kids, I think that message would be conveyed.

Meatless Monday* - "From Scratch" Curry

From an early age, I knew that my family was a little different than others. For example, I never had broccoli with cheese as a child. I thought bulgur wheat was basically the same as rice (I mean, you can use it in all the same ways). And I loved to eat pickled herring straight out of the jar with my dad.

One thing that was a little different about my family is that we loved highly-spiced foods. A lot of our family staples were peppery, mustardy, or both. That's probably why quick curries are a staple of my own dining room. To me, a curry over rice (or bulgur) is all-American comfort food.

It's also super-easy to make. You can buy pre-made curries, sauces, and pastes, but those involve a lot of packaging and processing, and are completely unnecessary when you can easily master the basics of making a great vegetarian curry.

Below are some generic directions for creating curry from scratch. I'm going to be purposefully vague about ingredients, because you can make this with any of your favorite veggies. (The directions below are vegan, but can be lacto-vegetarian if you garnish with yogurt. These directions can also be used to make meat curries as well. Add your favorite meat - I prefer chicken thighs that have been quickly seared on each side - at Step 3).

Step 1: Go curry crazy.

Chop up an onion and press 2-5 garlic cloves. Heat some olive oil in a large pot. Saute the veg until the onions are getting translucent. Then add 2 tablespoons of curry powder.

At this step, you can also add red or green peppers, or a minced jalapeno, if you like your curry spicier, which I do.

Saute, stirring frequently, for about 2 minutes, or until the curry becomes fragrant.

Step 2: Veg out.

Add your favorite chopped veggies - carrots, mushrooms, zukes, etc. You want to choose veggies that are fairly firm and don't have a high water content (no tomatoes or cukes -- you can garnish with those if you like.) Saute for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently.

Step 3: Go for substance.

Now you want to stir in something that's going to fill your tummy - squash, potatoes, eggplant, beans or legumes (lentils, chickpeas, and kidney beans are particularly good). For the veggies, like squash or potatoes, you want 1 inch cubes.

Whatever you choose to add at this stage will determine your cooking time. For example, if you decide to add a cup of dry lentils right now, you're going to simmer (Step 5) until the lentils are done. This is not science; look at the cooking instructions on your food and keep tasting regularly. I've been known to google things such as "how long to simmer potatoes" when I need a ballpark.

Step 4: Liquid refreshment.

Add liquid to the mess in your pot. Light coconut milk makes the curry creamy. Vegetable broth (I like the O! Organics brand) will make a lighter curry. You can add a cup of both if you want to split the difference. Just make sure you add enough liquid to cover your veg.

Step 5: Simmer.

Once the liquid is boiling, reduce heat, cover, and simmer. As I mentioned in Step 3, you're going to want to taste test frequently to make sure that the veggies are done the way you like them. It's impossible to be more precise because everyone likes things a little different - I happen to like my veggies on the mushy side so I cook on the outer edge of the suggested time.

Step 6: Let stand.

For years, whenever I read the words "let stand" in a recipe, I ignored them. That was a rookie mistake. At this point, you want to remove your curry from heat and let it stand for 5-10 minutes. The sauce will thicken up and the flavors will blend.

Step 7: Garnish and serve.

I usually serve my curry over rice or a big handful of spinach. You can also serve it over naan, or just ladle into a bowl like soup. For garnish, I love a dollop of Greek yogurt and a spoonful of spicy chutney. Fresh herbs or greens also make great garnishes.

* Meatless Monday is a movement to increase awareness of sustainable, meat-free eating, by eating meatless meals on Mondays. So alliterative!

Today ...

(a series of musings)

I. I looked in my garbage today.

My garbage mostly consists of food waste (banana peels, egg shells) and the random bits of packaging (Code 6 plastic and flat-pack cardboard) that our city recycling doesn't accept. For a split-second, I rejoiced at how much I had reduced the amount of waste I'm producing. And then I thought, "Drat! I should be composting." The only thing is ... I'm extremely sensitive (to the dry-heaving extreme) to the sight of food where food doesn't belong. I'm not sure composting is something I could handle. Pondering begins.

II. It's summer.

No, you're probably thinking, it's spring. Except I live in Texas, where it is already 82 degrees. When I was a kid, 80+ degree temperatures were a sign of summer. My A/C is already on, sucking electricity. Wait while I flagellate myself out of guilt.

III. I'm back from the self-flagellation. OK. Speaking of beatings, go see Jane Eyre.

In case you haven't read Jane Eyre, our titular heroine receives a lot of beatings in her childhood.... now that I've made the cheap connection to my previous point, I want to urge you to go see Cary Fukunaga's stunning version of Jane. Jane Eyre is the uber-text for isolated smart girls, and Fukunaga (along with Mia Wasikowska as Jane, and Michael Fassbender as Rochester) realizes - visually and narratively -- the novel's modernity while honoring our need for bonnet porn. Go see it.

IV. Gratuitous Spain picture.

Casa Mila.

Slow Down, Part 2

Of course, when I was in Spain, I was on vacation, so it was easy for me to slow down. When I looked around me, however, I saw that I wasn't the only one. Even in the big city of Madrid where there was lots of hustle and bustle, I was surrounded by folks who were taking the time for a late afternoon bocadillo de calamares (squid sandwich) and a beer.

Light glinting off rows of glasses hanging up at Mercado de San Miguel (the San Miguel Market) in Madrid. Here you can have a cafe con leche, a pastry, a glass of wine, or buy an octopus to cook up for dinner.

The famous Spanish siestas were evident, as the cities slowed down (many businesses closed) in the late afternoon.

And even in the middle of a rainy Wednesday, folks had lined up for Mass, taking time to feed their spiritual selves:

This made me think a lot about our American way of being. We like to hurry. We say "work is my life." We hurry so that we can earn money and buy more things to fill our giant houses.

But if you live in a city apartment, like these ones in Barcelona, how much stuff can you really have?

And if you can't fill your house with any more stuff, then why not slow down?

For those of us who work for others, however, the questions are a bit harder. I work for a non-profit fighting for educational justice. All of us believe that achieving that justice is urgent, and so people in my organization work incredibly long hours (by virtue of a gift for efficiency, I work quite a bit less than many of the people I know, which is a great blessing - but I do consider it a random gift of the universe). How do you decide, when your work is so important, whether you can give yourself the opportunity to slow down?

I don't know the answer to that question. What I do know is that I'm sitting on the deck blogging, while my neighbor sits on her deck reading. Both of us have drinks, and neither of us are in a hurry to acquire more stuff at the moment. There's even a palm tree waving in the breeze. Maybe a little corner of Spain has made its way to the US after all.

Pay It Forward Award!

One of the best things about blogging is the community it creates. I'm always so grateful to share my world with friends and strangers around the interwebs.

That's why I was so stoked that twice in the last week, fellow bloggers chose to bestow the "Pay It Forward" Award on Light Green.

The Pay It Forward Award was invented as a way that bloggers can share blogs that entertain or inspire them. And then you pay the love forward. I love that this award is for members of the amazing internet blogging family to give each other shout outs. It's so nice to know that others are reading!

When you receive the award you do the following:

1. Link back to the person who gave you the award.

Light Green received the award from Kelly at Sluice (who has the most adorable story about how she met her honey) and nluvwthmybstfrnd over at My Voice (who has a ton of hilarious stories and also got a Kindle for her birthday just like I did).

3. Award 5 recently-discovered blogs.

• Motherhood And More: Full disclosure. Annie, the author of this blog, is a friend from high school. She recently revamped her blog, however, making it awesome and inspiring me to read it religiously. Annie writes about homeschooling her three "moppets," her life of faith as a Baha'i, and her musings on eating too much chocolate.
• Mommy By Day: This is the blog of Natalie, a mom who loves the outdoors. I love reading about her outside adventures and seeing pics of how her daughter gamely follows her parents into the great wild North.
• Postcards From Oblivion: Wombat writes all about her hilarious adventures on this blog, as well as featuring Movie Mondays and Random Act Wednesdays. Wombat always brings a smile to my face, especially when she shares pics of all of the crazy stuff she sees when she goes out shopping.
• Jess Reads Stuff: This blog is mainly about books and I love it! Jess is the lynchpin of the internet book club I'm in, and she has inspired me to read many books I wouldn't normally try out. She's in the midst of the Year of Reading Dangerously. Check it out to see what that means.
• The Write Christine: This is another book blog, and I love it that Christine has the chutzpah to subtitle her blog: Final Judgment on the Arts and Letters of Our Time. Voracious readers, check out her amazing reviews.

3. Contact them and tell them about the award.

Will do.

4. Tell 7 things about yourself.

I don't know what this has to do with the above, but OK. Here goes:

• I lived in 5 different houses between the ages of 5 and 10.
• I taught for four years in a low-income community in Houston, TX. I often think about going back to the classroom.
• Four years ago, I had a freak accident and impaled my toe on a drill bit, which broke off and embedded itself next to the bone. It was in my toe for three weeks, and it's now hanging in a baggie on my refrigerator.
• Southeast Utah is one of my favorite places on Earth. When people think that's weird, I know they've never been to Utah.
• I LOVE museums, aquariums, and botanical gardens.
• I'm easily obsessed. Previous amazing obsessions: Jane Austen, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars, knitting (that's pretty much a recurring obsession), ramen, and Kierkegaard.
• My favorite book is Winter's Tale, by Mark Helprin. When I was little, my parents read it and I remember it sitting around the house. Years later I picked it up at a used book shop and became fascinated by this tale of mythical New York. I also love Mark Helprin's A City In Winter.

Thanks again, friends!

Slow Down and Smell the Cafe

This week, I took one of the first non-family-related vacations (to Spain) that I've taken in several years. Now, there's nothing wrong with family vacations. I happen to love them. However, there's something to be said for slowing down and disconnecting from your "real" life.

Let me amend that observation.

The fact is, there's no such thing as "unreal" life - it's all just life. Yet separating from the day-to-day routines can help us observe ourselves from the outside just a bit, help us situate ourselves in the world. We think about differences and similarities between ourselves and others, about how we were taught to see the world, about the way others see that same world.

The little traveler in Park Guell, Barcelona.

As we were ferried by taxi to the airport in the pre-dawn hours yesterday, the moon was a giant orange globe stamped just above the hills outside Barcelona. One of those incredible moons, where you can see the outlines of craters and lunar seas. Many hours later, I arrived in Texas just after dusk and wondered, for just a moment, whether the moon would look the same. But of course it wouldn't. Latitude and longitude, accidents of birth, words we hear since childhood -- all of these shape the way we think, the way our neurons connect.

It seems, however, that on a world as fragile as ours, it's a desperate need for each of us to try to understand the perspectives of others, wrought by the million little moments in their lives, the particular angle between their position on earth and the moon at any given moment.

Travel is just a little step in the direction of understanding. It's also illuminates how challenging that understanding can be. This week I'm going to share a few little musings from my travels. Feel free to throw a shoe at me for being pretentious. I'll just duck and take it.

Greener Kitty

So, Wily has never taken to green cat litter (like pine or newspaper). He's very picky about what's in his litter box. I use a perfume-free version, but it's still clay. While clay might be natural, extracting it from the earth can be harmful to the environment.

Luckily, I've found some great litter box liners. They are the "Gone For Good" brand (available at Target), and they are biodegradable. The nice thing about them is that they are actually the best, sturdiest brand I've ever found. I love it when greener products are actually better than their non-green counterparts.

Sparkly and Fabulous!

I've had trouble finding a good, natural lotion that I like. I'm a big fan of most of the Burt's Bees products, however, so I tried out their Radiance Body Lotion.

Like most of their Radiance line of products, it smells nice and works like a champ. However, the first time I wore it outside, I noticed ...

... well, my arm was sparkling in the sunlight.

No, I hadn't been "turned" by one of the Twilight crew. It turns out that the lotion contains mica, a mineral that reflects light. It's actually kind of nice, but I think I'll keep looking for a lotion I really like.

Flip-Flop Fabulous

Once upon a time, if America had a national shoe, it would have been the Chuck Taylor. But these days, flip-flops are everywhere. You even see jeweled, high-heeled versions on ladies who lunch.

Okabashi Flip-Flops have a very cool design feature, however: they are made of recycled material. When they wear out, you can send them back, and they'll recycle them into new flip-flops.

They come in a variety of styles and colors, and they run about $15. As Kermit the Frog sang: Happy feet!

Go, Rep. Markey!

I recently wrote about what you can do to help bring the downfall of the Upton-Inhofe Bill in Congress.

Rep. Markey (D-Mass) spoke up against this bill the other day, and he brought his knowledge of both science and sarcasm to bear on the bill.

Watch below and then click this link to help defeat Upton-Inhofe.

The Direct Line Between The Vampire Diaries and Environmental Activism

... in 5 easy steps!

(At the end of this post, you can find out how to become an activist too ... just in case you want to skip the parts about vampires. All you have to do is click some links!)

Step 1: Get really obsessed with The Vampire Diaries.

I am not going to lie. I love TV. I love getting obsessed with stuff. And I love vampires. I know it's de rigueur these days to be obsessed with vampires on TV/movies, but I'm no Bella-come-lately at that ball. I mean, I watched the Dark Shadows reboot in 1991. Put that in your pipe, Stephanie Meyer. I find the vampire mythology to be fascinatingly flexible in both shaping and reflecting current mores. Also, vampire stories are usually filled with pretty people. And fog.

Look.

Fog.

My friend Kelly and I trade TV shows the way other gal pals trade shoes, so when she told me to get obsessed with VD, I did. So much meaty plotting! So many pieces of enchanted jewelry! And fog!

Step 2: Watch all of the existing episodes in two weeks.

So, the ignominious second step between Vamp Diaries and environmental activism is to Google:"Vampire Diaries spoilers." I know, I know. But there's not a new episode until April 7th.

I didn't find any good spoilers. However, I did find an item about how one of the actors, the very pretty Ian Somerhalder, is starting a foundation focused on youth and environmental causes (called, shockingly, the Ian Somerhalder Foundation). My two favorite causes! (Boy. Activism makes me exclamation-point happy.)

I have a little compulsion to click any environmentally-related link (just FYI - do not click links that include the words "Fox News" and "environment", unless you want to spend the rest of the afternoon moping). So, I clicked.

Step 3: Look at all the pretty pictures of animals on the foundation website. And of Ian Somerhalder. And then click the link about the Environmental Protection Agency.

Ian likes pets. Pets are awesome.

It's worth visiting the foundation website just to look at the cute animal photos.

I'd like to say I'm really well-informed about the news in general, but I'm part of that generation that gets their news from two sources: Jon Stewart and NPR while commuting. My commute is short; hence my news knowledge can be extremely patchy ... especially since I work from home a lot to cut down on using gas by commuting. But I knew I'd heard something about the EPA lately ...

Step 4: Read about how the Upton-Inhofe Bill is threatening the ability of the EPA to protect us from harmful pollutants.

OK, so here's the deal. The Clean Air Act - which is now 40 years old, can I get a woot! (yes, I'm old enough to say woot, but I'm not as old as the Clean Air Act) - says that the EPA can determine which pollutants are harmful to people and regulate them. And the EPA says that greenhouse gases are harmful, and so should therefore be regulated. But the Upton-Inhofe Bill wants to hamstring the EPA, and curtail their ability to determine which emissions are harmful. Rep. Upton (R-Mich) and Sen. Inhofe (R-Okla) claim that there's no proof that greenhouse gases are harmful.

The Bill is now out of committee. It's likely to pass the House, but it's up in the air whether the Senate can muster enough votes to fend off a likely veto. WHICH MEANS YOU SHOULD ACT NOW.

And yes, I'm yelling with capital letters. It's that important.

Step 5: Click easy-to-use link that allows you to send a message to your Congresspeople about how you DO NOT support Upton-Inhofe.

So, from I went from watching The Vampire Diaries to the Googling and the Ian Somerhalder Foundation, and I then clicked to the National Resource Defense Council, where they have this super-easy to fill out form that allows you to write to ALL of your Congressional representatives in one fell swoop.

Which I did.

I received a response from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. One thing you can say about Kay, her response system is quick. I always hear back from her in a day or two. But ... I always hear back with some crazy talk like this: the EPA’s backdoor climate regulations will drive up the cost of energy in America — and everyone will pay.

And that makes me mad.

What YOU can do

I live in a Republican-dominated state. I know that my voice is just a whisper in a hurricane. We need people in swing states to help make sure this bill doesn't pass. Please tell your representatives that you do NOT support cutting off the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. JUST CLICK THIS LINK.

What My International Readers Can Do

I love my international friends. You can help by chuckling softly to yourself about how America's leaders don't believe in climate change.

Hey, and if you write to your Congressionals, let me know in the comments!

The Miracle of Trees

It's my birthday today!

My friend Elizabeth gave me a wonderful gift: a gift card from Trees For Life International. The gift will help people in the developing world plant trees. Two of my favorite causes - the environment and social justice - coming together.

The trees will provide food and shade, as well as help reduce environmental devastation caused by erosion and habitat loss.

Trees are so amazing. They help filter water, reduce carbon dioxide, and cool our planet. They improve air, water, and soil quality. I'm so blessed to have a friend like Elizabeth who gave me a gift that will do so much for the earth and for others.

Education Corner: Be Quiet, Matt Damon!

I've decided to branch out a little bit and occasionally comment about education, which is my chosen field. While not technically related to being green, I think that how we educate our children -- particularly in math, science, literature, and history -- will impact what they ultimately decide to do for the environment.

Grr.

I am mad at Matt Damon.

No. Not because he said that he's disappointed in Obama. I mean, I'm not really disappointed in Obama, but only because I didn't expect much in the first place.

I'm mad at Matt -- whose politics I usually agree with -- because he's saying lame stuff about education. On Piers Morgan (linked above) he said that he doesn't like Obama's education policy:

The actor particularly slammed education policy that ties teacher salaries to students’ test scores. "That kind of mechanized thinking has nothing to do with higher-order thinking. We're training them, not teaching them," he said. - Politico

When people say things like this, they are spouting an uninformed opinion about testing and teachers' role in it. Here are a few reasons why I disagree with Matt's over-simplified view of testing:

1. The tests we are talking about are what's known as "minimum standards" tests. They test the bare minimum you should know at any grade level. With the exception of one or two states, the tests that count, policy-wise, are not rigorous. If kids can't do well on them, we are not teaching them enough.

2. I've actually experienced having part of my teaching salary (in the form of bonuses) tied to students' test scores - unlike a lot of people, including many teachers, who are jumping into this debate. Again, since these tests aren't particularly rigorous, if my kids weren't able to perform well on them, I didn't deserve a bonus because it meant I didn't teach my kids enough. (Just FYI, I maxed out my bonus every year, while still teaching my kids to write poetry, perform in plays, do Oregon Trail simulations, and hold mock elections. Test prep shouldn't crowd out other types of learning, which brings me to...)

3. Yes, some teachers teach rote and mechanized ways to "game" standardized tests. But if they are doing that, it's not as if they were teaching Shakespeare one day and then turned around and started teaching kids to fill in bubbles. Good teachers teach higher-order thinking no matter what. The LA Times, when it explored quality teaching, found that the teachers who were getting the highest "value-added" scores (a year with these teachers resulted in boosting scores beyond what would be predicted), were teaching kids higher-order thinking skills. Teachers who are trying to game the test probably weren't teaching higher-order thinking before high-stakes testing.

This doesn't mean there aren't problems with the current state of standardized testing. It does take up a lot of time and it does put a lot of pressure on educators. Leaders, in particular, may be tempted to ask their teachers to do weird things because of standardized testing. Yet we have to remember, ten or fifteen years ago, schools were allowed to graduate kids who couldn't read or write, and hide that data in a big ol' stew of averages. Most people weren't noticing that in some schools, minority and low-income students were failing - or put into special ed - while their white, higher-income classmates were excelling. Now EVERYONE knows there's something wrong, and no one can hide anymore.

Three Thtories About Thursday

Um... I mean Stories.

At the Gas Pump

This morning, I had to fill out my gas tank. If you've filled up your tank lately, you may have noticed something... it's expensive! I drive a tiny Scion Xa, and it cost about $35 bucks to fill 'er up. There have been many times over the years when I've been happy to have a fuel-efficient vehicle, but this was one of the happiest. I know I won't have to fill up for a couple of weeks at least. I wonder what the guy behind me at the pump, in the extended-cab pickup, was thinking.

Food Web

Today I went on a classroom observation (it's part of my job). It was a seventh grade science classroom and they were studying food chains and webs. If you don't know about food webs (I didn't until recently), they represent the transfer of energy from the sun to plants and through different animal consumers. I asked one of the students why it's important to learn about this (another part of my job; I constantly ask kids this question). He explained that if one of the animals was removed from the web, the others wouldn't survive. He then said that would make him want to take better care of the Earth and conserve. Score one for science class!

(And no, he said that all on his own. I didn't prod him to say that.)

Thoughts at the Arboretum

Today after work I went for a walk at the arboretum. And as it usually does, the walk reminded me of my days working at summer camp, when we used to hike out to overnight spots (and you haven't lived unless you've hiked five miles with an eight-year-old who is lugging a sleeping bag bigger than her). So I went through this thought process as I walked:

Boy, this reminds me of camp and hiking out to where we would sleep under the stars > I can't believe some people have never slept out under the stars without a tent > but it was more fun when I was younger, because the mosquitoes got so bad over time > and it was always hot the last few years > we were never allowed to make fires out in the woods after that because of burn bans > mosquitoes, heat, burn bans ... oh wait. That's all because of global warming.

Welcome!

Just wanted to wish a warm welcome to new friends in the Light Green universe! If you are a new (or old) follower and want to share who you are, feel free in the comments section.

Thanks for visiting.