Ο διαχωρισμός του νου και της καρδιάς

«ΤΡΙΑ ΠΑΘΗ, ΑΠΛΑ, ΑΛΛΑ ΚΑΤΑΚΛΥΣΜΙΑΙΑ εξουσιάζουν τη ζωή μου. Η λαχτάρα για αγάπη, η αναζήτηση της γνώσης και η ανυπόφορη θλίψη για τα βάσανα του ανθρώπινου είδους». Με αυτά τα λόγια ξεκινάει την αυτοβιογραφία του ο Μπέρτραντ Ράσελ.

ΠΕΦΤΟΝΤΑΣ ΣΥΝΕΧΩΣ ΘΥΜΑΤΑ ΤΩΝ ΔΙΑΧΩΡΙΣΜΩΝ, όλων των ειδών, βάζοντας όρια και (περι)ορισμούς, διαιρούμε τον κόσμο μέσω της νοημοσύνης μας και των αισθήσεών μας. Αυτό που βιώνουμε γίνεται εικόνα, λέξη, μετά της δίνουμε σημασία, νόημα, και δημιουργούμε τους δικούς μας συσχετισμούς, τη δική μας ιστορία, που προσπαθεί να επικοινωνήσει με τις άλλες. Kατά έναν τρόπο επινοούμε τον κόσμο, τον φανταζόμαστε στη μορφή που τον βιώνουμε ή βλέπουμε απλώς μια εκδοχή του, τη δική μας.

‘We Do Not Believe in Degrees’

By Surya Venu – KOCHI

Published: 07th January 2014 11:33 AM

• 

An university where one does not require a certificate, or do an entrance exam or get whopping marks to join. An institute where one is not judged or evaluated by the marks one scores but by honest feedback. Is that possible? Well, it is possible says Manish Jain. He is a leader in Alternative Education and co-founder of Swaraj University, based at Udaipur, Rajastan. He was in Kochi to attend the GIFTIVAL 2014.

Excerpts from an interview:

What are the objectives of Swaraj University?

Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης «Ο Κύριος των σημασιών έχει τον θρόνο του πιο ψηλά από τον Κύριο της βίας» semen

…Όποια και να είναι η ρητή διάρθρωση της εξουσίας δεν μπορούμε ποτέ να σκεφτούμε την εξουσία μόνο ως την αντίθεση φίλου εχθρού, όπως ήθελε ο Καρλ Σμιτ. Ούτε μπορούμε να σκεφτούμε την εξουσία και ούτε καν την κυριαρχία ως το μονοπώλιο της νόμιμης βίας. Πριν και επάνω απ” το μονοπώλιο της νομίμου βίας υπάρχει το μονοπώλιο του νομίμου λόγου. Και το μονοπώλιο του νομίμου λόγου το ίδιο  δεσπόζεται κι αυτό από το μονοπώλιο της νόμιμης σημασίας. Ο Κύριος των σημασιών έχει τον θρόνο του πιο ψηλά από τον Κύριο της βίας. Μόνο όταν τα κτίρια των θεσμισμένων σημασιών αρχίζουν να καταρρέουν μέσα στον πάταγο και τον θόρυβο αυτής της κατάρρευσης, μόνο τότε μπορεί να αρχίσει να ακούγεται πραγματικά η φωνή των όπλων. Και ακόμα για να μπορέσουν τα όπλα να επέμβουν χρειάζεται ο λόγος, πρέπει δηλαδή η επιταγή της υπάρχουσας εξουσίας ή αυτού που αντιτίθεται στην υπάρχουσα εξουσία να επιβάλλεται πάνω στις περίφημες ομάδες ενόπλων ανθρώπων. Ο τέταρτος λόχος του συντάγματος Παυλόφσκι,

Call It What it Is: Predatory Reform

Posted: January 15, 2014 in Uncategorized

“Shutting down public schools and handing them over to private organizations is not a ‘turnaround,’ it is a heist.” – Sabrina Stevens–

I am a member of a bloggers group called Basecamp, which has about 100 amazing bloggers comprised of teachers, activists, academics, parents and others from around the country.  Frequently new questions or topics of conversation are posed by members of the group. About a week ago Robert Perry (in a discussion strand) called for examination of, ”the elusive ed reformer catch phrase,” and asked us to consider what we should replace the word “reformers” with. The ongoing “conversation” via email responses was lively and informative. Reformers, as they are self-named is simply not enough we all agreed, besides being an outright lie. It’s like calling Donald Trump the “the salt of the earth.”

Economists: Your Parents Are More Important Than Ever

The lesson of today’s monumental social mobility study is simple. Your family could be the most important economic determinant in your life.

Derek Thompson Jan 23 2014, 4:12 PM ET

Reuters

Let’s go ahead and call social mobility in America what it really is: social immobility.

Even in the parts of the country where students have the best shot at moving up the income ladder, the vast majority of them fail to make it past one rung. About 8 percent of kids born in the early 1980s who grew up in families in the poorest fifth managed to reach the top quintile of earners today. For those born smack dab in the middle of America’s income distribution, there was just a 20 percent chance of making it to the top.

Is Poverty Killing our Kids?

by Anna Hall 01-22-2014 | 4:41pm

Despite all the modern conveniences of the 21^st century, our information-saturated culture, an exhaustive supply of self-help books, and giant advances in medical technology, doesn’t it seem like our society is more stressed, our anxiety higher, and more of our kids prescribed behavior modification drugs?

Child sitting alone, Suzanne Tucker / Shutterstock.com

What if one of the reasons for our strung-out culture was the social, emotional, mental, and physiological outworking of the effects of poverty?

In the latest release of the Shriver Report, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, founder of the California Pacific Medical Center’s Bayview Child Health Center, has found through medical research and experiences of her patients that the stress of poverty can be manifested in alarming behaviors and predispositions.

Don’t call it educational child abuse. Just child abuse. christiecami

In 1987, then Gov. Thomas Kean, pressing for passage of the state school takeover law, called the failure of urban schools “educational child abuse.” On Jan. 22, 2014, the state administration of the Newark schools—now in power for 19 years—kept public schools open in single-digit degree cold and more than 10 inches of snow. But Newark’s charter schools–so obviously favored by state-appointed superintendent Cami Anderson,  state Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf, and Gov. Chris Christie–were allowed to close.

I would no longer call what’s happening in Newark  educational child abuse. I’d call it just  child abuse.

Deconstructing PISA: Implications for Education Reform and Fighting Poverty

January 23, 2014

by Elaine Weiss and Thomas W. Payzant

This post first appeared on The Huffington Post.

PISA rankings for top 10 countries’ math scores. The US scored 36th place. Credit: The Economist. Click graphic to see more charts at The Economist website.

Every three years, American policymakers eagerly anticipate the release of scores for the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). While any single test, no matter how strong, can explain only a limited amount about our education system, PISA provides some unique insights, testing students’ ability to apply knowledge and skills both in and out of school. It is taken only by 15-year-olds, making it a decent proxy for the “college-and-career readiness” that is the focus of current debates.

10 Fun Facts About the Student Debt Crisis

1.) Bigger than Most Countries
Currently, more than 40 million Americans hold student debt. The population with student loans is actually greater than the entire population of Canada, Poland, North Korea, Australia and more than 200 other countries. It’s also about four times greater than the population of Sweden.

2.) Giant Corporations can File for Bankruptcy, but Bankruptcy is Not an Option for Student Borrowers
Let freedom ring! Last Friday, Freedom Industries, the chemical company responsible for the chemical leak which contaminated drinking water in West Virginia, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company faces 25 lawsuits, but by filing for bankruptcy protection, Freedom Industries is able to halt most litigation. Unfortunately, if Americans with student loan debt find themselves owing money on their student loans, it is nearly impossible to file for bankruptcy. In fact, debts from gambling and other consumer debts can be erased, but not education debt. These debts can continue to grow when a borrower is unable to pay, and can even follow a borrower to the grave. Removing bankruptcy protection from student loans has only benefited the lenders. In a leaked memo, Sallie Mae officials have listed preserving the inability to discharge education debt in bankruptcy as their second-most important goal.

«Neo-Slavery» Re-emerging As A Business Strategy

By Brenda Walker on May 14, 2009 at 12:00am

Some patriotic friends of borders may have thought that a severe recession would be an impossible time for Washington to push through an amnesty for 10-30 million lawbreaking foreigners. But Senator Charles Schumer, Chair of the Subcommittee on Immigration, thinks now is a fine time for amnesty. He held a hearing April 30 to explore how to accomplish that goal.

Why?

It’s just another example the lengths to which business elites will go to protect and expand their firehose supply of the cheapest workers possible—by promoting everything from open borders to H-1b visas and permissive legal immigration. Labor can never be too cheap nor too exploitable for the captains of industry

The coming Common Core meltdown

• By Valerie Strauss/January 23 at 4:00 am

(NASA)

In the following post, veteran educator Stan Karp explains why the problems surrounding the implementation of the Common Core are less about the substance of the standards and more about the context in which they were introduced. Karp taught English and journalism in Paterson, N.J., for 30 years and is an editor of Rethinking Schools magazine, where this appeared.

How Capitalism Influences Our Morality

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Dino Mehic

When most people criticize capitalism and its corporations for allegedly creating certain problems in society, they are keen to expose and analyze problems that are very clear and conspicuous. These problems can range from starving minimum wages, pollution of the planet, profit-driven war, inequality of wealth, inefficiency and many other social issues that are concrete and visible. There is one peculiar and more abstract social theory however that is less widely known, and it is the ability in capitalism or any socio-economic system to create and control our ethical beliefs, beliefs that can render our public verdicts on anything from illegal substances, abortion, racism, premarital sex or any particular issue of the day. By use of a known Marxist theory, in this post I shall examine a couple of historical and contemporary ethical issues to draw direct causal links from the economic phenomenon of capitalist profit to ethical behavior or belief. Moreover, because of issues like these I’ll defend that the theory ought to be taken more seriously at least in regards to the morality of our day.