UHAMKA - University of Jarkata for Studies

 

To my friends at Uhamka, Jakarta. Blessings. - re slater

https://uhamka.ac.id/

HAMKA NEWGENS,

WELCOME TO UHAMKA!

University of Muhammadiyah Prof. DR. HAMKA (referred to as UHAMKA) is one of the private universities owned by Muhammadiyah located in Jakarta. As one of Muhammadiyah's movements in education, UHAMKA is an Islamic university that implements the Al-Quran, As-Sunnah, Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution. UHAMKA also carries out the catur dharma Muhammadiyah universities involving obligations in education, research, community service, and Al Islam and Ke-Muhammadiyahan.

https://uhamka.ac.id/

VISION, MISSION, GOALS

As a transformation process at Private Universities (PTS), Uhamka is here to build a progressive civilization as an effort to realize Islam Rahmatan Lil'Alamin, the Uhamka Vision for 2024 is formulated, namely:

Vision

"To become a prophetic teaching university that educates spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, and socially to create a progressive civilization"

Mission

Organizing education that integrates the values ??of Al-Islam and Muhammadiyah with science.

Organizing high-quality and innovative student education and development to produce graduates who are spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, and socially intelligent;

Organizing research and community service that is excellent and tangible;

Organizing high quality university asset management and services based on competency quality with the support of ICT;

Organizing financial and non-financial asset management to improve performance and welfare in a sustainable manner

Goals

Realizing a campus which has academic norms that integrate Al-Islam and Muhammadiyah with science;

Producing graduates who are spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, and socially intelligent;

Producing high-quality and broad-impact in scientific and community service works;

Realizing a transparent and accountable higher education governance system;

Realizing a transparent and accountable higher education governance system;

Basic ValueIntegrity : All Leaders, Lecturers, Education Personnel, Students, and Alumni of UHAMKA must make the value of honesty the basis for self-development.

Trust.: UHAMKA as the fire of civilization is responsible for continuously building trust for the sake of truth through studies and research.

Compassion (Caring) : UHAMKA must develop science, technology, arts and culture that provide great value for humanity. UHAMKA teaches and trains all human resources and students to care and have a strong side to the oppressed and marginalized groups.

https://uhamka.ac.id/

Advantages of UHAMKA Graduates

Spiritual Intelligence

Obedient to Practice Religious, Diligent in Worshiping, Having Noble Morals, Conscience, And Deserves To Be An Model.

Intellectual Intelligence

a. Smart

b. Creative

c. .Innovative

d. Objective

e. Agile

f. Be a solution for the community

Emotionally Intelligence

a. Self-awareness

b. It is better to "give" than "to receive"

c. Empathize / without contempt

d. Eager to excel

e. Good at collaborating / synergizing

Social Intelligence

a. Beneficial to the environment

b. Tolerance / tolerance

c. Respect for others

d. Have a good relationship

e. Feeling an inseparable part of the social environment

f. Feeling responsible for being an element of the Muhammadiyah association

https://uhamka.ac.id/

Toward Ecological Civilization, Preface

We begin with the public recognition that the Process Philosophy/Theology of mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead may provide the tone and tenor for any discussions relating to ecological civilizations. That Process Thought is inclusive of all previous environmental and sustainability efforts, movements, projects, and organizations, providing a shared vision of a fairer and more equal system of justice both socially and ecologically. A pervasive justice which is dearly needed in a global world collapsing as equally away from social and environmental justice.

At the 10th Whitehead international conference on June 2015 in Claremont, California, the topic was called "Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization." it claimed an organic, relational, integrated, nondual, and processive conceptuality is needed, and that the philosopher, mathematician, Alfred North Whitehead provides this direction in a remarkably comprehensive and rigorous way.  (note 1)

The process-based philosophy of an ecological civilization may also be considered an Integral subtheory of the greater Integral Theory of Process Philosophy and Theology. These latter come together in Whitehead as he searched for metaphysical and ontological expression of the cosmos around us. When indicating that the cosmos "feels," Whitehead is speaking to the metaphysical what-ness of the universe and its Maker even as he does to the ontologial who-ness of the universe and its Maker.

From these observations two things immediately emerge. One, both creation and the Creator are in relationship one to the another. And secondly, in process thought it matters not which came first as both the metaphysics and the ontology of the what and the who are equally combined in the Creator Himself. That is, God is the What of the universe as well as the Who of the universe. Each element is equally subsumed in the Creator God Himself as both Initial Process as well as Initial Relationship.

Hence, God as the What and the Who is also the How. That is, God is the First Process of all proceeding processes which are informed and infilled with His Essence and Being. And as a God of Love we must expect all creative processes - that is, all cosmic and earth-bound processes - to flow with God's Love and Light. Here then is found the organic relationality of all things to all things. Moreover, Whitehead initial titled this system A "Philosophy of Organism" by which he intended to not simply state the relationality of the cosmos to its Creator but to its panpsychic nature of feeling, of being, in unlimited open novelty and uncontained creativity that is indetermined by agency, fully free, and fully non-directed.

One might thus think of this latter idea as responding cosmic processes bearing indeterminate freewill. And with this freewill it has the power to become and not simply be. And in its being flow through the streams of space-time with the essence and being of God's relational Self. And where it deviates to becoming less than it was created to be, it is due to the failings of freewill - even as it may also become more than it was created to be as due to the reciprocity of responding to the relational energy, presence, urging, and non-coercive partnership with its Creator-Redeemer God.

Thus Whiteheadian Process Philosophy/Theology becomes a panacea for all past, present, and future expressions of a process-based cosmos where technically speaking we may speak of cosmoecological civilizations in the greatest, most expansive terms pertaining to its being and becoming.

One last, Whiteheadian Process Thought may be seen exampled in Darwin's evolutionary character of the universe. Or in the quantum cosmological display of the Big Bang. Each portrayal emphasizes a process which starts from something  (creatio continua NOT creatio ex nihilo) becoming something greater, more expansive, more distributive, more enhanced, novel, and with continuing energetic expression borne from the past into the present and from the present into the future.

The God of Creation

Two things here:

FIRSTLY, God and Creation were always present. One might capture this idea from the Genesis "void" which is poetically expressed in ancient metaphor. Here, in this passage, it is  admitted that there was something in the beginning of Creation. The ancient's called it a void, most probably meaning "nothing." But if you will forgive me, I'd like to twist it's definition a bit.... In quantum terms of a void being a void let's take free scientific license and simply state that apart from its ancient meaning of apparent nothingness there was actually a somethingness there. A one-dimension spatial infinity filled with a hot, dense plasmic void without irregularity, wrinkle, or asymmetry.

Contemporary, scientifically-informed theologians differ from their classical counterparts in describing this observation as "creatio continua" as versus the older idea of "creatio ex nihilo." Creation from something as versus Creation from nothing. As this latter cannot be possible it is rejected in quantum physics and evolutionary biology. Which bumps up into the more "recent" Christian idea from the 1940s expressed creedly contra Darwin as "immediate" or "spontaneous" creational genesis by God from nothing into something. Later to become tamped down to perhaps admit a "Young Earth Creationism" or several other non-process, or semi-process based models.

However, since the God of Creation is involved in Process as very Process Himself, so we might expect God's "Calling forth" the worlds and man to bespeak process through-and-through. Thus and thus one might speak of "Theistic Evolution" by its old timey name or currently, as "Evolutionary Creationism" by its newer name, admitting Darwin and process together as one. Even as the Big Bang may be spoken of in process terms.

God With Creation

SECONDLY, if creation isn't with God in the beginning than there can be no God as we know God today in all of His Relational-Self and Self-Expression. Nor would it matter. God would be beyond our kin and simply not exist to His creation. God would be considered non-factual and most probably unconceivable much like a dog would never think of God, living in a god-absent world of chaos, chance, and random event. (PS, the current Process models of evolution and Big Bang cosmology would also includes these elements but with an expanding theistic base model of a God-filled teleology as versus an atheistic teleology full of process but devoid of God-filled meaning. Agnosticism would be of no matter here in these matters except for the fact of debating with a process-epistemology which would inform one of a process-based metaphysic and ontology).

So logically, for argument's sake, let's say God may be independent of the cosmos theoretically. For some this will be meaningful. But for the panentheistic theologian, it makes no sense. As God explains the cosmos/world (let's use these terms synonymously now) so too does the world explain God. In a process universe each requires the other metaphysically and ontically. It is a moot question then of which came first as it can never be resolved, only argued over from a Hellenistic point of view. Thus it is illogical and of no meaning. Allowable, fine, if one wishes. But unnecessary.

Within this panentheistic world is a world of relationships between God and the world and the world with God. Panentheism speaks expressively of relationality, of giving, of becoming, of dynamism, of movement. Wherein comes identity, expression, purpose, novelty, and - when agency is used aright - of valuative relational presence. Thus, we may speak of ecological civilizations as expressing social justice, humanitarianism, being human, as much as we may speak of environmental justice focusing on reducing humanity's carbon footprint to one by restoring earth's biophyllic communities to relational balance and harmony with itself and with the anthropocene era which now overcomes the earth perhaps to oxygen-breathing organism's doom.

Side Note: Both charts I find helpful in showing the comparison between older to new theistically-modeled systems. Where problems crop up will be in imperfectly understanding this newer panentheistic model because process theology is poorly understood. You will note too that God is no longer required to be in the "top spot" on the lower chart below, thus "relationally equalizing" God and Creation in mutual affection together, one to the other. The rallying cry, or universal theme, now becomes that of process philosophy/theology described as "creativity" but meaning so much more than this simply word might express. Again, this will come with a better understanding of Process Thought. I have spent some time in explaining this and will leave several index links for those of you interested in learning more about process thought.

Conclusion

At this point I think we should stop. Take a little time to think through these large thoughts which have tilted all the windmills upside down in the classic world of creedal Christianity. I began this exploration some years back and it has take quite a few years to get my head around it. I grew up in fundamentalist churches, and later their more "liberal" counterparts, the conservative evangelical churches. All were megachurches which I attended and all fully devoted to God and family, community and missions. To break from my Baptist background, and later, newer Covenant Reformed roots, required reprising Christianity from a contemporary, postmodern, post-structuralist viewpoint. This website here, Relevancy22, is testimony it can be done and that God, the Gospel of Jesus, and Christian faith is even cooler than it was - if that could even be possible. Which, apparently it is, by my own and other's testimony here on this website.

One finally story. Having been taught in a one-room schoolhouse where we had 19 kids from grades K-8, was the highest and best education I could imagine. It was safe. It allowed me to think and follow my own educational paths. And I had ample opportunity to teach the older kids. But we were closed down after six generations (starting way back with my homesteading relatives in the 1800s) when our township became a city and we were moved into the public school system. Here I felt alone in a very strange world. It was a place I really never considered as good or beautiful as my own country school. Perhaps because I had grown up in an agrarian-based, pre-industrial mindset, making modernism quite foreign to me with its wars and civil unrest. Which is probably why I feel so comfortable in today's postmodernism and in its rejection of industrialism, its rejection of the pursuit of money for relationships, and its disjointedness from the natural world I grew up on, loved, and never every ant hill on the thousand acres I roamed since a young boy, along with the generations of my relatives before me.

And so, I was transferred, and learned in hindsight how much more I would gain in education and socialization though I didn't realize it at the time. I learned, and did things in public school which I would never have in my wonderful country school. But I did struggle. I remember Algebra I as being completely beyond me. I couldn't make sense of variables like "x" and "y". They were ungrounded for me. Just mathematical expressions joined by axiomatic symbols. They were meaningless and confounding. Then one day deep into October, maybe early November, as I kept getting D's and E's the light dawn and I suddenly understood. From there I didn't stop learning mathematics until the end of my junior year in University as I was studying graduate applied maths by then. It's a love affair I sadly miss and wish I had stayed with as a career and theoretician. But somethings are not meant to be in life and this was one. The Lord had me bound for somewhere else.

So, I think, its probably where many faithful, wandering souls are today wondering how Christianity became so foreign to itself. A faith of love, mercy, forgiveness, and service, now become a politicized, partisan faith exhibiting the worst of humanity's sins and fully unlike the Christ it professes. If anything I write to those who have lost their way that there may be hope again. The themes and subjects here are many. And it's all meant to be explored and considered using many pens and writers rather than my own alone. Many of these theologians speak to their own heartaches and frustrations in ministries. Which is well and good as Christianity would be the poorer without their influence, failures, and losses.

In the days ahead I will try to move forward through process thought into ecological societies of the future. For now, rest and be at peace. God has not forsaken this world. There are processes in place which will extinguish the awful, perhaps permanently, with an ecological collapse. But before this happens let's try to put people and trees, land, water, and air, back together again in balance and harmony with one another like it "was" in the fictional Garden of Eden. A utopia fallen into the noise of mankind's dystopia. Let us join together and build a City of God, and therein learn to dwell. Peace.

R.E. Slater

February 16, 2021

1What Is Ecological Civilization, by Philip Clayton, CC x, pp x-x

* * * * * * * * * *

RESOURCES

Is There Any Difference Between

Process Philosophy & Process Theology?

Examining Process Philosophy

& Process Theology, Part 1

Examining Process Philosophy

& Process Theology, Part 2

Relational Theology. What Is It?

Whitehead's "Philosophy of Organism" Explained

INDEXES

Index to Process Philosophy & Theology

Index to Process-Based Integral Philosophy

Index - EarthCare and Ecology

Index - Post-Capitalist, Post-Socialist CosmoEcological Societies

Ecological Civilizations - Bill Gates 2021 60 Minutes Interview

Toward Ecological Civilization, Preface

Toward Ecological Civilization, Introduction to Incompleteness

Toward Ecological Civilization, Chapter 1

Toward Ecological Civilization, Chapter 2

Toward Ecological Civilization, Chapter 3

Toward Ecological Civilization, Chapter 4

Toward Ecological Civilization, Chapter 5

Toward Ecological Civilization, Chapter 6

Toward Ecological Civilization, Chapter 7

Toward Ecological Civilization, Chapter 8

Toward Ecological Civilization, Conclusions

Parenting & America's Public Educational Schools - "Waiting for Superman"

Addendum: Usually when I write I try to write for a global readership. But I apologize now for the following post written to my American readership. I will, however, speak to everyday concerns that may, or may not be helpful. For this, you be the judge. Thank you. - res

Many of Diane Ravitch's comments are worth reading at the bottom of this post (found in the Wikipedia section below). For myself, the issue isn't whether we promote either our charter schools or our public schools, but to create a school system in America that promotes our children's future from the bleak future they now may be experiencing in too many of our failing educational systems (and this includes our colleges and universities as well!). I have made several suggestions in past articles that could radically alter our current public school systems (also listed below). But in this article the fastest course of response seems to be by privatizing education and allowing those private groups to lead our public schools by example out of their current morass through competition for state and federal funds. Although privatizing education creates its own ills - primarily in the area of segregation and social inequality - it seems to be the only way to more quickly respond to public schooling's more immediate needs. My reasoning for this is that resistence in the school systems themselves seem too pronounced from the many organizations dedicated to serving public schooling. Consequently, competition for funding can be the greatest resource leveler for effective change by removing unhelpful organizational groups dependent upon public funding.

As concerning leadership, it often must find a toe-hold somewhere to create change. America's school systems at present must be revolutionized away from their pre-1930s production-factory philosopohies to the newer postmodern truths facing our societies today. Which means that "reading, writing, and arithmetic" forms of older education must be radically revolutionized on every level and scale of possibility and opportunity. Many public schools are focusing on classroom technologies, group learning and achievement, and mentoring techniques that pace individualized instruction within larger social group projects. They are turning to "curriculums within curriculums;" "specialized schools within schools;" and, a host of other methodologies and improvements to help our children effectively compete for global jobs requiring newer skill sets than once were promoted 100 years ago. Waiting for Superman admittedly is a frustrated view of exasperation by educators with our urban school systems focused solely upon outcome-based education. But rather than staying frustrated I would advocate that this tension can also lend hope to the dream of postmodern recreation in a reversal of mired opinions and social obstacles. A dream each of us ultimately must involve ourselves using any, and all, means - especially community outlets - to obtain. For it is imperative that parents first seek change through active involvement in their sons and daughter's schooling organization. This is by far the most efficient route than by simply voicing our opinions in the public square and pretending that we have then done enough.

And speaking of parents, it is to you that this burden is placed. Not to our teachers.... And not to our schools.... But to you! And its here that I must do a little preaching (forgive me!) by asking How is it a parent's responsibility for our present day educational system future progress? Because parenting is where it all starts. And it is the ONE thing that we can address immediately. But not by being passive parents. Nor neglectful parents. For poor parenting conduct and behaviors only harm our children. There are too many instances of broken homes harming our children. Of dysfunctionally abusive homes harming our children. Of parents not helping their children prepare for school by patiently helping them get dressed in the morning; or fixing a morning breakfast and evening meal; or by not listening to a child's fears and concerns; or even by not playing with their children which can be tremendously helpful in communication and relationship building. By neglecting even the most basic areas of a child's need can only serve to harm our nation's children for educational preparation and success. Too often we rely on children to raise themselves on their own; or at the hands of other children; or through substitutionary neighborhood gangs that reinforce acceptance and self-image; or impassively by the TV; or even public institutions like day care centers, sitters, and so forth. This is not parenting. This can be, and most often is,  neglectful and harmful to a child's self image when passively, or actively, providing negative or substitutionary influences in place of a parent's steadying love and healing friendship.

Moreover, parenting means personal involvement by the mom and dad. To parent is hard work. But shouting at kids, bossing them around, yelling at them, being childish in front of them with your spouse and other adult friends, being always angry, impatient, or not making time for a child is not parenting. This is defective parenting. Good parents work hard at becoming good parents. Learning to be patient, loving, forgiving, tolerant, personally involved with a child's life. To those parents who work hard at being a good, loving parents, God bless you.... But your responsibility doesn't stop there, does it? No, not even. Now go out and find another parent, or two, that you can mentor to become better, more effective parents! Show by your example how to parent children through personal involvement, patience, and love. Go coach your kid's team and have another parent help you. Go to your child's teacher's conference and provide a ride for a parent that can't get there. When at school greet other parents and school staffs civilly. And most of all don't expect similar responses. Be prepared to meet people in the struggles and difficulties of their work-a-day worlds. Be understanding and work at uplifting your community. Parenting is all this and more!

And this is the one solution that can most immediately affect our schools. Good parenting. Active, involved parenting at all grade levels. It forces a school system to improve through your personal involvement. And it provides community resources to a school system because of your involvement, imagination, skill sets, talents and abilities. How? By attending your child's school carnivals, band and choir concerts, parent-teacher meetings, ball games and cheer clubs, field trips and school-sponsored community drives. By providing a safe-haven in your home to your child's school friends. By being present in a child's life and by being involved in your child's life (there is no such thing as quality time with a child... quality time only comes through quantity time, as it would with any relationship). Schools love this when you do this. They WANT your involvement. Parents are a valuable resource to their school districts. Improving our schools does not start with teachers and administrators, but with the home and family. It is our responsibility as parents to raise our kids. Not the schools to babysit. Nor to undo all the toxic waste that we dump upon our children through harsh, vulgar words, childish tempers, de-meaning anger, and selfish un-involvement in their lives - no matter what age they are at. You must let your child - or teenager - or college student - k-n-o-w that they are important to you. That you love them. You do this through patient, loving, timeful expenditures of your own person and personable commitments in uplifting, loving, encouraging, relational engagements.

The best teacher to your children is  y-o-u  the  p-a-r-e-n-t.... So then, learn to love. Learn to forgive. Learn to be merciful. Learn to be patient and understanding. Learn to see life from your child's viewpoint, not yours. And most of all, pray to God for all these things and more... for this God will do and provide to you and your family. And most of all find mentors for yourselves. Find support groups of like-minded parents wanting to be GREAT parents. And in your spirit be teachable. Learn to listen. To cooperate with others. To find help. For these social qualities are the very same qualities that your children are being taught in school. Skills of cooperation. Skills of communication. to effectively disagree and engage one another.... And lastly, remember that across America are local area churches in every community that seek to help you in your burdens, your livelihood, and most especially with your family. Use them. Go to them. Become involved at your local church. For the Church holds the key to our families, schools and communities. They live to serve even as our schools wish to serve you the parent. And we, the parent, learn to serve both church and school. God and man. And one another.

So then, let your efforts be heard in a POSITIVE voice for change in your local school community. We all know what's wrong with the system but its an even greater task to figure how to make this system a better educational place TOGETHER. Your school administrators can help. They want to help. They began their careers wanting to help kids succeed in this world. Know this. Remember this. And work with your teachers and administrators to that end. They can be your biggest-and-best ally. Schools must change, and they will. But it takes more than a village to raise our kids. It must begin with our own personal involvement first and foremost. For those Waiting for Superman you need look no further. That Superman is you!

R.E. Slater

April 22, 2012

  

Waiting for Superman Official Trailer

 

 

Release Date: 2010 Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim reminds us that education "statistics" have names: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, whose stories make up the engrossing foundation of WAITING FOR SUPERMAN. As he follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying "drop-out factories" and "academic sinkholes," methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems.

 

 

WIKIPEDIA REPORTS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_%22Superman%22

April 22, 2012

 

Film critics and general media reception

 

The film has earned praise and criticism from commentators, reformers, and educators.^[7] As of May 1, 2011 (2011 -05-01)^[update], the film has an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.^[8]

Roger Ebert gave the movie 3.5 stars out of 4 and wrote, "What struck me most of all was Geoffrey Canada's confidence that a charter school run on his model can make virtually any first-grader a high school graduate who's accepted to college. A good education, therefore, is not ruled out by poverty, uneducated parents or crime- and drug-infested neighborhoods. In fact, those are the very areas where he has success."^[9]

Scott Bowles of USA Today lauded the film for its focus on the students: "it's hard to deny the power of Guggenheim's lingering shots on these children."^[10] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an A-, calling it "powerful, passionate, and potentially revolution-inducing."^[11] The Hollywood Reporter focused on Geoffrey Canada's performance as "both the most inspiring and a consistently entertaining speaker," while also noting it "isn't exhaustive in its critique."^[12] Variety characterized the film's production quality as "deserving every superlative" and felt that "the film is never less than buoyant, thanks largely to the dedicated and effective teachers on whom Guggenheim focuses."^[13]

Geraldo Rivera praised the film for promoting discussion of educational issues.^[14] Deborah Kenny, CEO and founder of the Harlem Village Academy, made positive reference to the film in a The Wall Street Journal op-ed piece about education reform.^[15]

The film has also garnered praise from a number of conservative critics.^[16] Joe Morgenstern, writing for The Wall Street Journal, gave the movie a positive review saying, "when the future of public education is being debated with unprecedented intensity," the film "makes an invaluable addition to the debate."^[17] The Wall Street Journal's William McGurn also praised the film in an op-ed piece, calling it a "stunning liberal exposé of a system that consigns American children who most need a decent education to our most destructive public schools."^[18]

Kyle Smith, for the New York Post, gave the movie four-and-a-half stars, calling it an "invaluable learning experience."^[19] Forbes' Melik Kaylan similarly liked the film, writing, "I urge you all to drop everything and go see the documentary Waiting For "Superman" at the earliest opportunity."^[20]

The film also received various negative criticisms. Andrew O'Hehir of Salon gave a negative review of the movie, saying that while there's "a great deal that's appealing," there's also "as much in this movie that is downright baffling."^[21] Melissa Anderson of The Village Voice was critical of the film for not including enough details on outlying socioeconomic issues, saying, "macroeconomic responses to Guggenheim's query...go unaddressed in Waiting for "Superman," which points out the vast disparity in resources for inner-city versus suburban schools only to ignore them."^[22] Anderson also opined that the animation clips were overused. In New York City, a group of local teachers protested one of the documentary's showings, calling the film "complete nonsense," and noting that "there is no teacher voice in the film."^[23]

Educational reception and allegations of inaccuracy

 

A 2009 study done by Stanford University found that, on average, charter schools perform about the same or worse than public schools. The film does note, however, that most charter schools do not outperform public schools and focuses on those that do. It also states that only one in five charter schools outperform public schools (close to the 17% statistic).

"The film dismisses with a side comment the inconvenient truth that our schools are criminally underfunded. Money's not the answer, it glibly declares. Nor does it suggest that students would have better outcomes if their communities had jobs, health care, decent housing, and a living wage. Particularly dishonest is the fact that Guggenheim never mentions the tens of millions of dollars of private money that has poured into the Harlem Children's Zone, the model and superman we are relentlessly instructed to aspire to." - Rick Ayers, Adjunct Professor in Education at the University of San Francisco^[24]

Author and academic Rick Ayers lambasted the accuracy of the film, describing it as "a slick marketing piece full of half-truths and distortions."^[24] In Ayers' view, the "corporate powerhouses and the ideological opponents of all things public" have employed the film to "break the teacher's unions and to privatize education," while driving teachers' wages even lower and running "schools like little corporations."^[24]

 

The film does, however, note that since 1971, inflation-adjusted per-student spending has more than doubled, "from $4,300 to more than $9,000 per student," but that over the same period, test scores have "flatlined." Ayers also critiqued the film's promotion of a greater focus on "top-down instruction driven by test scores," positing that extensive research has demonstrated that standardized testing "dumbs down the curriculum" and "reproduces inequities," while marginalizing "English language learners and those who do not grow up speaking a middle class vernacular."^[24]

 

Lastly, Ayers contends that "schools are more segregated today than before Brown v. Board of Education in 1954," and thus criticized the film for not mentioning that in his view, "black and brown students are being suspended, expelled, searched, and criminalized."^[24]

 

Diane Ravitch, Research Professor of Education at New York University and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, similarly criticizes the accuracy of the film.^[25] Ravitch notes that a study by Stanford University economist Margaret Raymond of 5000 charter schools found that only 17% are superior in math test performance to a matched public school, casting doubt on the film's claim that privately managed charter schools are the solution to bad public schools.^[25] The film does note however that most charter schools do not outperform and that it focuses on those that do. As well, the film explicitly stated that one in five charter schools (close to the 17% statistic previously stated) were the overreaching, superior charter schools. Ravitch writes that many charter schools also perform badly, are involved in "unsavory real estate deals" and expel low-performing students before testing days to ensure high test scores.^[25] The most substantial distortion in the film, according to Ravitch, is the film's claim that "70 percent of eighth-grade students cannot read at grade level," a misrepresentation of data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.^[25] Ravitch served as a board member with the NAEP and notes that "the NAEP doesn't measure performance in terms of grade-level achievement," as claimed in the film, but only as "advanced," "proficient," and "basic." The film assumes that any student below proficient is "below grade level," but this claim is not supported by the NAEP data. A teacher-backed group called the Grassroots Education Movement produced a rebuttal film titled The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman. This film criticizes some public figures featured in Waiting for "Superman" and proposes different policies to improve education in the United States.^[26]

 

 

 

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Additional Educational Posts

 

Vocational Educational Reform in America, Part 1

 

 Vocational Educational Reform in America, Part 2

 

 

 

 

Postmodernity's Challenge and the Radical Nature of Changing Educational Paradigms

 

 

 

 

'Unschooling' Gaining Popularity, Allows Children Alternative Learning Tools

 

 

 

 

Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?

 

 

 

 

1984 vs. Brave New World | Our own Distopia

 

 

 

 

 

Postmodernity's Challenge and the Radical Nature of Changing Educational Paradigms

Emergent Christianity is focused on postmodernity and beyond. Critical to its organizational behavior and collaborative thinking is its non-linear, creative, diverse, organic characteristics portraying vitality and adaptability to the social conditions and culturally dense environments surrounding the postmodern Church of the 21st Century. And crucial to the process of communicating the gospel of Jesus is how we would communicate this gospel to one another by allowing (i) a diversity of divergent opinion (pluralism); (ii) removing obstructive, out-of-date, utilitarian functions and ideologies that are no longer helpful to today's societies (deconstruction); and, (iii) creating adaptive social structures that can utilize all the differences within humanity without abstracting that same humanity into static cultural modes and inflexible methodologies (re-construction).

Lately educators from around the world have become actively engaged in re-thinking societal educational models which can be helpful not only to our public school systems, but to Emergent Christianity's interest in integrating the Church-at-large within multi-ethnic, socially diverse, local/regional populations with few, if any, integrative cores. To do this the Emergent Church has recognised that not only religious dogmas - but all societal dogmas, belief structures and behaviors - must come under a scrutiny, or critique, that can be at once beneficial, healthy, and distinctly normative to its surrounding populations. Nor should these changes be feared, prevented, assailed nor thrashed by respondents as these changes occur to the greater good of their local societal structures.

For this is the essence of adaptive behavior wherein societies and cultures must adapt together in order to thrive together in the 21st Century. An era that is bringing with it radically new changes of social comportment and diversity. Moreover, this has become a fundamental problem for the traditionally orthodox church refusing to adapt and change - as it can be for any misunderstanding element of society finding itself in similar positions of radically dense, and overwhelming, change. Whether these elements be commercial, industrial, educational, medical, scientific, agrarian or vernacular organisations. All elements of society will be engaged in a fundamentally altering self-examination requiring adaptation, and assimilation, of rapid technological advancements, exponential biologic growth, diminishing earth resources, greater climate changes, massive urbanization, and a hundred other societal concerns and dilemmas. But success in large part must still rest with increased community support towards acquisition of fundamental, postmodern change; supportive revisioning of societal goals; enhanced collaborative engagement; and mass acceptance of greater societal interdependency and integration leading to a relinquishment of individualized goals.

In the videos below creativity educational expert Sir Ken Robinson will ask how this type of beneficial change might happen within education itself, and how it might be sustained.... And we might ask ourselves similar questions when applying these same principles to the postmodern, Emergent Church - both of the communities we live within, as well of those churches and fellowships floundering therein unprepared for (or unwilling to recognize) the resultant postmodern disruption and fundamental organisational re-configuration made necessary to continue to survive against the radical groundswell of change and proportionate needs of its beleaguered community. Most assuredly this will be a time when each segment of society might lend a hand to one another in mutual aide and support. Where differences can be resolved. And supportive engagement and appreciation can be enhanced.

R.E. Slater

February 27, 2012


*For further discussion of Emergent Christianity begin here in Relevancy22's latest installment -
http://relevancy22.blogspot.com/2012/02/some-are-good-writers-some-are-good.html

RSA Animate

Changing Educational Paradigms






Sir Ken Robinson

Changing Educational Paradigms

The full 1 hour discussion



Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson will ask how do we make

change happen in education and how do we make it last?

SKR's Blog - http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/

RSA - http://www.thersa.org/

Sir Ken Robinson, PhD is an internationally recognized leader in the development of education, creativity and innovation. He is also one of the world’s leading speakers with a profound impact on audiences everywhere. The videos of his famous 2006 and 2010 talks to the prestigious TED Conference have been seen by an estimated 200 million people in over 150 countries.

He works with governments in Europe, Asia and the USA, with international agencies, Fortune 500 companies and some of the world’s leading cultural organizations. In 1998, he led a national commission on creativity, education and the economy for the UK Government. All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education (The Robinson Report) was published to wide acclaim in 1999. He was the central figure in developing a strategy for creative and economic development as part of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, working with the ministers for training, education enterprise and culture. The resulting blueprint for change, Unlocking Creativity, was adopted by politicians of all parties and by business, education and cultural leaders across the Province. He was one of four international advisors to the Singapore Government for its strategy to become the creative hub of South East Asia.

For twelve years, he was professor of education at the University of Warwick in the UK and is now professor emeritus. He has received honorary degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design, Ringling College of Arts and Design, the Open University and the Central School of Speech and Drama, Birmingham City University and the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. He was been honored with the Athena Award of the Rhode Island School of Design for services to the arts and education; the Peabody Medal for contributions to the arts and culture in the United States, the LEGO Prize for international achievement in education, and the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the Royal Society of Arts for outstanding contributions to cultural relations between the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2005, he was named as one of Time/Fortune/CNN’s ‘Principal Voices’. In 2003, he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the arts. He speaks to audiences throughout the world on the creative challenges facing business and education in the new global economies.

His book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything (Penguin/Viking 2009) is a New York Times^th anniversary edition of his classic work on creativity and innovation, (Capstone/Wiley). Sir Ken was born in Liverpool, UK, as one of seven children. He is married to Therese (Lady) Robinson. They have two children, James and Kate, and now live in Los Angeles, California.

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The element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. The Element draws on the stories of a wide range of people, from ex-Beatle Paul McCartney to Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons; from Meg Ryan to Gillian Lynne, who choreographed the Broadway productions of Cats and The Phantom of the Opera; and from writer Arianna Huffington to renowned physicist Richard Feynman and others, including business leaders and athletes. It explores the components of this new paradigm: The diversity of intelligence, the power of imagination and creativity, and the importance of commitment to our own capabilities.

With a wry sense of humor, Ken Robinson looks at the conditions that enable us to find ourselves in the element and those that stifle that possibility. He shows that age and occupation are no barrier, and that once we have found our path we can help others to do so as well. The Element shows the vital need to enhance creativity and innovation by thinking differently about human resources and imagination. It is also an essential strategy for transforming education, business, and communities to meet the challenges of living and succeeding in the twenty-first century.

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There is a paradox. As children, most of us think we are highly creative; as adults many of us think we are not. What changes as children grow up? Organizations across the globe are competing in a world that is changing faster than ever. They say they need people who can think creatively, who are flexible and quick to adapt. Too often they say they can't find them. Why not? In this provocative and inspiring book, Ken Robinson addresses three vital questions:

• Why is it essential to promote creativity? Business leaders, politicians and educators emphasize the vital importance of promoting creativity andinnovation. Why does this matter so much?
• What is the problem? Why do so many people think they're not creative? Young children are buzzing with ideas. What happens as we grow up and go through school to make us think we are not creative?
• What can be done about it? What is creativity? What can companies, schools and organizations do to develop creativity and innovation in a deliberate and systematic way?

In this extensively revised and updated version of his bestselling classic, Out of Our Minds, Ken Robinson offers a groundbreaking approach to understanding creativity in education and in business. He argues that people and organizations everywhere are dealing with problems that originate in schools and universities and that many people leave education with no idea at all of their real creative abilities. Out of Our Minds is a passionate and powerful call for radically different approaches to leadership, teaching and professional development to help us all to meet the extraordinary challenges of living and working in the 21st century.