budding scholar

People often see education as a panacea to fix all social problems. And this can be a problem, because people expect schools to do things they cannot, like fix broken homes or solve the childhood obesity problem in the United States. But I think Nicholas Kristof is on to something with this article. I haven’t yet read Greg Mortenson’s book he mentions about building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time. But I’d like to. And I’d like to support education efforts, like the work being done by the Afghan Institute of Learning. And I wish we all would push for schools instead of, or even in addition to, sending more troops to Afghanistan. Because schools are much more likely, long term, to make a real difference. We know from research that more educated women pass on the education to their children, and as Kristof says in the article, women’s literacy hovers around 3% in some of the most unstable parts of Pakistan.

Education is not a quick fix, but I think funding schools, and local people to work in them, is much more likely to promote stability in Afghanistan long-term. What do you think? Do you know of any good organizations doing work promoting education in Afghanistan (or anywhere else)? How about organizations that work with the local people in exemplary ways around educational issues?

Inspired by sunshine and a late afternoon at the beach that turned sunny and almost warm. Pear martinis. Quiet walking with an old friend, taking photos, focusing on things other than our troubles. Seems that the more I worry and worry about my work, the less break I get, and the more lost in a vortex of anxiety about the dissertation. Yesterday was a day of just that, but ended instead with an escape from the fog, both outside and in my head. And today dawned sunny, with an answer to an email from a student ahead of me, filled with helpful advice and openness. What a roller coaster of feelings compared to yesterday morning.

I’ll take the good days and moments as they come. Back to the day now, fingers tapping keys, eyes glancing from the screen up to sunny rooftops and Bernal Hill in the distance. Getting writing done and appreciating that there’s not a shred of fog in sight.

A picture from the Golden Gate Bridge Webcam, a few minutes ago. The fog hangs over the headlands. I see it from my window, it never quite burned off today. Craving sunshine and heat, and days without worrying about all these dissertation decisions.

For now, I’ve got mini-vacations. Last night we drove across the bridge with the top down, the towers engulfed in high-flying fog, reflecting the lights of the bridge back at us. The views worth bundling up against the cold. Yesterday spent wandering through towns of Napa Valley in warm, summer weather was deeply satisfying. The French Laundry Garden. Calistoga. Yountville. Even San Rafael. Dinner at Ad Hoc, then fireworks from their outdoor patio. Drive home with the top down and music turned up loud. Best of all, a day with my husband, good friends, beautiful weather, and delicious food.

A new goal is to get out of the city at least once a week, get to sunny places, plan on real breaks from this work. Otherwise, it is all-consuming and feels like it involves most moments of my day. And the fog only makes that feeling press in stronger.

Do you have any mini-vacations planned this summer? How do you balance vacations and academia?

Reading the alumni magazine for my undergraduate alma mater today, I came across a great project. They have created a program where they match international students with host families in the surrounding community. The families include the students in family activities, invite them to holidays, help them navigate the university system and being in the United States. The students bring connections to other countries, other places, languages. Sometimes the families end up visiting the students’ families in the home country.

It’s a neat idea because it breaks down barriers between cultures in small ways. Of course, it’s great for the college because it helps the students feel at home. But it has a larger social purpose as well. The children growing up in these families who connect with international students are likely to have a more open mind towards people different from themselves. They are likely to have more chances to visit other places if the relationship continues beyond the students’ time at Connecticut College. This is how larger social barriers based on fear, difference between countries and cultures are broken down in small ways.

Like many people, I set about watching Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture after hearing of his death a few weeks back. He was quite a man. Such a university professor. So filled with life, with a will to live. And I learned a lot from both the Last Lecture, and another lecture he gave on time management. Some notes are included here:

Last Lecture

Childhood dreams. Positive attitude. Brick walls are there to make us show/prove how badly we want things. It’s easy to be smart when you’re parodying smart people. Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you. Attaining your dreams and/or enabling the dreams of others. You obviously don’t know where the bar (for success) should be, so you’ll be doing a disservice if you put in anywhere (i.e. push for greater and greater levels when you’re not sure what the best could be). When you find something really great, the hardest thing is to let it go…find someone better than you to take it.

He’s uncomfortable in academia because “I come from a long line of people who actually worked for a living”.

The best gift an educator can give is to get someone to become self reflective.

Everyone should be helping others. Teachers, mentors, friends, colleagues help us.

Respect authority while questioning it.

How to get people to help you: tell the truth. be earnest. apologize when you screw up. focus on others, not yourself. do the right thing. get a feedback loop, and listen to it!! show gratitude. don’t complain, just work harder. be good at something, it makes you valuable. “work hard…what’s your secret” (answer, it’s pretty simple, just call me any friday night at 10pm and I’ll tell you).

Decide if you’re a Tigger or Eeyore!

Time Management

Time is the only commodity that matters. What do you cost your organization an hour?

The real problems in our life: stress and procrastination.

The money’s not important. The time you spend in school is what is important–not the money you spend or lose on it.

“The Time Famine”. If you’re not going to enjoy it, why do it?

Being successful doesn’t make you manage your time well. Managing your time well makes you successful.

GOALS, PRIORITIES, PLANNING. Why am I doing this? What is the goal? Why will I succeed? What happens if I choose not to do it? Doing things right vs. doing the right things?

List of 100 things to do in your life. Look at it every week. If you’re not working towards it every week, what are you working towards?

Do not lose sight of the power of inspiration. If you can dream it, you can do it. (Walt Disney).

Do the ugliest thing on your to-do list first. Quadrant to-do list.

Keep your desk clear. Touch each piece of paper once. Touch each email once. Your inbox is not your to-do list.

A good filing system is essential.

Key thing is screen space for monitors.

Thank you notes (that weren’t obligatory). A very tangible way of doing nice things. They make you rare. Buy a stack, keep them readily accessible on your desk. Showing gratitude is important (not only for job interviews!).

You don’t find time for doing important things, you make them by not doing other things.

Find your dead time, schedule things where you don’t need to be at your best. Maximize your best time, guard it carefully. [for me and writing, this is the first hours of the morning…which means I need to get to bed early].

Time journals: monitor yourself for 15-minute increments for 3 days to 2 weeks. List what you do on the left, time up top, check off.

Make your own study hall between classes, go to the library.

The most efficient people in grad school are the ones with a spouse and kids.

Procrastination. Doing things at the last minute is really expensive. Make up fake deadlines and act like they’re real. Identify why you’re not enthusiastic about doing the thing you’re procrastinating from.

Delegation. Don’t treat it as dumping. Grant authority with responsibility. Delegate but always do the dirtiest job yourself.

If you want to get something done, you cannot be vague. Give a specific time with a penalty or reward. Give objectives not procedures. Give the relative importance of each task. Reinforce behavior you want repeated. All meetings should have an agenda. One minute minutes. At the end of a meeting write down decisions made and assignments of work.

Manage from beneath. When is our next meeting? What would you like me to have done by then? Who can I turn to for help if I need it?

Get feedback loops. People you trust who can tell you what you’re doing right and wrong.

To-Do list in priority order. Do a time journal. Revisit this talk in 30 days and ask “what have I changed”?

Literacy Class 10/17/07

Discussion about David Olson, great divide theory of literacy.

No class excites me intellectually quite as much as this class. How meaning is made. How we draw meaning from text. What it means to know, to communicate what we know.

What implications do the things I’m learning have for my larger school trajectory? What are the implications for policy of what I am learning in this class? For immigrants and language policy? I feel like answering this question will get me over a hump in terms of my commitment to and excitement about my own learning and knowledge-building.

Maybe I should do what Liz is doing and share programs–go half and half with policy and literacy.

Classes start this week and I’m still debating about what to take. I had planned to take a class on Globalization and International Education, but it conflicts with another class so I’m debating between the two. The professor sent out this article ahead of the first day, and just reading it makes me ashamed of myself and how little I do for global, as well as local, development (I contribute some money but not as much as I could afford, and currently don’t volunteer at all). It also makes me think hard about how I focus my studies. I want to take a more global bend in my studies at Berkeley, of this I am sure. This semester will be dedicated to exploring this. And a class that focuses on the global landscape of education, that thinks in terms of development work, is a great place to begin. These are all strong arguments for taking this class.

What more appropriate day than MLK day to be thinking about this? He was such an incredible, inspiring speaker! How lucky to have heard him speak live. Here are links to a few of his speeches on YouTube:

Excerpt from the “Drum Major Speech”

Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam, the sermon

From a friend’s blog recently. Hopeful, inspiring, refreshing.

I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of failing or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance,
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.

Dawna Markova