The Beat of a Different Drummer, Part 2

If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured, or far away.
Henry David Thoreau, July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862,
 was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, sage writer and philosopher. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, “Civil Disobedience”, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.

…We have valued grades and scores more than learning. We have forgotten to teach you that all understanding begins with wonder and with following unexpected discovery in unknown directions. We have tried to stomp the wonder out of you by getting you to choose a track and stick with it. We have asked you to excel in every endeavor and to avoid anything that might diminish your record of excellence. When we rewarded you only for following all of our rules and not for making any of your own, we did more to close your minds than to open them. … I am sorry that we have taught you to value economic success over passionate engagement with your work. …  http://www.theroot.com/id/46623
Melissa Harris-Lacewell

If you were to combine the two quotations above, what would you conclude?  That we have taken the “different drummer” out of the classroom?

Let us continue our respite from talking about problems by talking about solutions.  Below is a story about a tool which is cool, as excerpted from the book Tactics of Hope:

In 1989, while visiting an agricultural fair just outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, I [Trevor Field] came across a miniature model of a roundabout, or merry-go-round as it is often called, attached to a water pump.  The inventor was a local farmer and borehole driller who had dreamed up the idea to keep children entertained while they watched his rigs at work out in the farmlands. …

With the original architect and Paul Ristic, both of whom had an invaluable wealth of knowledge in the engineering field, we spent six years refining the original design of the PlayPump water system into what it is today.  We were not at first thinking about how the technology might have an effect on the global drinking water crisis. …when in one province of South Africa we noticed a complete shift in consumer buying patterns from one particular brand of bread to another, healthier variety, we realized that we could have the same positive impact with health messaging to influence behavior changes throughout the rural populations.

Our greatest success has been this realization that we could apply our professional expertise to make a significant social impact.  We have since created an integrated approach to our new invention, providing clean drinking water, encouraging kids to play and enjoy themselves, uplifting rural women who would otherwise walk miles carrying buckets of often-contaminated water for their families to share and giving sponsors a platform to showcase brands associated with vital health and social messaging. … We now face a crisis, which can be overcome by encouraging entrepreneurship, rather than dependency, to revolutionize distribution systems for basic human needs among the rural poor. …

In all, 950 PlayPumps have been installed in four African countries to date;  700 of these have been in South Africa alone.  Over 2 million people can access free, clean drinking water for the first time.  Nearly one hundred jobs have been created through the PlayPump maintenance program. ...

September 18, 2008