The Beat of a Different Drummer, Part 6

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.  Another example from Tactics of Hope:

Roots of Peace is a leading innovator in the global eradication of land mines, which maim and kill over 26,000 people worldwide every year, nearly half of them children.  Its mission is to turn fields of death into prosperous farmlands, restoring community values and peace by helping former war-torn areas grow “from mines to vines”.  ... Together, through Roots of Peace, the Kuehns [Heidi and Gary] have achieved incredible success, including the removal of 100,000 land mines and unexploded ordnances, and the training of 10,000 farmers in Afghanistan alone.  With completed and ongoing operations in Afghanistan, Croatia, Iraq, Angola and Cambodia, Roots of Peace replaces seeds of destruction with seeds of life.

... To remove a land mine means not only to save a life, but also to give a family a vineyard, a community a soccer field and a nation its peace.  When I got started, I was attracted to the dream of being there in Angola , Croatia, Afghanistan or Iraq when the last mine is removed.  My work over the last seven years has only confirmed that our vision is absolutely possible. ...

October 16, 2008