Vincent part eight

From a letter to Anthon van Rappard, 22 - 29 October 1883:
Well, today I went to visit the place where the dustmen dump the garbage, etc. Lord, how beautiful that is - for Buckmann, for instance. Tomorrow I shall get some interesting objects from this Refuse Dump - including some broken street lamps - rusted and twisted - on view - or to pose for me, if you like the expression better. The dustman will bring them around. That collection of discarded buckets, baskets, kettles, soldiers' mess kettles, oil cans, iron wire, street lamps, stovepipes was something out of a fairy tale by Andersen.

I like how he looks at things, sees beauty in things that are old and broken and rusted...I can see that in his art as well, the way he looks at the ordinary and finds the sublime.  I want to learn to see people that way, I think.

http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/11/R28.htm

Vincent part seven

Being the latter part of 1883 - Vincent has left his woman, since she could not learn to be good. He is gone from the Hague and moving to Hoogeveen (Drenthe) to devote himself once more to painting. His melancholy is more pronounced. He grieves over leaving the woman and her children, but sees it as necessary.

Here, he gives voice to a familiar sentiment:

One might almost weep over what is now spoiled on every side; what our predecessors gave their honest labour to is now neglected and abandoned in a cowardly way. The time we live in is perhaps outwardly a little more respectable than the one that is past, but the nobleness is disappearing too fast, so that one no longer expects from the future the same great things which they did in the past. - Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, Drenthe, c. 22 September 1883

Ha! If he feels the loss of nobleness then, he would be appalled at some aspects of modern life...though I have to believe that nobleness exists, even if we no longer call it that...is greatness of spirit still possible in such a very small world?

In every life some rain must fall

And days be dark and dreary.

It is true and it cannot be otherwise, but the question is, isn't the number of dark and dreary days sometimes too great? - Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, Drenthe, c. 26 September 1883

Ouch. Just ouch. I feel both of these

But a human being has his roots, transplanting him is a painful thing, though the soil may be better in the place where he is transplanted. - Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, Drenthe, 13 October 1883

http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/13/335.htm









http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/12/318.htm

Mentoring presentation thoughts

*notes from a professional development workshop in 2013*

1. What is my purpose as a teacher?
2. Who Do I mentor? What is my goal in mentoring them?

Terms to think about:
leadership education
Mentoring
Transformational teaching

19 apps: leadership education for college students, by oliver de mille

Informational teaching: by assignment, can be done by student on their own (card system?)

Transformational teaching: from child to adult...

Mentoring based on knowledge - not of materials, but of students (aspirations, goals, limitations, fears, etc)

Preparing class vs preparing mentor(most impt thing is teacher's vibrant inner life - know who you are & what you're about)

4 types of teaching:
1. Aristotle, 95% telling
2. Socrates, 95% asking
3. Plato, parables/examples
4. Prophetic, best mix of all for particular students (What does student x need?)

Teaching students to be good vs teaching students to be great - there is a need for BOTH - balance - based on individual student

Different students need a different mentoring style (goal)

Any subject can be mentored...

"Beginners Guide to Constructing The Universe", by Michael S Schneider

On Numbers, by Isaac Asimov Two kinds of ideas: seen (learned by experience) & unseen (learned by epiphany)

Mentors help students to seek epiphanies

There is no single path to epiphany. (Blah)

Take a risk. Take a stand. Be a warrior. Show students how.

What do I stand/fight for? Why do I learn?
Purpose drive passion; passion drives study habits.

Free society...

Dumb brains are dumb

I don't know what's wrong with me. I should be past this, but I can't get the brain hamsters off the wheel. They just keep running and the incessant squeak, squeaking of inescapable thought sits on my shoulders until I feel like I'm trying to hold up the world.

*edit - two years later*

The squeaking still happens & I still manage to function.  I'm just going to hit publish on this and move on with my life.  The goal is to learn to just write, whether it's any good or not, whether anyone else reads it or not.  I just need to get the thoughts out of my noggin & out into space to do as they will.

Here goes...