January 5, 2012 by Jackie Parker I had been asked to teach a writing workshop for a group of women and their teenage daughters who lived within blocks of each other in Alhambra California, a city of 80,000 eight miles from downtown Los Angeles. Alhambra is the birthplace of the painter Norman Rockwell whose scenes […]
education
George Whitman, Shakespeare & Co., and what I learned from living in Paris
December 29, 2011 George Whitman died recently at the ripe old age of 98. He took over the famous Left Bank bookstore, Shakespeare & Co., after the original owner, Sylvia Beach, left it at the onset of World War II. She ran it as a publishing company that famously published James Joyce’s revolutionary novel […]
Down the Rabbit Hole
December 15, 2011 “Alice came to a fork in the road. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked. ‘Where do you want to go?’ responded the Cheshire Cat. ‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered. ‘Then,’ said the Cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.” –Lewis Carroll Education has taken a nasty fall. In fact, if we do not […]
Education As We Know It: Time to Review, Revise & Upgrade
December 8, 2011 There’s been a great deal of talk lately about the value of education whether at the elementary, secondary or college level. People are starting to wonder whether a college degree is worth the tuition required to earn one. The education system as we know it is no longer working. Some education leaders […]
Whatever Happened to Music Education?
December 1, 2011 In writing a recent blog, inspired by LA Philharmonic’s Music Director Gustavo Dudamel’s orchestral version of a popular Puerto Rican band’s hit song, I began to muse on the subject of music education: in Venezuela and the U.S. There are a million kids enrolled in Venezuela’s music system, called El Sistema. Some […]
Education and the Arts: A Cultural Crossroads
November 17, 2011 Everything changes. Everything is connected. Pay attention. –Ancient Buddhist Proverb What does it feel like when your world is out of balance, off kilter, or out of control? Koyaanisqatsi, the Hopi word meaning- A life out of balance -is born of the Native American understanding that the world and all living things […]
International Education: A Personal Journey
November 10, 2011 In celebration of International Education Week (November 12-16), I am reminded of my own personal journey as an international student. It began when I was ten and the six weeks I spent one summer at the now defunct Stoke Brunswick School, in East Grinstead, England. With its original Tudor architecture dating back […]
Music and the Brain: An Enduring Partnership
November 3, 2011 Ever since I became entranced by Coltrane’s song “India” in my bedroom when I was sixteen and living at home, I’ve been aware of the power of music to affect the heart, soul, and spirit. Music has always exerted a powerful force on me, even before I could really put its magic […]
Latin America: Higher Education in Crisis
October 27, 2011 A recent article in the Economist (10/8/11) entitled “Universities in Latin America, The struggle to make the grade,” reports on the overall health of the institutions of higher education in the region and the prognosis is not good. Although there are some giant and reputable universities in Latin America, innovation and excellence […]
Student Uprising: A global movement
October 20, 2011 “The school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to economize.” ~Franklin D. Roosevelt A recent (10/19/11) blog on Huffington Post states that “according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, students took out more than $100 billion in loans in 2010 and will have a $1 trillion […]