JDMcDsblog

Alexander Brodie in his book “The Scottish Enlightenment” describes the contribution of a group of key literati-the enlightened Scots who forged one of the great intellectual and philosophical movements of Scottish-and European-history. It was a period, he tells us,  when Scots produced works of genius in chemistry, geology, engineering, economics, philosophy, poetry and sociology among others. These men were part of an international community of thinkers, people like Kant,  who thought for themselves, and who saw themselves as members of an international republic of letters.  What strikes me on reading this book are the parallels with some of our contemporary  ways of thinking about education. We are told that the Republic of Letters had no boundaries; the literati wrote for anyone anywhere willing to read them; ideas were laid out for public discussion, dispute and improvement. This public dissection of ideas finds a contemporary parallel in blogs, where writers set out their stall, and invite comment, and debate. Today’s online discourses represent efforts by educationalists to grapple with the big issues in teaching and learning, and to share such ideas with an international readership. There is a real crossover of thinking between the UK and the USA, for example. The literati set up societieswhereby they could enjoy each thers company and discuss and debate the issues of the day.

One account describes such a society (the Oyster Club), where,

the conversation was always free, often scientific, but never didactic or disputatious..as the resort of (visiting scientists to Edinburgh) it derived an extraordinary degree of variety and interest.

Brodie remarks that this was a time, too, of emphasis on critical reflection and analysis; “Enlightenment” was understood as mental activity engaged by a person committed to the values of truth and validity. Much of this seems familar to us today-enlightenment as a concept is every bit as important in today’s schools as it was in the coffee houses of the New Town two centuries ago.

Lord Kames

Originally uploaded by jmmcdgll

Henry Home, Lord Kames was one of the leading lights in the Scottish Enlightment of the late 18th century. A judge and author of several influential books, notably “Sketches of the History of Man”, Kames contributed much to the debate on religion, education, law and the nature of civil society. He was in good company. Among other leading thinkers of the day were philospher David Hulme and economist Adam Smith and  I am interested in tracing the parallels between this golden epoch in Scottish history and where education-and society- seems to be heading today. Does the Curriculum for Excellence and its attendant infrastructure of virtual learning, formative assessment and modularised courses signify a new enlightment. Is Web 2.0 the new community of ideas? The Enlightment ideal was that

people should think for themselves, but not by themselves.

Would Kames, Smith, Hutcheson and Hulme recognise- and applaud- the aspirations of a Journey to Excellence? Certainly they believed in the importance of a good, liberal and general education. George Davie has discussed this tradition  in his books “The Democratic Intellect” and the “Crisis of the Democratic Intellect”. Yet how significant was the Scottish Enlightment for the greater number of Scots, outwith the literati of the Edinburgh coffee houses? I hope to reflect on some of these issues over the next few posts.

At the very end of last night’s opening concert, a performance of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, in the Usher Hall, the full force and power of chorus and orchestra were unleashed by conductor HK Gruber as the ensemble reprised the main tunes before culminating in a series of hammered repetitions that brought out the percussive aggression of the music. I was prompted to think of other dramatic endings- Till Eulenspiegel on the scaffold, Strauss’ Electra and even the calamitous conclusion to Act 1 of Turandot, all of which quicken the pulse. The exciting climax certainly drew loud applause and cheers, but perhaps also a sense of achievement that comes at the end of a long journey. It felt that these last 10 minutes somehow made the whole night worthwhile and put to flight some of the nagging doubts I had felt earlier on.

For there had been moments when the attention sagged, when nothing much seemed to happen, and there was a want of pace. Perhaps it was always going to be difficult to convey effectively the Brechtian ideals of decadence, corruption and excess from behind a music stand. One missed the German gutturals, so apt for this cabaret-opera style. For strangers to the piece there was a full libretto, but I felt the audience became so intent on following the words, there were long spells when the singers were performing to the tops of heads immersed in programmes. Indeed at one, quiet point, there was a tutti rustling effect as the entire audience, as one, turned over the page. I felt then that the audience and cast were embarking on two separate journeys and it was to be a while before they met up.

Yet there were high points, too; the stage presence and lyricism of American tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, playing protagonist Jimmy Mahonney, and some comic business from Peter Hoare as Jack Smith showed how  some action can point up the drama. The Alabama Song seemed a little restrained but perhaps I expected too much of what is effectively the opera’s signature tune. The RSNO, under Gruber’s generally crisp and always energetic conducting brought out Weil’s full bodied and eclectic orchestral writing while the men’s chorus was disciplined and in good voice. Hannah Gordon narrated with style, no more so than when using a megaphone to announce in deadpan voice the deliverance of the city from the expected hurricane.  There was the trademark bandoneon and strumming banjo, and a marvellous piece of quasi rhapsodic writing for Pianola, comic and ironic, perhaps but beautifully played. “That’s what I call eternal art” says Jack. Well, maybe not eternal, but an exciting night and a bold stroke which sets the scene for a Festival that focuses on artists without borders.

In a Hurry!

Originally uploaded by jmmcdgll

003

Originally uploaded by jmmcdgll

My S1 pupils have experimented with using the “Rule of Thirds” *(see earlier post). They were asked to subdivide their pages and each take responsibility for the different sections. In my most recent Flicr posting I’ve put five posters by one S1 class. They were asked to sum up key points in the S1 curriculum.

New tool box 008

Originally uploaded by ktbogenrief

Have found an excellent site called wikiHow. Embracing the wiki concept of creative commons, this site is an online DIY manual that anyone can contribute to and edit.. It has approximately 39 000 articles. These range from practical tips like maintaining your bicycle gears to more abstract issues like learning styles. Indeed there is a whole section on memorisation skil.ls, which I am going to pilot with my S1 c.lasses over the next two weeks.

The rule of thirds

Originally uploaded by dgray_xplane

Today in First Year we talked a little about field sketching. You have been asked to try a sketch of the farm landscape on page 96. There is a “worked example” on pages 95-96 of your textbook, but you might also be interested in what this guy has to say about sketching. When you prepare your field sketch of the farm think about the layout of your sketch-here, the example given suggests that you divide in into thirds, effectively giving you nine squares to work within.
For more on Visual Communication, visit the excellent website, Communication Nation.

I have made up a wiki, or shared web space called HutchieInternational. Its main purpose will be to act as place to make up collaborative pages, made up of contributions from pupils in our school, and our partner schools. But to for this to be of any use, you need to log on to the site and request permission to become a member. Only then can you add your own text.

So, here are the instructions.

Go to the wiki at http://hutchieinternational.wikispaces.com/

This will take you to the home page. At this point, you can read, but not edit.
To edit and to add new material, go to top right and click “join”

A dialogue box will pop up; fill in the fields as follows:

user name-whatever you wish (eg FredBloggs)
password-something you will remember
email your e-mail address no

click “Join”

You should now see your user name at the top right of the Home Page, beside the envelope icon.
Go along to the side bar on the left hand side and click “Join this space”

This brings up a box entitled,

“Request membership to HutchieInternational
To join the space, hutchieinternational, submit a request to the space organizers.”
No need to write a comment.
Click on “Request membership”

When I receive this request, I shall then grant permission to edit and you can begin to add comments.

What next?

1. S1- Go to “Where we live” (left hand pane). Add a brief comment about your home area.

2. S2 Go to International Trade (left hand pane) Add a comment about international trade, based on what you have found out by researching the websites in your Global Studies workbook 3. This comment shoud mention eg debt, fair trade, the work of Oxfam, poverty cycle, etc.

I have been reading about Comment Challenge 08. In fact I heard about it while listening to Dave Noble’s excellent podcast, Booruch, . It’s a bit late to get started on this, since it’s been running since 1st May, but I am going to have a go, and follow my own time frame, commencing on 25th May. The idea is to encourage us to become better bloggers, by focusing a bit more on what we actually post and the kinds of comments we write. There’s some excellent material on Sue Waters blog, and also on a dedicated wikispace:
http://commentchallenge.wikispaces.com . There are plenty of ideas, here are some:

1. Set up a plan for tracking your comments–use CoComment or another tool.
2. Comment at a blog where you’ve never left a comment before.
3. Find three new bloggers and leave comments for them.
4.Comment on a blog post you don’t agree with.
5.Respond to another commenter on a post.
6.Find three bloggers that are not related to your normal niche and leave comments.

exam time

Originally uploaded by jenjemeer

This is the time of year when many teachers go into Purdah. Sacks of scripts, securely fastened by plastic handcuffs are delivered, accompanied by fastidious instructions for the marking, filling in Ex forms and returning of papers -by the next day, if possible. At this time of year, juts before exam leave, senior pupils are generally bipolar-manically optimistic aboutr exam succuess for no good reason or inconsolable that they have forgotten everything they ever learned. The Sixth Year revert to Primary 1 levels of maturity and regress or simply dissolve, a school career that started with cheery shots of first day at school ending in a wimper.
Markers meet in cavernous stadia to dissect scripts and agree a marking scheme-the lucky ones get to mark at home, at a time and place of their choosing; the less fortunate are coralled into barns and sheds to mark centrally in a given time frame.

This is my 18th year of marking Standard Grade Geography-I came in near the beginning when there were quite small teams for each level, and now there are over 100 Credit markers. For a while I used to be an examiner and setter, too, which meant standing in front of your peers and defending decisions on where to award marks for contentious evaluation questions. I loved the cameraderie of working in the exam team, meeting colleagues from across Scotland. So, despite my annual vow not to mark again, I’ll be joining the throng at Hamden to go through the 2008 Geography paper, and no doubt enjoying some good banter along the way.