Keeping up with the Peters Blog

Notes on my travels to Dayton, Ohio this week

2008-06-05T13:07:00.000-07:00

I just flew back from Dayton, Ohio-- a burned out inner city that just lost 2,000+ GM jobs (a SUV plant that was a cash cow for a while when gas was half the price it is now but thanks to short term thinking typical of the US auto industry--failed to see how a long term investment in hybrids would be better than continuing to milk the profits from the SUV craze)--the city is now hurting probably as badly as anywhere in Michigan. Most if not all the big manufacturing companies left--now you have roads that need repair--many full of potholes--a downtown that is still trying to look respectable but is finding it difficult to hide the boarded up shops and the encroaching semi- porno parlors. The only promising area seems to be a huge chess club that took over an abandoned building--with a big painted sign on the front that looked like it meant business although what business you can generate from chess I don't know.

I spoke to the a senior school administrator there who has a nicely appointed office of the kind you see on movie sets representing someone in authority --lots of dark wood, Victorian desk, nice paintings, heavy carpet. He really took me aside and told me his issues declining tax base--but what gets to him is that everything they try to do for education tends to be negatively perceived by the media. Two groups--basically run the show--those from Appalachia and African Americans --both groups have not benefited much themselves from public education--and therefore skeptical of its value for their kids --they don't come together on much. A good sign in a way was that one parent tried to sue the district because their child failed to graduate. The board and public opinion stood behind not giving in--with the taunt that if the family had cared so much about the education of their child they might have spent the enormous energy they directed to the lawsuit into
helping him succeed academically.

The district despite its troubles are trying very hard with a new high school and a fabulously renovated old school that used my federal program (QZABs) to turn itself into a school for the arts. Wonderful building and great atmosphere. I took photos (see some above). I would have loved to do a documentary about the city--with this guy I spoke with in the star role--he was a great story teller and wonderfully committed to the schools--profile in courage when lots of folk would give up. He has problems coming up the wazoo including 14 bargaining units he has to appease--who have not seen a raise since 2005. Charter schools that are mushrooming that he by law must fund to the tune of millions of dollars going out off the top from his budget--a special education budget that consumes about a third of the budget --every child must be given an IEP some requiring specialized personnel and smaller class sizes. Technology that is out of date and the problems of an aging workforce.

The mass media refuses to cover this -unless there is some horrific event such as a school shooting--the plight of inner city schools and the communities they serve might as well be invisible. We all seem all off on a joy ride--while the inner cities rot out--and the ones that are left turn to crime-join the military or are imprisoned. Sad times. What is the message of caring and hope? Where are the RFK's (who was assassinated on this date)/ Maybe Obama has a policy--but where is the money? Federal deficits for miles. So this is our world now.

Nice Picture

2008-06-05T13:05:00.000-07:00

Hope the headline in November is not McCain won! You never know>

Scandal Everyone is Avoiding-Why?

2008-05-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

Michael Greenburger former Commissioner of the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission made clear in his C-Span appearance today that the 2000 legislation that Senator Gramm engineered- which allowed Enron the necessary tax loopholes to run amok now allows those who trade in oil futures license to drive up the price of gas by as much as 25c a gallon according to independent industry experts.
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Last year he testified that some oversight of these "dark markets" that trade in energy futures could reduce costs by as much as $30 dollars a barrel.

Greenberger is now a Professor of Law at the University of Maryland and needs to be invited onto all the major talk shows from Larry King to Olberman. Enough of the specious talk about the campaign and the VC contest--lets talk about some real issues. How did Senator Clinton ignore this one--why did she continue to spout the nonsense about removing the gas tax--(no wonder this silliness is supported by McCain --he was a firm backer of the Enron loophole fiasco and now has Gramm as an economic advisor). Other questions arising from the Greenberger conversation this morning--How does this administration get away with zero oversight of these markets. Why was the Congress so silent on this issue until recently? Who is really making money off the price gouging? Could it be we bailed out Bear Stearns (a group along with Goldman Sachs that Golbderger fingered) so they could continue like Enron to continue their war against the American consumer? Questions, questions--but ones more substantive than much of the talk show irrelevance that purports to be about politics but is really a distraction from the main issues at this point in the campaign.

Shakespeare for Kids!

2008-05-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

I wrote this blog to try out a new site--

Many young people have their appreciation of Shakespeare "ruined"- (a word by the way that Shakespeare first coined but more about this later) because they are forced to read the text without much of a background. For countless millions of students sitting down in a classroom and reading the Bard is a chore akin to reading in a foreign language. No wonder many are turned off--and never want to pick up a text again or see a performance!To avoid this outcome it would pay for you to do some "work" as a parent to prepare your child. I suggest you start by asking your child what would they like to know about Shakespeare:

1) How a working class kid made it big in London when there were few opportunities for anyone to do anything but continue their father's trade?

2) Why his stories are still being made into Hollywood films today--films like Romeo and Juliet, Midsummers Nights Dream, Othello etc?

3) How his words have entered the language and are now part of our everyday speech?

4) Why he can be considered perhaps the world's greatest literary artist?

5) Why famous and not so famous actors lust after his roles?

What to do about any of these entry points? How are any of them educational in the best sense--how do they lead us back into the plays where the real educational experience can really be ignited?

Let's take them each one by one:

1) The great life--ask your student to imagine a world without the internet, without phones (never mind cell phones)and just with old mud strewn dangerous highways connecting towns. Ask him or jher to imagine a school where the texts were in Latin. Then ask him to imagine the chances for the son of a glove maker to make it big, become a star in London world. What skills did he need? How might have he acquired them? Read together any one of the latest highly readable biographies. Authors like Schoenbaum and Greenblatt in particular write well about that early life and will hopefully get your child to want to read more.

2) See those Hollywood films and ask what makes them so watchable--yes the story--then go to rent Shakespeare in Love and get excited about Romeo and Juliet and then discuss the other ingredient Shakespeare brings to the table his insane love for language.

3) Ever wondered where familiar with the phrases "Live long day", "Fell swoop", "Rhyme and reason" came from? Shakespeare of course-as a game look for all the words and phrases we still use and might want to use today when reading through a play like Hamlet or Romeo& Juliet.

4) Why the greatest literary artist? Harold Bloom goes so far that Shakespeare invented modern character--whether you agree with that assessment or not--no one before or since has developed deeper tragic characters than Hamlet and Lear or comedic characters like Falstaff or brought historical figures like Henry V to life. Who else has created stories that define the way ambition undermines morality in works like Macbeth and Julius Ceaser? Who has examined the causes and consequences of war in such depth as he does in Henry V and the history plays? Who has developed as penetrating view of old age and power as he does in King Lear? His range of language and theme is simply far greater than any other artist. Watch Branagh's Henry V or his Hamlet with your child and see how they get entranced--notwithstanding their diet of video games and other fare.

5) Rent Looking for Richard by Al Pacino to see how a great actor prepares for this difficult but highly entertaining role and then you begin to understand the way all actors love the challenge of playing Shakespeare. Actors like to challenge themselves to enter into their characters--while most of their parts are often thinly written and have fairly straightforward logical motivations --few of Shakespeare's great character roles are easily understood. There are dark areas where their motivation is unclear and their essential selves are hidden behind many masks. Richard is such a figure. He is a complex rogue--self hating and envious--manipulative but self aware-he lets the audience as so many of Shakespeare's flawed characters do, on his inner drama. The great actors all want to go after the major classic roles--do Hamlet as Gielgud and Oliver did when they were relatively young and Lear when they become senior statesmen. In an age when womens' roles were played by boys and women were largely second class citizens--Shakespeare manages to bring women fully to life in a way that has arguably never been equalled. Not surprisingly, the female roles are also sought after--Cleopatra, Ophelia and Juliet represent women who still communicate their complex natures today. Actors know they need to work hard to play these roles--but they also know the extensive preparation it takes is well worth the sense of accomplishment they feel when they master them and are able to excite an audience into believing their reality.

Get your child started when they are in 8,9 or 10 on a process of discovering Shakespeare and most of all take them to performances--there are many many Shakespeare plays being performed throughout the world. He is the most performed playwright for a reason. Prepare them before hand with a synopsis of the setting for the story and a review of the characters--but don't tell them how it ends!

In the Basement of the Ivory Tower

2008-05-22T12:54:00.000-07:00

This article in the June Atlantic sums up pretty well my feelings about a central weakness of the American academy. I can relate because I was once part of the invisible workforce the writer describes--our low wages helping to maintain the academy's outward appearance--the grand classical facades and well watered lawns he so well describes. Adjuncts deal with the students with the hopeless writing skills that their tenured friends don't want to deal with--students who are there primarily because of the relentless societal pressures that says everyone in the US must go to college today even if they are only semi-literate. While fifty percent of such students drop out after the first year and many graduate after a series of remedial college courses many more struggle in classrooms such as the one described. Even as all colleges continue to raise fees above the rate of inflation every year, no real effort is expended to get these students the help and support they deserve--not just remedial instruction but something suited to their real needs--such as ways to link their capacities and interests with some activities that can yield them jobs at the end of their four year ordeal.

OK just some news updates

2008-05-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

Tom Friedman has a good feel for the shifting global power relations and their meaning --he summarizes the thinking of the liberal elites in a recent NY Times Op Ed--got to read this one to stay informed on chattering class talk.

Why this blog --why now

2008-05-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

We now have many far flung members of the Peters family who all want to stay in touch. NBP is going to be in NYC and JBP is in LA--for the summer and we also have the family in London, England to consider....MDP and DMP to name just a few....So what better way to keep everyone informed of the latest Peters family developments?
Now I dont want to be always making the effort to blog--some of you younger members need to take your turn and add comments and news..I will of course start the ball rolling...