Thoughts on Effective Education

In talking to some of my teaching friends I find that the goals for most good educators has not changed; good teachers want to prepare their students to live in the future world. It is the goal of most American educators to prepare students for 21st century living in which they will have to calibrate, communicate, solve problems and think outside the box in creative ways. Add to this the important necessity of interacting with all the people of the world.

For teaching to be successful, there are two important fundamentals for American educators: Engagement of the student in his/her learning and good Relationships with the child.

Relationships – The relationship between the educator and the student is of utmost importance. Teachers who cannot get students to relate to them and what they consider important are usually not very effective teachers. The educator must be interested in the whole child and intervene if there appears to be problems that limits the students learning. Without trust, little education occurs.

Engagement
Many methods will cause maximum engagement in the learning process:
1. Be creative in getting the student involved in what is being learned.
2. Use technology – the computer has opened a whole new method of getting students to interact and take part in their learning.
a. The GoogleBox at http://www.watchfreetvonline.net/?cat=Education
presents educators with many suggestions. The blog is used to connect students and have them comment on one another’s work,and add their ideas. Collaborative learning and group project learning is a key ingredient.
3. An emphasis on right brain learning. The most popular quote today is “Right brainers will rule the world.”


Key Ideas for Creatiing Philosophic Learners:

1. Use of the Socratic Method for discussions.
2. Introduce and teach the use of inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning
3. Game Theory -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory
4. Experimental philosophy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_philosophy

5. Simulation games – I think this article gives an excellent idea of the whole idea of experiential learning.
http://rs.resalliance.org/2007/01/19/teaching-using-a-world-simulation-game/

6. Prepare one’s own teaching philosophy. One cannot teach unless one knows what one believes about teaching. http://sunconference.utep.edu/CETaL/resources/stofteach.html

Some Key Thinkers:
http://wilderdom.com/experiential/JohnDeweyPhilosophyEducation.html

Danial Pink, A Whole New Mind. http://www.danpink.com/whole-new-mind

Pirsig, Richard, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance

Philp, Raleigh T., Engaging 'Tweens and Teens: A Brain-Compatible Approach to Reaching Middle and High School Students [Paperback]

Greene, Maxine. http://www.edutopia.org/maxine-greene

Subjunctive

The following is a mini-tutorial on the use of the Subjunctive. After you have studied the tutorial, complete the associated exercises. If you already know how to use this verb form, you can skip the explanation and go directly to the exercises.

http://www.englishpage.com/minitutorials/subjunctiveexercise.htm

FORM
Use the simple form of the verb. The simple form is the infinitive without the "to." The simple form of the verb "to go" is "go." The Subjunctive is only noticeable in certain forms and tenses.

USE
The Subjunctive is used to emphasize urgency or importance. It is used after certain expressions (see below).

Examples:

•I suggest that he study.
•Is it essential that we be there?
•Don recommended that you join the committee.
NOTICE
The Subjunctive is only noticeable in certain forms and tenses. In the examples below, the Subjunctive is not noticeable in the you-form of the verb, but it is noticeable in the he-form of the verb.

Examples:

•You try to study often. you-form of "try"
•It is important that you try to study often. Subjunctive form of "try" looks the same.
•He tries to study often. he-form of "try"
•It is important that he try to study often. Subjunctive form of "try" is noticeable here.
Verbs Followed by the Subjunctive
The Subjunctive is used after the following verbs:

to advise (that)
to ask (that)
to command (that)
to demand (that)
to desire (that)
to insist (that)
to propose (that)
to recommend (that)
to request (that)
to suggest (that)
to urge (that)

Examples:

•Dr. Smith asked that Mark submit his research paper before the end of the month.
•Donna requested Frank come to the party.
•The teacher insists that her students be on time.
Expressions Followed by the Subjunctive
The Subjunctive is used after the following expressions:

It is best (that)
It is crucial (that)
It is desirable (that)
It is essential (that)
It is imperative (that)
It is important (that)
It is recommended (that)
It is urgent (that)
It is vital (that)
It is a good idea (that)
It is a bad idea (that)

Examples:

•It is crucial that you be there before Tom arrives.
•It is important she attend the meeting.
•It is recommended that he take a gallon of water with him if he wants to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
Negative, Continuous and Passive Forms of Subjunctive
The Subjunctive can be used in negative, continuous and passive forms.

Negative Examples:

•The boss insisted that Sam not be at the meeting.
•The company asked that employees not accept personal phone calls during business hours.
•I suggest that you not take the job without renegotiating the salary.
Passive Examples:

•Jake recommended that Susan be hired immediately.
•Christine demanded that I be allowed to take part in the negotiations.
•We suggested that you be admitted to the organization.
Continuous Examples:

•It is important that you be standing there when he gets off the plane.
•It is crucial that a car be waiting for the boss when the meeting is over.
•I propose that we all be waiting in Tim's apartment when he gets home.
Should as Subjunctive
After many of the above expressions, the word "should" is sometimes used to express the idea of subjunctiveness. This form is used more frequently in British English and is most common after the verbs "suggest," "recommend" and "insist."

Examples:

•The doctor recommended that she should see a specialist about the problem.
•Professor William suggested that Wilma should study harder for the final exam.
EXERCISES AND RELATED TOPICS:
•Subjunctive Exercise 1: http://www.englishpage.com/minitutorials/subjunctiveexercise.htm

Dear Sue,

Dear Sue,
I am so glad to hear from you. I am sorry for my mistakes. Exams were ended. I got my grade. It is not very bad. I go to airport tonight. My father’s aunt will come from Mecca. Mecca is a holy city for Muslims. Do you wath the world cup’s game? I like Germany. Your team is better than before. South Africa is an advanced country. It is very beautiful. It is a success for blacks that they have an advanced country.
Today is the father’s day in Iran. Iman Ali was born today. He is a spicial character.
Take care,
Bahman

Of such I dream the world

By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press Writer Arthur Max, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jun 24, 7:35 pm ET

AGADIR, Morocco – Sperm whales feeding even in the most remote reaches of Earth's oceans have built up stunningly high levels of toxic and heavy metals, according to American scientists who say the findings spell danger not only for marine life but for the millions of humans who depend on seafood.



A report released Thursday noted high levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium, lead, silver, mercury and titanium in tissue samples taken by dart gun from nearly 1,000 whales over five years. From polar areas to equatorial waters, the whales ingested pollutants that may have been produced by humans thousands of miles away, the researchers said.

"These contaminants, I think, are threatening the human food supply. They certainly are threatening the whales and the other animals that live in the ocean," said biologist Roger Payne, founder and president of Ocean Alliance, the research and conservation group that produced the report.

The researchers found mercury as high as 16 parts per million in the whales. Fish high in mercury such as shark and swordfish — the types health experts warn children and pregnant women to avoid — typically have levels of about 1 part per million.

The whales studied averaged 2.4 parts of mercury per million, but the report's authors said their internal organs probably had much higher levels than the skin samples contained.

"The entire ocean life is just loaded with a series of contaminants, most of which have been released by human beings," Payne said in an interview on the sidelines of the International Whaling Commission's annual meeting.

Payne said sperm whales, which occupy the top of the food chain, absorb the contaminants and pass them on to the next generation when a female nurses her calf. "What she's actually doing is dumping her lifetime accumulation of that fat-soluble stuff into her baby," he said, and each generation passes on more to the next.

Ultimately, he said, the contaminants could jeopardize seafood, a primary source of animal protein for 1 billion people.

"You could make a fairly tight argument to say that it is the single greatest health threat that has ever faced the human species. I suspect this will shorten lives, if it turns out that this is what's going on," he said.

Payne called his group's $5 million project the most comprehensive report ever done on ocean pollutants.

U.S. Whaling Commissioner Monica Medina informed the 88 member nations of the whaling commission of the report and urged the commission to conduct further research.

The report "is right on target" for raising issues critical to humans as well as whales, Medina told The Associated Press. "We need to know much more about these problems."

Payne, 75, is best known for his 1968 discovery and recordings of songs by humpback whales, and for finding that some whale species can communicate with each other over thousands of miles.

The 93-foot Odyssey, a sail-and-motor ketch, set out in March 2000 from San Diego to document the oceans' health, collecting pencil-eraser-sized samples using a dart gun that barely made the whales flinch.

After more than five years and 87,000 miles, samples had been taken from 955 whales. The samples were sent for analysis to marine toxicologist John Wise at the University of Southern Maine. DNA was compared to ensure the animals were not tested more than once.

Payne said the original objective of the voyage was to measure chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants, and the study of metals was an afterthought.

The researchers were stunned with the results. "That's where the shocking, sort of jaw-dropping concentrations exist," Payne said.

Though it was impossible to know where the whales had been, Payne said the contamination was embedded in the blubber of males formed in the frigid polar regions, indicating that the animals had ingested the metals far from where they were emitted.

"When you're working with a synthetic chemical which never existed in nature before and you find it in a whale which came from the Arctic or Antarctic, it tells you that was made by people and it got into the whale," he said.

How that happened is unclear, but the contaminants likely were carried by wind or ocean currents, or were eaten by the sperm whales' prey.

Sperm whales are toothed whales that eat all kinds of fish, even sharks. Dozens have been taken by whaling ships in the past decade. Most of the whales hunted by the whaling countries of Japan, Norway and Iceland are minke whales, which are baleen whales that feed largely on tiny krill.

Chromium, an industrial pollutant that causes cancer in humans, was found in all but two of the 361 sperm whale samples that were tested for it. Those findings were published last year in the scientific journal Chemosphere.

"The biggest surprise was chromium," Payne said. "That's an absolute shocker. Nobody was even looking for it."

The corrosion-resistant metal is used in stainless steel, paints, dyes and the tanning of leather. It can cause lung cancer in people who work in industries where it is commonly used, and was the focus of the California environmental lawsuit that gained fame in the movie "Erin Brockovich."

It was impossible to say from the samples whether any of the whales suffered diseases, but Wise found that the concentration of chromium found in whales was several times higher than the level required to kill healthy cells in a Petri dish, Payne said.

He said another surprise was the high concentrations of aluminum, which is used in packaging, cooking pots and water treatment. Its effects are unknown.

The consequences of the metals could be horrific for both whale and man, he said.

"I don't see any future for whale species except extinction," Payne said. "This is not on anybody's radar, no government's radar anywhere, and I think it should be

An entry from Thoreau's journal

June 18. To Hemlocks.

Sparganium. A yellowbird feigns broken wings. Woodcock.
At 3 P.M., as I walked up the bank by the Hemlocks, I saw a painted tortoise just beginning its hole; then another a dozen rods from the river on the bare barren field near some pitch pines, where the earth was covered with cladonias, cinquefoil, sorrel, etc. Its hole was about two thirds done. I stooped down over it, and, to my surprise, after a slight pause it proceeded in its work, directly under and within eighteen inches of my face. I retained a constrained position for three quarters of an hour or more for fear of alarming it. It rested on its fore legs, the front part of its shell about one inch higher than the rear, and this position was not changed essentially to the last. The hole was oval, broadest behind, about one inch wide and one and three quarters long, and the dirt already removed was quite wet or moistened. It made the hole and removed the dirt with its hind legs only, not using its tail or shell, which last of course could not enter the hole, though there was some dirt on it. It first scratched two or three times with one hind foot; then took up a pinch of the loose sand and deposited it directly behind that leg, pushing it backward to its full length and then deliberately opening it and letting the dirt fall; then the same with the other hind foot. This it did rapidly, using each leg alternately with perfect regularity, standing on the other one the while, and thus tilting up its shell each time, now to this side, then to that. There was half a minute or a minute between each change. The hole was made as deep as the feet could reach, or about two inches. It was very neat about its work, not scattering the dirt about any more than was necessary. The completing of the hole occupied perhaps five minutes.

It then without any pause drew its head completely into its shell, raised the rear a little, and protruded and dropped a wet flesh-colored egg into the hole, one end foremost, the red skin of its body being considerably protruded with it. Then it put out its head again a little, slowly, and placed the egg at one side with one hind foot. After a, delay of about two minutes it again drew in its head and dropped another, and so on to the fifth — drawing in its head each time. and pausing somewhat longer between the last. The eggs were placed in the hole without any _particular_ care, — only well down flat and [each] out of the way of the next, — and I could plainly see them from above.
After these ten minutes or more, it without pause or turning began to scrape the moist earth into the hole with its hind legs, and, when it had half filled it, it carefully pressed it down with the edges of its hind feet, dancing on them alternately, for some time, as on its knees, tilting from side to side, pressing by the whole weight of the rear of its shell. When it had drawn in thus all the earth that had been moistened, it stretched its hind legs further back and to each side, and drew in the dry and lichen-clad crust, and then danced upon and pressed that down, still not moving the rear of its shell more than one inch to right or left all the while, or changing the position of the forward part at all. The thoroughness with which the covering was done was remarkable. It persevered in drawing in and dancing on the dry surface which had never been disturbed, long after you thought it had done its duty, but it never moved its fore feet, nor once looked round, nor saw the eggs it had laid. There were frequent pauses throughout the whole, when it rested, or ran out its head and looked about circumspectly, at any noise or motion. These pauses were especially long during the covering of its eggs, which occupied more than half an hour. Perhaps it was hard work.

When it had done, it immediately started for the river at a pretty rapid rate (the suddenness with which it made these transitions was amusing), pausing from time to time, and I judged that it would reach it in fifteen minutes. It was not easy to detect that the ground had been disturbed there. An Indian could not have made his cache more skillfully. In a few minutes all traces of it would be lost to the eye.
The object of moistening the earth was perhaps to enable it to take it up in its hands (?), and also to prevent its falling back into the hole. Perhaps it also helped to make the ground more compact and harder when it was pressed down. [_Vide_ September 10th.]

A noiseless patient spider: A poem of Walt Whitman

A noiseless, patient spider,
I mark'd, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated;
Mark'd how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself;
Ever unreeling them--ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you, O my Soul, where you stand,
Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,--seeking the spheres, to connect them;
Till the bridge you will need, be form'd--till the ductile anchor hold;
Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.

Walt Whitman

A beautiful quote

With many thanks to Sue and her son: "In Wildness is the preservation of the world."

Translation of a piece from Walden

Bahman loves my translations of Walden. As a man who has spent his whole life with Persian poetry I would love to say that the follwoing piece from Thoreau is one of the most magnificently beautiful pieces I have ever read in life. I dedicate it to Bahman and my other friends on this site. I hope it captures something from the beauty of the original text. In a way, this piece shows why I feel so close to Sue with so many miles that exist between us.

"I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows."

"من سلامت را در آن مي¬دانم كه بيش¬تر وقتم را تنها باشم. در جمع بودن، حتي با بهترين¬ها به زودي پر از ملال و تشويش مي¬شود. من عاشق تنهاييم. هرگز هيچ جمعي را خوش¬كنارتر از خلوت نيافته¬ام. وقتي از خانه بيرون و به ميان ديگر انسان¬ها مي¬رويم بيش¬تر از زماني كه در اطاق خوديم تنهاييم. انساني كه مي¬انديشد و كار مي¬كند هميشه تنهاست پس بگذار هر كجا كه مي¬خواهد باشد. خلوت را از روي فاصله¬اي كه انسان¬ها به فرسنگ¬ها از هم¬نوعان خويش دارند نمي¬سنجند."

Spain blames reporter for World Cup loss

The blame in Spain goes mainly on the dame. That's sideline reporter Sara Carbonero to the far right of this photo here; think of her as Spain's version of Erin Andrews (only not tainted by reality TV). And that's Carbonero's boyfriend on the far left, Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas. Yep, this photo was taken just prior to Spain's loss to Switzerland in the World Cup, and yes, Carbonero was stationed near her boyfriend for most of the match. Perhaps not surprisingly, many Spanish fans are blaming this awkward setup for the loss.



And to make this even better, Carbonero was tasked with interviewing Casillas following the match.

The glamorous sports presenter -- voted the sexiest journalist in the world -- demanded to know exactly what had gone wrong in the shock defeat by Switzerland.
"How did you muck that up?', she asked, leaving Casilllas squirming in embarrassment.
More from the London Daily Mail:


Irate fans claimed her presence on the sidelines -- directly behind Casillas -- had distracted him. Websites were inundated with comments claiming his mind may have been on 'other things'

Casillas and Carbonero started dating at the Confederations Cup in South Africa last year.

Her presence at this year's World Cup prompted controversy as Spanish WAGs -- known as 'esposas y novias' -- typically do not travel with the national side.
Carbonero responded: "Can I destabilize the team? I think it is nonsense."

Well dear, you destabilized my chances of winning the World Cup pool, in which I chose Spain.

A beautiful piece from Thoreau

One of the most intriguing sentences I have ever heard in life is a quotation I read in our Persian language text book in elementary school.

Here is the sentence: "Someone approached a sage who was sitting alone and said, 'Why are you sitting alone?' The sage pondered and replied, 'I became alone now that you came.'"

How can someone become alone when someone else comes near? Who was with the sage when he was not alone? Why does he say he was not alone?

The following piece from the American writer helped me to get deeper in the beautiful above sentence. See for yourself how close Thoreau is to the very fountainheads of our culture and literature. Isn't this amazing?

"I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows."

This is why I love Thoreau so much. This is a clear reason why I feel so close to him. Sue, have you had the same feeling. You always explain things in a way that I understand and never forget.

Ali

Dear Sue,

Dear Sue,
Nice to hear from you again.Thank you for correcting my letter. Thank you for congratulating to me and thank you for speaking about punctuation. I speak Farsi. I like speak in Arabic, but I have no time for reading Arabic. I think Persian is better than Farsi. If you search in internet you will see in old maps, Persian land. Persia was a nation that they came to Iran 2500 years ago. Now, we have a state in Iran with this name: “Fars”. It is because that the nation lived there. I like some Americans films. For example I like transporter, face off and actions Americans films. I have a bad exam in this day and I had many mistakes in my exam. Today was a bad day. I make mistakes, because I am panicky in exams.
I am sorry for my mistakes.
Take care,
Bahman

Home Once Again

Oh my! I'm gone 4 days and Mr. Taghdarreh has transformed our blog once again! We had a grand time in the mountains and the weather was fine until today when it rained all the way home. After 19 years I finally got a new Subaru Auto and it behaved beautifully on the mountain curves. Estes Park is a beautiful little town but in these summer months it is totally taken over by tourists and the prices are outrageous. It is tourist season and the prices always go up in order to get as much money as they can to hold them over the winter months. Some of the mountain towns have skiing in the winter, but Estes doesn't. It depends on its summer trade and some winter travel into the Rocky Mountain National Park. Have you ever seen the movie "The Shining" with Jack Nicholson? It's a very spooky story that was filmed in an old hotel in Estes.

Leslie and I stopped at a Lebanese restaurant on the way home. I thought you might find this interesting: The young son of the owner waited on us and I asked him if the writing on the wall mural was Arabic or Farsi and he answered "Arabic", but when I asked him what it said, he answered, "I don't have any idea. Somethin' 'bout the Koran." I'm sure this answer would not have pleased his parents, but such is the danger when one comes to a new country. The children want to become like their friends, and often they lose a lot of their culture. Interestingly, however, the foods survive. We had a great chicken dish and some mint tea. Very good.

Sue

One of Frost's . . .

By Sue Petrovsky

One of Frost's poetic techniques is to present alternatives to readers: In "Road Not Taken" he emphasizes choice, but then indicates that both roads were about equal, in "Stopping By the Woods" he tells his readers that he has much to do before he leaves, but indicates that there is a choice to leave without completing one's work, and in "Mending Wall" he gives us the choice of tearing down the walls that separate us or not. Do fences make good neighbors?

Mending Wall

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it
And spills the upper boulder in the sun,
And make gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there,
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbors."
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
"Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there,
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

The Road Not Taken

By Robert Frost (1874-1963)



TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same, 10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 20

Robert Frost’s life was full of trouble of all kinds, and yet this man wrote some of the best loved poetry in America. He won the Pulitzer Prize four times and was the recipient of numerous other awards. I have always been drawn to Frost’s poems for their natural, earthy flavor. There is little pretense in Frost. I love Frost's work for how it speaks to me which is part of his charm: I wonder about the roads I never took in my life, and looking back I see that that has made all the difference.

His poem, “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” voices my feeling that “I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep.”


Google Frost’s poems and enjoy

Sue

A Few Days of Vacation!

Hello Everyone,
I am waiting for my daughter to join me for a few days away from home in the mountains. Estes Park, Colorado is a vacation spot in the Rocky Mountain National Park and a beautiful, beautiful place. Every year they have a Wool Festival where ranchers bring their alpacas, llamas, sheep and rabbits for a competition. Leslie and I are taking a spinning class, learning to use a traditional spinning wheel to spin fleece into wool. Are knitting and spinning part of the lives of Iranian women? My daughter and I and many friends are caught up in the design of sweaters, hats, mittens, socks etc. to knit and give as gifts. It makes a good hobby for us and we have developed many friendships through this common interest.

On Saturday they have a big bazaar and all sorts of yarn related products can be purchased. I'm going to try to be careful and not buy too much. Talk to you Saturday!

Thoreau says

That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.

There is no remedy for love but to love more.

Henry David Thoreau, Journal, July 25, 1839
US Transcendentalist author (1817 - 1862)

A beautiful quote from Thoreau

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

Henry David Thoreau
US Transcendentalist author (1817 - 1862)

Dear Sue,
Thank you very much for correcting my errors, they are very useful for me.
If you have time, say me my mistakes, please.

Sue, I read a short story in English, I saw 2 words, forest and jungle.
What is a difference between them?
I heard that forest is artificial and jungle is natural, is it true?

Take care, Faranak

Two Wolves Within

One evening an old Cherokee (an American Indian Tribe) told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, and lies.
The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth compassion and faith."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, Which wolf wins?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

I have often thought that I would love to teach a human relations course, analyzing the impact of these wolves within each of us. They all accompany us on our path of life.

A site for English teachers, translators and Students of English in Iran

This site helps Iranian students to learn English. By answering their specific questions, it also provides support and advice to English teachers and translators in areas of difficulties. It is also useful for those who simply want to stay in touch with English and prevent it from evaporating from their minds.

Sue Petrovski is a western writer who loves Mowlana Jalal Od-Din Mohammad, known as Rumi in the West. She is also in love with Mowlana’s country and culture. That is why she is generously and so graciously with us, with Rumi’s fellow countrymen and women, to help us grapple with the vicissitudes of learning English as a foreign language. Difficulties become sweet memories when you have such a great, kind scholar beside you. Just listen to her words:

"Oh, to be able to cross that gap that separates man from man and woman from woman. Oh, to know what you are thinking and what you expect of me. Oh, to be able to have walked down your streets, lived with your clans, and drank and supped and felt as you have felt. Oh, to have done those things. What a wondrous gift that would be, and what a mystery that consciousness, that gift of human kind, is so boxed in and confounded. Is it some kind of test that God instilled in our being, or is it something we must work to correct? Can we in any way train ourselves to be able to see through another's eyes?

The only solution to our self-only knowledge is to go to those lands we have never mentally considered before. We can read Thoreau, or the Bible, or Joseph Campbell or Rumi, or the Sufi Prophets and gain new dimension to our thoughts. We can flesh out one idea with another and another and another – a fountain of different thoughts flowing out from a central theme. We will never understand all that the Other believes and carries in that wondrous mind of theirs, but we can begin to see the breadth of all thought, and through the process, our ethical, moral, and social senses will expand and grow.

'It is when we try to grapple with another man’s intimate need that we perceive how incomprehensive, wavering, and misty are the beings that share with us the sight of the stars and the warmth of the sun.' - Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim"

Whether you are an English teacher or a translator or if you are simply a student of English as a foreign language, please click on the word “comment” below and start talking to us. Whatever you say is welcomed and your questions will be answered. You can also send a personal email to: a.z.mirror@gmail.com

Dear Sue,
Nice to hear from you again. Thank you for correcting my letter. In Iran we have blacks in south of Iran. I saw them when I went to Kish. They speak to Arabic, if you ask about their country, all of them will say: we are an Iranian. In Iran we have racial prejudice, but it isn’t for blacks. It is for an Afghanian worker. They are very poor peoplesatirize them for theirdialect.
I insist you say my mistakes to me, if you have time, please.
After exams I will write more.
I am so sorry for my mistakes.
Take care,
Bahman

Clarity is Freedom

I had tea yesterday with a great theologian,
and he asked me,

“What is your experience of God’s will?”

I liked that question –
for the distillation of thought hones thought in others.
Clarity, I know, is freedom.

What is my experience of God’s will?

Everyone is a traveler. Most all need lodging, food,
and clothes.

I let enter my mouth what will enrich me. I wear what
will make my eye content,
I sleep where I will
wake with the
strength to
deeply
love


all my mind can
hold.

What is God’s will for a wing?
Every bird knows
that.

~ St. Teresa of Avila ~


(Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West by Daniel Ladinsky)

This St. Teresa was a Catholic Saint who lived in Spain in the Sixteenth Century.

The last sentence answers so many questions for me. I hope it speaks to you as well.

Sue

Faranak's writing

Dear Sue,
Thank you very much for your guidance. It was very helpful to me. In the Persian language, we don't have "a, an, the" so, I forget them most of the time.

Today is mother's day. In our religion, we have a woman that she was very virtuous and immaculate and we believe that she was a holy person. Mother's day is her birth day.

Sue, I have a professor that he lived in US for about 20 or 30 years. He is differ with other professors.
In a university most of the professors have a room and they spend their free time there and eat foods and lunch in their room or a special place that is for the personnel but, he eats food in a buffet where student are there and in his free time an break time, he is in a campus of university. He calls student in the first name too and always calls me "Feranak" with a sweet accent, he is very likable.
In Iran, professors are very intimate with students (almost like friends)in some course, specially art, and in a technical course(like my course), relations are friendly an official.
Please say me, how are relations between professor and student there.

My letter is very long, I hope that I can say what I mean correctly and you don't become tired when you read it.
Take care.
Your friend Faranak.

I Dream a World

by Langton Hughes

I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn.
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom's way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind--
Of such I dream, my world!

And I dream a class where we improve our English with the words of great poets and writers.

Langston Hughes

Thanks a lot, Sue for bringing up Langston Hughes. I had always wanted you to talk about him and explain some of his poems to us. One of the greatest contemporary Iranian poets called Ahmad Shamloo translated some selected poems of his into Persian more than a decade ago. That is the good news. The bad news is that Ahmad Shamloo is one of the worst contemporary translators.

I love this one and I think it is very easy to understand even for beginners in English:

“Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die,
Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly,
Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams go,
Life is a barren field,
Frozen with snow”

They say that Langston Hughes was a waiter in a restaurant when one of America's great poets went there. He then placed one of his poems on a plate and put it on the poet's table. Then once the great poet saw Langston's poem, he got so sxcited and liked it so much that he rose from his chair and read it for the people in the restaurant aloud and announced that he thought he was a great poet.

Have you heard this, Sue?

The Dream Keeper

Dreams are the vapor of our hopes and aspirations. “What do you dream?” we ask one another when we are very young? It is so important that poets, dreamers, musicians of every culture and subculture give voice to our dreams, for without dreams and hopes a culture will die.

Here is one of Black America’s famous Dream Keepers: Langston Hughes takes a place as one of the foremost black American writers. Born in 1902 and died in 1967, he was of mixed race: his grandmothers were black and his grandfathers were white. Not uncommon in early America. Hughes wrote of Harlem, of being black, of jazz, and all the life that seethed in that black section of New York City which he loved. Hughes was definitely one of the American negros’ Dream Keepers.


“The Dream Keeper

Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamers.
Bring me all of your dreams
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.”

Here is a poem in which he uses common slang terms. Earlier we discussed black English, or “Jive Talk.” (I put a few definitions in for the reader.)

“Motto

I play it cool (unruffled, calm, with a certain modern flair)
And dig all jive (understand all popular things)
That's the reason
I stay alive.

My motto,
As I live and learn,
is:
Dig and Be Dug (Understand and like others and be understood and liked by them in return.)
In Return.”

Here is one of his most famous poems:

“The Negro Speaks of Rivers, by Langston Hughes

I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than
The flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I’ve bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young,
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincon
Went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy
Bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”

I hope you learn to love Hughes work as I do.

Sue