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Humanities

177. Variety is the Spice of Life

The bilingual song Many Colors and its accompanying video are a helpful complement to social studies, humanities and geography by:

  • Fostering fascination, respect and value for the incredible variety of wholesome human expression across the globe.
  • Kindling wonder, research and creative participation in one’s home community, wherever it may be; its songs, stories, place names, obstacles and, its vision for the future.
  • Encouraging intense curiosity, understanding and respect for the hopes and dreams of our brothers and sisters around the world, realizing that these hopes and dreams are often intimately the same as ours.

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176. Constitution Day 2020

For those of you not in the United States, we encourage you to look at the workshop and see how it applies to our mutual world citizenship through working the 3 areas:

  1. Who are ‘we the people’?
  2. What do we say ‘no’ to?
  3. What are our rights?

September 17 is Constitution Day here in the U.S. It is intended to commemorate the forming and signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787. Public schools observe this day by providing historical context for the Constitution, exploring both the ‘letter’ and ‘spirit’ of the document, and its relevance today.

The USA is meant to be a Constitutional Democracy, with three co-equal branches of government that keep each other in check, so that no branch can violate the ordained limits of its authority. It is important for future generations to understand just how remarkable that is. Even more important is the preservation and continuance of this principle.

The Talking Hands Talking Feet song and workshop “We the People” provides a platform for learning about the Constitution in a heartfelt way. It is a marvelous way to kindle a feeling of civic engagement, passion and responsibility in young lives.

The Constitution is a living, imperfect document, meant to be understood, updated, defended, amended and embraced in the context of our times. It is designed to be a recourse against hypocrisy. Here is an opportunity to engage in a very real and relevant activity regarding the foundational principles of the United States of America as a generous and compassionate agency of care, respect, justice, honor and human dignity.

One anagram of the name ‘America’, is ‘I am care’.

We hope you and your students enjoy this valuable Constitution Day activity.

170. Talking About Death with the Young

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Part One – Farolito

This past Fall we taught in three elementary schools in Española. As we entered our Friday school, the sonorous Hawaiian voice of Israel Kamakwiwo’ole singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow echoed through the halls of the entire school. We walked into our first classroom to see a dozen Kindergarten students and their teacher dressed in pink tops. We were greeted with teary eyes. One of their classmates had died.

The story behind the loss of this child itself was very sad. She had been missing for four days before her body was discovered in the Rio Grande. The circumstances of her death were unclear. The police were investigating. Hard to fathom tragedies like this were not new to this community, but to lose a sweet little five-year-old girl to neglect and abuse sent waves of grief and dismay through the entire city.

We felt close to it because we had just started working with her classroom. It is impossible not to have a special affection for the children of Española Valley. On that Friday, the principal asked, on a moment’s notice, if we could sing a song for her school memorial ceremony. What song, what sentiment, what words can bring relief to a traumatized community, especially when mourning the inexplicable death of an innocent five-year-old?

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169. A Tale of Two Worlds

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What children make of the world partly depends on the day-to-day stories they hear. It’s in these stories that attitudes and values are planted. Here’s one our sons heard on the day it happened, once upon a time…

For 32 years I have built fountains, ponds and water gardens as a trade alongside Talking Hands Talking Feet.

Once upon a summer, I was building a ‘water-wall’ for these clients who would fly in and out of Santa Fe in their own jet. The house I was working on was one of three estates around the country. As always, I was thankful for the job, and I don’t look too critically at the source of the money. The reason I do the work is to support our family endeavors.More

167. Safe Hands

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“Hope in the way we carry ourselves
In our hearts and in our stride
Hope in the way we carry the world
Hope in the way we feel inside
We are the heroes of the earth
We carry hope inside us
With open hearts and safe hands
Nothing can divide us”
~from the song Earth Heroes

Children are the hope and heartbeat of the future, in what is fostered in them, by the world they are introduced to, by the generations that have preceded them, and by their own making, their own choice.

As is true for you and me, children need to feel hope, they need to feel it in their fellow travelers ~ their teachers, parents, elders and peers. To foster hope as humans of rare character and integrity, belief and compassion; not giving into cynicism, not giving into violence, not acquiescing to judgment or knee-jerk dismissal, not going along with the herd… but to stand against hypocrisy, to stand against deception, cruelty, tyranny and degeneration.
So that our children are in safe hands.

Here is a simple, quiet contemplation:
Are the children in safe hands…with us?
Are we ourselves in safe hands…with us?
Are our bodies in safe hands…with us?
Are the animals, the trees, the waters, lands and air in safe hands…with us?
Is the earth itself, herself, in safe hands…with us?
Is the future in safe hands…with us?

We hope you enjoy this special song and video: Earth Heroes.

~paz
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163. Arks of Hope

Arks of Hope

To the influences which greedily grab up and assume possession and entitlement of rights or property or resources for their own profit without respect or regard for the well-being of future generations or the planet that supports us all:

WE do not participate in your greed and possession, but ask – What can we give? What can we do that actually helps those in need?  What can we give into the world that lifts up the less privileged? What hopeful legacy will future generations inherit from us? For ‘ours’ is a cup that overflows in profound generosity, love and respect for all life and creation….

To those influences which cut down others because of their skin, their language, their gender, their beliefs, their world view, their circumstance, their application…and then assumes superiority and acts to suppress the perceived threat of difference or the unknown:More

162. Earth Heroes – Solstice Bells 2018

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https://soundcloud.com/talkinghandstalkingfeet/earth-heroes

Imagine a small Montessori charter school with about 80 children on tribal lands in the upper Rio Grande valley of Northern New Mexico. The picture contains snow packed peaks rising up behind cathedral-like sandstone formations, a vibrant river bosque winding through a desert landscape like no other on earth.

The picture also contains images of poverty and hardship, cheap gas and fancy Casinos. Underneath it all there is a cultural depth and richness that defies classification. Isolation and resistance have kept Northern NM off the grid of mainstream America.

But this is not a romanticized portrayal. The symptoms of isolation poverty include heroin, alcohol, gangs, domestic violence, gun culture – also part of the cultural landscape.
Beneath this however, like an ancient desert aquifer, lives a deep reservoir of beloved community, powerfully resilient and compassionate. It wells up from a 400-year-old ‘Hispanic’ heritage and ‘Pueblo’ culture rooted here for unknown thousands of years.More

161. Deep Mutual Trust

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Building an unshakeable bond of trust between oneself, as parent, teacher, mentor, counselor or coach and the young lives in our care, grows from an internal wellspring of deep mutual trust.

We’ve all been in circumstances where those ‘in charge’ simply don’t trust the people in their care. They micromanage everyone and everything. The lives and circumstance ‘entrusted’ to them cannot flourish. And the more trust is absent, the more the manager overcompensates by asserting their influence and control. It’s sad really. Mutual love, respect and responsibility cannot thrive in this atmosphere.

Something very different can grow in a circumstance where a deep mutual trust is truly present; trust slowly grown and worked for.
It is the ability to unlock creative ideas in others rather than imposing one’s own. It is creating the dynamic frameworks that promote and encourage the unpredictable release of brilliance in a circumstance. It is building multiple, interrelating, thriving partnerships, in oneself and with others. It asks for openness, insight, candor, patience, humor, humanity, stridency, focus and love.
There is absolutely no threat of punishment, aggression, stigma or failure…none! (These stem from deep insecurity, fear and distrust, and have no place in humane education.) Above all, there is no fear of judgment.More

159. Birds Eye View

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The Upper Rio Grande Valley in Northern New Mexico is one of the world’s geographical gems. Anthropologists have called the Rio Grande, the “Nile of the Southwest” because of its thriving pre-Columbian culture, still alive and well in the remaining eight northern Pueblo communities. It is home to a still thriving “Low-Rider” culture, traditional weaving villages, Chimayo Chile, artist conclaves, ‘spiritual’ centers, reservation casinos and ancient ‘Anasazi’ sites.More

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159. Birds Eye View
Santa Fe, New Mexico USA