I am pleased we are on a similar page on good and possibly great teachers,including Abiola Irele,whom we have in common.
Thanks for telling us about your excursions through schools of thought that enlighten our world.It must have been wonderful.
You state that your reference to goodness on this subject does "not have to be poetry, or a simple poetic statement".
I wonder if we are together on that point.
Into my mind comes Virginia Ola,responding to Dennis Brutus's
"The clammy cement sucks our naked feet
the still,frosty glitter of the stars
the Southern Cross
flowering low"
exclaiming 'even in the profound discomfort of the prison his spirit refuses to be crushed!'
I can still recollect the emotional imprint of her response on that day,when the poem moved her,even though it was many years ago on the first year of my BA at the University of Benin.
To some people,the experience might have been a molehill. But to a person who will always remember the experience,it is a mountain that he continues to climb....
There is nothing like a good teacher.
That sense of nothingness,is that not the fecundative emptiness at the centre of the opon ifa,the spatio-temporal configuration at which the past meets the present within the armbit of eternity,as Orunmila,Setilu,Gbongan,Adeforose,Iyapupa,Anjantala and others from the unrecorded beginning of the tradition,moving across the ages, make themselves present,unseen but concrete,embodied in akara ogun, the sphere of power, as they are called upon by the desire of the student?
On self transformation,the snake that reinvents itself and yet remains the same,the calabash that displays the distinctiveness of its various sides even as they run into one, it could be helpful to study the great Muslim polymaths,who, well before the European Renaissance,actualized the Renaissance ideal of the uomo universali,the universal man,in terms of a scope ,that,as far as I know,was not realized in Europe:Ibn Sina, Omar Khayam,Ibn Khaldun, Al-Ghazzali.....
Salutations brother
Toyin
On 5 December 2010 12:38, Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com> wrote:
Please permit me to be personal:
Wonderful Toyin,
Slayer of demons,
Champion elucidator of comparative esoterics
Restorer of chimps to the jungles to which they belong.
I had wanted to add, "slayer of dragons", but then again the dragon is
one thing in Chinaman's lore and something else to St. George…..
Indeed, Toyin, you are not toying when you say, "There is nothing like
a good teacher." In the sense in which you speak, a good teacher never
dies.
(During the month of June, 1981 I lived in Ahoada in Nigeria and would
be woken up at 5.30 every morning by someone going past my little
bungalow (a madman I thought) who would be shouting at the top of his
voice, "I am the light of the world." Sometimes he'd wake me up with
"I Am the Alpha and the Omega". It's only once when I got up and went
outside to behold the fellow that I realised that I couldn't tell him
to shut up; he was doing his rounds, what he called "Morning Call" and
was not making any personal statements "I am the everlasting etc" but
only quoting from the Gospel, and calling on Nigerians to repent and
follow Christ….)
Speaking of contemporary secular times, I count Mr. Bankole Thompson,
Mr. T. C. Deigh, Major Von Bradshaw, Michael Brunson, Professor Eldred
Durosimi Jones, Eustace Palmer, Derek Elders, Chief Abiola Irele,
Gerald Moore, Hugh Kenner, Miss Robertson, among the many good
teachers who taught me live and direct, once upon a time.
Thanks for wonderful examples from two traditions that are familiar –
the Faith of Israel and with reference to everybody's Milarepa also
embraced by the Vajrayana Order (the Diamond Path) of great Karma
Kagyu teachers with whom I spent some years of instruction – and
practice.
http://www.chabad.org/search/keyword_cdo/kid/9208/jewish/Rashi.htm
Of course there is no Torah portion that I study that is not
accompanied by among others, Rashi's commentary - in fact side by
side with the Stone Edition Chumash which contains some of Rashi's
commentaries, I also read the Chumash with Rashi's commentary -
exclusively Rashi, ( edited by Rabbi A.M. Silbermann).
In the Chabad website the Torah portion is accompanied by Rashi's
commentary which is a most essential commentary, since it was not
addressed only to the learned, but to everybody, what in Christian
parlance includes "the laity."
You say that "Rashi, as a part time student, had made notes which he
studied and expounded to his sheep in his job as a shepherd because heafford full time study."
could not
I'm not comfortable with your shepherd - sheep metaphors. In Christian
parlance, be it Jesus or Pastor Adeboye, both are identifiable as
Shepherds of their sheep/ flock, but from a Judaic point of view, and
here I am speaking personally – in the words of King David which we
all know so well, " The Lord ( HASHEM) is my Shepherd" – we are His
sheep , so to speak.
I have seen but never been to the women's section of the synagogue.
Good thing.
However at home I do have an empty chair for the Prophet Elijah……but
that's another story……
It's significant that one example you give is of an explicator of
Scripture (a scripture often couched in what may be apprehended as
poetic terms, symbolic language (The Torah = water) – even coded
language – giving headaches and presenting misunderstandings,
especially to ignoramuses and hard –hearted literalists) – and the
other example that you give is that of Milarepa the poet- philosopher.
I myself got into Buddhism accidentally, through literary encounters
with Buddhist thought, the rather pacifistic Herman Hesse, Jack
Kerouac (believe it or not), Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, the Naropa
Institute – and Zen Buddhism which ( in short) has flowered - in my
opinion, mostly as a literary movement so to speak, in which poets can
spout reflected or unreflected profundities – have composed a number
of Haikus myself : have always approached scriptural texts as poetry -
eventually attended retreats of the 16th Karmapa and Kalu Rinpoche,
1974-1975.
Yet one has to be careful about accepting what we all do,
uncritically, some of what we accept as the profundities of Buddhist
philosophy in the areas described as " the void," "ultimate reality" –
much of what has passed into contemporary American Literature, as
unexamined givens…
After your explanation that "a good teacher is incomparable", Foday
Morris comes back with "If he (Toyin) had initiated the conversation,
say in a poem, it would have been a totally different matter."
Ditto I suppose with "There's nothing like a good politician" - that
too – that opinion does not have to be poetry, or a simple poetic
statement.
Some people are good at performing the miracle of trans-formation - of
making a mountain out of a molehill.
Please forgive me dear Toyin, but exercising some basic self control,
you notice that I have refrained from commenting on other
transcendental matters that you have touched upon here…
> <corneliushamelb...@gmail.com>wrote:
On Dec 4, 9:57 am, toyin adepoju <toyin.adep...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Let me honor your declared leaning towards Jewish culture and give an
> example from there,Cornelius.
>
> In a section of the Worms synagogue,there is a chair,empty,and as far as I
> know,unused.It is the chair of Rashi,Rabbi Shelomo Ben Isaac.Why is Rashi's
> chair in the synagogue?
>
> It is there in honour of the fact that,among other fundamental
> accomplishments,centuries ago, Rashi was able to ensure the continuity of
> Jewish education based on Jewish sacred texts in that part of Europe when
> the teachers were killed in a pogrom,thereby endangering the continuity of
> the tradition,since a good part of the learning and recording were largely
> oral.Rashi,as a part time student,had made notes which he studied and
> expounded to his sheep in his job as a shepherd because he could not
> afford full time study.
>
> At the death of the teachers,the students came to Rashi.Today,on the margins
> of these texts,the main text is often accompanied by Rashi's
> commentary.This is as far as I have read of the great teacher and
> exegete.Research online suggests that story I read in the Encyclopedia
> Britannica 1971 edition might not be accurate.It remains inspiring for
> me,though.
>
> There is nothing like a good teacher.
>
> May that nothingness,that escape into incomparability,that transcendence of
> all categories,not be linked to Ain Soph,the Qabalistic unconceptualised?In
> the poetry of the Tibetan Buddhist poet Jetsun Milarepa,the teacher and the
> Primordial Buddha,the manifestation of ultimate reality,beyond being and
> non-being,are identical.
>
> He calls continually to the adepts of his Kargyutpa lineage. They are
> physically departed, yet present,invisible yet palpable:
>
> "Vouchsafe your waves of power,O gurus....."
>
> toyin
>
> On 3 December 2010 22:22, Cornelius Hamelberg
> ...>
> > Toyin,
>
> > All the artsyfarsty philosophizing about "There is no such thing as a
> > good teacher." What are we talking, Nigerian English or mere
> > gibberish?
>
> > Where is Farooq Kperogi the language analyst when we need him?
>
> > Knowing you as I do, I intuit that you mean " There is nothing you
> > could be more fortunate to have than to have a good teacher", hence,
> > "There is nothing like a good teacher" – the same way that a good boy
> > says to a good girl, "There's nothing like the real thing, babe."
>
> > Toyin,
>
> > Talking about teachers, I think that it was Baba Ram Dass that said
> > that if the Buddha were your psychotherapist, by the end of the
> > treatment you would be enlightened.
>
> > Nota Bene: There's also an American saying which goes, ""There is no
> > such thing as a free lunch"
>
> > Pleeze, dishonour not Wittgenstein; spare us the philosophy
>
> > On Dec 1, 10:39 am, toyin adepoju <toyin.adep...@googlemail.com>
> > wrote:
> > > There is nothing like a good teacher.
> > > toyin
>
> > > On 30 November 2010 19:11, Funmi Tofowomo Okelola <cafeafrica...@aol.com
> > >wrote:
>
> > > > *What Makes a Great Teacher?*
>
> > > > *For years, the secrets to great teaching have seemed more like alchemy
> > > > than science, a mix of motivational mumbo jumbo and misty-eyed tales of
> > > > inspiration and dedication. But for more than a decade, one
> > organization has
> > > > been tracking hundreds of thousands of kids, and looking at why some
> > > > teachers can move them three grade levels ahead in a year and others
> > can't.
> > > > Now, as the Obama administration offers states more than $4 billion to
> > > > identify and cultivate effective teachers, Teach for America is ready
> > to
> > > > release its data.*
>
> > > > By AMANDA RIPLEY
>
> > > > ON AUGUST 25, 2008, two little boys walked into public elementary
> > schools
> > > > in Southeast Washington, D.C. Both boys were African American
> > fifth-graders.
> > > > The previous spring, both had tested below grade level in math.
>
> > > > One walked into Kimball Elementary School and climbed the stairs to Mr.
> > > > William Taylor's math classroom, a tidy, powder-blue space in which
> > neither
> > > > the clocks nor most of the electrical outlets worked.
>
> > > > The other walked into a very similar classroom a mile away at Plummer
> > > > Elementary School. In both schools, more than 80 percent of the
> > children
> > > > received free or reduced-price lunches. At night, all the children went
> > home
> > > > to the same urban ecosystem, a ZIP code in which almost a quarter of
> > the
> > > > families lived below the poverty line and a police district in which
> > > > somebody was murdered every week or so
>
> > > > At the end of the school year, both little boys took the same
> > standardized
> > > > test given at all D.C. public schools—not a perfect test of their
> > learning,
> > > > to be sure, but a relatively objective one (and, it's worth noting, not
> > a
> > > > very hard one).
>
> > > > After a year in Mr. Taylor's class, the first little boy's scores went
> > > > up—way up. He had started below grade level and finished above. On
> > average,
> > > > his classmates' scores rose about 13 points—which is almost 10 points
> > more
> > > > than fifth-graders with similar incoming test scores achieved in other
> > > > low-income D.C. schools that year. On that first day of school, only 40
> > > > percent of Mr. Taylor's students were doing math at grade level. By the
> > end
> > > > of the year, 90 percent were at or above grade level.
>
> > > > As for the other boy? Well, he ended the year the same way he'd started
> > > > it—below grade level. In fact, only a quarter of the fifth-graders at
> > > > Plummer finished the year at grade level in math—despite having started
> > off
> > > > at about the same level as Mr. Taylor's class down the road.
>
> > > > This tale of two boys, and of the millions of kids just like them,
> > embodies
> > > > the most stunning finding to come out of education research in the past
> > > > decade: more than any other variable in education—more than schools or
> > > > curriculum—teachers matter. Put concretely, if Mr. Taylor's student
> > > > continued to learn at the same level for a few more years, his test
> > scores
> > > > would be no different from those of his more affluent peers in
> > Northwest
> > > > D.C. And if these two boys were to keep their respective teachers for
> > three
> > > > years, their lives would likely diverge forever. By high school, the
> > > > compounded effects of the strong teacher—or the weak one—would become
> > too
> > > > great.
>
> > > > Parents have always worried about where to send their children to
> > school;
> > > > but the school, statistically speaking, does not matter as much as
> > which
> > > > adult stands in front of their children. Teacher quality tends to vary
> > more
> > > > *within *schools—even supposedly good schools—than among schools.
>
> > > > But we have never identified excellent teachers in any reliable,
> > objective
> > > > way. Instead, we tend to ascribe their gifts to some mystical quality
> > that
> > > > we can recognize and revere—but not replicate. The great teacher serves
> > as a
> > > > hero but never, ironically, as a lesson.
>
> > > > At last, though, the research about teachers' impact has become too
> > > > overwhelming to ignore. Over the past year, President Barack Obama and
> > his
> > > > education secretary, Arne Duncan, have started talking quite a lot
> > about
> > > > great teaching. They have shifted the conversation from school
> > > > accountability— the rather worn theme of No Child Left Behind,
> > President
> > > > George W. Bush's landmark educational reform—to teacher accountability.
> > And
> > > > they have done it using one very effective conversational gambit:
> > billions
> > > > of dollars.
>
> > > > Thanks to the stimulus bonanza, Duncan has lucked into a budget that is
> > > > more than double what a normal education secretary gets to spend. As a
> > > > result, he has been able to dedicate $4.3 billion to a program he calls
> > Race
> > > > to the Top. To be fair, that's still just a tiny fraction of the
> > roughly
> > > > $100 billion in his budget (much of which the government
> > direct-deposits
> > > > into the bank accounts of schools, whether they deserve the money or
> > not).
> > > > But especially in a year when states are projecting $16 billion in
> > > > school-budget shortfalls, $4.3 billion is real money. "This is the big
> > bang
> > > > of teacher-effectiveness reform," says Timothy Daly, president of the
> > New
> > > > Teacher Project, a nonprofit that helps schools recruit good teachers.
> > > > "It's huge."
>
> > > > Despite the perky name, Race to the Top is a marathon—and a potentially
> > > > grueling one; to win, states must take a series of steps that are
> > considered
> > > > radical in the see-no-evil world of education, where teachers unions
> > have
> > > > long fought efforts to measure teacher performance based on student
> > test
> > > > scores and link the data to teacher pay. States must try to identify
> > great
> > > > teachers, figure out how they got that way, and then create more of
> > them.
> > > > "This is the wave of the future. This is where we have to go—to look at
> > > > what's working and what's not," Duncan told me. "It sounds like common
> > > > sense, but it's revolutionary."
>
> > > > Based on his students' test scores, Mr. Taylor ranks among the top 5
> > > > percent of all D.C. math teachers. He's entertaining, but he's not a
> > born
> > > > performer. He's well prepared, but he's been a teacher for only three
> > years.
> > > > He cares about his kids, but so do a lot of his underperforming peers.
> > > > What's he doing differently?
>
> > > > One outfit in America has been systematically pursuing this mystery for
> > > > more than a decade—tracking hundreds of thousands of kids, and
> > analyzing why
> > > > some teachers can move those kids three grade levels ahead in one year
> > and
> > > > others can't. That organization, interestingly, is not a school
> > district.
>
> > > > Teach for America, a nonprofit that recruits college graduates to spend
> > two
> > > > years teaching in low-income schools, began outside the
>
>
> read more »
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