Once upon a time there was a class of kids. An art class.
One girl who didn't pay much attention in class was seriously focused on drawing.
For 20 minutes she kept her head down working on her paper.
Her teacher was curious. He walked over.
What are you drawing, he asked.
I am drawing the face of God, she said.
Surprised, the teacher said, But no one has ever seen the face of God.
They will in a moment, she said.
A week of absence make the heart grow fonder.
What have you been doing, asked Elf.
I've been red-lining a manuscript, said Orphan. I printed it out and did a line-by-line edit.
Been spilling red ink like blood for a week.
How short is it?
550 pages.
If I had more time I'd make it shorter.
Rewriting is the party. Dance like nobody's looking.
"We work in the dark — we do what we can — we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art." - Henry James
He went to Turkey for 51 moments.
He explored a 4,000 year old Roman city on the Black Sea. Citizens were hospitable. Strangers came and went.
He wandered to Sumela, a Greek monastery (386 A.D.) in the mountains. Murals covered fall changing colors.
It reminded him of Mesa Verde (600 A.D.) in Colorado. Cliff dwellings. Isolated. Peaceful.
He returned to Trap A Zone, photographed street life and attended an English teacher training class.
You have to complete a unit in 53 minutes, said the female administrator. Ryhmes with see you later alligator and procrastinator.
The economic fact she did not enunciate was the language school's objective:
PROFIT BEFORE PEOPLE
We enroll them, take their money, give them a textbook with a fancy CD and their class time. Your job is to push them through. One class means finishing 3 units in 3 hours.
After nine weeks, presto! they complete one level, we take their money and they advance toward a higher standard of living filled with past continuous verbs, fresh tomatoes and black olives garnished with hazelnuts.
Does Hazel have nuts? To be evaluated.
A native speaker from O-Zone asked a question. Are students all the same level?
Close enough, she said. They know grammar rules like nobody's business. They lack vocabulary. They are afraid to speak. They are robotic victims of the educational system well trained to keep their mouth shut, read and memorize. You have no freedom to create fun, interesting, student-directed activities.
Just do the book. Everyone's happy, especially the accountant.
Thank you for your attention.
One of the tyrannies of formal education, said Orphan, is how it takes 12 tedious ominous years to beat creative curiosity out of a child. It's a tortuous Byzantine procedure of endless suffering.
I agree with you, Elf said in simple English. Take Turkey for example. It's all dumbed down grammar text-based learning dulling the mind. By the book. Keep your mouth shut, warn teachers conditioned by the machine using fear to control and maipulate.
Yeah, they know the grammar RULES for taking exams. That's it. Past simple, present continuous and NO SPEAK.
They love RULES.
They need vocabulary and the confidence to use it. Open head, heart and mouth. Risk.
I eat my sorrow with fresh yogurt, said a woman opening her creative notebook to a blank page. She wrote. She drew. She danced colors, dreams, rainbows, the Black Sea, caricatures of friends, flowers, gardens and butterflies.
I feel free, she laughed.
Use it or lose it, said a silver spoon dancing around brown tea leaves dissolving a white sugar cube.
Clink, clink, clink.
Do you want a verb to get going, asked a tea man.
On the side please with fresh tomatoes, kasher cheese and black olives at Hagia Sophia in Trebazon.
i love everything that flows.
humor and curiosity are the two most important components of intelligence.
create and live w/o fear, shame or humiliation.
thread follows needle.
i am an iceberg. what you don't see is fascinating.
memory is desire satisfied.
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