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ill-fitting lid + silly husband = power tool -- ot

updated wed 12 apr 06

 

Jodi Henderson on fri 7 apr 06


Thanks to Hank, Matt, Steve, and Carl for helping me get up to speed on something I should've remembered.

I just got my copy of Mastering Cone 6 Glazes -- that should bring up all sorts of things that I should know.

Carl, yeah, wow, those DSM codes come in handy daily -- hated them when I worked in the field, and now they show up at the darnedest times, like when I'm trying to remember that Pi is 3.14etc. and remember that 314 is the DSM code for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder. ;)

Steve,
I didn't feel condemned nor attacked by your response.

I was one of those kids who did fabulously in the "Humanities" -- where for some odd reason I was able to see the usefulness of a Shakespearean sonnet or 15th century haiku, any study of history of any culture (at least that had more depth than "In 1066, the Battle of Hastings was fought. In 1491 Columbus sailed the ocean blue...") or observe and analyzing attachment patterns in chimpanzees. I was good at sciences that held meaning for me -- chemistry, because I could see applications in cooking, organic chemistry (hey, I'm a carbon-based lifeform after all!), and human anatomy & physiology.

However, I never encountered a math teacher that showed me the usefulness of the work we were doing. Even the word problems were plastic and flat. Until Montessori teacher training, which made everything concrete -- that is, everything in their 9-12 year old curriculum. When I taught, I taught fractions with cooking and geometry by building. We just didn't do much with circles beyond naming the parts & testing Pi.

Because I didn't think I would need it, I didn't pay enough attention & much of my math didn't stick. And now, the more I do in clay, the more my words "I'll never use that. Why does anyone need to know how to..." come back to bite me. I also never cared anything about business or accounting, but now I'm running a studio & working on a stiff learning curve to keep up with all that I should've already known.

>
> From: Steve Slatin
> Date: 2006/04/07 Fri PM 12:50:29 EDT
> To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
> Subject: Re: ill-fitting lid + silly husband = power tool
>
> Jodi --
>
>> But these things are all how the world works.
> People who don't know anything about how the
> world works sometimes they don't do too well in
> dealing with it. People who are asked when they
> need to know math should have some examples. My
> younger son tried to give me the "you never
> actually need to know math" argument a year or so
> back and I took him to the studio and mixed
> glazes with him. He never made the argument
> again. He may grow up hostile to me, but he's not
> going to be one of those proudly ignorant
> adults I meet so often.
>
> I don't condemn you, Jodi, you just happened to
> be standing there when I reached a tipping point
> ... this is not an attack on you by any means,
> you asked for a process you'd forgotten, and I
> suspect you'd just forgotten a process from lack
> of use ...
>
> Best wishes -- Steve Slatin
>
>

Hank Murrow on mon 10 apr 06


On Apr 10, 2006, at 8:51 PM, Edouard Bastarache wrote:

> Hey Hank,
>
> studying humaniries under the Jesuits is one thing but,
> trying to win an argument with them is another (Hehehehe).

I have found that they always win by limiting the field of the
question. If one expands the field of the question, they are always at
a disadvantage.

> The main point is not to know
> if all the information was and/or is useful on a daily basis
> but, that it has formed your mind.
> Now you see why I have a book in 8 languages.
>
> Glad to hear you could read Catalan using the knowlege
> you got from studying humanities.

Me too.
Cheers, Hank
www.murrow.biz/hank

Edouard Bastarache on tue 11 apr 06


Hello Hank,

I see you had a good "training".

Now, I see why my late friend André always won against me.
He studied humanities 8 years under the Jesuits (hehehe)..

I will mail you a text in Catalan so you could practice some more.


"I have found that they always win by limiting the field of the
question. If one expands the field of the question, they are always
at a disadvantage."




Later,


Edouard Bastarache

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