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| Thematic Times | Summer 2008 |
A newsletter produced by Urban Education Partnership for Humanitas teachers
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Curriculum Designed to Unite Art and Science By NATALIE ANGIER "Senator Barack Obama likes to joke that the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination has been going on so long, babies have been born, and they're already walking and talking." "That's nothing. The battle between the sciences and the humanities has been going on for so long, its early participants have stopped walking and talking, because they're already dead." "It's been some 50 years since the physicist-turned-novelist C.P. Snow delivered his famous "Two Cultures" lecture at the University of Cambridge, in which he decried the “gulf of mutual incomprehension," the "hostility and dislike" that divided the world's "natural scientists," its chemists, engineers, physicists and biologists, from its "literary intellectuals," a group that, by Snow's reckoning, included pretty much everyone who wasn't a scientist. His critique set off a frenzy of hand-wringing that continues to this day, particularly in the United States, as educators, policymakers and other observers bemoan the Balkanization of knowledge, the scientific illiteracy of the general public and the chronic academic turf wars that are all too easily lampooned." "Yet a few scholars of thick dermis and pep-rally vigor believe that the cultural chasm can be bridged and the sciences and the humanities united into a powerful new discipline that would apply the strengths of both mindsets, the quantitative and qualitative, to a wide array of problems. Among the most ambitious of these exercises in fusion thinking is a program under development at Binghamton University in New York called the New Humanities Initiative." "Jointly conceived by David Sloan Wilson, a professor of biology, and Leslie Heywood, a professor of English, the program is intended to build on some of the themes explored in Dr. Wilson's evolutionary studies program, which has proved enormously popular with science and nonscience majors alike, and which he describes in the recently published "Evolution for Everyone." In Dr. Wilson's view, evolutionary biology is a discipline that, to be done right, demands a crossover approach, the capacity to think in narrative and abstract terms simultaneously, so why not use it as a template for emulsifying the two cultures generally? "There are more similarities than differences between the humanities and the sciences, and some of the stereotypes have to be altered," Dr. Wilson said. "Darwin, for example, established his entire evolutionary theory on the basis of his observations of natural history, and most of that information was qualitative, not quantitative."" "As he and Dr. Heywood envision the program, courses under the New Humanities rubric would be offered campuswide, in any number of departments, including history, literature, philosophy, sociology, law and business. The students would be introduced to basic scientific tools like statistics and experimental design and to liberal arts staples like the importance of analyzing specific texts or documents closely, identifying their animating ideas and comparing them with the texts of other times or other immortal minds." "One goal of the initiative is to demystify science by applying its traditional routines and parlance in nontraditional settings - graphing Jane Austen, as the title of an upcoming book felicitously puts it. "If you do statistics in the context of something you're interested in and are good at, then it becomes an incremental as opposed to a saltational jump," Dr. Wilson said. "You see that the mechanics are not so hard after all, and once you understand why you're doing the statistics in the first place, it ends up being simple nuts and bolts stuff, nothing more."" "To illustrate how the New Humanities approach to scholarship might work, Dr. Heywood cited her own recent investigations into the complex symbolism of the wolf, a topic inspired by a pet of hers that was seven-eighths wolf. "He was completely different from a dog," she said. "He was terrified of things in the human environment that dogs are perfectly at ease with, like the swishing sound of a jogging suit, or somebody wearing a hat, and he kept his reserve with people, even me."" "Dr. Heywood began studying the association between wolves and nature, and how people's attitudes toward one might affect their regard for the other. "In the standard humanities approach, you compile and interpret images of wolves from folkloric history, and you analyze previously published texts about wolves," and that's pretty much it, Dr. Heywood said. Seeking a more full-bodied understanding, she delved into the scientific literature, studying wolf ecology, biology and evolution. She worked with Dr. Wilson and others to design a survey to gauge people's responses to three images of a wolf: one of a classic beautiful wolf, another of a hunter holding a dead wolf, the third of a snarling, aggressive wolf." "It's an implicit association test, designed to gauge subliminal attitudes by measuring latency of response between exposure to an image on a screen and the pressing of a button next to words like beautiful, frightening, good, wrong." ""These firsthand responses give me more to work with in understanding how people read wolves, as opposed to seeing things through other filters and published texts," Dr. Heywood said." "Combining some of her early survey results with the wealth of wolf imagery culled from cultures around the world, Dr. Heywood finds preliminary support for the provocative hypothesis that humans and wolves may have co-evolved." ""They were competing predators that occupied the same ecological niche as we did," she said, "but it's possible that we learned some of our social and hunting behaviors from them as well." Hence, our deeply conflicted feelings toward wolves — as the nurturing mother to Romulus and Remus, as the vicious trickster disguised as Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother." "In designing the New Humanities initiative, Dr. Wilson is determined to avoid romanticizing science or presenting it as the ultimate arbiter of meaning, as other would-be integrationists and ardent Darwinists have done." ""You can study music, dance, narrative storytelling and artmaking scientifically, and you can conclude that yes, they're deeply biologically driven, they're essential to our species, but there would still be something missing," he said, "and that thing is an appreciation for the work itself, a true understanding of its meaning in its culture and context."" "Other researchers who have reviewed the program prospectus have expressed their enthusiasm, among them George Levine, an emeritus professor of English at Rutgers University, a distinguished scholar in residence at New York University and author of "Darwin Loves You." Dr. Levine has criticized many recent attempts at so-called Literary Darwinism, the application of evolutionary psychology ideas to the analysis of great novels and plays. What it usually amounts to is reimagining Emma Bovary or Emma Woodhouse as a young, fecund female hunter-gatherer circa 200,000 B.C." ""When you maximize the importance of biological forces and minimize culture, you get something that doesn't tell you a whole lot about the particularities of literature," Dr. Levine said. "What you end up with, as far as I'm concerned, is banality." Reading the New Humanities proposal, by contrast, "I was struck by how it absolutely refused the simple dichotomy," he said." ""There is a kind of basic illiteracy on both sides," he added, "and I find it a thrilling idea that people might be made to take pleasure in crossing the border."" Honors, Awards and Successes... Humanitas Teacher Teams Award 1st - $2500 El Camino 2nd - $1500 El Camino "The Courage of our convictions: Challenging the status Quo for change" Grade 10 Heidi Crocker, Devon Knadle, Melinda Owen, Dean Sodek Also 2nd - $1500 Carson "Shaping Identity" Grade 9 Terri Ann Sullivan, Saili Tuitasi, Merri Weir, Rebecca Frank 3rd - $1000 El Camino "Finding Identity: Nature, Nurture, and the Choices we make" Grade 9 Regina Goad, Denise Leonard, Lori LoCurto, Nicole Salottolo, Dean Sodek Also 3rd - $1000 Reseda "Do the right thing; Ethics and Identity: Reconciling the boundary between ourselves and the other." Grade 10 Darren Borg, Heather Penrod Honorable Mentions (in no particular order) $500 - El Camino "The Road to Discovery: Identifying Problems and Finding solutions." Grade 9 Regina Goad, Denise Leonard, Lori LoCurto, Nicole Salottolo, Dean Sodek - Cleveland "Disillusionment to defiance in the Harlem Renaissance: Finding choices against oppression." Grade 11 Briggs Palmer, Sarah Wu - El Camino "Pushing the Envelope: Technological Chance and its consequences." Grade 10 Heidi Crocker, Devon Knadle, Melinda Owen, Dean Sodek - Chatsworth "Women who changed the world: the struggles, strengths and successes." Grade 12 Linda Liddell, Robert Hayes, Kathie Donner - El Camino "Gender Mending." Grade 12 Jason Firestein, Alonso Solarez - Verdugo "Breaching the Borders of Citizenship while finding a balance between cultures." Grade 11 Rachel Akman, Karyn Buchanan, Sue Lagrange, DC Camacho, Kathleen Crawford - Reseda "The Individual vs. State: Challenging the ideal of freedom." Grade 11 Darren Borg, Paul Miller, Heather Penrod - Grant "Ethics: Is right really right?" Grade 9 Ronald Arreola, Brock Cohen, Sara Benjamin - Belmont "Post WWI Germany: The transformation of a free society to state-imposed order." Grade 9 Mary-Claire Little, Katalin Stazer, Cesar Tejeda Check these sites for updates: ASCD Outstanding Young Educator Award - The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development is seeking to recognize a teacher under the age of 40 who demonstrates excellence in his or her profession. A young educator who occupies a leadership position in his or her school or district will receive a maximum award of $10,000. Deadline: April 15 and October 15, (annually). Find a grant for your classroom or for professional development Carson-Dellosa Publishing, Inc.'s "Creating a Winning Classroom" Contest - This contest is designed to encourage teachers to create a fun and motivating curriculum-focused classroom with teacher-tested Carson-Dellosa decorative products. The winning teacher will receive a $1,000 shopping spree at a teacher supply store. $500 of the spree will be for their classroom and $500 will go to the school. All teachers are elegible. The contest begins July 1st, 2008 and ends September 15th, 2008 National Council for Teachers of Mathematics From the California Council for the Humanities' Network... The Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge Leavey Awards for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education honors outstanding educators who excite a commitment in their students to the free enterprise system and unleash the enterpreneurial skills of their students at the elementary, junior high school, high school and college level www.teachersnetwork.org/grants Best Buy Te@ch Grant - Best Buy and the Best Buy Children's Foundation are proud to support schools using technology to make learning fun. The Te@ch program will provide a $2,500 Best Buy Gift Card to schools in recognition of programs or projects that creatively integrate interactive technology into the curriculum. www.nabt.org/sites/S1/index.php?p=290 2008 EDS Technology Grant Program "Do Something Announces "Increase Your Green" School Competition
Deadline: December 15, 2008
July
August
September
MAKING THE SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK! TEACHING CORE
Current Exhibits Gems! Colors of Light and Stone Through August 24, 2008 The most important private gem collection in the United States Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of the First Emperor Through October 12, 2008 Considered one of the greatst archeological finds of the 20th century, the tomb complex of China's Fist Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, features thousand of terra cotta warrrios that were tended to protect thoughtout eternity. Permanent Exhibits Ancient Arts of China: A 5000 Year Legacy "This incredible collection portrays the evolution of Chinese technology, art and culture." The Art of Adornment: Tribal Beauty Tribal Art represents the art of the world's indigenous people. California: The Golden Years Spectacular collection of 56 "plein air" paintings, 1875 to 1955, with most between 1915 and 1935.
Current Exhibits In Motion: The African American Migration Experience Through August 31, 2008 This exhibition, from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Studies in New York, presents a new interpretation of African American history, one that focuses on the self motivated activities of people of African American descent to remake themselves and their worlds. Permanent Exhibit African American Journey West The California African American Museum is forging a new trail documenting the African American contribution to the settlement of the West.
Current Exhibits
Houseguest
Ongoing Programs  Free Daily Garden Tours(except Tuesday and first Thursday of month) Free tours of the gardens are avilabel with general admission or membership. Tours are offered Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays between noon and 2 p.m., Saturday and Sunday between 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Times vary depending on volunteer availability; please check in at the Information Desk on arrival for the day's schedule of garden tours. Sorry, these free tours cannot be reserved in advance. This Side of Paradise: Body and Landscape in L.A. Photographs June 14, 2008- September 15, 2008 Boone Gallery This Side of Paradise: Body and Landscape in L.A. Photographs examines the dynamic relationship between the city and the art of photography from the 1860s to the present. Divided into seven thematic sections - Garden, Move, Work, Play, Dwell, Clash, and Dream - the exhibition explores photographs of the city through the dual lenses of landscape and the human body, as well as the provocative visual interplay between the two.
Exhibits BACM @ LACMA: The Inaugural Installation Current through 09/2008 The Broad collection is "filled with some of the most iconic artworks from the last four decades,..., 'the distilled essence of contemporay American art'."  Tradition as Innovation in African ArtThrough November 2, 2008 Ahmanson Building, Plaza Level This exhibition will include the works of over thirty African artist, most from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Permanent Collections Art of the Unites States The American art collection is composed primarily of oil paintings, watercolors, and sculptures that date from the colonial period to World War II.
Current exhibits: Highlights from the Permanent Collection, 1980 - 2005 Through August 11, 2008 Highlights from the Permanent Collection, 1980–2005 presents the opportunity to explore individual artworks as well as make new connections between them, and to learn about MOCA's collecting mission over the past 29 years.
All the Saints of the City of Los Angeles
Ongoing Exhibit Vision and Values: Jewish Life from Antiquity to America
Permanent collection houses "extensive holdings of pre-hispanic, Spanish, colonial, Latino and Western American art and artifacts."
Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas Through August 10, 2008 Beautiful and seductive, protective yet dangerous, the water spirit Mami Wata (Mother Water) is celebrated throughout much of Africa and the African Atlantic. Fowler in Focus: Ceramics of Papua New Guinea Through September 28, 2008 The diverse peoples of Papua New Guinea maintain some of the most unusual and distinctive ceramic traditions found anywhere in the world. New Guinea ceramists gather clay in the hills or swamps surrounding their villages and form it into wares that range from superbly functional cooking and storage pots to highly esoteric sacred figures. The California Alliance for Arts Education promotes, supports, and advocates visual and performing arts education for preschool through post-secondary students in California schools. "Research has shown that arts instruction enhances the quality of a child's educational experience. The arts improve self-esteem, inspire creativity and help students set and reach goals." -Arnold Schwarzenegger - Governor of California "The arts teach children to exercise that most exquisite of capacities, the ability to make judgments in the absence of rules." - Elliot W. Eisner, Professor of Education and Art, Stanford University www.artsed411.org HotChalk is a community for K-12 teachers, students and parents that includes an easy-to-use learning management system, a rich library of teacher-contributed lesson plans, premium digital content like NBC News video, and professional development for teachers in a Web-based environment - available through any Internet browser. HotChalk's mission is to improve the lives of school teachers by helping them find Teacher Approved lesson plans, automating repetitive classroom tasks like managing homework, improving communication with students and parents, and delivering convenient access to valuable digital content to supplement curriculum. www.hotchalk.com Government resource sites Reading, math, earth science and other sciences, volcanoes, foreign languages, starting a business, and John Philip Sousa are among the topics of new resources at FREE, the website that makes teaching resources from federal agencies easier to find: www.free.ed.gov/ History Fourth of July is Independence Day presents facts, songs, and primary documents for celebrating the birthday of the U.S. and the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. See the original Declaration of Independence. Read about the history of the Fourth. Learn about the U.S. flag and the Liberty Bell. Listen to patriotic songs. Take an Independence Day quiz. See ways to volunteer and help our nation. (USA.gov, Multiple Agencies) http://www.free.ed.gov/resource.cfm?resource_id=2054 Democracy and Human Rights features publications about the U.S. government, democracy, and human rights. Learn about the intellectual history of democracy and what makes the U.S. government unique. See how our federal, state, and local governments are organized; how our executive, legislative, and judicial branches operate; and how nongovernmental organizations influence government policy. Read about the origins of human rights, women in politics, the civil rights movement, and elections. (Department of State) http://free.ed.gov/resource.cfm?resource_id=2058 Outline of U.S. History presents 15 chapters on U.S. history: early America, the colonial period, independence, formation of a national government, westward expansion and regional differences, sectional conflict, the Civil War and reconstruction, growth and transformation, discontent and reform, war, prosperity and depression, the New Deal and World War II, postwar America, decades of change (1960-1980), new conservatism and a new world order, and bridge to the 21st century. (Department of State) http://free.ed.gov/resource.cfm?resource_id=2059 National Postal Museum has developed curriculum guides that explore stamps and postal history, and encourage students to write letters. Topics include historic letters and stamps from American wars; stamps and other countries, history, and art; the place of letter writing in American history; letter writing for advanced English learners; and letter writing between students and older adults (using cultural landmarks in the community). National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Institution) http://free.ed.gov/resource.cfm?resource_id=2057 Arts & Music March King: John Philip Sousa features printed music, manuscripts, historical recordings of the Sousa Band, programs and press clippings, and photos from the 10,000 items that comprise the Sousa Collection at the Library of Congress. (Library of Congress) www.free.ed.gov/resource.cfm?resource_id=1998 Foreign Languages Teacher Workshops: Foreign Languages provides presentations and handouts on teaching Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Russian, and Spanish. Topics include assessments, classroom activities, culture, interpersonal communication, journal writing, modern methods for teaching all languages, vocabulary, and more. (Department of Education) www.free.ed.gov/resource.cfm?resource_id=2000 Language Arts Poetry Everywhere provides 10 videos, as well as essays and lessons, to help students explore the power of language and build reading and writing skills. The videos feature seminal voices of poetry, past and present, from Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson to Seamus Heaney, Marie Howe, and Yusef Komunyakaa. (Teachers' Domain, Multiple Agencies) http://free.ed.gov/resource.cfm?resource_id=2052 Teaching Literacy in English to K-5 English Learners provides videos, slideshows, and tools for teaching reading to K-5 English learners. The site is based on five research-based recommendations: screen and monitor students' progress; provide small-group reading interventions; provide vocabulary instruction throughout the day; develop academic English competence beginning in primary grades; and schedule regular peer-assisted learning opportunities, including structured language practice. (Department of Education) http://free.ed.gov/resource.cfm?resource_id=2055 Math Teacher Workshops: Math offers presentations and handouts from workshop sessions on teaching algebra, algorithms, computation, data collection, cooperative learning, decimals and fractions, density, geometry, integers, linear equations, multiplication and division, nature and mathematics, polynomials, problem solving in a primary classroom, vocabulary in math, word problems in elementary math, and more. (Department of Education) www.free.ed.gov/resource.cfm?resource_id=2001
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