Cohen for ABC Wednesday
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Maria Montessori
Posted by Maggie on Monday, August 31, 2009 | 3 Comments
It's the birthday of Maria Montessori, born on this day in Chiaravalle, Italy (1870). She was a bright student, and she wanted to study engineering, so when she was 13, against her father's wishes she entered a technical school, where all her classmates were boys. After a few years, she decided to pursue medicine, and she became the first woman in Italy to earn a medical degree. It was so unheard of for a woman to go to medical school that she had to get the approval of the pope in order to study there.
As a doctor, she worked with children with special needs, and through her work with them she became increasingly interested in education. She believed that children were not blank slates, but that they each had inherent, individual gifts. It was a teacher's job to help children find these gifts, rather than dictating what a child should know. She emphasized independence, self-directed learning, and learning from peers. Children were encouraged to make decisions. She was one of the first to use child-sized tables and chairs in the classroom.
During World War II, Montessori was exiled from Italy because she was opposed to Mussolini's fascism and his desire to make her a figurehead for the Italian government. She lived and worked in India for many years, and then in Holland. She died in 1952 at the age of 81.
She wrote many books about her philosophy of education, including The Montessori Method (1912) and The Absorbent Mind (1949).
Amendable Drum Beating - OSI
Posted by Maggie on Saturday, August 29, 2009 | 20 Comments
Beat the drums slowly
Near trenches from the past
When red blood flowed
When the die was cast
Causing brothers to kill
Screams filled the air
All over the farm lands
Bodies lay everywhere
Plantation owners were angry
Forced to set slaves free
A time which they claimed
Would never come to be
Beat the drums slowly
Over blue and grey graves
Where also red blood flowed
From bodies of former slaves
Who lost their lives
Serving ones filled with greed
Treating humans worse than animals
Many black heroes did bleed
Beat the drums slowly
All over this land
Enjoying false re-created history
Now, entertainment for man
Facts of Life
Posted by Maggie on Monday, August 24, 2009 | No Comments
On days like today
As in yesteryears
Visions do appear
Blurred by tears
As civil history shows up
Some clap with pride
Ignoring shameful deeds
Time will never hide
All history is good
When both sides are told
Of when humans sold humans
For silver and gold
And it did matter
If you were white or black
By horrible lashes applied
To a black human`s back
Slaves to the white
Worked to the bone
Only in death
Were they left alone
Finally freed from chains
Buried in a potter`s field
Relate all the history
But please make it real
Tell both sides
And what was true
Don`t forget the black
Among the grey and blue
Simplicity - OSI
Posted by Maggie | 12 Comments
Simple to a poet
In the lines of a poem
Which many may think
Is not quite the norm
As pens travel areas
Constricted and constrained
Held by the lines
Covered and blamed
Always venturing to wonder
As true poets will do
What is outside the lines
Blocked by a dim view
Until they wander
Beyond where most go
Feeding on life
The mind does grow
By refusing to allow
Undue influence in their mind
As they pour out life
Line by line
Wet Wipes - OSI
Posted by Maggie on Sunday, August 9, 2009 | 22 Comments
Like the mighty wet oceans
Change the shifting beach sand
So can the ocean of life
Erode much more than land
With waves of emotions
At times flooding the mind
Tossing the very souls
Playing with human kind
Causing so many people
To seek life altering pills
Illusionary cures for masses
Creators of some life ills
Still, the oceans in life
Like a flowing sea
Can wash away debris
While protecting you and me
Windows Cam - OSI
Posted by Maggie on Sunday, August 2, 2009 | 22 Comments
Eyes are the windows
Leading to the soul
Watching life evolve
Through things we behold
Photographic in nature
Capturing images we see
Committing to the mind
Forming our history
Like storing through ages
On a human hard drive
Our built in computer
Records how we survive
Time showing our strength
Also times we were weak
Along with many photos
We wish we could delete
Images of past sorrows
Some with shame or pain
Recorded through our windows
Wearing our name
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