Vic Last Video

Heeey! We made it!! So, this week was extremely challenging for me, but I'm surprised by how well I did. Actually, I ate rice and beans in most of my meals, so I it wasn't that hard since I love rice and beans :) Then, I spent almost all of my money on fruits like apple, banana, etc, because I think fruit is such a rich source of vitamins. This challenge was awesome! I would like to thank you all of my friends that helped me (for not eating in front of me). I HOPE TO SEE EVEN MORE PEOPLE INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT IN 2013!!

I have really learned a lot from this experience. In my opinion, there was a lot of food, I am only missing the things I couldn't have because they were expensive and not necessary (i.e. Nescau and Matte Leão). I have left a lot fo left over food. In fact,the only things I finished were my meat and my eggs. I also got an onion from one of the girls in my 'community' because I forgot to include it in my list of purchases and by the end didn't have any money left. But other than desiring food that I didn't have, I also noticed how remuch work and effort you have to put into preparing your food for the next day. For example, I had to get up earlier to put all my food into containers and fry my eggs. Another thing that I missed a lot was the lack of comfort in this life style. For instance, when I'm home and I feel hungry, I couldn't just stand up and reach for something in the fridge, I would have to wait until it was time for the next meal. I'm glad that I got involved in such a project because it really made me realize how much of an amazing life I have. Everything I have is now of more value. But it also made me realize how much unnecessary food I eat everyday, things that I don't need to get by, but yet, I still consume. This challenge was a huge and amazing experience and I am very grateful I got to be a part of it.

"We're Just Kids..."

Nikhil Goyal (@nikhilgoya_l  on Twitter) is a student at Syosset High School in NY. He's the author of  One Size Does Not Fit All: A Student's Assessment of School (September 2012), columnist for the Huffington Post, guest blogger for New York Times: Dot Earth, and a conference speaker. Visit his website. 

Article below reposted from Edutopia: 

Student Calls for a Learning Revolution

Last year, industrial designer Dean Benstead unveiled the 02 Pursuit -- a prototype for a motorcycle ruled not by gas or electricity, but by compressed air. Just last month, Google announced to the public its secret initiative, Project Glass, the company's first venture into wearable computing.

And yet, in the world of education, the "next big thing" is merit pay for teachers and boosting test scores. Do our policymakers not understand that the world is going through a revolution in the way we live, interact and learn?

Our education system is stuck in paralysis. We have tried doing the same thing over and over again with the expectation of a different result. This is insanity at its finest. The way we educate is based on the tenets of the Industrial Revolution -- conformity and standardization.

For instance, creativity is virtually extinguished as a child goes through his or her schooling. In their 1998 book Breakpoint and Beyond, George Land and Beth Jarman refer to a study in which 1,500 kindergartners between three and five years old were given a divergent thinking test. Divergent thinking tests don't measure creativity, but rather one's propensity for creativity. The test asks questions such as "How many ways could you use this paperclip?" or "How many ways could you improve this toy fire truck?" -- questions designed to encourage creative thought rather than elicit right-or-wrong answers. Ninety-eight percent of kindergarteners tested at genius level. The kids were tested every few years. By the end of post-secondary education, only two percent of students tested at genius level.

So, if you're trying to produce compliant, dead-brained, formulaic workers, our system is doing exactly what it was designed for. (I should add "grade-obsessed" to that cadre of properties.) But in a society where innovation is simply everything, it is a cultural and moral failure to encourage this compliance.

Education Is Life

That's why I am starting a movement, or what Seth Godin might call "a tribe." The Learning Revolution is a tribe of change-makers and trailblazers united in a cause to transform our schools. We are connected through answering this simple yet powerful question: How can we make school the best hours of a kid's day?

Look at Brightworks, a K-12 independent school in San Francisco. No grades. No tests. No transcripts. The curriculum is based on the "Brightworks Arc" -- exploration, expression and exposition. If we put these principles on the high pedestal, only then will John Dewey's saying, "Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself," come to fruition.

Indeed, education is undergoing a renaissance. Learners -- not institutions -- are creating a bottom-up change. From abolishing the SAT to calling for project-based learning in the classroom, we're fighting for significant changes. We don't deserve to be pelted with Scantrons and #2 pencils. We are not a bunch of numbers. We are living, breathing, creative human beings.

Everyone has plenty of ideas, but they are worthless if I can't make them happen. We have to cultivate -- holistically and whole-heartedly -- our powers of imagination and creativity within a different paradigm of human purpose. Michelangelo once said, "The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." For all our futures, we need to aim high.

The Learning Revolution movement is about everyone. We are students. We are educators. We are parents. We are administrators. We are entrepreneurs. We are concerned citizens. We are mad as hell. The last thing you can do is ignore us.

No tweaks. A revolution. Bring it on!

some things cost more than you realise

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere...

The thing whose temptation I denied today.

 Just some bubbles in my water--that's all I want. 

Today saw some strong emotional and physical reactions to the challenge. People debated whether these reactions were actually physical or mostly psychological, but I think the point is moot: when you are living below the line, the demarcation between what is of the body and what is of the mind is of no matter. You just want the comfort and the convenience you are used to. 

And some people were starting to get the first sense of this, of deprivation, perhaps of their lives today. They also learned that this deprivation does not just stem from supplies of food, but time commitments, proper planning, decision-making, self-responsibility and getting used to the monotony of subsisting on staple foods almost entirely. It is a challenge. And it can be a steep learning curve. 

Even when what you are deprived of is something as trivial as bubbles in your water, it can seem like a lot. 

Good luck with Days Four and Five! We will have a special presentation during lunch tomorrow. 

--WJT.

The Spirit of the Law...

 

Here is a picture of three harmless items that have tempted me today (and my socks). 

The pepper and flavoring packets would make my rice and beans taste so much better; the cheese is going to waste in my fridge and would make my flimsy egg pasta into a meal, no? How much could a dash of pepper or a slice of cheese cost? Would it really compromise the integrity of our experiment? 

This is the kind of discussion those who really live below the line are denied. Random and diverse food options don't appear out of thin air for them. And that is the reason why that pinch of pepper, or getting your mom to cook a little of your meal, or "paying" for a dash of soy sauce may actually challenge the project. Yes, if someone buys me a cup of coffee, it hasn't come out of my budget, but then again, we haven't committed ourselves to $1.50 a day to account for all our expenses, only our food. We aren't taking on the total hardship of living below the line: this is a simulation, and cutting even the smallest of corners dulls the edge of the lesson we are learning.

Stay strong. Stay committed. But if you stay in, stick to the program. It's hard, but it's worth it.

And if you drop out, do so cleanly and honestly, and be thankful you aren't denied this discussion.

Darfur is Dying

Darfur is Dying

Darfur is Dying is a viral video game for change that provides a window into the experience of the 2.5 million refugees in the Darfur region of Sudan. Players must keep their refugee camp functioning in the face of possible attack by Janjaweed militias. Players can also learn more about the genocide in Darfur that has taken the lives of 400,000 people, and find ways to get involved to help stop this human rights and humanitarian crisis.

Food For Thought

It came to R$ 8.69--so I plan to leave 50 grams of rice out of the week's meals...

In the front, my collective staples; in the rear, my individual purchases. I walked to three different supermarkets to look for the best deals, and I found some interesting ones: like the egg pasta for R$ 1.01 and the tomato sauce for R$ 1.10. I also decided to forgo the popular oatmeal option--after living in Asia for 9 years I have absolutely no issue with eating rice three times a day...

This blog is really for the collected video entries of the students participating in the challenge, so I will be posting infrequently, but I will probably load a video or two this week as well.

I would like the participants from Curitiba, those who went shopping yesterday and those who didn't, to reflect on some questions and post some answers as comments or, better, in your next vlog entry:

1. What specifically did you learn about shopping on a restricted budget yesterday? Go beyond "It's hard." and think about the particular challenges of the experience. 
• What did you learn about shopping on your own with your individual budget? What choices did you have to make?
• If you did not go shopping, how have you already had to rely on the community? How will you make up your obligation to them?
2. Most of you have confessed to never doing your own cooking, or never having done your own cooking--ever. What are you learning from the experience of preparing your own food from scratch? How steep is the learning curve? 
3. Now, extrapolate: The point of this experience is to experience--however slightly--the challenges faced by people who actually must live below the line every day, with no Midnight Friday light at the end of the tunnel. And remember: you don't have to extrapolate very much if you were a part of our shopping group yesterday--contemplate the life perspective of our visitors in the park.
• What choices do you think they have to make on a daily basis? 
• What skills and knowledge must they possess that you might only be learning now? 
• How do you think this shapes their lives? 
• How does your regular life compare? 
• How does the answers to these questions make you feel? 

Before or after you ask yourselves these questions, take a few minutes to do some computer game playing as homework. Look for my next post.

Good luck this week!

--WJT.