Harry (I write this in the spirit of what Karen recognized in you, your teacher.)
I agree about the speech. As I've gotten older my fingers sometimes make the mistakes you note but the most common mistakes I make are with (ai) and (ei) combinations in the middle of words. I sometimes make the an/and and the mistake of adding the extra (d) and the their/there mistake you mention. But it is those big misses like: generousity judgement Tschaikovski comparible interviening impressario artistocracy inhabition paar provencial all from the post below that the OEx spellcheck liked. We make an agreement with the computer programmers that we will type faster (and sloppier) if we then can spell check what we do and have a general grammar check as well. If one learns to type rather than hunt and peck then all of his mind interfaces with his hands in ways that are special and specific to the higher brain. Why? because of that thumb. It is the way we use our hands that stimulates our thought. That is why writing and drawing has always been specific to our species (at least until we learn to translate gorilla or dolphin.) The computer software companies make an agreement that, in the interest of speed, we won't have to slow down in order to check the spelling. Where typists could type sixty words a minute checking their own spelling, they can now do over a hundred paying attention only to speed. If that is the act of composing a document, the hands can literally move in sync with the mind of the speed typist. At the end of that, we are supposed to be able to check it all faster and get a sense of whether the message works or not thus saving time. But there are more initial mistakes. At such speeds sometimes our hands are actually a part of the thought process with the typing going ahead (slightly) of our minds. And like Bush's mouth runs ahead of his mind, we make mistakes. A kind of typist stuttering if you will. By the way, current Bush may not be clear to those abroad but here the TV news broadcasts everything that he says and you are wrong about it being cleaned up since the election. Not being from Texas (I'm from Oklahoma) you are probably not aware of the deliberate juxtaposition of singular and plural "to be" verbs that represent a kind of deliberate "hick" for the urban country boys. This brings them votes from those who understand the message being sent. It is not that they are sloppy necessarily but that they are deliberately incorrect. Sort of a white country Ebonics if you will. But it doesn't translate to the rest of the world any better than Ebonics does to the White conservatives or the Black Hoover Institute writers like Crouch and Shelby. Bush, not truly being from the world that he effects in his speech, is the sneaky, manipulative part that signals danger to people like myself who are truly from that world he claims through his use of language. That is looking at it from the best possible angle that gives him credit for being deliberate rather than sloppy. It also means that he can come from the underdog position when he had a Yale and Harvard education and never had to want for a meal, clothing or house in his life as I have had in all three myself. I would be surprised if he even knows a convict other than Kissenger, Poindexter and Abrams. I am an Indian and we have dealt with the police all of our lives. I have both prison guards and ex-convicts as friends and as relatives as well. At one point 30% of the prison population of Minnesota was American Indian and American Indians have more external crime exhibited against them than any other group in America and we are a very small population. We also have the only prisoner listed as a political prisoner by Amnesty International in Leonard Peltier. GWB is faking his "good ole boy" routine and you had better watch out for what it hides, IMHO. There is another side however and it is still in his appearances. It has to do with when he is speaking off script or whether he is emotionally involved in the script. Like those MRI studies he points out the process of losing focus based upon big emotions. But back to the spell check. Obviously since my Outlook Express is Micro-soft and my MS Word is Micro-soft and the fact that my OEx has been reasonably reliable in the past and I picked up all of the above mistakes by cutting and pasting to MS Word and using its spell check, there must be a programming issue in my software. Or maybe MS Word is like English in the UK or the OED while OEx is like American "English" in the Am Her. II or III. Would that Bush and others would realize that a misused word is as important as an incorrect calculation and is indicative of a decadence of the communication that we all share together. In other words there is a glitch in the software some place or there is another message being sent in some form of semiotic code that serves another purpose beyond the meaning of the words themselves. i.e. the connotative meaning surpasses the denotative. That is what happens in theater and in the best theater it can show us at our most complicated and intelligent. Bush may be intelligent and complicated in which case we had better stop reading him as if he were "Dick and Jane ran up the Hill" if our being an intelligent citizen of the most powerful and dangerous Democracy on earth is important. That is why my own sub-conscious gets so touchy around the issues of language. Somewhere deep in my being I understand that there is another message going on and my "not knowing what it is" can be dangerous for not only myself but my friends, my children and my community. In the Indian world I would call it the "Treaty Game" or "As long as the Grass Grows and the River Flows the Great White Father in Washington will honor these words." When you hear that you had better duck because the gattling guns are being set up in all four directions and you're sitting in the middle under an American flag that means little to those manning the guns. (For those who don't know this reference look up Wounded Knee or Sand Creek Massacres on the internet or just type into Google "as long as the grass grows or the water flows" or see below). "A government treaty gave Cherokees their land as long as the grass grows and the water flows, but when they discovered oil, they took it back because there was nuthin' in the treaty about oil." ~~ Will Rogers I have now corrected yesterday's post with the MS Word spell check and it is included below. I spell checked the above with OEx just to see what would happen and it didn't register the words on the list as being mis-spelled until I highlighted them and then it did. Sort of like you had to get its attention first before it would tell you. But when highlighting the whole section it said the words on the list were not mis-spelled. I guess it figured that "everyone would know what I meant." Again like GWB. Harry, I'm a child of the arguments over the size and shape of the negotiating table during the Vietnam War. There is a side to Bush who spent too much time at home and didn't read the papers so he doesn't understand why it is important that you choose your words carefully. His "game" becomes reality and we all play or we are all "played" by it. That is one of the reasons that is given abroad for frustration with him in his diplomatic dialogue. When he can't do the words, he does something dramatic, like turning around and walking off, in effect telling the foreign dignitary that they must deal with his actions "as words." Then he gets the reputation of being "Unilateral" when it is a bit more complicated than that. Because he is a star, as Reagan was a star and Olivier, Burton and Taylor were stars it is easy to mistake stardom for intelligence, courage, leadership etc.. I've always liked the Italian response to hearing a supposed leader give a beautiful speech and encourage everyone to leap the parapet and dive into a hopeless battle. "Ché voce bella!" For those who think I'm beating a dead horse I would note that I have had my math mistakes corrected on this list even when the context was clear that I had turned something around and meant the opposite of what I wrote. Even though it was clear that the connotative sub text was the opposite, it still was "corrected" and the subtext and context were ignored and I was simply corrected. Imagine if I did that to someone around a singular or plural verb form? I consider correct language to be as important as calculations. Enough, the horse is dead and I will continue to publish GWB Malapropisms as they occur and complain as much about his "hick" speech as my fundamentalist relatives complained about Clinton's "Prince Charles" sexual practices. As Walker said several years ago, "People believe those who repeat the message the longest." My not coming from anywhere near Windsor but growing up with the people who the state of Arkansas (the Ugapah or just Quapaw) was named after I feel very close to Clinton with an awareness of what he had to overcome in order to get there as well as the mind that he brought to it when he did. I still wish he was in charge in the situation that we find ourselves in. As for Bush? Well I'm not very comfortable around Royalty especially when they effect a fundamentalist conversion. It usually means some Indian is going to get screwed and God will get the credit. He's already got his name on the wall for his Grandchildren. REH ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Evans Harrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "futurework" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2002 8:50 PM Subject: Re: Is inequality good for you? > This is my third try at getting this on the list. REH > > Hi Keith, > > Generally, I think I agree with you or maybe the reverse. Perhaps it is > because of the choral model that we both share although your model is > largely volunteer while mine gets paid a wage. But that is not what this > is about, or is it? A few things (highlighted in your post below): > > 1. This may be true in European cultures but rank in most indigenous > cultures that I know, have to do with skill, leadership and generosity. > If someone does not have those three qualities the structure will not > support a hierarchical grouping. Because freedom to follow the path given > by the Creator is the supreme value, people will not breach that freedom to > enslave others in their group for to do so is to commit a profane act. > > 2. It is the need to organize i.e. the exercise of power, that is built into > Western languages. Crown Attorney Rupert Ross in his examination of > Ojibwa legal issues (Returning to the Teachings, exploring Aboriginal > Justice, Penquin BKs) found that the judgments built into English > adjectives and nouns did not exist in Algonquin. The same language that > David Peat quoted David Bohm as saying was perfect for Quantum Science. > I have made this point countless times on this list. Refer to my past > posts for the argument. > > 3. Basic Skills are just that, BASIC. Actually they are as necessary to > creativity as music reading is to singing. It certainly is helpful under > certain kinds of boring, derivative situations but skills develop in the > individual out of need. The only need that most teaching in schools > provides comes from the cane or the power of the grade. Today's children > are so poorly motivated by such thought that they ignore it. They don't > even need it for most service jobs. > > As factory jobs that require basic math move to Mexico, the service jobs > that are left are more social than the previous boring factory jobs. The > thousands of cues required by a wealthy person of their assistant, their > cook or their maid are much more complicated and important (to keeping the > job) than the basic skills that the Conservatives venerate. What IS > important is that the employer have those basic skills and can simply > provide them as a kind of judge over the "intelligence" of their employees. > You should experience the kind of rebellion that arises from a Gay > consultant who has those same skills as the employer in addition to their > own expertise. (see attached Gay letter about the military below) The > judgment of the consultant of the employer is withering. IMO complaining > about poor performance on core curriculum makes for great social games but > is not much use otherwise in the lives of the people. Or as one retail > merchant said to my daughter studying her Physics, which she loved, in High > School, "Well, that is one more course that you will never use in real > life!." > > Back to theory and music reading. The people who use it are the performers > who must improvise in formulaic styles like pop music and jazz. Most of > the singers and orchestra players in major orchestras have long since > forgotten it through ill use. You should see what happens when a Jazz > composer doesn't write out the notes for major orchestra players. That > does not mean that these Master Musicians are dumb or inept, but simply that > playing the Tschaikovsky Violin Concerto doesn't require such things. > (Pianists are a different matter since the theory of chords is required in > the interpretation) In fact even composers on the cutting edge of > Creativity leave many of these things behind much as today's students use > the calculator for basic math. > > In the 1970s the Soho composers were in many cases unschooled in basic music > theory and many didn't read music. They were dancers and choreographers > relating music and the elements of sound to physical movement. They used > the technology of sampling to create original and complicated works of art > that changed Western Music and opened the door for musicians like Reich and > Glass to visit other cultures and be open to their knowledge rather than > being trapped in the judgments of English Nouns and Adjectives. > > 4. Nasty, Brutish and Short may have been true of the Paleolithic. When I > walk around the old colonial headquarters on the Palisades here, short is > certainly what those colonists were. In fact a kind of Hobbit like quality > pervades the area. On the other hand the Denke in Africa and the Sioux and > Osage here in America are between six and seven feet tall, although > intermarriage has reduced the size of the Sioux except for many of the > women. As for their life spans, they were comparable to the Europeans > and as for Nasty and Brutish that is a little like the "Rape and Pillage" or > "Hunter Gatherer" models. Inventions of severely compromised politicians, > philosophers, businessmen doing business with Indian people and today with > Anthropologists. Those models more resemble the alien European minds that > they sprang from than our cultures here. > > My point, is this. There was and is an alternative for the future. But a > person has to give up their stories about the past that created the worst > century for human murder in the history of the human race. At an earlier > time Rousseau understood some of it, from personal experience, when he > encountered and followed the "Foundling" rules of European society and lost > his own children to it. After that he studied the Iroquois and wrote his > alternative educational methods that we still fight about down to the > present on this list. It would help if people had some experience at > teaching children and dealing with the issues that teachers face. > > Instead it feels to me that we get opinions that are "Think Tank" oriented > and not grounded in experience. Whether Liberal, Conservative or > "Libertarian" these Ivory Towers all have the same Social Engineering > purpose and Ideal behind their existence. I believe that it is more > political than scientific no matter which group uses the model. I base > this on the fact that I've both trained as a teacher, received a degree in > pedagogy, developed several different educational methods successfully with > different populations to considerable success in the marketplace of > performance in the New York City musical world and have a stable of students > today that are beginning again to enter that world marketplace successfully > again. I document what I do and have from the beginning. I consider > myself to be just as strongly in the empirical tradition as any lab > scientist. The difference being that I have funded my research and borne > the liability when I have failed. Unlike a scientist working with a dog > screaming its head off in pain or a Doctor in an operation, the lungs of > my students either create a future or I lose that future personally. That > was ingrained in my ethics as an undergraduate by my Pedagogy Instructors > who over the years became the most famous in America and the UK. I > accepted their word at the time and it is my personal experience in the > intervening 40 years of work. > > As an Impresario in performance, I'm at present developing an international > American Masters Arts Festival Biennial featuring America's composers with > the goal of presenting a different composer every two years for a month of > performances in New York City. 2003 we will honor the 80th birthday of > American Master Ned Rorem. I have performed, taught in both public and > private sectors, given grants and developed art projects, managed careers > and am planning a Network of Chamber Opera Arts Centers across America. I > have worked in this field for 43 years earning a living and developing > projects. I am well acquainted with people who will theorize but who > never put their money where their mouth is choosing to fund and develop a > school or community based upon their beliefs. I have done and do both and > that is the basis of my opinions. As an American Indian I am well aware of > the racist side to the "Nasty, Brutish and Short" argument and am willing to > talk about it but because it has such an effect both politically and > economically on my community it takes a lot of my time to stay objective in > such a discussion. Nasty, Brutish and Short has been and still is an > excuse for tyranny and Aristocracy. Two things that I believe to be an > abomination to the human spirit and will. I do not point fingers on this > but in the cause of civility I ask that we give our experiences as a basis > when we make judgments about such things as whether there is any such thing > as a foundation core curriculum and then define what and why that curriculum > is core and how it fits into the natural learning skills of the child who in > two years breaks the language code no matter how smart or dumb according to > the tests that WE devise, they happen to be. While we are at it, we might > explain why this current fashion of a core curriculum does not build on the > basis of perception, sensory expansion, awareness and physical skills but is > based instead upon the inhibition of such programs. > > The fashionable core curriculum actually turns such a natural process, as > exists in the child already, on its head. Nerds before Jocks or we might > say that the perfect mind is Steven Hawking who is not "bothered" by such > other things as pleasure beyond the mind. I don't except that and while I > celebrate Hawking achievements much as I celebrate the achievement of the > Thalidomide Baritone Thomas Quasthoff, or the baby that learned to climb > steps with its spine since it had no legs or arms. Such activities show > the potential and failings of all we normal folks. We don't consider how > much the simple act of sitting for sixty years or so participates in the > destruction of our spine until we confront a different perspective like that > person who "walks" with their spine. Hawking shows us the same in the > mind. But would you trade your life for him? In fact would most of you > trade your life for the life of a Gell Mann or Noam Chomsky? You would > most certainly have to give up a lot in order to see what they see. How > much would you lose of the preciousness of your identity? > > I would suggest a couple of things on dealing with just such issues as the > judgment of English adjectives and nouns. Start by saying instead of: > "that the movie was awful" as if it were something apart from the perceiver, > say that you "felt awful" observing the movie. And separate the > structure, system or form of the movie from the system of your feelings and > experience. If you wish to judge the movie then judge it according to its > success in its own universe and not in yours. Where you "feel awful" may > be "inspirational" to another. A critical judgment is based upon law and > law is a system construct built around common agreements not around an > individual. On the other hand, equal respect for individuals is the root > creativity of every society so there must be a balance between the two. I > believe that English language as it is expressed today, has a problem with > such things. Therapists all over the English world teach people to say "I > feel" and "I think" rather than "it is" as a way of breaking down conflict > between parents and children, husbands and wives, politicians and voters, > priests and congregants etc. What helps us give value to "I feel" and "I > think" is valid rules of experience and objectivity. Today we place > personal experience in the realm of "anecdote" and delete whole individual's > wisdom. That is, I believe, a debate tactic and not a serious rule for > exploration or discussion. I believe this because I was on a debate team > in high school and practiced it daily for several years as my "intramural > sport." Just as bringing the actor's craft into a personal relationship > is psychopathic so is bringing the debate rules into a discussion > pathological. It is, IMO, disrespectful of the various cultural and > familial systems existing between individuals and is based in "winning" > rather than in succeeding. Again that is my not so humble opinion on these > things. > > 5. As for software, I have made this argument about the schools of the old > Soviet Union several times on this list and been "shot down" so to speak by > those who claim that the Soviet students are slow to creativity and lack > imagination compared to Americans. I think a case can be made that those > students arriving in the US tend to resemble a person fed on few foods for > their entire life encountering a smorgasbord. > > In my experience, the psychological problem of cultural breakdown often > makes adults resort in extreme ways to hypersuccess in what they do know as > a way of maintaining mental balance. I have encountered this daily in New > York and that is why I make this judgment. I know also that Russians, > East Indians and others band together, much as American performers do in > Europe, to help each other and outbid American labor for the hi-tech jobs > that are available. This happened at IBM when some members of our > community simply could not compete both in lower fees and in the amount of > knowledge manifested by teams of ex-Communist trained programmers that > immigrated to America. We have the same situation here in the Arts, > although I the Arts seems to be more capable of integrating them than the > American business climate. That is due to the Union and not in spite of > it. Artists are also much better equipped to perform Russian and other > musics on a par with the immigrants than mono-lingual Americans in other > business or scientific professions. American Artists may not speak > Russian but they "play Russian" better than Russians play Gershwin or jazz. > That evens things out. Remember it is not teachers that destroyed the > ideal of Bi-lingual education but politicians, mono-lingual parents and > provincial folks who were too lazy to learn or give respect to those who > did. A good example of what I referring to was mentioned by John Warfield > in an essay on complexity and education where he told of an American > computer manual written in a 19th century manner that did not fit Americans > and so was sold to Russians who learned both computers and English from it. > Unlike the Musicians, American scientists and engineers, who were not in the > Weber conservative camp of philosophy, could not deal with the Russians > speaking another style of American science and so were at a disadvantage. > This is IMO due to the belief that time is wasted if people learn different > historical styles as is one of the purposes of Art. This type of > intelligent Art is largely destroyed in the US as a profession and has been > replaced with Entertainment and the simplicity of forms that cross time > because they are infantile. Which brings us back to pedagogy and the core > curriculum. > > I don't believe that we have seriously contemplated or discussed these > issues as of yet on this list. We are still involved with the elemental > forces of desire and inflow and outgo. I don't believe anyone as of yet > has contemplated Intent and I believe that we are doomed to fail in these > discussions of schools etc. until we deal with those issues. That, of > course, is my opinion and experience. > > (6) Something he also doesn't say about those foreign students is that they > all pay money for their education while the Americans need help both in > scholarships and loans. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Harry Pollard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Ray Evans Harrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Ray Evans Harrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "futurework" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, December 15, 2002 10:46 AM Subject: Re: Is inequality good for you? > Ray, > > I've come to the conclusion that writing E-Mail posts is closer to speaking > than writing. > > I've noticed (generally after I've sent it) that in the post are homonyms - > which wouldn't matter if one is talking. I see "their" and "there" have > been mixed. I have also mixed right and write - and other pairs. > > However, such mixes rarely are misspelled so they won't be picked up by the > spell-checker. > > I don't know whether this is your problem - I haven't noticed it. > > However, one other thing - I take no notice of misspellings in posts I > read. I generally feel the content is more important than odd errors. > > So, don't worry about it, Ray. > > Harry > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Ray wrote: > > >Question for the list. Does anyone else have problems with their > >spellcheck? I checked and corrected this post before I sent it and it > >came out with my original reservation spelling. I sometimes have to > >highlight the entire post to get a reasonable spellcheck and often it will > >say that things are OK when they aren't. I am annoyed that this post went > >out in this shape to you and you have my apology however, I did spellcheck > >it at the time. So am I the only one who can send a post three times and > >get an un spellchecked version? NOTE: When I spellchecked this post at > >this time, my machine said that the rest of the post was OK even with two > >different versions of some words. Maybe Bill Gates can't spell? > > > >REH > > > ****************************** > Harry Pollard > Henry George School of LA > Box 655 > Tujunga CA 91042 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Tel: (818) 352-4141 > Fax: (818) 353-2242 > ******************************* > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > > --- > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.427 / Virus Database: 240 - Release Date: 12/6/2002 >
