Next Step Adventure » Features

Honor Your Mother

Martha — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:27:50 +0000

Procrastination? Grandiosity? Too many balls in the air? I had the idea at one point to post on “woman in history” each day last month. Now we are 8 days into April, and I am finishing this post that I started more than 2 weeks ago. Hence, instead of celebrating Women’s History Month (each March), we are preparing to honor our mothers (a weekend in May).

We lost two women who made history last month–Elizabeth Taylor and Geraldine Ferraro. Two women on very different ends of the spectrum. I think their deaths and their lives give a glimpse of the breadth and depth of the contributions of women, even over the last 60 years.

Years ago, we co-sponsored a Women’s History Month contest for people to celebrate a woman important to them. It was pretty cool. I still have the tee shirt. I think my daughter was about 10 years old. Now she IS a woman of history. She is a teacher at Scattergood Friends School, a little known place where women have made Iowa history.

We have good reason to celebrate the heroic mothers and women who have taken charge. So, here are some women to celebrate this month. How about making every month, not just March, Women’s History Month.

Amiya Alexander, Social Entrepreneur
Aviators Amelia Earhart, Elinor Smith and Elisabeth Thible
Joanne Schafer, philanthropist
Katie Spotz, Athlete, philanthropist
Kiri Davis, Filmmaker, Actress, Entrepreneur
Lilly Ledbetter, Activist
Margaret Mead, Anthropologist and pioneering woman
Salina Kosgel, Runner
Sonia Sotomayor, US Supreme Court Justice
Talia Lehman, who founded RandomKid.org
Amelia.” Before I watched it, I really had no idea of her marriage, her writing or her fight to achieve her dreams of flying. Her first flight across the Atlantic was as a passenger.

Mrs. Frederick E. Guest, the woman who financed the Friendship Flight, hired two men to do the actual flying. Amelia didn’t even get paid. The real accomplishment for a woman then was just making it across the pond by air. If they could see us now! Earhart did, however, fly solo across the Atlantic a few years later.

We take flying so for granted now, it’s really an awakening to see the movie’s depiction of the genuine risk and fear people had. Never knowing if they would return. And finally, Amelia Earhart did not return.

People are still looking for traces of her and her plane, lost on July 2, 1937. TIGHAR has some fascinating video and scientific information about the organization’s 20-year search for a trace of what happened to Earhart, her navigator Fred Noonan and their plane, the Electra.

The movie “Amelia” is described as a biography, and I understand it is fairly accurate. But I’m always a little skeptical, so in addition to the links on this post, check out Earhart’s official Web site as well as the books on which the movie is based–
- East to the Dawn by Susan Butler
- The Sound of Wings by Mary S. Lovell

Work for Equal Pay

Martha — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 03:43:56 +0000

On January 29, 2009, President Barack Obama signed his first bill into law–The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act. It extends the rights of women and other minority groups, to sue for equal pay for equal work.

Lilly Ledbetter was paid less than her male co-workers for almost two decades, but she didn’t realize it until it became too late to bring it to court. The bill is a response to a controversial 2007 Supreme Court ruling that severely restricted the statute of limitations on equal pay litigation. The original Court ruling gave a plaintiffs only 180 days within the initial incident of discrimination to file a complaint. Pretty ridiculous when it’s not always easy to find out what all your co-workers are paid! The new bill extends the statute of limitations for 180 days after the last discriminatory pay check.

When the President signed the bill, he talked about the impact of unequal pay on employees, families and communities. As Steve Hilderbrand wrote in the Huffington Post:

“If anyone ever asks you, ‘Does it make a difference which political party controls Congress,’ I hope this is one clear and important example of what a difference it will make in the lives of millions of Americans who have suffered from discrimination in the workplace, that under Democratic control, equal pay for equal work will now be the law of the land.”

Learn about Women’s History

Martha — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:38:38 +0000

Even though I’ve been around for several decades, I’m still sometimes surprised by how much I DON’T KNOW about the part women have played in history and the evolution of women’s rights around the globe. Right now I’m reading a book called Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. It has some pretty excruciating descriptions of foot binding and the second class status of women in China a couple centuries ago. Girls growing up today have more freedom and options than even 100 years ago but…

“History helps us learn who we are…when we don’t know our own history, our power and dreams are immediately diminished.”

–National Women’s History Project

The National Women’s History Project’s Resource Center recognizes and celebrates women’s accomplishments through educational materials, information and programs. Among other resources, you will find…

Women’s Equality Day–August 26
Biography Center
Honored Latinas
Teachers Lounge with links to free stuff
Black History Month
Online Quiz
Info on this year’s Women’s History Month

Discover Creativity

Martha — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:42:22 +0000

I listened to Speaking of Faith this morning while I did yoga. I use this routine to focus on spirituality and fitness; it’s easier for me to meditate when I’m moving! This week’s podcast was titled “Fishing with Mystery” and James Prosek said that creativity is our gift from the Creator. Discovering our own creativity and expressing it is a form of worship. From there my mind wandered back to the workshop Rachel Rockwell facilitated for Chrysalis After-School facilitators and mentors yesterday.

She worked with us on creating paintings and stories in the safe, respectful environment of Culture Inc. Afterward, one of the facilitators said she always becomes anxious when she is in a situation where she has to create. I think a lot of people feel that way, as we have had the products of our creativity judged and sometimes gotten little support.

I think it might help me to use James Prosek’s metaphor of connecting to the creative pipeline when I sit down to create. At times, I’ve experienced that connection when I’ve painted, written grants, facilitated groups. I think it comes more from letting go than from trying really hard. And again, it’s a process and learning experience.

Then there is the discipline required for creativity; I’ve found I need order. Stephen King requires himself to write 2,000 words each day before he does much else. The Artist’s Way recommends morning pages–two pages of writing first thing in the morning in a stream of consciousness mode.

So creativity is a sum of at least two parts–tapping into the pipeline and discipline–available to most of us.

Divide Your Group

Martha — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 04:13:48 +0000

As I facilitate experiential education or group discussions, I like to divide any group that is larger than seven people into smaller groups. This makes it easier for quieter people to be heard. If I’m with a group for more than an hour or so, I mix the groups up so everyone gets to know each other better. I’ve experimented with some different ways to divide large groups lately; here are some of the methods I use.

At customer service training I am doing for the Iowa Community Action Association, I’ve been using the Chinese Zodiac. I made up nametags with the pictures of the twelve Zodiac animals–

Brody Girls at HerStory 2007

Rat
Ox
Tiger
Rabbit
Dragon
Snake
Horse
Lamb
Monkey
Rooster
Dog
Pig

Then I made pages with the corresponding pictures, descriptions and years of birth for each sign. I put these on the tables, automatically dividing the group as they arrive. I have small groups form by combining different signs. Here is a Web site that tells you which signs go together best; you could base another grouping on those recommendations.

Here are some other quick ideas for forming small groups randomly–

Have the girls line up by one of these methods; then divide the line into the size or number of groups you want– (Shoe size, Height, Birthday)
Divide by eye color, kinds of shoes or shirt color
Divide by month of birth or season of birth–
(Winter = December, January, February, Spring = March, April, May, Summer = June, July, August, Fall = September, October, November)
Play the game Mingle Mingle, ending with the number you want in your small groups.

Michelle Cummings of Training Wheels has published a book–Playing With a Full Deck–that has lots of ideas for activities for groups that only use card games. Download Dividing a Group for a taste. Or borrow the book from Next Step and try out several of the games.

Celebrate Justice!

Martha — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 12:50:46 +0000

“I do believe there are gender and ethnic stereotypes that propel people to assumptions about what they expected me to be,” these words from Sonia Sotomayor, our newest Supreme Court Justice, encapsulate the reasons for Chrysalis After-School. Girls need to overcome those assumptions and women need to challenge them!

So many articles have been written about how she has overcome her origins. But I wonder if those origins have actually helped her become the person she is.Certainly the injections required to survive juvenile diabetes taught her discipline. Her childhood in a Bronx home raised by her widowed Latina mother, taught her independence and gave her strength.

The Perry Mason television show inspired her to become a judge; she realized the judge was the most important person in the courtroom. That’s what she wanted to be. Patience and determination to survive law school, the prosecutor’s office and the federal approval process are certainly traits that any woman must learn to break the invisible barriers to achievement that still exist.

Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Connect Service to Life

Martha — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 03:39:33 +0000

Processing the experience is a core component of an effective service learning experience. You can process in a group or have group members create journals or portfolios. The questions here can be used for any of those methods; choose the ones that will help your group members internalize their service learning experience. This first group of questions will help reflect on what happened?

Look back on today. What struck you most strongly?
What happened?
What images stand out in your mind? What sights, sounds and smells?
What experiences and conversations do you especially remember?
What is it about these images that make you remember them?
Who did you meet and work with during the day?
Who did you relate to most easily? Who did you find it hardest to talk to?
Why?
What did you learn about the people you met? How are they like you?
How are they different?
What needs did your service try to meet? Did it succeed? Why or why not?
What information or skills did you learn today?
How did you apply what you knew before to this project?

What does it mean?

What was happening in your heart? What did you feel? Were you upset?
Were you surprised? Confused? Content? What touched you most deeply?
Why?
What did you find frustrating? What did you find most hopeful?
What would it be like to trade places with the people you worked with?
What did you learn about yourself?
What do you like about what you learned? What would you like to change?
How did the experience change or challenge your convictions and beliefs?

Now what?

How were justice and injustice present in the situations you faced today?
Did you learn anything new about what causes suffering?
What did you learn about how you can make things better?
How are you part of the problem? How are you part of the solution?
What did you learn today that will help you in your future service work?
What needs to change in the world to make things better?
What needs to change in you?
What hopes and expectations do you have for those you served? For yourself?
How did the service experience affect how you would like to live?
How did it affect what type of job or career you might choose?

Adapted from An Asset Builder’s Guide to Service Learning, A Search Institute Publication, 2000, page 96

Write a Six-Word Memoir

Martha — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:28:06 +0000

Last winter, my daughter, one of her friends and I wrote six-word memoirs to sum up our days. This exercise was based on the very popular book called “Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure” I found it a challenging and interesting way to review my day. We shared news about a sister’s engagement, acceptance at graduate school and a number of other big and small events.

I’ve since used Six-Word Memoirs to help groups sum up their discussion as I was facilitating character education programs for the Institute for Character Development. I find that it helps people really focus on the central idea, and saves us from giving lengthy reports on our discussions.

This page of ideas for using it in education is fun too. Check out Assignment Redux. I hope you’ll try some of the ideas from our colleagues at the University of Iowa. They include–

Assignments
Icebreakers
Reflections
Collaborative writing

And here’s a place to post your own six-word memoir. And SmithTeens is collecting six-word memoirs from teens (of course) for an upcoming book. This one caught my eye. And my Google query–“It smells like Iowa in here.”

Live Mindfully

Martha — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:30:38 +0000

Thich Nhat Hanh (Brother Thay) challenges me to stay in the moment and experience life fully. I continue to learn this lesson and practice it most imperfectly. His teachings give me hope that each of us heals the world through mindful living. I often struggle with the thoughts in my head, what could have been, what I should have done. Thich Nhat Hanh says that when we live mindfully we are nourished and healed.

My little cat Bitsy died last week and I knew I needed to listen to this podcast again to help me deal with my broken heart. One key is here, Brother Thay says that we need pain to understand the world. Burying Bitsy on Sunday, I thought of Thich Nhat Hanh’s words — garbage is beautiful because it is turning into a flower; the flower is in process of turning into garbage. He says that only through suffering do we learn understanding and compassion. Through our experience we can feel empathy for those who may anger us and begin to heal the world.

I hope you’ll enjoy this podcast that is part of the Speaking of Faith series on American Public Media.