Schroedinger's cat

One of the great examples that Neil Bennet, our phenomenal Statistics professor keeps sharing with us is his supposed 'Neil's black box' in which is contained the totality of a given population, from which a simple random sample (SRS) of sufficient size can be selected. I asked him last week, if that was not somehow representative of Schroedinger's cat, being that the population of Lilliputians may or may not exist at any one given time, though the supposition that they do is the driving force behind the grandiose theorizing that we were undergoing as a result of this class. He got a chuckle out of it and really, that's all I was after...

The process of certification for NYS teachers is a similarly exhausting experiment in logic. One must send funds, frequently the evaluators of the applications are temps who simply check over files for correct entries, and you can never get anyone on the phone. There is an online system in place, though the atrocities committed in logging on, logging back on after a certain amount of time, being able to find the correct information inside the online system, are voluminous. My experience was thankfully somewhat streamlined, though this last piece has been quite the stomach turner. I had submitted the length and breadth of my experience to the New York State Education Department nearly a year ago, more than sufficient time for them to review my qualifications, the fact that I'd been tenured in NYC, my 12 years of full time work, my Master's degree + 30 hrs, my continued professional development in AP Language and Literature, QTEL, SMARTboard, pick a thing for Foreign Languages, I've done it.

Today, fully 4 days before my initial certification was set to expire, and now that there are statewide layoffs of roughly 8,000 teachers expected for this year (6,500 of which are expected from the city alone, while at the same time Bloomberg Eduaction, Inc. has managed to find money to open more charter schools, fund the induction of new teachers, as well as the Teaching Fellows program, and the city's involvement with the Teach for America initiative, but I digress) the Professional Certification arrived in the mail. I think I'll frame it and put it next to the cherished photo of my friend and I at the Yankee Museum during our trip to the new Yankee Stadium during its inaugural season, or perhaps file it under 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams.' I wonder if they'll count studying for a Master's in Public Administration as appropriate professional development to maintain my certificate...?

Ichi go, ichi e

Today was the first day of interviews with mentors that are accepting fellows for the current cycle. I purposefully inserted myself into the list, being the aggressive swordsman, and knowing that I had not initially been selected by any of the three organizations initialy, but having strongly caught the interest of all three organizations that were selecting candidates. Perhaps, in hindsight, I should have inserted myself into the third list, if only to preserve my position in the "center of the universe" as Miguel calls it - NYC, but, then again, you don't come here because you want to be comfortable. You come here so that the process will change you. I am prepared for that change, and though it will definitely be outside my normal purview, that's particularly why I came here. I desperately need to acquire wide reaching, universally applicable skills. My first interview today was with Southern California Leadership Network, and I think that there some real themes on which we can make a great deal of difference and then pattern wider reaching lasting evolutions in social policy and Administrative rules with significant benefits for the general population. That and I sincerely think that Kevin Cottrell and I managed to develop an excellent rapport during our brief but very informative interview session. We seemed to be on the same page in some key areas of mutual interest and have, if not similar visions, at the very least similar passions for directions to take the agency. Stay tuned here for all the latest.

Public administration? How do we feel about that?

The question in the title was one that our Intro to Public Affairs professor posed at the outset of his class. Most of the fellows took it as something of a humorous question, but after some careful reflection, I've come to realize that he's ingeniously managed to frame one of the key problems we'll have to continue to solve for the extend of our public service career.

How do we feel about that?

The problem indeed becomes, 'how do we feel about that?' Is it just a job, is it , or is there something deeper. Amusingly, the Woodrow Wilson paper that we had as homework was an excellent comparison of values: are we just a cog in a wheel, or are we passionate Administrative policy making difference engines (and yes, I know the artificial intelligence statistical analysis variant of that term)? Are we the comfortably insulated bureaucrat, or are we the functional, boots on the ground, troop directing field officer? Interesting problems to have, and none too light to consider with a deeper sense. According to our instructor, we're training to be bureaucrats, but then, has the definition of such changed over time? And would we necessarily be involved in a change agent program if we were simply going through a tool gathering mission to arrive at a carefully arranged, comfortably insular place? I think not, and so, bureaucrat, supposedly, must not have as decidedly unseemly a tone as it might have once had. Or I miss my guess.

Public Administration?

Any decently trained public administrator, or one that is effective at creating Administrative Policy changes, are those that bring with them passion, interest, and skills to effect the changes in society that they are desirous of creating. To that end, statistical analysis is crucial, and indeed, essential to the mission. How are results of administrative policy showing up in the population? How are people utilizing the benefits which administrative policy makers are putting into place? Amusingly, the precise areas of statistical analysis that we are covering in the course that we're relentlessly plodding through currently are the very same ones that were a gap in my understanding during my waning years at NYU. Had I but known that invariable utility of a z-score during my doctoral seminars in language acquisition and linguistics, how much better might my analyses have been? If only I'd comprehended the determinance of a standard error calculation, what might have changed in my perception of intake versus uptake? I jest, but, in reality, these are the precise questions playing out in the back of my mind while the professor is busily questioning the other students what the probability of random samples selected from his 'little black box' having income ranges from $25,000 not known, but then, how could I? I had never been in a class that explicitly covered it, it had been nowhere in my electives or required coursework up until then, and I hadn't specifically sought out the knowledge, but neither did I know that I had a need. There is an aulde maxim in education - 'thou shalt not test that which has not been taught', though, experience is a cruel and unforgiving mistress, for she gives the test first, and the lesson after.

Special thanks to the fine gentleman from Atlanta who has affectionately come to be known as 'Dr. Dré' for providing me with this particularly useful Latin proverb: post hoc, ergo proctor hoc
After this, because of this... meaning essentially, if I play the harp every morning just as the sun is about to rise, the doesn't rise because I play the harp.

Hotel California

It's a strange feeling, being a leader in a group of other leaders. That feeling is multiplied existentially, temporally, and cross-sectionally as we come together for more events, study groups, and cohort wide projects. One thing has risen to the top, however, and that is the fact that we all need to work together - we live and die as a team, and we leave noone behind. Tonight's study group was an exercise in precisely that, with those of us stronger in the statistical analysis of data doing everything we could to maximize the two hours we had scheduled in order to bring those with less understanding up to our level. We ended the night making a priority list of items about how the next study sessions need to be run, and delegating responsibilities for the warehousing of resources online, orchestrating the bringing of snacks, etc, to several key members. I so should have done this earlier.

NUF love!

This first week of NUF experience has been quite the affair. Meeting and interacting with the 42 other fellows in this cohort gives me a renewed sense of purpose, almost as if all the crazy ideas about how to forcibly evolve the system I've been having during the rather long trajectory of my professional career suddenly have a springboard from which to leap. Before going much further in this journal, knowing that a few people will likely be reading it, I have to recognize that previously I used this blog as a teaching tool, and so the posts below this initial NUF 2011 spot will be webquests that I designed for my Spanish classes.

On to the details:

Graduation date is 28 July 2011, provided all goes exceedingly well. I predict that, now having read the stats book assignment (partially) that everything else will be, though rigorous, manageable. The welcome week/orientation was also quite pleasant. Many of our questions were answered in terms of how to navigate the very murky waters of financial aid in the university, and Baruch's peculiarities as a business school. The dean of the school wherein our Public Administration program is housed gave a speech which not only left me with insight into where our lives will be guided during the next 14 months, but also his own character, and the fact that I may actually need to spend more time listening to his words, or perhaps at the very least tracking down some of his publications.

Breakthrough leadership is one of those things that as a concept I noticed a while ago, but was entirely unable to completely articulate. As David Mensah kept saying, 'you all already know all of this, you just never strung it all together." In effect he's right; we inherently have all of these fantastic communications tools already bread into us as we acquire language, utilize language, create language, re-imagine language, watch/hear/read/speak about other people using language, we have intake and uptake (Mim is laughing about this right now, I'm sure) regarding the principles inherent in this Breakthrough system, but we just never put them into practice until someone or something creates the necessary stimulus, takes us past the tipping point, or produces an evolutionary event in our internal linguistically programmed productive schemata.

Other than that, I'm of the opinion that alternative revenue streams are in dire need of prospecting with the purpose of creating a separate endowment fund so that the fabulous breakfast and lunch spreads we had during the initiation/orientation week can be continued throughout the 10 weeks of course intensives, and again once we are all back in town for the capstone experience. I'm not entirely certain how many people are going to agree with me on this, but I'm just sayin.

During the holiday weekend, we've met up and shared a few rounds at local venues, and I'm thoroughly impressed by the level of immediate camaraderie in our group. It reminded me of one of the other professional organizations - that of Judicial Interpreters and Translators, - which was so instantaneously filial once we were all introduced. I'm fairly happy about it, and I'm looking forward with great anticipation at the year + alpha that is to come.

Trotsky, Frida, Rivera

Diego Rivera was a Mexican muralist who produced work at the same time as José Clemente Orozco, and David Álfaro Siqueiros. His own pieces had decidedly Socialist themes, since he was a known leader of the Trotskyist Socialist movement in Mexico. Rivera was also married to renowned surrealist painter Frida Kahlo.

Read the following biography (en Español) of Diego Rivera.
1) What time period did he live in that overlaps with the time period of the novel/movie?


2) Click the ‘Trostkyist’ link above and answer the following question: Why do you suppose the Socialist movement so important in Mexico?


3.) Click on the pictures of “Detroit Industry” in the Wikipedia article, and view the larger high resolution pictures of the murals. What do the pictures communicate about the artist’s ideas about work?


4.) Follow this link to the photo of his mural entitled “Man: Controller of the Universe”. What is he communicating by his decision on the image of the man in the center of the painting?


5.) What was the controversy surrounding this particular painting when Rivera attempted to paint it at Rockefeller Center?


6.) Where does the painting sit now?


7.) View the series of pictures here of Rivera’s work entitled ‘Pan-American Unity’. What issues do they represent that we might address in this class? Use the keys to probe deeper into the mural’s significance.


8.) How do Rivera’s works compare to Orozco and Siquieros works?


9.) How could we represent similar themes in our mural that are related to your experiences?

El Jaguar, y sus mitos mesoamericanos

I hope everyone is ready for Turkey Day!!! I read an intersting
article yesterday that has to do with the reappearance of the
jaguar in the American Southwest. The Southwest at one point
in history was still the territory of the native Mexicans related
to the Aztecs, Maya, and other tribes. All of whom had import-
ant myths and stories to tell about their elusive fantastical
creature, the jaguar.

Once you've clicked on the picture link above and seen both
pictures, be sure to go to the link here, and read the article in
Smithsonian magazine. As you are reading, answer the questions:

1. Why is it strange to see the jaguar in the American Southwest?


2. What size is the cat?


3. How long has it been since the last one was seen in the US?


4. How is Mexican president Vicente Fox involved?


5. What is meant by the phrase: "This site alone shows these animals
are not transients?


Go to this article on Aztec mythology in Wikipedia, and read the
sections entitled: "Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl" and "Mythical
Stories"

6. Who was Tezcatlipoca?


7. Who was his enemy?


8. What was one of the animal forms which Tezcatlipoca assumed to
protect himself?


9. What did he do once he had taken this form?


Read the entry for 'Jaguars' in this article on the Olmecs and answer:

1. What are the functions of the jaguar in their mythology?


2. Since the jaguar in their mythology is actually a god in the form of a
beast, what do you suppose is actually happening in this picture?


Read the following story called 'El Origen de los Felinos' and answer:

1. Where is this story from?


2. How are the Yanomani's ideas about the jaguar similar to the Maya
or Olmec?


3. What happens to jaguar at the end of the story?


4. What is the similarity between Tezcatlipoca, and the Yanomani's
jaguar in the story?

Have fun over the weekend! Come back safe and in one piece!