Blakoff

When I was in high school one of my English teachers was a real Blake fan. He liked to perch on his desk with his feet up on the waste can. And he always walked to and from the school. He also took many of us on some wonderful adventures as director of the Canoe Club.

The Clod and the Pebble:

"Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a heaven in hell's despair."

So sung a little Clod of Clay,
Trodden with the cattle's feet,
But a Pebble of the brook
Warbled out these metres meet:

"Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to its delight,
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a hell in heaven's despite."

An electronic representation of the original can be seen at the wonderful William Blake Archive, which is always worth a visit.

Am I wrong to interpret this lovely little poem through the human cognition discoveries made by George Lakoff and the Rockridge Institute? It seems to fit. The malleable clod, quite co-dependent and self-effacing, would seem to have grown up on the receiving end in a "strict-father" household, while the hard pebble, though with life passing it by in the waters of the brook, would seem to be the strict one itself.

Perhaps similarly the local Phoenix Union High School issue, with their Superintendent Raj Chopra, can also be viewed from this stance.

"The Classroom Teachers Association and the Arizona Education Association believe the highest degree of academic success is achieved and sustained through collaboration. CTA stands ready to work with Superintendent Chopra and his administration, the new board and the community to foster enduring student achievement within a new culture of respect, professionalism, and cooperation. We call on all within the district to demonstrate that same commitment. Districts can achieve long-term excellence because of their commitment to these values, not at their expense."

The CTA simply calls for collaboration and dialogue, as would those who come from a "nurturant-parents" upbringing, while it seems that the issue derives from Superintendent Chopra having sought to exclude them from some decision-making which he preferred to undertake by his own authority, as a "strict father."

I have no dog in this fight. I just read what I read. But it seems to me that any case to be made for inclusion of teachers in decisions regarding their own work would be the way I'd want to go.

Nurses face the same thing when management doesn't fully consider things from their vantage point at the patient bedside. Jo at Head Nurse calls this "manglement" as opposed to "management." That's a word that should be a meme.