tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post8632656001723348462..comments2023-10-16T06:23:18.135-04:00Comments on Yoga for Cynics: Homeless WordsDr. Jay SWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08631848276936859276noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-18533110365710051312010-04-06T20:47:09.459-04:002010-04-06T20:47:09.459-04:00...Indy in the house... I do yoga with homeless ch......Indy in the house... I do yoga with homeless children... I dig what you're laying down...just showing up, you and them...well that's enough, isn't it? peace & namaste...kitty.Kittyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15308101220891195220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-87865849102112502032010-04-06T16:34:14.955-04:002010-04-06T16:34:14.955-04:00....got nothing to add .... except I like ellipses.......got nothing to add .... except I like ellipses .... and I still am mad about you .... and your wonderful blog ... too ... think it is way beyond zebra that you ... you, Dr J .... teach writing to .... homeless men... and others .... would love to be in a class with you .... whom I so admire ... or who ... if you prefer ...Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08198572015888392613noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-51342040122648838232010-04-06T15:49:42.974-04:002010-04-06T15:49:42.974-04:00I love this!!!!! Brilliant (as you know from my bl...I love this!!!!! Brilliant (as you know from my blog, my punctuation is pretty atrocious...and well my use of ...elipses (is that plural?) is extravagant...and um, well...that's creativity baby! I hope that at least one of your new students appreciates your gift of throwing out the damn rules and...I always felt that connecting with one student when I was a teacher was a good day.<br /><br />"...to put ideas down so we can look at them, play with them...make them travel far beyond where we physically are..." BRILLIANT! <br /><br />I blog, therefore I am...connected to a big beautiful world...<br /><br />as for spelling...how about made up words too? like the word verification one below...SHROOTOM...<br /><br />when my daughter was in the hospital last year for 10 days her best friend would call her every day and they would make up new words and definitions for their words together...they had so much fun...needless to say this was probably the highlight of her hospital stay...you could do a whole class on invented vocabulary...seriously, all words were made up by somebody...why not your students?Laurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15349928247626849914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-9455107562534632572010-04-06T13:46:50.090-04:002010-04-06T13:46:50.090-04:00Inspirational post, hon. Best of luck with the tea...Inspirational post, hon. Best of luck with the teaching. Keep up the good work. :)Lana Gramlichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06975996208260144558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-4986661408785829802010-04-05T18:21:42.176-04:002010-04-05T18:21:42.176-04:00Sorry to make such a mess out of that link in my e...Sorry to make such a mess out of that link in my earlier comment. Your post reminded me a lot of this book and I am trying the link once again:<br /><a href="http://www.graywolfpress.org/component/page,shop.flypage/product_id,234/category_id,bf8108ff1901b3e2f2376627dd7f8c0d/option,com_phpshop/" rel="nofollow">If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit</a>Lydiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11135393270656573516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-58977315721171996672010-04-05T15:42:21.081-04:002010-04-05T15:42:21.081-04:00Permission to write (create)...easy to grant, but ...Permission to write (create)...easy to grant, but very hard to follow. What a cool, exasperating challenge. Yeah, like Bob, I want to hear more.<br /><br />Are you all reading anything? Poetry? Nothing too fancy pants, but I wonder if something kind of stream-of-consciousness-esque like John Ashbury would get creative juices flowing? I found him frustrating, at first, and then I stopped "listening" and let the words wash over until it started to make sense. Images instead of narrative...<br /><br />Thanks for the props. I love English in all its zany irregularity (thank God it's my first language). Rules fascinate. Etymology fascinates. Ignoring rules fascinates.<br /><br />And ellipses rock...Brenda P.https://www.blogger.com/profile/15706976926804565629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-61324560666737122222010-04-05T15:34:20.972-04:002010-04-05T15:34:20.972-04:00My most humbling and eye-opening and verklemping r...My most humbling and eye-opening and verklemping realization in my short stint as English Teacher - the girl who had nothing who wrote so much imagination and beauty into a couple paragraphs rife with errors - in comparison to the perfect prose of a girl who had everything - and wrote nothing. To this day - I can see what the girl with nothing wrote - the description is still seared in my brain - and i can't recall what the girl who got the A wrote. Maybe teaching is about finding the middle ground, so girls and boys who have and have not can read and be read by everyone - but damn the standardization of creativity. Damn it to hades.Christine Vyrnonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15125525692093575724noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-66760186040591039292010-04-05T10:20:46.237-04:002010-04-05T10:20:46.237-04:00I! Think! People! Should! Be! Allowed! To! P...I! Think! People! Should! Be! Allowed! To! Punctuate! However! They! Please!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-58478471050460377792010-04-05T10:18:29.807-04:002010-04-05T10:18:29.807-04:00Teaching writing first and foremost involves getti...Teaching writing first and foremost involves getting people to know what they have to say is valuable. Once you do that then standardized rules come into play (or not) because the writer then has a reason to want to write so others understand him/her.<br /><br />Keep up the great work!!Bossy Bettyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12568355839499622409noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-4170003578891656282010-04-05T10:13:02.735-04:002010-04-05T10:13:02.735-04:00don't let anyone ever tell you to stop using e...don't let anyone ever tell you to stop using ellipses. that's part of your charm.Kimhttp://perfectlycursedlife.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-84494194222619815452010-04-05T09:52:44.706-04:002010-04-05T09:52:44.706-04:00Good for you and your writing teaching! It sounds ...Good for you and your writing teaching! It sounds challenging. <br /><br />Should words be fire power or love bombs? (this is practically a post in itself and may end up on my blog but, anyway...)<br /><br />I guess I want my words to hold the mother principal... A student explained that this is why <a href="http://brookshall.blogspot.com/2010/04/am-i-rescued-chicken.html" rel="nofollow">rescued chickens</a> when given a yard to peck around in, were able to discover and explore their environment and themselves. They had caring human handlers to help and encourage them to live and express... While the tiger (from Dr. Jay's comment on the above link at "rescued chickens"), a dangerous animal, was plunked into a larger habitat and expected to thrive, but failed to explore steps beyond the ones the animal had paced for years in that small cage... This transition was unsuccessful because the environment, as nice as it might have been, did not nurture this animal.<br /><br />Blogosphere has been nurturing for me and my ideas, and my ability to express myself has evolved. Thanks to the regular practice of writing for others, and the incredible comments that regularly appear there my mind has expanded beyond what I could have understood and expressed before. My blog has been a caring house to hold my imperfections and accomplishments, and I welcome those of others, as well. And I love great ideas! I just question whether we really need to throw them at one another, like rocks. <br /><br />I do get the notion of breaking down the old paradigms to move. However, I wonder how we can best support one another for maximum growth, understanding, and cool ideas. Only when we trust one another can we really go deep, or at least the places I like to go to. Brooks Hallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05789430862542763946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-16113784971621454612010-04-05T09:45:22.252-04:002010-04-05T09:45:22.252-04:00I love your photo, drjay, and I especially love ho...I love your photo, drjay, and I especially love how it pairs so nicely with your sutra...which reminds me of words I've been hearing lately, if I may borrow it for a moment...<em>make your words catch fire and glow across the night sky and nobody’s gonna care...what your blog looks like.</em><br /><br />I use ellipses, probably more than I should, probably 'cause I'm full of incomplete thoughts, so they just feel right.<br /><br /><em>* which sounds a lot better than "with whom I’ve worked"...</em> Early on in my blogging, as I was checking the who/whom rules, someone <em>I've talked with</em> about this exact same thing, suggested I go the more natural route with the prepositions, however, I chose to, more often, go with the stuffy who/whom, thinking that since my writing's not that good, I'll try to be a stickler elsewhere. But I know how skewed that thinking is.<br /><br />I hope your guys at the shelter come to realize what a good teacher you are. Don't ask me how I know you're a good teacher, I just know! And I bet you'd do really well with an online English website...earthtohollyhttp://earthtoholly.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-3133100729927297212010-04-05T07:34:22.747-04:002010-04-05T07:34:22.747-04:00Wonderful new teaching project. Brenda Ueland woul...Wonderful new teaching project. Brenda Ueland would be behind you and your students all the way. <a href="" rel="nofollow">"http://www.graywolfpress.org/component/page,shop.flypage/product_id,234/category_id,bf8108ff1901b3e2f2376627dd7f8c0d/option,com_phpshop/">If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland</a>Lydiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11135393270656573516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-63480225103591943552010-04-05T06:36:15.496-04:002010-04-05T06:36:15.496-04:00wow- that takes patience and courage, not many peo...wow- that takes patience and courage, not many people would volunteer their time to offer writing classes for the homeless.<br /><br />Another presentation while I was at the University was stats of Nova Scotia. 40% of the local southern shore population between 18 and 60 don't have a high school diploma....<br /><br />When writing for the public we are always careful to write at a grade 6 level- reports, pamphlets etc.<br /><br />on your writing style (ahem, ellipses), it took a while for me to adjust. I never took to English writing vs psychological-concise writing. Also why I'm not a fan of French writing (unlike Aviva sorry!). Such LONG sentences!! lol.<br /><br />but yours, Dr. Jay, has proven to be the exception :)Eco Yoginihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10693080137196812405noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-11881440694269363902010-04-05T06:30:05.885-04:002010-04-05T06:30:05.885-04:00Rules have a context---or rather the context gives...Rules have a context---or rather the context gives the rules. Getting people to write at all, and to follow their natural grammar and syntax, regardless of spelling, sounds like a worthy goal. More power to you.<br /><br />Maybe you'd appreciate "<a href="http://language4you.wordpress.com/2010/01/08/the-21st-century-flux/" rel="nofollow">The 21st Century Flux</a>”.Markhttp://language4you.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-78070518782864161672010-04-05T06:18:37.399-04:002010-04-05T06:18:37.399-04:00there's some similarity between math anxiety a...there's some similarity between math anxiety and writing anxiety, like stage fright to write fright - I have the latter in both cases - with math I just don't care enough to learn and follow the rules, but with writing I know the rules and care too much what people think about my work.TheRiverWandershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14970302789387128739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-76345526211590821162010-04-05T04:46:16.860-04:002010-04-05T04:46:16.860-04:00Someone once said that you have to know the rules ...Someone once said that you have to know the rules of language in order to break them. I figured that any grammar rules I ever needed to know I did not need to be able to define in order to break them.<br /><br />Language is for communication not conformity (though it can be used to force the latter). Good language...not necessarily proper language...inspires and succors and upholds truth.<br /><br />Lately though I have been forsaking the ellipses...for the -- instead. Not to be a language guerrilla; but rather simply because it looks cooler on the page.the walking manhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10058913927297370740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-35983485487599174942010-04-05T01:06:40.121-04:002010-04-05T01:06:40.121-04:00Well done, Jay.
I admire the work you're doin...Well done, Jay.<br /><br />I admire the work you're doing in teaching writing in challenging settings. I would love to hear more about your experiences in future blogs, if you're willing.<br /><br />This is a subject I get almost daily reports on, as my wife Jane is an education consultant who's mission in life is to improve the reading and writing skills of students, especially in inner city schools. She runs workshops for teachers, who often have their own writing problems, but she also often goes into the classrooms to coach the teachers one-on-one and "model" great teaching for them. She has to overcome their skepticism that her techniques will work with their particular kids. <br /><br />Jane would agree with the thinking in your excellent blog. Thanks for writing it, and please do tell us more about your work.<br /><br />Bob Weisenberg<br />YogaDemystified.comBob Weisenberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01442738029941563325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2515247027173641993.post-71826040371843078812010-04-05T00:47:05.047-04:002010-04-05T00:47:05.047-04:00This is why I favor French philosophers like Rolan...This is why I favor French philosophers like Roland Barthes and, perhaps, just French writing conventions generally (or the translations of French writing, since my French is not good enough to read them fluently in the original). Fragments and ellipses and dropped words and a plethora of puns. Why wouldn't they let me write my dissertation in fragments? <br /><br />I always thought you had to <i>be</i> somebody to break all the rules, but perhaps you become by breaking them.Aviva DVhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07283328910986366972noreply@blogger.com