(image from KPBS.org)
Welcome to the Adult Literacy Services blog for Camarena Memorial Library. We are located here in Calexico, California. Calexico is the southernmost city in Imperial County, and we share the border with Mexicali, Mexico. We know that 1 in every 2 adults in Imperial County is reading at or below Level 1 Literacy (PIAAC survey of adult skills). That's a much higher rate than the rest of California unfortunately.
So, if you are trying to improve your literacy skills, if you're an adult 16 years and older and are not concurrently enrolled in high school, and if you are able to do the intake interview in English, this is the program for you. You are at the right place.
Or if you are interested in becoming a volunteer to help an adult build their literacy skills, then this is also the program for you. As long as you are willing to commit to at least six months of tutoring and feel comfortable tutoring virtually (for now), we provide you with all the training you need and work with your schedule. Also, the staff here at our library are super kind and friendly, so don't feel intimidated about trying something new.
Here you will find regular updates on our services, stories from our tutors and learners, and links to resources you might find helpful.
Currently our library is closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but we are still doing our best to offer you opportunities to learn or tutor from home. In addition to tutoring services, we offer a weekly conversation class (this is currently offered online via Zoom), and beginning ESL classes. We have a great collection of literacy workbooks and resources to help you learn or tutor.
If you have any questions or would like more information, feel free to comment or email us at library@calexico.ca.gov
Here you will find regular updates on our services, stories from our tutors and learners, and links to resources you might find helpful.
Currently our library is closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but we are still doing our best to offer you opportunities to learn or tutor from home. In addition to tutoring services, we offer a weekly conversation class (this is currently offered online via Zoom), and beginning ESL classes. We have a great collection of literacy workbooks and resources to help you learn or tutor.
If you have any questions or would like more information, feel free to comment or email us at library@calexico.ca.gov
hola k tal...? Megan? Uh...public view? Wait. You said ANY TOPIC?? I typically write a few thousand words per day, most of it working on my book....uh so this will get crowded soon. Find me w other peeps on Twit-ter... @mark57g Life is great.
ReplyDeleteHi Mark, what's your book about? And yes, please write a post about your experience as a tutor. I'll gladly add it to the blog. Maybe you could write about what's been most challenging and what's been most inspiring as a tutor in the program. Something along those lines. Thanks for reading and replying!
DeleteWell, Megan,
DeleteMy "book" goes like this: I've always wanted to figure out what the bleep is going on with respect to this thing we might call civilization. I've often wondered, and I mean even from elementary school days, why it isn't more civilized. Weird huh? I know. So why don't we have the best health, the best education, the best economy, and where everyone shares loving kindness and not just bad breath?
No, I don't have definitive answers that explain this crazy situation we might call life on earth. But I have discovered some principles that help me understand why we aren't all at our best and rather we have so much unkindness and unfairness.
So first I treat the planet Earth, at least the parts where people live, as a crime scene, and I investigate the crime(s). I follow the lust for money and the lust for power in order to investigate the root causes of harm.
One of my current writing projects is an examination of those that have power over others. I've found the serious power brokers are of a certain class or breed. It has sometimes been called the 1%.
In my current project, I call them the alpha breed. The alpha breed includes all the people who operate under the assumption that they have a legitimate right to have power over others.
At first that seems like a large portion of humanity. I found that many of the people we think are leaders or bosses or all-powerful tyrants are really more like middle management.
I picked four examples that I think explain the motives and means of so many others that wield power on the planet. My examples are Alexander (the great, at least according to his mom), Caesar (Julius, author of "The Conquest of Gaul"), Charlemaigne (analfabeto who was powerful partly because of a tutor-oops), and Rhodes (still influential today).
I'm figuring out how this tiny group of alpha breed pyramids control around the globe. It is fascinating but I shut up now so we can save some of the Internet for others to use.
[ :-)
mark spark
BTW...to be honest, I don't look like that kid in the profile photo any more. Just sayin.'
ReplyDeleteHmm... Can this post pics?
ReplyDelete...I guess not. I got some pics of the garden @ Holtville library. I helped!!
[ :-)
We can add your pics to the post you write. The world is falling apart; we're going to need community gardeners now more than ever.
DeleteWhat? The world is falling apart? Remember I'm not normal, ok. I think of our recent history as the dawning of a new era, a rebirth, a renaissance of a brotherhood of humanity. An enlightenment it is. Well, ok, birth has labor pains to go along with all the joy and discovery and celebration. As Burl Ives used to say (sing): Watch the donut not the hole.
DeleteIf you are looking for sound principles of gardening and self-reliance, try search term: "Permaculture."
later gator
mark spark
Okay, I get you. Let me rephrase that.The world that we once knew is falling apart. I agree with you. The collective consciousness is shifting in full force. I'm ready for it! And I did my undergrad at Humboldt State, so permaculture was on the minds of many up there. I like these ideas/practices.
DeleteOh, too tempting. I have to address "collective consciousness." I got my Bovine Stercus degree then More of the Same, and then Piled higher and Deeper (that's BS, MS, and PhD, in the school of hard knocks form those of you playing at home.) I suppose I'll have to start a new thread and maybe give it a bit of thought first. Hmm. "Collective consciousness." And hey, I can be as Humbolt as anybody. Hee hee.
DeleteChallenges?? Challenges of tutoring??
ReplyDeleteOh boy. OK, maybe it is a challenge to get me to shut up once I get rolling. I don't think tutoring or teaching is challenging.
Let me explain. Raising a child to be kind and considerate, that's challenging, especially if you are trying to put food on the table and keep everybody healthy.
Dealing with a child with health issues in early life? (I've been there.) That qualifies as challenging.
I challenge myself when it comes to education. I've defined it as something completely different from schooling. Most of what typically goes on in K thru PhD is schooling, in my opinion. Getting schooled is common and it expresses the usual way of operating schools.
Taking, yes that's right I say "taking," an education is entirely different. When I ask myself a question and treat that question the same way you might treat "Where are my damn keys?" when you're on your way to work, when I ask myself a question in that way I begin to educate myself. No one can educate me. They can write a book, or write to me, they can send me a message, they can help me find my damn keys, sometimes, but the motivation to ask and answer is mine and mine alone.
I'm not done. An answer is just a clue. It's one puzzle piece. It is a piece of evidence. I need to build a whole case with tons of evidence in order to prove to myself beyond a reasonable doubt that I have a right to be certain of something. Certainty defines knowledge.
Now if I say I know something it is your job (as listener or reader) to challenge that with "Why do you say that?" or "How can you be so certain?" or "How did you reach that conclusion?" or "Have you considered this other thing?"
Eventually, after revising the claims and checking new data, and checking for fallacies or contradictions, I begin to establish principles of knowledge that allow me to do the right thing, see the big picture, and act with wisdom.
That is a challenge that I offer my students to take on for themselves. Then it is not my challenge. It becomes theirs.
Love the questions,
bring it on.
mark spark
I sort of tutor myself. Now that's a challenge when I put it that way. It's hard to fool me but the problem is I already think I know stuff. Hmm. Pretty soon I'll add a bit I'm learning about collectivism. I gotta go read some and see if anybody else thinks they know stuff...
ReplyDeleteCollectivism Collectively Collecting Consciousness?
ReplyDelete6-18-20 THU
Reviewing my sources and references to “collective consciousness,” I’ve collected my conclusions and speculations. I’ve calculated the probabilities of trustworthiness of my key claims.
collective = shared/assumed by all members of a group
(I intend to think for myself.)
Megan, before the kid gloves come off and I commence the intellectual “lucha libre,” I want to virtually shake hands with you in this struggle, not as a win/lose contest, rather, hopefully, by being together on the same page, in order to actually discover truthful premises and legitimate applicable perspectives for humanity. I’m not saying I’m speaking for everyone, I’m saying, as an individual, I want my perspective to be fair, fair enough to be applicable to every individual human being.
Instead of the sentiment that says, “May the best person win,” I hope for something different. I wish that the truth should come out, that the truth wins, and in this way everybody wins. Otherwise, we would have losers. In my mind having losers means there is no benefit to be shared by all. The only kind of win I am interested in is a win-win situation. There’s a saying that all boats rise with the tide. That hopefully expresses the feeling behind what I intend on doing here. I appreciate your invitation, and I appreciate you as an individual. May truth be revealed.
1
Individualism is the theme of this writing. I want to be clear. I think each person has a choice: to live one’s life as an individual is that person’s choice. For example, if I am living my life as an individual, I am setting my own goals, making my own plans, and writing my own script. That means my obituary will be a reflection of the path I chose in life. Now, hey, wait a minute, I’m not dead yet, so nobody should start typing up my obituary. I think the best of me, and therefore the best of my life, is still in the future. Shucks. I’m only 62 years old. In retrospect, this idea of living as an individualist is relatively new to me, since I only got serious about it about eight or nine years ago.
2
Perhaps I can explain my enthusiasm for individualism a little better if I talk about what it’s not. It’s not collectivism, for example. I mean like ew, collectivism. Let’s think about that. I mean who wants to be a tool? Who wants to be schooled into commitment and conformity? Who wants to celebrate their loyalty to the underclass jokingly called “Human Resources?” Not me. I know, I might be almost alone in this. My philosophy is heterodox. I am an outlier, the opposite of an average Joe. I’m almost alone but not quite.
3
Many of my friends are dead. I hear their voice in their writings, in their books. They don’t all know of me, but I know them, at least by what they say, and the ones that say they hate collectivism say things that I can’t help but appreciate. I learned more about collectivism by paying attention to its patterns as I study history. One of the most interesting things and one of the most telling things about collectivists is that they find a way to use a very small group to influence a very large group. Everybody in the middle who isn’t aware of the system they are in just goes along to get along.
4
I tutor myself. I am an individual. Other than showing students how I do that, I expect them to end up tutoring themselves. Of course I‘m always ready to help and answer questions and share what I know, yet the most important teacher for any student is the student themselves. While there is nothing wrong with listening to an expert, it is wrong to assume that everything any expert says is true. In fact, I extend that principle to say that it’s wrong to assume that anything any expert says is true.
Happy trails,
mark spark
If I had a bell, I'd ring it in the morning. I'd ring it in the evening, all over this land. I'd ring about danger. I'd ring about a warning. I'd ring about love between my brothers and my sisters. All over this land.
ReplyDeleteThat was a rough paraphrase of a song about liberty. I am fascinated with the idea that the root word "liber," in Latin, meant both "book" and "free." Here's part of an email exchange about standing for freedom.
(Mayra Ibarra)
Good morning Mark, Thank you for your online inquiry. The order was issued by our Health Officer, Stephen Munday, MD, MPH of Imperial County. This order is a St...
Mark Hurych
to Mayra
An Open Letter/Email to be Posted, Copied and Distributed 6-29-20
Mayra Ibarra,
First off, thank you, Mayra Ibarra, for responding so quickly and precisely. I understand you to say that for this county, Imperial, California, it was Stephen Munday that issued the order to wear masks in public, among other orders. That much is clear to me.
What is not clear yet is a full explanation of why this order was given. Since you addressed my question and named Stephen Munday, I wonder if you might forward this email to him so that I may get his explanation in full. Perhaps you would be so kind as to forward this email to Stephen Munday. The rest of this message is for Stephen Munday.
Stephen Munday,
I do have part of the answer to my questions, and again I'm thankful for that. The part that interests me most at this point is the reasoning that proves that the order is beneficial rather than harmful, or at least that the benefit can be proven to outweigh the harm. I will explain. I call the reasoning that proves the order as beneficial "proof of claim." I still do not have an answer to that: What is the proof of claim? To put this in context, I'm asking for proof that the orders do not in fact constitute a reckless endangerment of the public.
......................
...and that was a key part of an email that won't fit here.
Mark