Reading The Rake in a hand-pulled rickshaw is not recommended for a weak stomach. Tim Leone-Getten and Leslie Olmen visited Calcutta, India with other area teachers on a South Asia teacher exchange program with Hamline University and Relief International.
This ancient mountaintop city is a beautiful and mysterious place, sure. But our own Peruvian puzzler is this: Why on earth is Machu Picchu such a popular Red-Handed picture spot? Our records indicate it gets quite a few visits from Rake readers. And they look to be a tough bunch, too. St. Paulites Katie and Mike Waller, for instance, snapped this lovely shot on completion of a grueling hike along the Inca Trail. Wrote Katie: “I don’t think we made our high school Spanish teachers proud, but after our four-day trek through the Andes to Machu Picchu, our gym teachers certainly would have given us a passing grade.”
I don’t save many magazine articles anymore (I filled up too many file cabinets that way while working as an Utne Reader editor), but I intend to save Jeannine Ouellette’s very fine feature on the death of the American imagination from the November 2007 Rake.
This is the kind of sweeping, thorough thought piece that is much easier for an editor to assign than for a journalist to actually report and write. Ouellette did such a beautiful job of it that by the article’s end I was inspired, despite its somewhat dire assessment of the state of things.
Too bad The Rake couldn’t have included a sidebar about Waldorf education (Ms. Ouellette is a veteran Waldorf teacher), which although no panacea, is at least one strong counter-cultural trend to the soul-deadening typical American education.
Jeannine Ouellette’s puzzling article [“The Death & Life of American Imagination”] seems to cite the regimentation of children’s lives and the role of technology as a threat to the development of imagination. As a girl in the ’50s and ’60s, I faced far more restrictions to my imagination and free play than any kid today.
But the greatest threat to imagination goes unmentioned: the intrusion of religion into the schools. It may not seem so bad here in Minneapolis, but there are parts of the country where the schools are not focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). They are afraid to teach anything that might threaten third century AD notions of cosmology or biology. There is a brain drain due to restrictions on research (stem cells, etc.) and government science is censored on the subjects of reproductive health and climate change.
Minneapolis doesn’t have to do all this to limit the development of its children, however. Its school board has merely decreed that education be withheld from anyone not rich, not white, or not a resident of the southwest quadrant of the city.
I was going to comment on the recent article on American Imagination ["The Death & Life of American Imagination"], but I just couldn’t think of anything to say.
Nasty, nasty, nasty. Rob Nelson’s review of Diablo Cody’s new movie Knocked Up [editor’s note: I believe the writer is referrring to Juno] really stinks. Would that we all would have a past that
would bear scrutiny. His snide harping about Cody’s stripper past just
goes to show that white male priviledge and the double sexual standard
is alive and well. Maybe she is a pain in the ass-I don’t know, but it
seems to me that this review had to much of the "I haven’t made it and
you did" in it.
‘s puzzling article seems to cite
the regimentation of children’s lives and the role of technology as a
threat to the development of imagination. As a girl in the ’50s and
’60s, I faced far more restrictions to my imagination and free play than
any kid today.
But the greatest threat to imagination goes unmentioned: the intrusion
of religion into the schools. It may not seem so bad here in
Minneapolis, but there are parts of the country where the schools are
NOT focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). They
are afraid to teach anything that might threaten third century AD
notions of cosmology or biology. There is a brain drain due to
restrictions on research (stem cells, etc) and govermnent science is
censored on the subjects of reproductive health and climate change.
Minneapolis doesn’t have to do all this to limit the development of its
children, however. It’s school board has merely decreeed that eduction
be withheld from anyone not rich, not white, or not a resident of the
southwest quadrant of the city.
Just wanted to send a quick compliment about the short story by Scott Wrobel, "Storage" [October]. Stellar work, keep the great selections coming!
Thank you for the insightful and sympathetic comments about Michael Brecker [“Honorable Exit,” October]. Every day as I work, I listen to and come to know the work of countless musicians/composers … thank God for wireless headphones! It’s hard for me to believe that Michael Brecker was dying as I listen to Pilgrimage. I can’t say it any better than you did in your column. Keep up the good work!
Wow, what a great article Ann Bauer wrote on The Rocky Horror Picture Show [“The Sweet (and Saucy) Transvestite,” October]. When my teenage daughters found a copy of the movie and wanted to know what it was about I described it as an “American classic.” I hoped they would file it next to McLintock! and The Quiet Man, two other movies I have described the same way. But no, they watched and enjoyed it as much as I did. Don’t worry, Ann, it didn’t do any permanent damage. They both are now college grads and successful adults. I think I will miss the stage version for now but your review was great.