March 2009 Archives

     The Poehler lecture is a premier event which is attended by the majority of faculty and students.  This year's lecture, given by Dr. Carl Schoenbeck, was about the integration of faith and learning.  It reminded me a lot of what we learned in our first semester of Honors, so long ago...oh memories...
     Dr. Schoenbeck first talked about creating a passion for learning in the children of today.  Basically, the better a teacher is able to teach the material to the students, the more enthused they will be about learning; conversely, the more excited the students are about learning, the better the teacher's teaching style is.  This passion for learning is created by three things: connections, applications, and questions.   From a Lutheran perspective, faith is the starting point for exploring all of the other disciplines.  By allowing a student to connect their faith to their other disciplines, the teacher also allows the student to apply what they learn in the classroom to what they know in real life and through their faith.  See, the key to the whole process is Faith - it provides a strong, yet flexible core for the student's learning.  It provides a home base for the student to reach out and explore from, and then return to at the end of the day.
   Like I said earlier, this was really reminiscent of the first semester in Honors, where the whole semester was based on "ways of knowing".  We talked about how the different ways of knowing (arts, revelation, reason, science, and emotion) interacted and affected our learning styles and our outlooks on life.  I really feel that Dr. Schoenbeck emphasized this in the lecture, and I liked the fact that he took everything from the basis of faith.
  The overall message that I got from this lecture would be that sometimes it is always possible to relate my faith to my learning and my practical life.  Although it is a goal of the Honors program to integrate faith and learning, it is sometimes hard to see how the two relate (such as statistics and faith, or the whole immigration topic and faith).  However, I am confident that there is always going to be a connection between faith and learning, because God had a hand in both; He created both our souls and our minds.  It makes perfect sense, then, to conclude that the two must always be related somehow.  it is the quest of the student, in their passion for learning, to discover this relationship and rejoice in how wonderful and marvelous the Creator really is.

     First of all, I'm sorry about the chliche-ness about the title, but that Hannah Montana song title was the first thing that popped into my head after hearing the Hmong artist Seexeng Lee tonight.
  Lee talked about the progression of art in Hmong culture.  For most Hmong, art is functional.  People such as silversmiths, blacksmiths, weavers, singers, musicians, storytellers, and embroiderers created beautiful things that served a purpose.  The most well known of these was a paj ntaub, which originally was a "flower cloth".  This was the type of garment that  was abstract and colorful; it was meant to keep the spirit interested and remaining with that person.  One such example would be a hat covering a baby's head; the Hmong believed it would protect the baby from evil spirits who want to steal the baby's spirit.  This was the traditional type of Hmong art.  In the refugee camps, however, the paj ntaub evolved into a "story cloth".  This was a gigantic piece of embroidered cloth that depicted the Hmong's journey from their homeland, across the river, and into the refugee camps.  This would be something that would be sold and would help provide the family with an income so that they would be able to eat.  Now in America, the paj ntaub is being found in sculptures, paintings, photographs, graphic design...everywhere.  The basic "job" of Hmong art is to now tell a story about the history of the Hmong people, and to communicate their plight to the rest of the world.
    Lee also told us of his personal journey to America, and how the clash between the Hmong and the American cultures has influenced his art.  He said, "Many may say that living with the collision of two cultures is a burden, but I find it a blessing in disguise."  He was able to find a balance between his heritage and his current country.  That is something that is important for everyone to find in their lives.

This is an old picture of the dam that runs across the Mississippi River in my hometown, Elk River.  Every year the city sets off their 4th of July fireworks from the fairgrounds by the dam, which makes the dam a perfect spot to view the show.  Going to watch the fireworks there when I was little will always be a fond memory for me...even though I was barely tall enough to see over the guard rail that was exactly my height... :)


    This is a personal lesson for me; although I did not personally immigrate from a foreign country to America, I did emmigrate from my hometown of Elk River, MN in Sorta-Northern MN to CSP in St. Paul, MN.  This may have very well been an immigration, as the difference between the two places are substantial enough.  Sometimes it is hard for me to assert by difference from my home community, and yet at the same time retaining my roots while at college.  I'm working on finding the best of both worlds and learning how to assert my unique balance to everyone else.   While my personal and ancestral history might not be as accessible as Seexeng Lee's is, I already am able to find the beauty of both my new and my old home.  Communicating that invisible beauty and making it visible to everyone else is the work of a true artist, which I think everyone could be if they tried.