What happens when you talk about silence? In this episode, Lisa and Ted offer a short check-in (1:43) and get some questionable advice from their respective tea bags (5:21). They first focus on how silence can affect improv experience (9:31) and then turn their attention to the empty spaces of art and music (21:20). They discuss how some experience [more…]
The Diversity-Unity Double Helix
Teachers at Northfield Mount Hermon met this week to work through concerns about equity and justice raised by our faculty of color. While at times difficult, the honest conversation opened up some previously blocked avenues for healing. I wrote the following as a continuation of that conversation. Hello all. I’m very glad that I [more…]
An Invocation for Silence
At Northfield Mount Hermon, the New England boarding school where I teach, we often begin all-school meetings with a few words of reflection or provocation and then a minute of silence to sit with what we’ve heard. At the beginning of each academic year, when the community re-forms anew, we sometimes decide to open the [more…]
Group Wisdom: Strong Like Ox
What can a one-ton farm animal show us about the power of shared intelligence? Lior Zoref—and his many friends—have an idea. This week’s New Yorker magazine includes a piece that references Zoref’s TED Talk about the wisdom of crowds. In the presentation, Zoref demonstrates how groups access knowledge in a different way than individuals can. [more…]
