November 22, 2010 Monday

I've completed the Studies in Interplay item on Mentors and Teachers: Their Educative Roles.  Therein, I've stated, having worked with gangs over the years, the last 3 or 4 years ago in Raleigh, North Carolina, a gang of 50 members, that intitutional mentorship can go a long way to ending the social climate that fosters gangs.

I'm about to write in the "Ruminations" blog about my reflections of having recently lived in Reno, Nevada for nearly 8 months--"My Reflections on Nevada."

Then on to Social Change!

November 18, 2010 Thursday

Because winter is fast approaching, I decided to head for warmer, though not warm, El Paso, Texas.  I've been here many times before since being retired; and enjoy the town.  At the downtown Senior Center, the staff  even speaks English on my behalf--everybody else is Latino!  The food is above average for the federally funded lunch program.  The Salvation Army center maintains a dinner program all week long, for which I'm thankful. My accommodations are terrific, though I'll probably have to go into cheaper housing at some point.

I mention these descriptive points about El Paso, but the most outstanding I've kept to a separate paragraph--namely, the University of  Texas at El Paso, UTEP.  For seniors the unversity runs an outstanding Lifelong Learning Center; and the philosophy department is terrific, also.  I intend to get ideas for the blogs from attending events at UTEP come January!

Current progress:  I'm in the midst of writing a very important--to my mind--piece on the interplay between mentiorship and teaching that will be finished certainly by the end of the month.  Enjoy!