LOVE & EROS IN EDUCATION: AN IMAGINARY CONFERENCE

Sending Hugs & Kisses

2008-10-29T14:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my world was forever changed. The concept of sending mixed messages was elevated to a new level when a friend dispelled my misbelief that x’s were hugs and that o’s were kisses. Yes, all the times I thought I was sending hugs with the symbolic seal of an x, I was really sending kisses and vise versa with o's. I could only blush as I looked back to all of the mixed signals I have sent through the years. As thoughts of unwanted kisses drifted through my mind, a quest to find out the story behind simple seal was ignited. The two theories I found most interesting are below.

"One theory holds that the X stands for a kiss because it originally
represented a highly stylized picture of two mouths touching -- X.
Furthermore, in early times illiterates often signed documents with a
St. Andrew's cross of X and kissed that X to show their good faith (as
they did with any cross or the Bible, which reinforced the
association). But these explanations may be folk etymology, as may the
story that mathematically the X is a 'multiplier' -- in this case of
love and delight."

From the 'Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins' by Robert
Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997). "

"How did X's and O's come to represent hugs and kisses? The common
custom of placing X's on envelopes, notes and at the bottom of letters
to mean kisses dates back to Medeival ages, when a cross was drawn on
documents or letters to mean sincerity and honesty. A kiss was then
placed upon the cross, by the signer as a display of their of their
sworn oath. It was also used in early Christian history as much of a
display of the same. Since most of the common people were unable to
read or write, the 'X' was placed on documents, and a kiss placed upon
it as a show of their sincerity, gradually, as it was used so often,
the cross was hurried drawn and often resembled an 'X'. The 'O' is of
North American descent, no one really seems to know how it was
started. It has been said that when arriving to the US, Jewish
immigrants would use an 'O' on documents, not using the sign of the
cross, and shop keepers would often use an 'O' when signing documents,
in place of an 'X'. Perhaps now it is used as the 'O' being rounded
represents arms encircling another, as in an embrace."

Romantic Trivia and Love Lore
http://intimatexpressiongifts.com/trivialovelore.html

2008-10-28T18:47:00.001-07:00

follow the path of your blood

2008-10-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

* and have they found them?
* no. but they are looking for them everywhere.
* they'll find them
* sh-h-h!
* what?
* they seem to be coming closer on all the roads at once.
* when the moon comes out, they'll see them.
* they ought to let them go.
* the world is wide. everybody can live in it.
* but they'll kill them.

* you have to follow your passion. they did right to run away.
* they were deceiving themselves but at the last blood was stronger.
* blood!
* you have to follow the path of your blood
* the blood that sees the light of day is drunk up by the earth.
* what of it? better dead with the blood drained away than alive with it rotting.

___________________a converation between three woodsmen about two lovers who have chosen their passion
___________________from Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

2008-10-26T10:10:00.001-07:00

CONFERENCE MANIFESTO

2008-10-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

BREAK-OUT SESSIONS

2008-10-24T13:39:00.003-07:00

AWARD CEREMONY

2008-10-24T13:39:00.001-07:00

CONFERENCE HONOREES

2008-10-24T13:38:00.003-07:00

NEWS & EVENTS

2008-10-24T13:38:00.001-07:00

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

2008-10-24T13:37:00.000-07:00

WORKSHOPS

2008-10-24T13:35:00.000-07:00

Here we will imagine incredible workshops and those who facilitate them toward a deeper understanding of links between love, eros & education.

WORKSHOP ONE: PAIR STARE led by Maritza Mosquera

In this workshop, participants will practice falling in love with one another through prolonged and facilitated staring experiences.

KEY NOTE SPEAKERS

2008-10-24T13:33:00.000-07:00

here we will imagine fantasy key note speakers for our love & eros conference in education.

KEY NOTE SPEAKER, opening plenary

whoever speaks as the key note will wear a crown designed by 6th graders at a local elementary school.

IMAGINARY PANELS

2008-10-24T13:29:00.000-07:00

Here we will imagine the most fascinating orchestration of panels for our conference.

Panel #1 -- on waking up in the morning

in this panel, speakers will discuss their current experiences with waking up in the morning, detailing the images and inner thoughts experienced when faced with the very human experience of waking.

a four year old child from a far away place
a grandmother who is near death
a bus driver who likes reggae music
a cobbler from argentina
an art teacher from oakland, california

QUOTES ON LOVE, EROS, & DESIRE, & EDUCATION

2008-10-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

QUOTE OF THE DAY

from Pedagogy, Politics and Intellectual Life: Freire in the age of the market
by PETER ROBERTS -- University of Auckland, New Zealand

The importance of love as a key theme in Freire's view of education and intellectual life cannot be overemphasised (see Fraser, 1997; McLaren, 2000; Darder, 2002, 2003). Freire saw love as a revolutionary virtue. 'Love' takes on multiple meanings in Freire's work. Freire once said that after he met Marx he continued to meet Christ at the corner of the street, and this claim hints at the way he built the concept of love into a theory of social action. Freire never wavered in his support for Christ's call to 'love one's neighbour as oneself'. He was, however, much more willing than some of his intellectual contemporaries to see this principle as a call, in some circumstances, for radical, perhaps even revolutionary, social change. Love, Freire shows in Pedagogy of Indignation, is often connected with anger. Both anger and love can provide motivation to struggle for change (pp. 58-59). Freire also regarded love as central to the process of dialogue. Indeed, in Pedagogy of the Oppressed he maintains that love is 'at the same time the foundation of dialogue and dialogue itself'. 'No matter where the oppressed are found,' Freire says, 'the act of love is commitment to their cause – the cause of liberation. And this commitment, because it is loving, is dialogical.' Freire is adamant about the importance of love as a condition for dialogue: 'If I do not love the world – if I do not love life – if I do not love men [and women] – I cannot enter into dialogue' (Freire, 1972a, p. 62). Freire sees love of the students with whom one works as an essential requirement for liberating pedagogy, and he also speaks of the need to love the processes of reading, writing and study (see, among other sources, Freire, 1985, 1996, 1998a; Freire & Shor, 1987; Horton & Freire, 1990).

ESSENTIAL REFERENTIALS

2008-10-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

EDUCATORS ON LOVE

Megan Boler -- Feeling Power: Emotions and Education
Eileen de los Reyes and Pat Gozemba -- Pockets of Hope
Bell Hooks -- All About Love: New Visions
Bell Hooks -- The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Change
Paolo Freire -- Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Jing Lin -- "Love, Peace, and Wisdom in Education: Transforming Education for Peace"

CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS & WRITERS ON LOVE

Miranda July & Harold Fletcher -- Learning to Love You More
Miranda July -- No One Belongs Here More Than You, "Making Love in 2003"

PSYCHOLOGISTS, PSYCHOTHERAPISTS, PSYCHOANALYSTS ON LOVE

Paul Goodman -- Finite Experience and Crazy Hope

SOCIAL/LITERARY THEORISTS ON LOVE

Roland Barthes -- A Lover's Discourse: Fragments
Roland Barthes- - The Pleasure of the Text
Erich Fromm -- The Art of Loving

BUDDHISTS ON LOVE

Mark Epstein -- Open to Desire