Monday, 1 March 2004
books and bully pulpits
Lane’s had his blog for a few months now, but he didn’t use it for much until we came on this trip to Asia. It’s become a powerful tool for him to communicate with his class back in the US; he writes about his experiences on the trip, they read about it in school, and then the teacher has them do research so that they can ask him questions about his experiences. (Major props to his teacher, who’s enthusiastically embraced this process and incorporated it into the classroom.) Lane has found he enjoys writing for an audience (who among us doesn’t?), and it’s wonderful to be able to see the dialog unfolding.
It appears, however, that now that he’s started, Lane has really begun to grasp the power of personal online publishing. He’s been pondering some political issues lately—specifically, the motivation behind book banning and censorship. He’s got at least one friend whose parents have forbidden Harry Potter books, and this frustrates him.
A few days ago, he asked: “How much does it cost to write a letter to the newspaper and have them publish it?”
“You can’t buy that,” I replied. “They have to like what you wrote enough to publish it.”
He thought for a bit. “But I could publish it for free on my blog, right?” I stifled a grin. “Why, yes. You could. But be careful how you write it, since I know that the people you’re talking about are probably reading your blog. Before you post it, let me look it over.”
So he wrote. And I read. And I didn’t change a thing, aside from a few typos. I’m awfully proud of him, for both his ideas and his writing.
poisoning feeding pigeons in the park kamakura
We had a great trip to Kamakura this weekend, where my former student Kotaro Ai and his wife Midori—along with their 3-year-old daughter Yuki and their newborn son (whose name I have, to my dismay, forgotten)—gave us a wonderful tour.
This was one of the high points of the trip for Lane, in large part because of Kotaro’s generosity. In addition to spending most of Saturday showing us around, he arranged for rickshaw rides for us—which was a wonderful experience for all of us, but especially Lane.
After the rickshaw ride, we went by train to see the Great Buddha (Daibutsu) of Kamakura, which we also really enjoyed.
Kamakura is really beautiful, and I hope we have a chance to return again to explore it further.
I’m exhausted now, having finally finished my grading (w00t!), so I’m off to bed (it’s midnight here in Tokyo). Tomorrow I’m off to meet Ado for coffee in Akasaka, then back to Kawaski to pack our bags, then back to Akasaka for Dan Gillmor’s Tokyo blogger gathering.
I’ll try to find some time in there to write about our wonderful (for me; not so great for Lane) trip to the hot springs in Hakone. In the meantime, here are some photos from Kamakura.
