:: radical math @ flip side ::
Glenn Stockton and I were glad to jump into this event and give a free class on Radical Math.
This was an organizational meeting, as well as an opportunity to have classes. Marc is moving to Santa Cruz, having organized for Portland Free School for quite awhile. He was passing the torch.
I did a rather serious amount of writing building up to this event, posting mostly to Synergeo.
Radical Math, which uses a "backwards R" under a radical sign for a logo, is a developing curriculum that includes Fuller's concentric hierarchy. I call this piece Verboten Math because you'll find a lot of teachers avoid including it, despite Fuller's stellar and decorated career.
A lot of high hopes for humanity's future were wrapped up with these rather basic and primitive innovations, some of them pedagogical in nature. This heritage is being squandered, and it's radical to point this out.
I did my usual demo, pouring beans from one shape to another. Crystal, a new blog character as of this post, sometimes collects audio recordings for KBOO, only some of which make it on the air of course. She climbed a ladder and hung a recording device over our meeting table.
Glenn and I were consistent in emphasizing nature's 60-degree coordination in contrast to humanity's investment in 90-degrees as "normal" (orthogonal, orthodox). Our presentation was not too abstruse or esoteric. Anyone present could become a Radical Math teacher pretty easily. That so few dare to share Verboten Math is one of my chief concerns these days.
Dr. Nick joined us towards the middle of our class. He's a house guest in our "radical household" these days (one of the top five in the country). He mostly sat quietly.
Sister Walker, another member of our household, organized this event and anchored a class on event organizing. Appropriately, she wailed on the Flip Side Studio piano as a part of her presentation, as events she organizes typically include opportunities to share her music. She actively participated in the math class, drawing a benzene ring on the chalkboard while talking about chemical building blocks up through proteins, sounding somewhat like Dr. Tomalia.
Ali gave a class on Food Politics, which included a dissection of the Grunch. I might write more on that later.
I hadn't met Marc before. We exchanged some resources.
Crystal, who kicked around Eastern Europe for ten years, took a break to visit said radical household (within walking distance) and let me copy a few pix off her memory card (mostly of me and Glenn). We made it back to Flip Side in time for the final torch passing.
Carol Urner, who complements our radical household some months in the year, is on another east coast adventure. Per a recent voice-mail, her flight into DC had been canceled, she was in line with US Air at the Philadelphia airport. She'd just been through there for an AFSC board meeting.
