English Companion

Learning to see the real work

Profile Information

Where do you work?
The west slope of the Northern Rockies, a few miles east of Paradise.
Choose all that apply to your job
High School English Teacher, Author
What is your Twitter ID
umphrey
What is your blog, wiki, or website URL?
http://www.montanaheritageproject.org/index.php/michaelumphrey
What are you reading?
The Death of Adam by Marilynne Robinson
How do you define your role/work?
I write about place-conscious writing and I teach literature and writing classes.

The Real Work

Michael Umphrey's Books:
Nonfiction: The Power of Community-Centered Education: Teaching as a Craft of Place
Poetry: The Breaking Edge (University of Montana)
The Lit Window (Cleveland State University Poetry Center)

About The Power of Community-Centered Education: Teaching as a Craft of Place

"Umphrey's book is part philosophical speculation, part sociological inquiry, part how-to guide for interested educators. Its depth and intellectual substance propel a reader through its pages, looking for more fresh insights and examples of positive educational practice. His message...fills an important gap in contemporary discussions about what Americans should seek from public schools. What is being lost in our preoccupation with accountability and assessment are more fundamental elements of what it means to be a good human being and those elements are all tied into relationships with those around us and the places that support our lives. Gregory Smith, professor, Graduate School of Education and Counseling, Lewis & Clark College

"I am so impressed with this wonderful book about teaching and place...It has been observed that 90% of our knowledge is folklore (learned by experience) and this is the knowledge that we will pass on to the next generation. Unfortunately our educational curricula, testing requirements, and bureaucratic busywork have kept teachers and students in a knowledge-restricting straight-jacket. The Power of Community-Centered Education gives us a blueprint for breaking out of these constraints to give teachers and students a way back to real experience-based community-centered learning. Peggy A. Bulger, director, American Folklife Center, The Library of Congress, Washington, DC

"The Power of Community-Centered Education is a passionate and personal testimonial based on real experiences in education...[Umphrey] brings his profound insights on education and community together in a treatise that outlines how to create a successful model for 21st century education. This book should be a "must" for all adults who are educating children and young adults...Umphrey's experiences as the director of the Montana Heritage Project for the past ten years have resulted in a unique and important view of the way that we learn, and the way that we construct our lives from this learning." Paddy B. Bowman, coordinator, National Network for Folk Arts in Education, Alexandria, VA

Publisher's blurb:

We face an epidemic of disengagement in American high schools as our institutions fail to offer meaningful and relevant ways to connect curriculum with students' emerging life stories. These students do not see how schooling, as it is presently constituted, is important to their own developing identities. One solution to this problem is to organize the curriculum around the concept of community and to link the study of abstract concepts and principles to their manifestations in the places that students know and care about (local history, shared traditions, civic pride, etc.).

The Power of Community-Centered Education provides psychological, sociological, historical, and philosophical insights into why community works so well as an organizing principle for high school. The book concludes with a call to action for all agencies and institutions that have public outreach programs to consider how they assist in building "education-centered communities" that support the work of high schools by offering research opportunities and scaffolding to secondary education.

The Power of Community-Centered Education: Teaching as a Craft of Place

Michael Umphrey's Blog

Michael Umphrey

Financial ruin and the future of soulcraft

Since I don't think the schools we have built are sustainable, I'm always looking for people who are thinking not about reform but about doing something entirely different. I wouldn't be surprised if, at some point, people find themselves with the opportunity to move in dramatically different directions, whether they choose it or not. It would be a shame if people busily got to work repeating our mistakes.

Jeffrey Polet in "Edu… Continue

Posted on November 20, 2009 at 11:30pm — 1 Comment

Michael Umphrey

Holding teachers accountable

No Child Left Behind is a massive invitation to scapegoating. By setting unserious goals that cannot be met, it manufactures a steady stream of bad news headlines. Of course, this is manna for the noisy poseurs who afflict our political discourse, holding forth as though they were leaders, assigning blame for all that’s gone wrong with the country--after all, bad news is opportunity to those who want attention, a name, a little power.

Universities, think tanks, foundations, unions and journalis… Continue

Posted on July 24, 2009 at 2:17am — 4 Comments

Michael Umphrey

The way of the teacher: which stories? (24 of 24)

As we contemplate stories, both in books and in living, we increase their prominence in our personal narrative environment. It's helpful to have some general principles in mind, just as we rethink our diet in the light of principles of nutrition that we learn. We might note, for example, that stories that only evoke fear are not as important as those that also teach understanding. We might consider that stories that only clarify principles are not as good as those that somehow manage to kindle o… Continue

Posted on July 20, 2009 at 6:30am — 5 Comments

Michael Umphrey

Narrative identities (23 of 24)

We teach children peace in the same ways we teach other forms of conversation. To teach children to converse, we surround them with conversation and with invitations to join, letting them slowly become part of an order that existed before them. To teach them peace, we surround them to the extent that we can with the peace that we've made, showing them how it works and what its rules are and why they should care for it.

As young people proceed through adolescence, the stories they hear around th… Continue

Posted on July 19, 2009 at 7:30am —

Michael Umphrey

Two ways, one road (22 of 24)

The peacemaker learns to recognize two fundamentally different way: one leads toward greater life--which is greater connection and greater order--and the other leads toward greater disorder--which involves separation, a kind of death. What's more, the two ways are simply different directions on the same road. At any moment, wherever we are, we can turn around.

Though a society ordered by fear can progress toward one ordered by law, and one ordered by law can move toward being ordered by love, t… Continue

Posted on July 18, 2009 at 5:30am —

Michael Umphrey

Peace in a world of oppositions (21 of 24)

The hardest part of the reality of living in peace is that we need to avoid the pattern of reading conscious evil intent into the actions not just of friends but also of opponents. When our marvelous intelligence, our power to find patterns and to make meaning of events, is turned toward those who oppose us, it is deliciously easy to discern motive, intent, and ill will. We can see what the rascals are up to.

But we can never be sure. We do not know what other people are thinking.

Everyone spe… Continue

Posted on July 17, 2009 at 6:30am —

Michael Umphrey

A separate peace (20 of 24)

The sort of learning that often leads to a commitment to genuine peace is illustrated in A Separate Peace, a text that was popular in high school classrooms for many years. It's a good, teachable novel, and part of what works about it in high school classrooms is that adolescents are in the stage of life where the reality of friendship is first being explored with near adult intelligence.

The book clarifies the extent to which our friends–other people in general–exist in our consciousnes… Continue

Posted on July 16, 2009 at 6:00am —

Michael Umphrey

A Third Reality: The Way of the Teacher (19 of 24)

It is both our plight and our majesty that no one can be forced to see higher realities. We all need to be taught to see them. And only by seeing them can we freely choose them. Our plight is that we cannot simply engineer the sort of world we want to live in, and our majesty is that we are irreducibly free. At some level, others need to get our understanding and our assent to do much with us. They need to teach.

A few small societies such as families and religious communities have experienced… Continue

Posted on July 15, 2009 at 12:00pm — 2 Comments

Michael Umphrey

Decline of the rule of law (part 18 of 24)

The main weakness of a republic of law is that it cannot deliver results better than the people who operate it. If those people will tolerate slavery, so will such a government. In spite of its marvelous achievements, America's government is now deeply threatened by the distrust and hatred built up through centuries of unjust policies and practices. At this point, no one can be certain that the American government will survive slavery, its worst violation of its espoused principles. The story of… Continue

Posted on July 11, 2009 at 7:00am —

Michael Umphrey

Rule of law: a balance between oppression and chaos (part 17 of 24)

In 1786 Madison went home to Montpelier to prepare for the writing of a new constitution. He studied every experiment in republican and federal government that he could find. The problems with tyranny were obvious, and to this he added the problems with democracy. One of the "regular faults" he found was that both ancient and modern governments that didn't have strong central authority were torn apart by jealousies and rivalries among members.

The lesson of the past was always the same: among f… Continue

Posted on July 10, 2009 at 6:30am —

Michael Umphrey

The way of the judge: establishing rule of law (part 16 of 24)

The dominant story in English political history is of that nation's gradual development from a feudal society into a society ordered according to law. A key moment occurred when parliament executed a king for ignoring the law.

Much was learned along the way in this, one of the great stories in history, of how political hierarchies could be formed that protected the dignity of individuals while meeting the community's need for the order and stability. From Montesquieu, we took the idea of separa… Continue

Posted on July 9, 2009 at 5:30am —

Michael Umphrey

A second reality: the way of the judge (part 15 of 24)

"Judging" is one of those words, like "hierarchy" and "authority," that makes many moderns uncomfortable. Though this is a topic on which Jesus is still quoted, such quoting is often done in an ironic mode, which is the only mode in which "judge not, that you be not judged" can be spoken as a rebuke.

Interestingly, people who are quite bothered by other people's judgment seem not to have pondered what Jesus meant when he himself made judgment the theme of a rebuke: "Woe unto you, scribes and Ph… Continue

Posted on July 8, 2009 at 1:00pm — 2 Comments

Michael Umphrey

The way of the criminal 14/24: Criminal nations

Some of history's most compelling stories are those of entire societies slipping from some level of rule of law down to government by fear, conducted by gangs.

Germany is the recent example most familiar to us today. The nation in which Hitler rose to power was not an ignorant country compared with the America of today, and many educated people saw through Hitler from the start. But fear was widespread, and many people, thinking like criminals, thought that he was useful to their immediate self… Continue

Posted on June 30, 2009 at 4:30am —

Michael Umphrey

The way of the criminal 13/24: Criminality as an education problem

The ironic truth is that homage to the self is self-destructive, because the self's deepest desires can only be fulfilled in communion with others. A good life requires joining, of which marital union and reproduction is the central metaphor, and to choose extreme independence is to choose a deathward path.

Samenow stresses that much crime is an educational rather than a social or a therapeutic problem. What the criminal needs is to learn new thinking patterns. Earlier approaches, relying on ps… Continue

Posted on June 29, 2009 at 5:00am — 6 Comments

Michael Umphrey

The way of the criminal 12/24: The criminal mind

Some people have trouble getting past fear.

Some who cannot see realities above fear choose the way of the criminal. Stanton E. Samenow, after spending hundreds of hours working with violent criminals, came to define criminality "not in terms of crimes committed but rather by the presence of certain thinking patterns." Many criminals saw themselves in a story pattern which repeatedly led to their being treate… Continue

Posted on June 28, 2009 at 7:00am — 4 Comments

Michael Umphrey

The First Reality: The way of the criminal 11/24: The force of fear

Fear is a primal human reality. We live surrounded by forces that may destroy us. Some of these come from nature, but many come from society. In this dangerous world, the crudest of human societies are those derived from fear and ordered by force. When two-year-olds disagree about who gets a toy, the strongest wins. This is quite natural. It is close to the animal world. It is the way of the criminal.

Fear is not entirely bad--it is one of our most effective teachers. After all, simply having a… Continue

Posted on June 27, 2009 at 8:00am —

Michael Umphrey

The way of the teacher 10/24: Getting smart

Learning the right stories makes us smarter.

It is from the stories they hear, the informal tales from everyday life as well as the spectacular tales of corporate media, that young people take their plans for who to be, their sense of what to admire, their notions of right and wrong and their ideas about what is real.

What appears to be intelligent varies depending on what we think we need to be doing. The Spartans wanted to live free in a dangerous world, and they did, refusing to build a wal… Continue

Posted on June 25, 2009 at 10:00pm — 1 Comment

Michael Umphrey

The way of the teacher 9/24: Reality is a story

Emergent characteristics come into existence at some level of a developing hierarchy–they are attributes that weren't present at lower levels. A common example is that of water, which is liquid and flows–characteristics that weren't present in the hydrogen or the oxygen that formed it. The hydrogen and oxygen retain their identity–they don't vanish–but something new has emerged.

The violence of angry mobs, doing things that the individual members would not have done alone, is an emergent charac… Continue

Posted on June 25, 2009 at 12:28am —

Michael Umphrey

The writing teacher: Between good and evil

I love students. Molly has been using the "Philosophy Club"--a group on my classroom Ning--to ask hard questions this summer. What is evil? Why do major religions seem focused on evil? Was Hitler evil or only deranged? She sent me to read a website on The Tao that she found helpful.

I hope she's having as much fun as I am. I think she is. She asked for a copy of The True Believer, a book by Eric Hof… Continue

Posted on June 24, 2009 at 12:58pm — 4 Comments

Michael Umphrey

The way of the teacher 8/24: Dangerous communication

Overconnected systems
Riots are a form of horizontal communication–the exchange of information by people at the same level in a hierarchy.

Most organizations develop mild forms of the riot pattern--factions or cliques that feed each others' rumors and paranoias. Organizations generally try to constrain horizontal communications to some degree, requiring some information to move vertically. We need to get permission from the office for this or that. We need to slow down and get our reason… Continue

Posted on June 23, 2009 at 6:30pm — 2 Comments

Comment Wall (56 comments)

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At 9:17pm on November 15, 2009, Meredith S said…
I suspect the answer is no but still worth the asking- Will you be at NCTE? If not, do you accept pilgrims to Montana?
Warmly,
Meredith
At 2:12pm on November 8, 2009, Eli Steier said…
I just started reading Mitchell and am enjoying him immensely. Thanks for posting the link.
At 8:45pm on October 31, 2009, Meredith S said…
October is easily my favorite month. I'm sad to see it end, too.
At 12:19am on October 11, 2009, Steve Shann said…
Yes he did. I've had no inquiries, so I assume you haven't either. I'm happy for the two of us to just start, and if anyone decides to join in, fine.
S.
At 11:31pm on October 10, 2009, Steve Shann said…
Hi Michael,
Yes, that sounds good. October is obviously out for both of us, so how about one of us has a go just as you suggest by kicking off something on Ch 1 when the time seems right in November. I'm looking forward to it.
Cheers,
Steve
At 3:51am on October 4, 2009, Steve Shann said…
Hi Michael,
My copy of 'The Ethics of Authenticity' arrived yesterday. I'm looking forward to it; it seems to be about many of the things we've been talking about, in one way or another, on this Ning ... absolutes and relativism, modernity and values. Have you had any thoughts about how we might talk about the book in November? Chapter by chapter (there are about 10 short ones), via blogs, just moving on to the next chapter when either of us feels like it? What do you think?
Cheers,
Steve
At 10:43pm on September 5, 2009, Bill Maniotis said…
Hi Michael,

Take a look at the comment I made about Mark Gardner's post when you get a chance. (The Obama Speech...). Did I tell you I had a chance to re-read THE POWER OF COMMUNITY-CENTERED EDUCATION recently? I'm passing it along to my current principal. He's a former history teacher, and he would echo many of our sentiments. If I ever have time, I'd like to address some concerns I have with your ideas and ask some clarifying questions. But I just got done correcting the BRAVE NEW WORLD essays that my AP Lit. class wrote over the summer, and my brain is fried. Keep the faith,

Bill
At 7:12pm on August 24, 2009, Carrie said…
Hi Michael. I've finally been able to reflect on my first year of teaching, and thank each of you who gave me advice way back in February:
New Teachers: "And Know the Place for the First Time"
At 2:29pm on August 2, 2009, Meredith S said…
Beautiful writing and heart-wrenching at the same time- "we've quit thinking about education by using metaphors drawn from gardening--replacing them with metaphors drawn from war, and war's nephew, business) we've become increasingly post-human." I hope you haven't totally given up on thinking/writing about the gardening metaphor. I think there are some of us who still think that way and others who are going to need something to read when they come around.
At 10:49am on July 10, 2009, Holly K. said…
Add me to the "outlier group." I'm much more interested in teaching classic literature and structured, stylistic writing than social justice and progressive values.
At 4:47pm on July 9, 2009, Holly K. said…
Thanks for the excellent commentary in the "book banning" thread. I found myself getting pretty annoyed with the parent bashing. I couldn't think of any calm way to respond. Your response was right on target!
Holly
At 10:36am on July 9, 2009, Meredith S said…
I just read A River Runs Through and really enjoyed it. I think I tend to like novels with rural settings, although there are some exceptions like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I actually haven't read Snow Falling so I may pick that up.
At 7:29pm on July 8, 2009, Meredith S said…
Have you read anything good lately (or a long time ago)? I need a new book to read.
At 6:44am on June 26, 2009, Annie Rizzuto said…
Glad to hear the downloadables are working out for you! It's always nice to get feedback from teachers.
At 6:47am on June 19, 2009, Tim Ruoff said…
I just read "A sense of place: Making the world our home" on your blog. It is a wonderful piece of writing and gets to the heart of some of the issues I've been thinking about lately in my own life.
At 11:11am on May 31, 2009, Alan Sitomer said…
Cool -- let's be friends.
At 9:23pm on May 24, 2009, Jim Burke said…
Michael,

Hope you are well. Am sure your world is just stunning in its beauty this time of year. I thought of you today when this radio show came on today and opened with a line by Wendell Berry and went on to be about place. I caught part of it, enough to know you'd appreciate it. Here is the link.

Cheers,

Jim
At 6:45pm on May 23, 2009, KMAnderson said…
Michael, thanks for the heads-up. I'll fix it above.

At 8:42am on May 23, 2009, Daniel Sharkovitz said…
Michael,

Thank you so much for these helpful links. You are correct, sadly though. So far as I have read, they deal with philosophical issues--not the possible conflict of interest things I am in search of.

But I continue.

Dan
At 7:34pm on May 21, 2009, Daniel Sharkovitz said…
I know!

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Latest Activity

Freyja Bergthorson replied to Amy Bradick's discussion 'Student Choice or Teacher Selected?' in the group Literature Circles
I have had good success with modeling the whole lit circles thing through short story groups. We begin by working on a couple of short stories as a whole class. During this time we review literary terms, discussion protocols, different types of qu...
13 minutes ago
Mary H added a discussion to the group Teaching Texts
Stiff by Mary Roach--Non-fiction
Shortly I will be offering the non-fiction text, Stiff by Mary Roach as a whole class reading with seniors. I have noticed that several people have used it as an independent selection or group choice. Any suggestions on how to introduce or approac...
23 minutes ago
Michael Umphrey replied to Mandy's discussion 'On Teaching: Interview Questions for High School Teachers...please answer (as many as you have time for) Thanks!!!'
I agree with Clix. Which is not to say she will probably agree with me. In general I have little use for the term "professional" and find people who try to control me and everyone else by their definitions of their term, well, annoying. I know s...
25 minutes ago
Diane House comment
31 minutes ago
Carol Jago replied to Meredith S's discussion 'NCTE Resources'
Kipling's Mowgli stories are delightful - banish the Disney images from your mind if you can - but my favorites in the collection are "The White Seal" and "Toomai of the Elephants," about the boy who saw the elephants dance.
1 hour ago
Pat Keefe replied to Meredith S's discussion 'NCTE Resources'
Thank you, Steve, for posting the list. The Jungle Book comes up as free on Kindle!
1 hour ago
Clix replied to Mandy's discussion 'On Teaching: Interview Questions for High School Teachers...please answer (as many as you have time for) Thanks!!!'
I think you misunderstood me. if it costs me my job, it's still worth it - plus I really don't want to work for a district that's so messed up I don't want to work for a district that would fire me for meeting a student for lunch in a public pla...
1 hour ago
Cathy Kaska I am currently taking an on line class on Web 2.0. It gets a bit overwhelming, but I've found lots of new, exciting ways to use technology.
1 hour ago
Csanders replied to Leslie Goldsborough's discussion 'Differentiation in the Classroom'
One strategy I have used that is less obvious than groupin the kids is to offer a contract for projects. For example, when I assign an essay on literature, I offer these options: For a C: I provide the thesis statement and a list of useful quotes...
1 hour ago
Csanders replied to Mandy's discussion 'On Teaching: Interview Questions for High School Teachers...please answer (as many as you have time for) Thanks!!!'
plus I really don't want to work for a district that's so messed up. That is quite an insulting remark about my district, since you know nothing about it other than that it is small. The gossip phenomenon I describe is not unique to my district ...
1 hour ago
Meredith S left a comment for Debb Adams
1 hour ago
Meredith S left a comment for Julie Lolohea
1 hour ago
Clix replied to Amy Bradick's discussion 'Student Choice or Teacher Selected?' in the group Literature Circles
Ah. It may be more of a semantic difference, then :) That brings up something I hadn't thought of, though. One thing that worked for me was having students who weren't prepared go to another room to get their work done on their own. The first day...
2 hours ago
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2 hours ago
Debb Adams I have heard Ning a couple of times in the past two days. I'm here checking it out!
3 hours ago
Shanee Garner replied to Erica Rinear's discussion 'RTI and content improvement' in the group Teaching Reading
Hi Ms. Sanders, I teach in a tough school where most of my students are below grade level. I MUST differentiate at least 3 times per week. There are some simple ways to do this (most of my classes have 35 kids). A. I explicitly teach group conduct...
3 hours ago
Chad Sansing Cross-posted "David & Oliver" from Classroots.org re: Small's Stitches & Lieb's I am a Genius...; both plugged by @professornana at #NCTE
3 hours ago
Chad Sansing added a blog post
David Small's graphic-novel memoir, Stitches, recounts - from Small's point of view - both the secret and obvious pains he and his family endure during the author's childhood and adolescence. Counseling and art emancipate Small from his family's d...
3 hours ago
Maja Wilson replied to Michael Umphrey's discussion 'The Ethics of Authencity: Chapter 9: An Iron Cage?'
Michael, I'm really not into surveys at all, but I'd be interested to know what most people mean when they say "moral." In fact, this was the first time I tried to articulate it myself. It is a word I usually avoid because I generally find myself...
3 hours ago
Paul W. Hankins commented on Alan Sitomer's blog post 'The plan I always craft on the Friday after Thanksgiving'
Carol's suggestion is a good one, especially getting ready for a break. Christmas is busy, but we all have those moments during the holiday break where we can start/finish that book (or those books) we have been meaning to read. I have a TBR pile ...
3 hours ago
 

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