Eric,
I know it must seem like I haven't done anything for a month (maybe true depending how you count), so thanks for being so patient with me.

I don't really have an excuse, but I'll tell you about some other things I've been doing recently that relate to some ideas from courses-as-seeds like lifelong and self-directed learning and the organizational impediments to creating a culture of designers.

• I've started thinking about teaching elementary school. I have imagined myself teaching at the college or even high school levels before, but the idea of teaching children is new for me and it has really taken hold. I've even decided to do an internship in an elementary classroom next semester, even though it means delaying my graduation for another semester. L3d doesn't get credit for planting this idea (it was a friend who teaches 5th grade), but it's a happy coincidence that while I start to think about teaching as a career I also get to do an apprenticeship that has me thinking about learning, teaching and a lot of related ideas.

• I'm working on my term paper for a class about the sociology of self right now. I chose to write about school organization influences identity construction by students, so I've been able to do a lot of reading about schools and idividuals' learning.

Some of the most interesting things I've read are:

• Culture Wars by Ira Shor (corporatist movement in american schools since the 1960's, including increasingly inflexible curricula and reliance on standardized testing, disable learners and impoverish culture)
• Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks (critical / feminist pedagogy in the university)
• Becoming Somebody by Philip Wexler (schools influence individuals' identities powerfully and differently depending on how they are situated in our stratified society)
• Will the Real Teacher Please Stand Up by Greer and Rubinstein (Humanistic education, resource for teachers)