{"id":4426,"date":"2019-04-23T13:17:35","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T18:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=4426"},"modified":"2020-07-25T18:56:51","modified_gmt":"2020-07-25T23:56:51","slug":"great-honor-and-a-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stager.tv\/?p=4426","title":{"rendered":"Great Honor and a New Book"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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Marvin Minsky & Gary Stager<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One great joy of my life has been getting to know and work with so many of my heroes\/sheroes. Even greater satisfaction comes from sharing those people with my fellow educators, via books, presentations, and the Constructing Modern Knowledge<\/a> summer institute.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Over dinner thirty years ago, one of my mentors, Dan Watt<\/a> dropped some wisdom on me when he said, “writing is hard.” Writing\u00a0is <\/em><\/strong>hard. I find sitting down to write is even harder. The reward of writing is your work being read by others, especially when readers report thinking differently as a result. Even the “hate mail” I received as a magazine columnist and editor made the agony of writing worthwhile.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

While proud of many things I have written,<\/a> three pieces stand out as enormous honors. Being asked by the science journal of record, Nature<\/em>, to author the obituary of my friend and mentor, Dr. Seymour Papert<\/a>, was a difficult challenge and great privilege. Learning later that the great Alan Kay recommended me for the assignment took my breath away. I will remain forever grateful for his confidence in my ability to eulogize our mutual friend in such an august journal.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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On two other occasions, I have been invited to contribute to books by my heroes. A few years ago, the prolific progressive author and educator, Herb Kohl<\/a>, asked me to write a response piece to the great musician, David Amram, for the book, The Muses Go to School: Inspiring Stories About the Importance of Arts in Education<\/a>. My fellow contributors include Bill T. Jones, Bill Ayers, Whoopi Goldberg, Deborah Meier, Diane Ravitch, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Lisa Delpit, Maxine Greene, and others. Many readers may be unaware of my music studies and the fact that my career began as a public school arts advocate. Sharing anything, let alone a book, with the remarkable Herbert Kohl remains a source of enormous pride. This is an important book that should receive greater attention.<\/p>\r\n

I first met Artificial intelligence pioneer, Marvin Minsky<\/a>, in the late 1980s. I cannot say that I spent a great deal of time with him over the subsequent decades, but anyone who ever encountered Marvin can testify to the impact that I had on them, perhaps down to the molecular level. The fact that Marvin agreed to spend time leading a fireside chat with any interested educator at the first eight Constructing Modern Knowledge<\/a> institutes continues to blow my mind. I will forever cherish his wit, wisdom, friendship, and generosity.<\/p>\r\n

<\/a>Inventive Minds: Marvin Minsky on Education<\/a> is a brand new book based on essays by Dr. Marvin Minsky, one of the great scientists, inventors, and intellectuals of the past century. Our mutual friend, Dr. Cynthia Solomon, a hugely important figure in her own right, edited a text in which important essays by Minsky were assembled and responded to by an amazing collection of Marvin’s friends. One of Marvin’s proteges, Xiao Xiao, illustrated the book. The contributors to this book include:<\/p>\r\n