Portrait of John Bennett in Myanmar


Portrait of John Bennett in Myanmar
Created by JJFBbennett
Digital Photo - GIMP and Inkscape

The true value of this portrait is my intent to capture identity in a transient sense. The truth of being in place and time,  meaning, and understanding.

Standing in the hot sun of Mandalay with my black hat on
Dressed in my safe tourist attire 
A visitor of respect 
Not of threat nor of contempt
Far away from the colonial lies written by Kipling
This is how I stood 66th St, Mandalay, Myanmar

Where centuries of knowledge had passed by
Where centuries of knowledge will pass by
Where in this time I was humbled by an opportunity to stand still and be silent.
My short admiration seeing and being in Mandalay 






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Melbourne to Darwin November 2019

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Melbourne to Darwin

The Shopping Centre
Not knowing whether to be scared or to be content Make your judgment Halo or devil 
We describe our persona of creepy In our religious manifestations In our children books In our stories  In our movies
Our hell on earth Permitting the dead to guide our fear and vision 


Peter went shopping In our hallowed place of transaction To think and talk about probability To keep the gate open for approved believers To revoke the others who continue to seek knowledge
Our gatekeeper of the significant fell into a moment And became lost in thought  He let his guard down  There on a humble symbol of power  Laid down to rest Control
A situation began to unfold No-one saw who claimed it
Everyone knows Key 6 was extensively employed to establish Terra Australis Incognita To support those of divine grace to access the fruits of this new world To impose those bereaved from grace and imposed to a fate of generational poverty



The moment in which Peter forgot about ke…
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Darwin Jingili Water Gardens Day 1

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COVID-19 2020 has shut down my travels. 
So that now I'm on my annual mid-year break I have the time to question my actions. My employment is based on a formal strategy.  High pressure and doing it. 
COVID-19 has placed barriers onto my normality. The basis of this blog is questioning the 'just doing it' normality within the confines of COVID-19 restrictions. Understanding my actions within confinement -  'we cannot know things as they are in themselves' (Kant). 
On this basis, I have dedicated part of my holiday getting to know myself getting to know Jingili Water Gardens. In short, thinking about my experiences experiencing Jingili Water Gardens. 
My initial quandary is that I do not know if this blog is a response of being free to act within restrictions or is it a 'just do it' reaction imposed by confinement.  In other words, is this aesthetic of my own freedom or is it that of an outcome derived by that of an authoritative decision? 
If I walk around Jingil…
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From One Penny to Utopia

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Sensing cultural empowerment And the euphoric rise of the imperialist spirit All of the romantic adventures And the courageous attacks
Surviving those deemed as inferior And observing the tormented  Then returning to refinement and grace And feeling satisfied by the tasting
Sublimity Awe-inspiring Stories of journeys into the unknown lands

From One Penny to Utopia video


One Penny Portal

Many don't believe in ghosts Many don't believe they are ghosts But they exist And continue to consume the future Through hatred, anger and destruction Synthesizing the truth in our minds Purchasing our identity Until all originality is replaced  And the replica successfully re-emerges




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Social Networking and Teaching

Social Networking is big business. Social Networking holds a significant skills set which is increasingly becoming an important part of contemporary life. Students need to learn how to effectively and efficiently employ the tools for their working life. How do students gain the required skills set whilst advancing the required subject knowledge? Social Networking has added a complexity to the teaching environment. It is not a question of open exploration, suck and see, or for the teacher to step aside and assume the role as a friend. The interconnecting role of a teacher and student should not be compromised. Teachers are the experts who set standards, who hold the knowledge required, who provide an instructional environment that enabled clarity of purpose. This is not the era for teachers to provide a fuzzy environment where students have to guess what they need to know or are graded without a knowledge of standards. Today and tomorrow demands logical and analytical communication wit…
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Engaging disengagement

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Disengaged students

If the data is consistent 10% of youths between the age of 16 to 18 are not engaged in education, employment, or training (a stitch in time: tackling educational disengagement). The ongoing cost for people who have disengaged will grow ever-increasing as society relies less on unskilled labor.


Technological change, greater labor market flexibility, and economic reforms are transforming the workplace. In Australia the labor growth sections are;

Health Care and Social AssistanceProfessional, Scientiļ¬c and Technical ServicesEducation and TrainingMining Construction  The jobs in decline are; Manufacturing Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing The Future Of All Work, And Not Just For Creatives - trends in USA: 
 “With the avalanche of new products, new technologies, and new ways of working, workers are going to have to become more creative in order to benefit from these changes.”


The disengaged ex-students have a decreasing employment prospect.
Has education failed these stu…
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Darwin Jingili Water Gardens Day 4-5

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Across the first 3 to 4 days of walking around Jingili Water Gardens my thinking evolved from discovery and my understanding of the actual scope of commitment it will take to realize a creative breakthrough. My reflection efforts have been centered on observing my thinking and my thoughts about my thinking. I now realize that I have evaded thinking about my cognitive psychology and what I bring to the gardens each repeated activity. In short, the subconscious filters that inhibit my perceptions
As mentioned in previous reflections, I am a career educator and a fledgling artist, and I am preparing my exit from educational leadership and building my aspirations as a late-career artist. The repeated activity is intended to enable me to find a difference that can help support a transformation.
On the macro, when I entered my artistic and education-based careers, computers were not readily available. As such, the Fine Arts course I completed at RMIT was in oil painting and teacher training a…
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System Leadership for Innovation in Education

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Notes and reflections  - Caldwell, Brian J., Professor. "System Leadership for Innovation in Education."Centre for Strategic Education Seminar Paper No 209 (2011): 3-14. Web. 28 Aug. 2013. My interest is in corporate education and its contextual influence on schools. This interest is in the change based mechanisms within schools. Most of the research information I have read does not study the relationships between corporate and schools (until I read Caldwell's seminar paper). Much of the reading concerning corporate change is based on business principles and not so much on public service (non for profit).

A school is not a silo and impacting change should remove rather than build silos. Many of the contexts presented in blogs, conferences, and academic papers do not consider policy and guidelines despite the significant influence they have on the operations of schools. In general, many of the impacting change-based decisions and financial project money is distributed vi…
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Ambitious Artist Ha Ha Ha video

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At the age of 60, I thought life would be much easier to understand
In the '80s, I was painting art inspired by Fauvist, Cobra and Art Brut artists
I wanted my art to be raw, powerful and primitive
I was investigating our psychological and physical barriers as they failed to protect
I wanted to paint self entrapment where sickness and resistance hid any possibility of outwardly demonstrating wellness.


Back in ‘81
When
Times were fun
As a fine artist
With ambition in mind
I thought of life


It was so primitive
From the 1860s to 1950s
They were seemingly untreatable
They were feared
There was panic
Colonies within a colony


A prison for the sick
Of appalling living conditions
Enforcing social isolation
GRIM and SHAME


A wish in time
Investing in negative sentiment
Self-sealing
Theory
Evidence
Belief


Invested in negative sentiment
Fabric and Structure


Pressed on for living
I have the need to know
Fleeting and impulsive distrust


A self-deprecating joke
I murmur in delight of my loss
I j…
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