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Lawrence Paros

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Lawrence Paros
Lawrence Paros Photo
Born (1934-02-21) February 21, 1934 (age 90) -->
OccupationWriter, Educator, Filmmaker, Neuroscientist
NationalityAmerican
EducationBA; MA; PhD ABD
Alma materUniversity of MA. Amherst; Yale University

Lawrence Paros (born 21 February 1934) has had a distinguished career in education and human services for over thirty years as a teacher and administrator. He has Counselled extensively and worked closely with young people from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds. Paros is known for his use of alternative education, he is also a published etymologist, a social/political satirist, filmmaker, neuroscientist, and successful entrepreneur.

Biographical Overview

Early Life/ Education

Paros was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1934. His mother, Betty, was an immigrant and homemaker from the Ukraine; his father, a shoemaker turned furrier, a refugee from what is now Belarus. Raised Jewish, Paros has been influenced by the humanitarian focus of the religion and its tradition of storytelling, humor and scholarship, while rejecting the trappings of ceremony. A product of public schooling, he completed his high school education at Classical High School in Springfield, MA and his B.A. in History/Political Science at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA. Paros conducted his graduate work in International Relations at Yale University in American Diplomatic History and Russian Studies, receiving his M.A. in 1958. There he studied directly under the noted American historian, Samuel Flagg Bemis, completing all work for his doctorate, but never finishing his dissertation, due in part to the passing of Dr. Bemis.

Teaching/Social Change

Paros discovered his passion lay more with students than with scholarly research, taking on a series of high school teaching positions. He went on to become Chairman of the History Department at Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven, CT where he developed an area-wide program on contemporary issues for high school students held on Saturday mornings.

The Perspectives program featured prominent figures from both the left and the right of the political spectrum, including noted social critics, Paul Goodman, Noam Chomsky, Julian Bond, members of the editorial board of the National Review and others; hosting the first nationwide teach-in on The Vietnam War, and creating a unique forum for controversial issues not ordinarily dealt with in the social studies classroom. It was the basis of a feature article in the Yale Alumni Magazine which described the program and its genesis..[1] Regretfully he became a cause célèbre for his efforts and was charged with a biased approach, and challenged for his treatment of the Vietnam War in the classroom, but was ultimately vindicated by the School Board, led by the then Dean of the Yale Law School, Louis H. Pollak and the New Haven School authorities.

Paros then assumed the position of Director of the Yale Summer High School, a unique project for identifying, recruiting, and educating talented poverty youth nationwide, 40+ years later, he traveled country-wide, interviewing former students and staff who had been part of the school.[2][3] His efforts resulted in the award-winning film, "Walk Right In". The film was screened at more than a dozen cinematic venues, including the Tacoma Film Festival, the International Black Film Festival of Nashville, the Doc Miami Film Festival, and the Show Me Social Justice International Film Festival. Well reviewed,[4] it has also screened at several dozen colleges and universities, including the University of WA and their TV show, "Backstory." [5] and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. It currently resides online at "Culture Unplugged":[6] "A philanthropic offering to uplift our collective consciousness on behalf of a more compassionate humanity, celebrating global cultural humanity through the medium of cinema."

From Yale, Paros went on to the TRI-RYC, The Training and Research Institute for Residential Youth Centers in New Haven, CT. where in conjunction with noted scholar and social activist, I.Ira Goldenberg,[7] he helped supervise and research the development of a nationwide network of neighborhood-based inner city group homes for "at risk" youth under the aegis of the U.S. Department of Labor.

The Training and Research Institute for Residential Youth Centers, Inc. (TRI-RYC) had as its primary focus the improvement of the quality of life in urban communities. These centers used a model that included the following eight components: inner-city location, non-institutional setting, non-professional staff, focus on self help, horizontal structure, services for enrollees and their families, coordination with vocational and educational services, and community penetration and research feedback. Paros was instrumental in the writing of the [8] for the establishment of such facilities.

Alternative Education

In Providence, R.I., he created and directed two experimental schools which gained widespread recognition and served as models for alternative education across the country — The Alternate Learning Project (ALP)[9] and School One.

Central to the schools’ philosophy was the effort to blur and ultimately to eradicate the artificial distinction between learning and life. In keeping with the philosophy of "Project-Based Learning", all students held site-placements in the community. The city was their classroom — from health centers and hospitals, to theater companies, dance troupes, and art galleries. The central goal of both schools was to return to the students the right and duty to make the major decisions affecting their learning and their life. Students shaped their own programs of study and participated actively in the governance as well as the upkeep and maintenance of the school.

The school has been written about extensively and was the subject of a provocative work by Hilda Calabro, published by the University of North Carolina Press, entitled "Diversity or Conformity in the American High School."[10] ALP was cited by the United States Department of Education as "exemplary" and later replicated at more than 125 sites nationwide. Both schools are still in existence more than 40 years after their inception.

Paros later served as Director of the Providence Corporation, an anti-poverty agency, where he created an innovative community center for appropriate technology. He was also instrumental in working with I. Ira Goldenberg on the design and implementation of a unique program for the education of community based para-professionals—those least well served by traditional educational programs. The program began at Franconia College in New Hampshire as the FRED ( Franconia External Degree) program, later moving to New Hampshire College in Manchester and finally to Springfield College in Massachusetts. Paros additionally taught courses there in the creation of alternative settings, social change, and administration and finance for non-profits.

Politics

Paros had a brief fling with electoral politics when in 1975, he served as New Hampshire Coordinator of Senator Fred R. Harris’ ( D-OK) progressive bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination against Sargent Shriver, Morris Udall, Jimmy Carter, and Birch Bayh, which was ultimately won by Carter.

Science/Business

For the past thirty years Paros has given considerable effort to the study and promotion of neurotechnology (neuro-technology), the unique blending of technology and personal growth, focusing much of his energy on a specific modality known as cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES.). He is a knowledgeable practitioner of neuro-technology, having helped design and develop simple but high-tech tools for enhancing personal potential, primarily in the form of biofeedback and neuro-feedback, photic / auditory stimulation, and CES. He was one of the feature speakers at the first national Neuro-technology Forum in Seattle. In the business arena, he was he former Vice President of Well Test Instruments and Process Instruments, Inc., subsidiaries of Paroscientific and the founder and CEO of CES Labs, and Neuro-Fitness LLC.

Former colleagues include Dr. Valery Lebedev and Dr. Yakov Katsnelson of the Pavlov Institute of Physiology in St. Petersburg Russia, major researchers and practitioners of Transcranial alternating current stimulation whose findings were set forth in the proceedings of the International Stimulation Society in the year 2,000.;[11] Dr. Thomas Budzynski, one of the world’s foremost authorities in biofeedback, Robert Austin, President of Synetic Systems whose work in photic and auditory stimulation has revolutionized the educational system of South Korea, and Robert Taylor, an expert practitioner of neuro-feedback.Neurofeedback (NFB) is a program that trains individuals to control their own brainwave activity and hence their feelings and emotions. Employing it in conjunction with CES, Paros and his colleagues taught kids with attention deficit disorder how to concentrate and focus better by playing video games with their brainwaves.

Written and Online Work

A professional writer, Paros’ published works range from education and etymology to children’s books. His published works include: numerous articles and a unpublished work on education The Black and the Blue: The Story of the Other Yale, two earlier books on language, The Great American Cliché which was reviewed extensively nationwide,[12] The Erotic Tongue (Madrona and Henry Holt and Company), Bawdy Language (Kvetch Press) and Smashcaps, (Avon (publishers)).

His A Word with You column [13] was an online favorite in the early days of the internet, the recipient of dozens of awards, including acclaim from Details (magazine) and the Dummies Daily. Declared a "hot site" by Yahoo, in little more than a year, it attracted more than a quarter million visitors and several thousand subscribers from all over the globe who received the column daily with their email. The columns later served as the basis of a two volume work: A Word with You America." and which will soon be the centerpiece of a new volume entitled, In So Many Words – a collection of essays, relating word origins to the social and political landscape and to peoples’ personal lives.

Employing words and their history as a mirror for our self and our national character, ISMW provides fresh insights about life, while commenting on our humanity, our folkways, and our institutions at their silliest.

Not your usual etymological work, the book combines scholarly research on word origins in the tradition of earlier works, such as Wilfred J. Funk and Morris, with the irreverence and wit of Ambrose Bierce’s 19th century The Devil's Dictionary.

The book is a blend of the commonplace and the obscure. Punctuated with word play and humor and a lively style, it is meant to provoke, intrigue, inform, and entertain readers as well as arm them with nuggets of arcane material with which to amuse their friends.

Bawdy Language[14] is an updated, unexpurgated, expanded, and illustrated version of The Erotic Tongue.[15] It is a sex reference book like no other. No mere catalog of dirty words and phrase, it is several books in one-- a history of sex, the origins of curse words, a sexual satire and parody, a personal body manual, a collection of dirty poems and quotes , a social commentary, and a tasteful, but biting editorial statement against the forces of restraint and convention. It has become an underground classic, served as the basis of an unconventional website of the same name and garnered dozens of rave reviews , including the late great comedian, George Carlin; wordsmith Richard Lederer, scholar/author, Julius Lester, and Reinhold Aman, publisher of "Maledicta," the Journal of Verbal Aggression. It has also spawned a small underground industry, including, two Bawdy apps: Bawdy Word Search and Bawdy of Knowledge and is the subject matter of an animated film soon to be released on YouTube.

Ancillary Activity

Paros has also served as an op-ed page columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and as a commentator on KUOW-FM, the NPR affiliate in Seattle. As a public speaker, he has had extensive teaching and lecturing experience, and in the course of promoting his earlier works, has been interviewed on dozens of TV shows and over 100 radio stations. His most recent creative works include three films: The Journey, the story of an immigrant’s trek to America and Walk Right In, the story of the Yale Summer High School, and a short animated film, "Bawdy: The Movie."

Personal life

Paros has been married twice. He had two children with his first wife, Linda Feivou (Paros) — Beth Paros, mother and teacher and Jennifer Paros, mother, illustrator, essayist, and author of the highly acclaimed, "Violet Bing and the Grand House". He has four grandchildren, Max, Sawyer, Samuel, and Lela. In 1985, he married Debra McManus, the mother of his son, Ben Joshua Paros. Ben is a violist and physical trainer in Bellingham, WA. His brother Jerry, is the founder and President of Paroscientific. Larry currently resides unattached in a secluded enclave of Kirkland, WA.

Bibliography

Non-Fiction

The Great American Cliché (Workman,1976), The Erotic Tongue (Madrona, Henry Holt,1984), Smashcaps (Avon,1995), A Word with you America (Kvetch Press,1999), Bawdy Language (Kvetch Press,2003), In So Many Words (In Progress)

Film/Video

The Journey, Walk Right In, Bawdy: The Movie,

References

  1. ^ "Perspectives on the World by Dane Archer and Alberto Lau". Retrieved 7 April 1967. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Hope of '60s has lesson for today by Jerry Large". Retrieved 7 February 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ "Open doors, and you'll open minds by Jerry Large, Seattle Times". Retrieved 23 April 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ "Walk Right In: Yale Summer High School - Reviews by David Davis, et al". Retrieved 18 March 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "Walk Right In, backstory UW". Retrieved 14 November 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ "Walk Right In: Yale Summer High School – by Culture Unplugged etc". Retrieved 28 April 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "About IRA GOLDENBERG by Yusl Dorinson" (PDF). Retrieved 7 November 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ "ERIC Manual, L. Paros, et al". Retrieved 23 September 1971. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ "The Alternate Learning Project (ALP) by Charles B. Kenyon, Overview of a Model High School in Providence, Rhode Island". Retrieved 13 October 1979. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ "Diversity or Conformity in the American High School by Hilda Calabro, University of NC". Retrieved 03 December 1972. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ "Non-Invasive Electrostimulation of the Brain Antinociceptive System as Method of FES, Valery P. Lebedev" (PDF). Retrieved September 2000. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ "The Great American Cliché Review, The Nashua Telegraph, by John Shrurr". Retrieved 02 August 1976. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ "A Word With You by Peter Lewis, Seattle Times". Retrieved 21 December 1997. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ Parvaz, D (20 August 2003). "'Bawdy Language' makes a case". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
  15. ^ "Erotic Tongue by Mike Henderson, Everett Herald". Retrieved 23 December 1984. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

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