I think Bev's post so clearly exemplifies what I mean when I talk about the broadest definition of an intellectual. If you aren't living an intellectual life, I don't know who is!! You're waaaaay inside the Venn diagram, Bev, and I have to thank you for basically affirming what I'm trying to argue in the book!!
Again, I don't know what it matters who we label as an intellectual as much as it is important that each educator sees him/herself as a model of what it is to live an intellectual life - a life that is, in Bev's words "searingly interested. . . . " Thanks, Bev. ellin RESPONSE: I wish I didn't, but I feel compelled to respond because this post (after reading the book) caused a flood of mixed feelings on my part. I feel like I'm about to reveal myself to The Lonely Hearts Club (that happens to be on the Net!). In the space of a couple of months, I reread Regie (Teaching Essentials) and then Ellin, and heard them talking about what is, to me, a WELL-ROUNDED life. Okay, more from Regie. I'm one of the people who are stuck outside the Venn diagram. I don't fit in either circle, and I certainly don't fit in the intersection of those who lead an intellectual, well-rounded life! If I lived a well-rounded life, I would relate to Ellin's experiences with art or know the names of early feminists or how much the war has cost us to date or why Michael Jackson is actually a better dancer than Fred Astaire or be able to compare and contrast major and minor religions in the world. Or maybe invent a classroom pencil sharpener and stapler that work!! You see, I am so poorly rounded that I can't even think of what it is I should know. :-( Intellectual? I don't know. Not that circle either, I'm afraid. I was a fairly good college student (go UNC, Ellin!), but only if you count grades as defining good. Thinking? Not so much. I was a fairly good graduate student, but only if you compare me to the people around me, not to the real thinkers of the profession. I'm a fairly good reader...but I probably couldn't pass an AR test. A fairly good writer...but I have nothing to say that anyone would want to read. So here I am slouching around the Venn circles, looking in at you all. But here's the deal - I am searingly interested in human learning, especially in children, but in us all. To say it fascinates me misrepresents and underemphasizes my drive to know and TO UNDERSTAND. My own children once drew a cartoon of me with a section of my skull removed and there was my right brain, but it was so small that they had to draw an arrow to it, labeling it. The left side of my brain filled the rest of my skull and I was probably hydrocephalic as well. It was not sympathetic to the one who created and birthed them, for sure! >From Sylvia Ashton-Warner to Ellin Keene - I am endlessly fascinated with peeling off the layers and layers of what we feel and see and hear until we discover what matters most to a particular learner. What is essential and what is still unseen, unheard, unknown--but possible. I can't dump a box of toothpicks on the floor and know in a second how many are there holistically, but sometimes I feel that what I think and what I know seems as strange to others. But, you know what? I am intellectually engaged every single time I observe another human being learn, so I am busy a lot of the time!! But NOW comes the real reason I'm responding to this post as well as those in the last couple of days. I don't hide my intellectual self from the students with whom I work; I share my thinking on a continuous basis. But...I protect myself from others by not revealing myself, which Ellin was so kind as to "bless." There have simply been too many times when I've been marginalized with "you're overthinking" or "don't overintellectualize" or "you're just a deep thinker" or "you're too smart." Plainly put, I feel like I know what it's like to have a handicapping condition. Barbara Colorosa says that her son is "severely and profoundly gifted." Yup, you read right. She says that teachers don't really like the Gifted gifted. They like kids who are pretty darn smart, but not that smart. They cause problems. It doesn't cause anyone else problems for me to live a literate life because I can do that in isolation. But it makes many people uncomfortable to relentlessly pursue knowledge as an educator. I once said we were pathological Sally Fields: "Do they like me? Do they really, really like me?" To think more deeply than you can in isolation, you need to share your thinking with other thinkers. But it feels like to me that those people have been drummed out, or bored out, of the profession. And, while I enjoy cute little anecdotes of children as much as the next teacher, I would really prefer to go deep, deep, deep into their thinking. But when I do, I'm outside the circle in more ways than one.... To live an intellectual life? Endlessly fascinating. To go from the great to the possible? Terrifying. Because I know the courage and perseverance that takes. So it's back in the closet I go. And the impossible becomes the possible only when I'm willing to remodel. But I've overthought again, haven't I? _____ Get in touch in an instant. Get Windows Live Messenger now. <http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refres h_getintouch_042008> _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
