Wow, Beverlee, I'm basking in your brilliance. I so enjoyed your thinking--both content and craft. Now I'm considering my moment. Thanks for sharing your experience and insight, Judy
----- Original Message ----- From: "Beverlee Paul" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 3:09 PM Subject: [Understand] more thinking about understanding >I was jolted into thinking about Maya Angelou this morning as I was trying >to think with Jennifer and I remembered another of my favorite Maya Angelou >quotes: "There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can >obscure the truth." I keep being amazed by her gifts. But this time, I >think I came to a new understanding of this quote. And it really proves >the point of what we've been discussing the last few days. When I say that >we all need schema to deeply understand, this is a perfect example. WHAT I >BRING TO THE PAGE of Maya's quote is different today than it was even days >ago, largely because of the thinking I've done which was kick-started by >Jennifer's initial question about main idea instruction. At the risk of >being too trite, I again have a favorite quote for this phenomenon: "Noone >ever steps in the same river twice." Have any of you ever known even a >single person who hasn't finished reading To Understand by saying, "Now I'm >ready to read it again"? I haven't. > > And that brings me to something else I've been thinking about this summer. > And a breakthrough understanding about Gardner's "It's not about how smart > you are; it's about how you are smart." > > Ellin's To Understand made me think about living the intellectual life and > our own perceptions of whether we are smart or not. I had a class with > several of my favorite teachers and I wanted to see what they thought > about themselves. So we wrote a response over a two-week period based on > the statement: "When I First Realized I Was Smart." Needless to say, we > had wonderful responses and most people published them to share. > Wonderful but unexpected - at first blush. Without exception, each person > realized they were "smart" not after they'd received great grades, not > after they received awards and accolades, not after class rank, not after > high scores on standardized tests (which these particular people all > had) -- but at some point in their university experience or teaching > experience, and they were universally being smart about teaching!!! And, > honestly, I proposed the question highly value-free and did not tie the > response into teaching at all. I actually expected that most people would > answer that by saying they were smart by comparing themselves to > something--grades, tests, etc. And NOT ONE DID. They all defined their > breakthrough understanding of themselves as "smart" during their > undergraduate or graduate education classes or during their teaching > experience. And they ALWAYS involved an "respected other," which is a > powerful understanding as well. And that experience, for each of them, > became the catalyst, I believe, to strive for understanding. They had to > think they were smart before they saw themselves as capable intellects who > could push themselves toward greater, deeper, more important > understanding. They're all about the struggle. > > I hate to throw out Angelou again, but she's just one of my sheroes! "A > bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a > song." > > I believe each of these teachers became, at the moment they understood > they were smart, a person capable of struggling for understanding who took > intense pleasure not only in the coming to know, but in the puzzle and > struggle to get there. And I believe that affects their teaching every > day in every way. They were transformed. And we remember again the > brilliance of Ellin' mind, and maybe just as important, Jamika's. It's > all about the struggle. And, if we never find the one true main idea -- > well, we've been intensely happy on our journey to get there. > > And finally, I'm coming to the reason I wanted to post these thoughts. If > any of you are still listening, though, I'd be amazed after all my talk. > > I realized the last day of class and all those papers were shared: these > teachers, these friends, these folk so worthy of respect, had one > universal: it really wasn't about how smart they were; it was all about > how they were smart. These particular folk were very, very, very smart - > highly gifted - in teaching and learning. And from that moment forward, > they were hooked. They saw themselves as capable learners who wanted to > basically spend their life continuing to learn--and they came to the right > place to do so. Education. WOW. Who'd a thunk it? > > Now comes the place where I can hit it out of the ballpark! Each of these > people, teased into thinking about these issues by Jamika and Ellin, began > behaving as a "smart person" at that moment they understood they were > smart. BUT NONE OF THEM KNEW IT UNTIL THEY WERE ASKED TO IDENTIFY A > MOMENT, sometimes many, many years later, in our class thinking about > Ellin's thinking. They didn't articulate it, they didn't even realize it. > In our discussion, they said that it was only now that they realized when > or how it was they came to know/accept that they were smart, and that it > had taken a great deal of introspective musing. But the lack of naming it > hadn't diminished their understanding of it in this case. > > What made the difference was their perception of themselves as bright. > And only in retrospect could they even determine or guess how that > perception came to be. But...their life as a learner took on a whole new > depth, along with the quest to come to understand, in some way largely > because they started living life as a Smart Person. And, fortunately for > the dozens of children they lived among after that, they were smart, maybe > not every day in every way, but smart. And it truly wasn't how smart these > teachers were; it was how they were smart. They were smart teachers!!! > Wow. > > And I was saddened by the two people in the class who never shared. To > me, that was a clue that they, in their heart of hearts, still hadn't > found a moment they felt smart. And that we still had some work to do. > > And I'm so jealous of Ellin and all her friends at the PEBC. And I feel > so cheated that my years have all passed without a vehicle to think with > the support of others. And of all the late afternoons of washing out > paintbrushes, and unjamming pencil sharpeners, and making book orders, and > filling out forms, and putting up bulletin boards for God's sake!! I've > been cheated by being on autopilot because of the sheer volume of "stuff" > we are getting bogged down doing. > > And what is the main idea and supporting details of this post, do you > suppose? You know what? Even I don't know. > > Bev > _________________________________________________________________ > Stay in touch when you're away with Windows Live Messenger. > http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_messenger2_072008 > _______________________________________________ > Understand mailing list > [email protected] > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
