Learning Journeys

The graduate course I teach is generally comprised primarily of teachers. Yet I sometimes observe students that I am sure could have gotten a great deal more out the class had they challenged themselves.

If the destination in education is more important than the journey, then the choice to exert the minimum effort necessary for a grade would be logical. But when I teach teachers, I expect better of them. I expect that they, like me, believe that learning derives its value from the journey rather than the destination.

Learning never ends. It has no final destination. It lasts as long as life lasts. My goal as I teach is that by the end of class, all class participants—including myself—will value the journey of learning more and the degrees and grades that others use to measure that learning less.

 

Wind and Waves

I had a dream last month. We were standing in front of a beach house looking out at a lake that appeared to be an inland sea. As we stood there, a tremendous wind started to blow and whipped up towering waves so tall that people watched transfixed, commenting they had never seen anything like it. The wind and waves so captivated the watching crowd that they seemed not to comprehend the danger.

You were standing closer to the water than I, and I begged you, “At least come up on the deck,” but you didn’t seem to hear. Then I put my arms around you and with tears said to you, “I love you. I couldn’t bear to lose you.” And I woke up.

I know now that the wind is change. Wind can create mesmerizing but dangerous water sculptures, or it can sweep a dry path through the sea. I love you. I couldn’t bear to lose you. Please be careful.

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Tags: waves, wind, change, danger

Daughters far away

Tomorrow my daughter arrives by plane for the first visit since November 2007. Is that possible? She brings with her my youngest grandchild who I haven’t yet seen. It is hard to live so far from those you love.

I remember clearly the first time I was separated from her when before she was yet two and I was unable to cancel an ill conceived trip out of the country. How I missed her until I returned. Now I’m the one left behind.

But Monday I’ll see her again and enjoy every minute. Fly safely home, my Dear.

Android speaking

So…. I got WordPress set up on my android phone thinking maybe I could blog when I might otherwise play solitaire. Sometimes I just need to wind down with the lights off, and I can do that with my phone and its lighted face. Tonight I got started too late to write much, but maybe next time. Good night moon. Good night, waves. Good night, troubles and joys. I’ll be flying away in dreams.

Waves

Three daughters, each special in her own way. Last night I was looking at my middle daughter’s Facebook profile. I noticed one of her friends was planning to visit her soon and thought how nice that would be. Carrie’s almost halfway around the world.

I hadn’t heard from her for several weeks, so I sent her an e-card last week, just to tell her I miss her. She sent me an e-mail a couple days later. She had gotten my e-card at home, with all her children gathered around, and she started to cry. Her youngest daughter announced that she, too, missed her Mama’s Mommy and thought they should take an airplane in the morning to go and visit. It made me laugh, of course.

But Carrie has always made me laugh. When she could barely talk, she hid my pajamas in the nightstand, and laughed with a gleeful sparkle in her eyes. She made an impression on my future in-laws by hiding everyone’s shoes in a cherry tree. She was the only of my girls who could laugh and cry at the same time.

She is my middle daughter, and that always seemed like a tough spot when she was growing up. One day I just happened to see a greeting card for a middle child, talking about

Last night when I looked at her facebook page, I saw she had uploaded a new photo of her, her husband, and their youngest son. I downloaded it and showed my husband. She looked so cute and happy. Again, as she so often does, she made me smile.

This afternoon I got a phone call–a voice mail, actually–from Carrie’s father. He said she had had a mild heart attack. When I called my oldest daughter I found Carrie was still feeling chest pressure and heartburn. Last I heard, she was on her way to a heart institute. Now I am just waiting. And trying to stay above the waves.

Obama touches world’s disenfranchised

McClatchy Washington Bureau sees far-reaching effects from Obama election victory, recognizing the far-reaching consequences of the Obama election win. The self-efficacy of the disenfranchised is raised worldwide, while disenfranchisement by power structures comes under scrutiny worldwide.

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 11/05/2008 | Around the world, Obama triumph lifts battered U.S. image: Some said Obama’s victory was a call to re-examine racial issues in their own countries.

“The Maoris and the Pacific Islanders are going to take inspiration from him,” said Calum McKenzie, 34, speaking from the Mustang Saloon & Grill in Auckland, New Zealand. A U.S. executive based in Bangkok, Thailand, said Obama’s triumph heartened foreigners who’d been distressed by Washington’s go-it-alone approach after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Posted from Diigo.

Inertia

I’ve decided life is subject to the principle of inertia—oh, and that other law of physics having to do with objects continuing to move in the direction they start to move. That’s why it’s hard to get out of bed in the morning, hard to go to bed at night, hard to start a new project, hard to stop in the middle of it, and hard to change focus from one project to another—or to start focusing at all. It also explains why new habits are difficult to form and old ones hard to break. It is hard to stand up and be assertive when we’re battered, and it’s hard to sit down and be calm when we’re agitated.

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Lift

Earlier today I was considering withdrawing from the class I’m taking—even questioning if I should stop pursuing my degree. And just as I seemed to have no spirit left, an upward current of air lifted me above the waves.

Waves

Barely skimming across the tops of the water this weekend, I completed one of two papers and one of three freelance work commitments. Sometimes I feel waves rather than wind beneath my wings. But I will not surrender to the sea.

Snow

Yesterday we had our earliest measurable snowfall in history. The chilled atmosphere lightened the rain until it formed floating flake clusters that collected enough to cover the tired October grass. And although it has been melting all morning, still a lace remains in the shadiest spots, and a few sugar lumps dot the tips of the Mugo Pine branches.

And as my husband pointed out, for awhile our weedy yard was equal with all the other yards in the neighborhood, because in the winter they all look the same, mercifully covered in white.