Thinking About Learning

I always spend a little time during the Thanksgiving holidays reflecting upon my many blessings. This year in addition to the traditional thoughts of family, friends, good health, an appreciation of the Divine, and meaningful work, I also found myself feeling very thankful for the gifts found in nature. Enjoying the beauty of our world has always been an important part of my life. Staying connected with Mother Earth somehow helps me stay connected with myself in a deeply profound way.

Yesterday I spent Thanksgiving Day at my parents’ home with the rest of my family. After recovering from over-partaking of the family Thanksgiving feast, I decided to take my nieces and nephews out for a healthy dose of nature. My parents live on 15 wooded acres. There’s a natural spring, a pond, an unused pasture, and more woods. Out at the back edge of the property is a small clearing surrounded by trees. Several times a year I like to go back there and camp alone, enjoying the silence and solitude. My nieces and nephews, ages ranging from 8-15 years old, had never been out as far as my campsite. In a rare occurrence, it had rained the day before. My dad said that the pond area would be too muddy to walk around, so we’d need to drive around the road and go in the back way. I loaded the kids into his old fishing van, along with some dry fire wood, some home-made marshmallow skewers, and all the makings for s’mores.

As we drove through the pasture, headed into the woods, and went up the little hill that led to my campsite, I saw an amazing Thanksgiving gift. Perched on a bended branch in the middle my woodland wonderland was a huge wild turkey! I put on the brakes and called my nieces and nephews to crowd to the front windshield to view this amazing sight. They had never before seen a wild turkey, and we were all genuinely filled with awe. Knowing that resuming the drive into the woods would break the magical spell of the moment, I reluctantly shifted from park to drive and stepped on the gas. Immediately, the turkey took flight, and to our complete surprise and delight, four more turkeys had been standing on the ground, hidden from our view. In the span of a minute, one by one, they took to the air. Five wild turkeys taking flight on Thanksgiving Day! It was a gift of nature that we will never forget.

Our spirits were soaring just like those wild turkeys, but as is always the case, reality has a way of pulling us back down. As I accelerated up that muddy hill, my front tires began spinning in the mud. Realizing that I was unable to go up, I shifted to reverse thinking that if I could roll back down to the level pasture, I could restart up the little hill and probably make it if I didn’t pause half-way up this time. I was only able to roll back about two feet, when suddenly my back tire was spinning, and once again I was stuck, unable to go forward or backward. When I got out to investigate, I saw that one of the rear tires was jammed against a tall stump, and the bumper was lodged on top of the stump. We were close enough to the campsite to get out and walk. Refusing to let circumstances ruin our plans, we gathered our supplies, walked to the fire ring, roasted marshmallows, ate s’mores, and laughed about our adventure.

Later, as I was reflected on the experiences of the day, I was struck by a comparison of the place we sometimes find ourselves in as educators. The view of the world ahead of us is an awesome, rapidly-moving thing, just like my wild turkeys. We see the potential of technology integration and Web 2.0 tools to empower our students to become information-literate, problem-solving, 21^st Century learners, who have the ability to soar at their own initiative. But often when we try to move forward and bring others along with us, we find ourselves mired in a 20^th Century educational paradigm. The more we rev our engines, the more we find ourselves just spinning our wheels, going nowhere, mired in frustration and disappointment about our inability to affect change.

Sometimes there’s wisdom in stepping outside of our expectations, and just taking a few baby-steps forward toward the goal. Remembering our vision and not allowing ourselves to get derailed by our current circumstances, we have the power to continue walking forward. As we are purposeful in our actions, persistent in our commitment to the vision, and mindful of the need to sometimes just laugh at the absurdities of resistance to change, we can make a difference in the lives of our students and fellow educators.

After we ate our fill of s’mores and our fire began to wane, I used my cell phone to call my dad and report our dilemma. (Yes, sometimes there is a place for technology in the natural world!) He laughed and said, “It sounds like you could use a tractor!” Shortly he arrived and used his tractor to dislodge the van’s bumper and push it on up the little incline. That old tractor was just the right tool at just the right time. I continue to cherish the hope that eventually a tractor will appear on America’s educational horizon, just the right strategy, at just the right time that will propel us forward toward a new paradigm of education. One that will be fluid, not static. One that will embrace 21^st technologies while teaching an appreciation of the world around us. Let’s keep taking baby-steps while keeping the vision ever before us!