Matt! You've done it again. This is such an excellent piece. It's so very much inline with all the things I've been thinking about recently. Casey and I have taken to leaving our phones far away as often as we can, and the conversations we have and hypothesizing we do are so much more creative and better for it. Thanks for reminding me of the beauty of wonder.
As a retired public school teacher, I also lay some of the responsibility on statewide high stakes testing. After No Child Left Behind when states started implementing high stakes testing, school curricula started changing. That’s when all that “teaching to the test” furor began. With that as an antecedent the new trend to AI and chat bots is like a disastrous perfect storm for education.
I happen to have been thinking about this a lot lately. I’m reading a memoir about childhood by Annie Dillard. She writes something that seems, at first glance, to contradict your argument: “Young children have no sense of wonder. They bewilder well, but few things surprise them. All of it is new to young children, after all, and equally gratuitous.”
Maybe what we can learn from kids is actually to NOT be in wonder. Instead, to treat wondrous things as accessible and interesting. Maybe wonder is actually an obstacle that keeps adults from engaging with the world. Awe-inspiring things are too big or overwhelming to be meaningfully engaged in. This is why I liked the facts you ended with. They’re more tangible.
Such a great post -- I was far more into Middle Earth than Adams's Hitchhiker's in childhood, but I have stolen his "the answer to the universe is 42" and kept that as my "age" when asked. Keeps my brain feeling young (that was a good year for me anyway) if not my body! Anyway this is what I picked up "When we allow ourselves to stay in that place of not knowing, when we pause before skipping to the answer, our brains actually get better at learning" -- so true. BUT I am finding today that people allow themselves to stay in a place of *ignorance* or *no, that's not true* after being fed propaganda. It's why we are where we are, seemingly, in the US political status. IF ONLY our kids were taught like in FINLAND, to delve into truth/untruths! And I also agree with Bananies's comment about "teaching to the test" (15 years as a sub, and I could still see the difference!) -- and don't even get me started on AI and chat bots!!! AUUUGH.
Matt! You've done it again. This is such an excellent piece. It's so very much inline with all the things I've been thinking about recently. Casey and I have taken to leaving our phones far away as often as we can, and the conversations we have and hypothesizing we do are so much more creative and better for it. Thanks for reminding me of the beauty of wonder.
You’re welcome and let me know when you guys reach the point of wanting to get rid of your phones entirely. That’s where I am.
As a retired public school teacher, I also lay some of the responsibility on statewide high stakes testing. After No Child Left Behind when states started implementing high stakes testing, school curricula started changing. That’s when all that “teaching to the test” furor began. With that as an antecedent the new trend to AI and chat bots is like a disastrous perfect storm for education.
I loved this. Thank you!
I happen to have been thinking about this a lot lately. I’m reading a memoir about childhood by Annie Dillard. She writes something that seems, at first glance, to contradict your argument: “Young children have no sense of wonder. They bewilder well, but few things surprise them. All of it is new to young children, after all, and equally gratuitous.”
Maybe what we can learn from kids is actually to NOT be in wonder. Instead, to treat wondrous things as accessible and interesting. Maybe wonder is actually an obstacle that keeps adults from engaging with the world. Awe-inspiring things are too big or overwhelming to be meaningfully engaged in. This is why I liked the facts you ended with. They’re more tangible.
Such a great post -- I was far more into Middle Earth than Adams's Hitchhiker's in childhood, but I have stolen his "the answer to the universe is 42" and kept that as my "age" when asked. Keeps my brain feeling young (that was a good year for me anyway) if not my body! Anyway this is what I picked up "When we allow ourselves to stay in that place of not knowing, when we pause before skipping to the answer, our brains actually get better at learning" -- so true. BUT I am finding today that people allow themselves to stay in a place of *ignorance* or *no, that's not true* after being fed propaganda. It's why we are where we are, seemingly, in the US political status. IF ONLY our kids were taught like in FINLAND, to delve into truth/untruths! And I also agree with Bananies's comment about "teaching to the test" (15 years as a sub, and I could still see the difference!) -- and don't even get me started on AI and chat bots!!! AUUUGH.