What’s a skill you consider basic, that most people don’t actually know how to do?
Something is happening to reading skills and it is not good. Not just attention spans, which are declining rapidly, actual comprehension.
As in, not only understanding the words written, but understanding the context, subtext, intertext, and metatext of what you are reading. And knowing where to check if you don’t understand what you just read.
There is so much to reading, and it’s a skill humans really shouldn’t neglect, especially in the young.
Read bedtime stories to the children. And yourself.
What’s a topic or issue about which you’ve changed your mind?
There used to be a certain patience towards ignorance. A kind of leniency towards stupidity. “Well, they don’t know better,” used to be a valid caveat.
Now, no more.
What has become terribly evident is that humans need to be wise to survive.
The stark reality is:
Stupidity and ignorance are equal to viciousness and malice, given their outcome. Abject ignorance is a serious health hazard, and idiocy is a danger to us all.
Added to that:
Intelligence is not enough, either. Empathy paired with intelligence is what is needed to keep the species alive and thriving.
You’re smart, fine. But are you wise?
Can you heal a broken heart? Can you nourish a soul? Have you grown within? Are you aware of yourself and others? Are you capable of generosity? Do you listen to understand? Have you matured enough to comprehend love?
The hard truth is:
Wisdom is not a perk of life. It is a requirement to survive and thrive.
Teaching is like stand-up, except the audience can’t leave.
A good teacher listens to what is not being said.
A good teacher is a tour guide to the world, with niche interests.
A good teacher knows their subject so well, they can admit to their own ignorance.
A good teacher remembers their students are young humans growing, learning, developing.
A good teacher understands that being liked and being respected are two different things. And that liked and respected often overlap in the best of them.
We had fantastic history teachers who taught pattern recognition and insisted on historical context.
They were big on Nothing is inevitable and Look at who’s telling the story.Â
One history teacher especially was all about Double-check your sources because liars be lying.
They took their time to show us how oftentimes the biggest lies are the ones that make people feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Basically, if something felt like the perfect explanation with zero nuance, then someone was selling a story for some kind of profit. They set up exercises so we could find the story, identify the profit, and figure out the nuance.
Rather than tell, they showed us the complexity of human experience. And, they made us think, even when we didn’t want to. They made us sit in our discomfort. And gave us room to argue our points, especially if we argued well. That didn’t mean they agreed. They expected us to take the heat if we were already trying to prove them wrong.
Were they perfect? No. They had their foibles. But they were genuine educators who were passionate about their subject and were given the space to actually teach it. Which is how we got a capital E Education, and yes, I am grateful.
