Oh, Braden! I love reading and engaging with your thoughts. There are SO MANY good lines in this post -- "I feel like I should know more now and be surprised by less."; ""it can take a great deal of experience in something to realize just how little we know.", plus so much more. I find myself thinking about your description of learning -- how long it takes to know what you don't know, the re-learning as we are ready, etc. -- and how rarely we apply that lens & grace to children. Look how long it takes us, the grown adults, to really learn things! And yet we expect children to quickly, easily, and without disruption learn new ways of acting, behaving, & thinking?
Your comments re the powerful impact of the Thanksgiving notes you sent to student -- on YOU -- made me think about a movie I watched w my husband this weekend, To Leslie. (It's currently on Netflix). It's gritty & deals w substance use AND it's also a story about grace, forgiveness, grudges, and open hearts. Approaching & interacting with someone w an open heart -- seeing and responding to their humanity, not all of their mistakes & shortcomings -- is really the most powerful thing in the world, and so, so hard to do. The stories in our heads & our ideas and notions of people affect how we interact with them.
Oh, Braden! I love reading and engaging with your thoughts. There are SO MANY good lines in this post -- "I feel like I should know more now and be surprised by less."; ""it can take a great deal of experience in something to realize just how little we know.", plus so much more. I find myself thinking about your description of learning -- how long it takes to know what you don't know, the re-learning as we are ready, etc. -- and how rarely we apply that lens & grace to children. Look how long it takes us, the grown adults, to really learn things! And yet we expect children to quickly, easily, and without disruption learn new ways of acting, behaving, & thinking?
Your comments re the powerful impact of the Thanksgiving notes you sent to student -- on YOU -- made me think about a movie I watched w my husband this weekend, To Leslie. (It's currently on Netflix). It's gritty & deals w substance use AND it's also a story about grace, forgiveness, grudges, and open hearts. Approaching & interacting with someone w an open heart -- seeing and responding to their humanity, not all of their mistakes & shortcomings -- is really the most powerful thing in the world, and so, so hard to do. The stories in our heads & our ideas and notions of people affect how we interact with them.