Meme: Passion Quilt
May 14, 2008 by Andrew
Oops. I’ve had my head stuck in dreamland for the last few days. As a result, I totally missed out on the fact that I was tagged by Rough Theory with the following meme.
Post a picture or make/take/create your own that captures what YOU are most passionate for students to learn about.
Give your picture a short title.
Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt.”
Link back to this blog entry.
Include links to 5 (or more) educators.
This one raises a question for me, since I’m still a student, not a teacher (and, I’m not sure that I’ll go on to teach once I’m done). That being said, I’ve taught in the past, so I can approximate an answer.
I’m frankly a person for whom the word ‘passion’ often seems inappropriate: while I have certain (mostly political) convictions about which I feel strongly, as far as education is concerned I’m less willing to communicate my interests as something that should be taken up by others simply because I’m passionate about them. I don’t know; perhaps that’s being too modest, or more likely, lazy. In any event, I have something of a butterfly mind, so I’m always flitting about from one thing to the next: that’s what makes being a perpetual graduate student so much fun, and so vocationally dangerous, for me.
But to answer the question: I’ve carried around a poster reproduction of Magritte’s painting for some twenty years no - and I can’t surpass the original title, ‘Not to be Reproduced’ (La Reproduction Interdit) - because I suppose it does conveys something of a sensibility that I would really hope any student of mine acquires, which is an appreciation for contradiction and paradox, for a willingness not to settle for the straightforward or plainly evident simply because it is straightforward or plainly evident. I would hope too that my students go on to become critical and independent thinkers, but I’ve come to think that’s not possible independent of cultivating in them a kind of style, a ‘learning how to dance,’ informed by a kind of sensibility. And my own sensibility, the one thing I’d hope to impart, is a kind of predilection for paradox that I think is sometimes altogether missing in my educational experiences. And I would say that such a sensibility need not come at the sacrifice of a marvelous clarity, as Magritte’s paintings render apparent.
Now passing this along is the hard part - it always feels like I’m intruding! So, no one should feel obligated:
Wicked Anomie
KristinaB
Shrinking Isaac
Sozlog
What is the What*
Hey! Wow thanks for tagging me. I have to think on this one. Your post is a tough act to follow!
ah, yes. this will require some thought. but i will rise to the challenge!
I’m on it, as soon as I’m home (or maybe, taking a photo portrait traveling is just the thing…). One question: why the *?
Jenn Lena: oops, sorry. I had added the * to link to a parenthetical note to apologize for burdening you twice in three months with another meme. But then I thought, hey! I think she’d get into it! No need to apologize! I took back the apology, but not the *, which I shall leave as a little reminder of a thought that once was.
PS: I apologize.
[thinking]
Hi Andrew, thanks for tagging me, this is a true challenge
Boy, I’m later than I thought putting this together. Partly, this is because I’m not teaching this year, and I’m trying to remember the grounded answer, rather than the idealistic one that someone out of practice is likely to give. Also, I’m in the weeds with deadlines. If I decide to pass on this one (and I’m not saying I will), don’t give up on me yet.
Oh please! There’s no obligation to answer the meme - I feel ridiculous enough as it is, passing it along. The only reason why I responded is that I’m superstitious - that my computer will die if I don’t, that sort of thing. Anyway, we all have a million other more important things to do.