Chapter 4: Dwelling In Ideas

This chapter opened with a poem that I did not get much out of except for the last thought...it said "AS important as what is happening is what is not". This idea ran through the whole chapter and Keene made a strong point that is really counter-intuitive to how we normally think of teaching. It is the idea that silence is as important to teaching as talking. We need to give our students time to think...to "dwell in ideas". She makes some statements in this chapter which I would like to reflect on this blog....

• "I may have to choose to dwell, I may have to be purposeful when I decide to reflect on an idea or concept-and that takes time."

I wonder if making that decision to dwell...what is it that motivates us to do that? Is it a personality type? Is it deliberate for some people but spontaneous for others? Through practice, can it become spontaneous for all? In thinking of my struggling students, they so frequently just want to "get it done". However, I have seen a turn-around in one student this year. His classroom teacher is one who has exposed him to this type of teaching...dwelling in ideas. He was really an emotionally-disturbed child who had been sent to Princeton House for part of his 5th grade year. He was an emotional train wreck due to home and family issues. But he has done a 180 this year. In writing an assessment with me last week, I told him I wanted to take a picture of him sitting and thinking. So take heart teachers..we can have an impact on our students, no matter how desperate the situation!!

• "In our frantically paced classrooms, I worry that our children don't have the time they need to dwell in ideas in silence, to purposefully reflect on an aspect of text or a social studies or science concept they are learning."

I think "How true!!!" I think we all understand what she's saying...we live it every day. And she asks us as teachers if we would be able to think in those environments?? Can I give a thoughtful response in the five to eight seconds we typically give kids? This chapter has really given me some food fo thought.

• In developing Cornerstone Initiative, she was given lots of advice from the experts for these high-poverty schools. She was advised to work in a slow, incremental manner and to start with rudimentary skills; don't use too much critical thinking; stick with the basics; etc. Then she says "If such approaches - ubiquitous in this country - are so effective, why haven't they provoked sweeping improvement in America's schools?"

What a thought! Everyone keeps commenting how our schools are failing in this country and yet no one seems to understand the idea that if something isn't working, we need to change what we are doing. But the "experts" just doesn't seem to get that idea. The Abbott districts come to mind...with the stiff and stymied protocols. Hello??!! In deference to this idea, Keene recommends that higher thinking and skills be taught simultaneously.