Sunday Morning Musings From The Thought Tub

There are a lot of “C” words that are connected to being a good teacher (and maybe a good human being?) - compassion, courage, cooperation, community. But the most important, in my opinion, is curiosity.

Holding on to your curiosity in the face of the many forces, including school, that try to program it out of us is no mean feat. And, perhaps, it is the root of many of the other “C” words mentioned above.

Curiosity is both humbling and awe-inspiring. And, like so many things, it is paradoxical in nature.

Tom Lutz, in a piece I listened to yesterday, describes it this way:

“This is the paradoxical nature of a literary education - we read because we don’t know and what we learn is that there is much more that we don’t know than we had guessed. The unknowable points at a real emotion and committed readers get hooked on this feeling. It is a legitimate emotion. In part because, no matter how much we know, the world remains a foreign thing and as such a ‘marvel to the spirit.’ Reading is a sure-fire means of encountering that marvellous unknown. And the more difficult the text…the more certain it is that we will be rewarded with the vastness of our unknowing.” 

“Knowing” is limiting (another paradox?). Especially in a world where so much of what we “knew” has been uprooted. But rather than being afraid of this unknown, as many suggest, get curious. 

The Abyss of Possibility Awaits.