Hmm-that's-interesting learning
The power of receiving the signals that connect and move us
Alone and waiting, I’m interested in the story this school’s library tells.
Like all libraries, it’s a story found in the small details, in the nooks and crannies — In display cases with a small selection of arts and crafts or collected relics. In photos of significant people from the school’s history. In framed documents detailing snippets of the school’s ethos.
It’s the latter that I dwell over the most. They send out quiet messages that are really interesting. Details like,
“A fostering of the contemplative dimensions of life …”
Hmm.
Contemplative - that gives me pause. What wonderful images that word conjures, what a wonderful foundation stone for learning.
Hmm.
I become fixed, contemplating the nature of contemplation, its relationship with learning, and how it’s manifested in this school.
Hmm.
An inner swirling of thoughts, some of them kind of wordless - more feelings than anything else (does that happen to you too?) - all driving at the essence of something yet to be known. It’s interesting.
Hmm.
Do you feel it - the near physicality of that sound?
Hmm.
A vibration, somewhere inside. Where does it go? What does it do on its way?
Hmm-that’s-interesting learning is an invitation to connect and to be moved on multiple levels. It is a step into empathy. And this happens because of the hmm. There’s a resonance it creates, that echoes within and vibrates outside, waves of receptivity crossing and entwining.
So let’s go somewhere interesting with this.
Hmm.
I’m thinking about the source of the hmm: does it comes from the kid or us?
For so much of my teaching career, I gave lip service to the former and obsessed over being the latter - being the source. I devoted endless hours to getting that hmm just right so it could broadcast loud and clear. My expectation was the kids would tune in. Me, and the thing I offered - that was the only interesting thing worth tuning in to.
Ugh.
Human communication takes place via waves. - Andrea Moro
But slowly, and then suddenly, I learned that I should be tuning in too. This realisation eventually made learning a process of interplay, both me and the kids transmitting and receiving, waves of interest passing between. This didn’t just impact my brain, it also impacted my body and emotions. It moved me.
I’ve thought quite a bit about why, and I think it’s got to do with the similarity between sound and brain waves.
A sound wave is the movement of molecules. As they move, they create vibrations that displace the molecules they move through. It’s this that creates the sound.
But that’s only half of what happened to me, because the hmm is an inner sound; it’s not physical in the way a sound wave is. It’s mantra-like. And this is interesting because one of the key features of a mantra is how the vibration it creates impacts how the individual thinks and feels.
But how exactly does that work? Sound waves are external, and they travel through things. It’s easy to get the concept of vibration and displacement when things are physical. For our hmm to work, there must be a way in which a non-sound converts into a sound-like thing.
Good news, dear reader. Scientists have found that inner speech generates electrical waves in the brain that mirror sound waves. They move. They vibrate. They displace.
Displacement changes things. Do we notice? I certainly didn’t early in my career. I wasn’t attuned enough to notice.
“Radio, the voice that enchants.” - Umberto Eco.
For radio waves to be turned into sound, a receiver is required. It’s that which makes sense of the incoming signals. Depending on what it’s tuned in to, certain waves will be heard and others not. Despite existing, they’re not picked up and remain unheard.
When I was obsessed with being the source of the hmm - with being the transmitter - I was only picking up a narrow band of the signals that existed in my classroom. Things only changed when I in widened the spectrum and became attuned to more than a select (favourite and soothing) band.
Because here’s the thing. Those other signals, the ones you’re not tuning into, will move you in different ways. Different parts of your intellectual and emotional landscape will be displaced.
What I’m getting at here is this: you are not just a transmitter. You are also a receiver, capable of tuning in to a broad spectrum of messages coming from your learners. Can you open yourself to that?
If you can, the possibilities for learning and how you approach it will be transformed because of the transformation that takes place in you.
Vivian Paley, in her wonderful book Bad Guys Don’t Have Birthdays, speaks of the transformation that occurred for her when she tuned in and started to be a receiver of signals, not the transmitter:
“An astonishing marketplace of ideas flourished in the kindergarten classroom, and I was just beginning to sample its wares.”
Think about what’s revealed to her - something “astonishing”. Tuning in to the kids revealed something exceptional and dazzling, yet unexpected, something she wanted to “sample” and thus participate in. It’s a wonderful combo that, one that is fertile ground for enchantment.
What a fabulous gift, to be enchanted by the kids. All sorts of wonderful things spring from that feeling: an excitement about what is possible, a deep care for them as individuals, a keen interest in what they’re doing. They, and their learning, become precious treasures you’ll do your utmost to become and remain a guardian of.
You know you’re getting there when you start to observe the kids and have hmm-that’s-interesting moments.
This is when your real work begins. It’s easy to open your eyes and ears to a broader spectrum of signals from your learners. To start listening, in other words, and perhaps even observe. But as you tune in, you’ll become conscious of more than the different things you’ll start to hear. You’ll start to become conscious of the things inside of you that are being displaced. These inner vibrations can be the hardest to tune into, for they will reveal things about you that you may not want to hear. But you have to face them, otherwise you’ll never vibrate at a different frequency.
Nel Noddings:
“as the carer attends, she is likely to undergo motivational displacement; that is, her motive energy will begin to flow toward the needs and objectives of the cared-for.” [Read the full article »]
Becoming enchanted by the learner will displace your emotional and intellectual orientation. And so, the question must be, are the waves you’re tuning into letting you hmm at a vibrational frequency that offers the possibility of enchantment? If they aren’t, turn the dial. Get receptive to other signals on the spectrum.
When you close your eyes and think back to what you dreamed of when you started out in education, is this it?
Wow! That resonates with me in regard to caring for my mother at the moment...as well as learning in te reo Māori exclusively. It can be disorienting at first but if you can surrender a little bit at a time, it becomes compelling and invigorating! Ngā mihi, Bevan!