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Surprise and Wonder: An Education of Potentiality
February 22, 2022
I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
-Pablo Picasso
-Pablo Picasso
As I mentioned in yesterday’s ExchangeEveryDay, I’d like to share something a bit more personal today - a conversation I had with my son, Matt, who is a professor of cultural studies. I told him about a Peter Moss book I wanted to read that discusses the ideas of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze in relationship to early care and education. He found the book and we looked at a particularly compelling passage where Moss discusses how Deleuze’s ideas can bring to light the drawbacks of the way we are sometimes telling the early childhood “story of quality and high returns.”
Moss believes that story often “seeks to govern and tame children through predicting, monitoring and assessing performance against predetermined standards,” and that it’s a “lifeless controlling of all parameters as well as working with an expected outcome.” Moss then explains that “working with Deleuze takes us light years away from this…to an education of potentiality…an education of the unexpected, the unpredicted and the not yet known, an education where new thought has the power to generate new ways of being – an education, indeed, where surprise and wonder are important values.”
Matt commented that these same ideas are ones he discusses with his college students. He believes there’s great value in thinking deeply about how we teach and learn…for any age.
He added his own thought that the “‘unknown’ and ‘new paths’ Deleuze speaks of might also be considered in light of communities that are less advantaged and marginalized…encouraging children and teachers to see value and potential in ways not previously considered.”
Ann Pelo and Margie Carter, in their book, From Teaching to Thinking, make the same argument, urging early care and education leaders to invite their teams to engage in “reflective, contextual thinking, and a willingness to linger in questions and not-knowing…Our aim is not compliance, but creativity, critical thinking, cultural connection, and co-constructed knowledge.”
Moss believes that story often “seeks to govern and tame children through predicting, monitoring and assessing performance against predetermined standards,” and that it’s a “lifeless controlling of all parameters as well as working with an expected outcome.” Moss then explains that “working with Deleuze takes us light years away from this…to an education of potentiality…an education of the unexpected, the unpredicted and the not yet known, an education where new thought has the power to generate new ways of being – an education, indeed, where surprise and wonder are important values.”
Matt commented that these same ideas are ones he discusses with his college students. He believes there’s great value in thinking deeply about how we teach and learn…for any age.
He added his own thought that the “‘unknown’ and ‘new paths’ Deleuze speaks of might also be considered in light of communities that are less advantaged and marginalized…encouraging children and teachers to see value and potential in ways not previously considered.”
Ann Pelo and Margie Carter, in their book, From Teaching to Thinking, make the same argument, urging early care and education leaders to invite their teams to engage in “reflective, contextual thinking, and a willingness to linger in questions and not-knowing…Our aim is not compliance, but creativity, critical thinking, cultural connection, and co-constructed knowledge.”
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Comments (2)
Displaying All 2 CommentsUnited States
Francis, great story, and a wonderful illustration of the power of unintended and new paths. Thanks for sharing it!
University of Phoenix/ Red Rocks Community College
Denver, Colorado, United States
This reminds me of an incident in my own life that perfectly illustrates this idea of unintended and new paths. When I attended Penn State, my verbal SAT scores were so low that I was required to take remedial English classes. The first was a traditional English class with a graduate student, but the second was actually an ethics class, as the original teacher was for some reason not available This was the best and essentially only writing class I have ever had. Since then, I have published 9 books, multiple book chapters, and over 500 articles. Go figure!
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