As individuals with the power to ponder, to read,
to use language, to think and to create we also have the power to do great and
wonderful things. We usually take these
gifts for granted and really do not think of them all that much and maybe we
also do not think we are capable of great and wonderful things.
In some small innocent unplanned ways and sometimes
in very planned ways some people do accomplish great and wonderful things. I am not saying say that our lives are
designed and destined to accomplish great and wonderful things; but we do have
such capacity.
Sometimes a great and wonderful thing can be
nothing more that providing a blanket and a cup of soup to someone who needs
them. Sometimes a great and
wonderful thing can be finding a cure for a hideous disease. Sometimes a great and wonderful thing
is to smile at someone who needs a smile and sometimes a great and wonderful
thing is making every possible effort for each student in our classes to experience
success.
Why do some of us do great and wonderful
things and others not do great and wonderful things? As educators do we provide our students the joys that come
with the power to ponder, to read, to use language, to think, to create? If we do this than we can and are capable
of doing great and wonderful things.
Imagine not being to read? Most of us have been reading a long
time and it is hard to imagine not being able to engage in all the graces that
come with reading. Did people who
lived once upon a time know how to read?
Did they accomplish great and wonderful things by knowing or not knowing
how to read?
How will children and adults decades and
centuries from now look back to once upon a time? How do we guarantee them that there will be future once upon
a times?
From my basic and humble knowledge of agriculture I
know that the function of a seed of is to reproduce itself to make more plants
like itself. With the correct amount of light, water and nutrients, whatever
seed is planted, in theory, should grow a plant much like itself. Although we all know this does not
always happened but frequently it does.
Some foods we enjoy eating today and we may take for granted are gifts from
the past, because once upon a time someone planted such seeds.
Are educators much like, the once upon a
time, Johnny Appleseed? John Chapman, AKA as, Johnny Appleseed had a dream and plan
for the land of America to be brimming and blossoming and blooming full of
apple trees so that no one would be hungry. He created apple orchards throughout the mid west (at least
this is what I learned as a young student going to elementary school in Ohio). He planted apple seeds in Ohio, Illinois,
Indiana, Kentucky, and even Pennsylvania.
Who knows if some of the very seeds he planted may still be the fruit bearing
trees today where we get our apples.
Johnny Appleseed as a kind, generous and determined
pioneer man did great and wonderful things by planting apple seeds so we could
eat an apple today. Imagine had he
not had such a goal – we may not be eating apples to day.
Do we, as educators, have the same determination
that John Chapman Appleseed had, once upon a time, to ensure that our students
today have the power to ponder, to read, to use
language, to think, to create? How
will children and adults decades and centuries from now look back to our once
upon a time? How do we plant the
seeds on inquiry, wonder, and invention?
So tell me, what is your plan to plant pedagogical
seeds to ensure that children now and in future generations, regardless of
their neighborhoods, will be able to read, to think, to create and to ponder, and
to guarantee them their futures with a once upon a time? How will you be like Johnny Appleseed? What seeds will you plant in your
classroom?
Johnny wanted those who were to live in
future not to be without food.
What great and wonderful seeds will you be
planting now for those who will look back to us as “once upon a time” ?
