Latest / The Grammar of Classical Education / Week 137: Composting with Nothing Wasted | Small Shifts - Lasting Formation #14

Transcript

Week 137: Composting with Nothing Wasted | Small Shifts - Lasting Formation #14 · The Grammar of Classical Education

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Grammar of Classical Education,
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: a podcast that examines the philosophical foundations of classical education,
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: and then seeks to help classically minded educators bring those ideas to life
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: in their classroom, co-op, or homeschool settings.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host,
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Dr. Darlene Gomes, from Leading to Wonder, and I am so glad you've joined us today.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back, or welcome if you're joining us for the first time.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: We are moving closer to the end of our Small Shifts Lasting Formation series.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: We have been looking at how a classically minded education is very similar to
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: a beautiful garden that is tended and cared for by a wise, attentive gardener.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, you are that gardener.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: You may not feel too wise.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: You are moving in the right direction as you seek to care for the beautiful blooms
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: that sit before you every day.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Last week, we talked about the wild flowers of joy that we can plant in our classrooms.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And in our essay, we were reminded that we are growing a garden unlike any other.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Wise gardeners don't spend their time wishing for a different garden.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Instead,
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  SPEAKER_00: they learn from other gardeners who may be more experienced or more gifted,
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: and then they bring the ideas that they glean back into their garden.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Not with the intention of making their garden just like the one
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: the other gardener had,
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  SPEAKER_00: But using the ideas and techniques in the context of the educational garden,
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: they have been given.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's been kind of funny as I was putting together this series because,
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: believe me,
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  SPEAKER_00: there are a lot of things in here that I have faced myself when I was in
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: the classroom full-time.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I just hope that you know that the beautiful garden we're aiming for Isn't
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: the result of me having had a magnificent and perfect garden myself?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
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  SPEAKER_00: I have just learned from many other wise gardeners.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Some I've had the joy of teaching with,
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  SPEAKER_00: some I've had the privilege of learning from directly,
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  SPEAKER_00: and others I've had the opportunity to glean wisdom from via books
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  SPEAKER_00: and other resources.
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  SPEAKER_00: You see,
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: The interconnectedness of the ferns we talked about a few episodes ago is indeed
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: a real thing.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: But in all my learning,
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: there is one underlying fact that I've noticed in almost all of the other gardens
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: that is never really discussed.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: The gardeners don't actually talk about it.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: They do it.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: They use it, but sometimes they may try to hide it.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that is compost.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
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  SPEAKER_00: just in case some of you out there aren't terribly familiar with the term compost,
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Merriam-Webster defined it as a mixture that consists largely
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: of decayed organic matter and is used for fertilizing and conditioning land.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, I'm sure some of you are wondering, what on earth does this have to do with teaching?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, my fellow educators, far more than you can possibly imagine.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let me start by asking just two questions.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: First,
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  SPEAKER_00: have you ever done something in your teaching that worked wonderfully one time
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: or maybe even two, but then you found it Just didn't seem to work anymore.
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  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was because of a particular group of students or
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: the stage your children happen to be in.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you're like me, your answer to that question will definitely be yes.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it's actually kind of frustrating.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was working so well and now I have basically had to cut it out and throw it away.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, hold that thought.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's the second question.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever tried something that was just an abject failure?
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  SPEAKER_00: You know, one of those, well, I guess that didn't work as planned kind of things.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: To which every single teacher
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: in every possible teaching situation would no doubt echo a strong
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: and somewhat discouraged, yes.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: So let's think about this for a minute.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: You have some things that you've done that have basically died out.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily bad, but just kind of dead, at least right now.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you have some good things that just aren't usable at this time,
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  SPEAKER_00: or at least not the way you thought they would be.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: You have some dead things, maybe procedures or lessons.
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  SPEAKER_00: We'll call that the brown stuff.
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  SPEAKER_00: And you have some unneeded or unusable things like ideas or plans
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  SPEAKER_00: that just aren't working for you right now.
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  SPEAKER_00: We'll call that the green stuff.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Believe it or not, you have almost everything you need to make some wonderful compost.
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  SPEAKER_00: Or as Joe from Grow It, Build It would describe it, Quote, a gardener's best friend.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: End quote.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: In the Grow It,
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  SPEAKER_00: Build It video,
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  SPEAKER_00: how to make compost the simplest easy method to compost piles,
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  SPEAKER_00: Joe describes just how simple it is to make this miracle product,
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  SPEAKER_00: which some other sources describe as black gold.
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  SPEAKER_00: It truly is as simple as As layering your brown stuff and your green stuff,
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  SPEAKER_00: mixing it together, keeping it watered and giving it air.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the one thing I hope you take away from this episode is the fact that
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: when you are growing and tending your beautiful garden of any size,
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: nothing is wasted.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: You see, we have a choice.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: When there are those great ideas that just don't seem to work,
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  SPEAKER_00: or the wonderful lessons or structures that you have
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  SPEAKER_00: in place suddenly become unusable for any reason, we have a choice.
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  SPEAKER_00: Consider us to be a failure and consider all that work to be a complete waste.
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  SPEAKER_00: Or, We can stack those things up in our compost pile,
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  SPEAKER_00: give them a little time,
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  SPEAKER_00: come back and stir them up every so often,
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  SPEAKER_00: and eventually what could have been seen as a failure has actually turned
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: into something usable.
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  SPEAKER_00: Something that can actually help our garden and ourselves to grow.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let's take a look at some of the green stuff and brown stuff that you may encounter.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: For me, one horridly wonderful source of classroom ideas has been Pinterest.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness,
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  SPEAKER_00: such beauty,
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  SPEAKER_00: such creativity,
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  SPEAKER_00: such an unrealistic picture of everyday teaching in any environment.
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  SPEAKER_00: But there are some wonderful little nuggets that you can glean if you don't get lost
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  SPEAKER_00: in the weeds.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: However,
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: when it comes to green stuff,
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  SPEAKER_00: I have amassed quite a collection from Pinterest and other social media.
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  SPEAKER_00: Does it mean that all of these nifty little ideas I've tried are a complete waste?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Does it mean that they may need to be composted for another time?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: the brown stuff is more often collected the longer you've been teaching.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: When you do the same thing over and over and over again,
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And over,
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  SPEAKER_00: you may eventually find that it is not producing the results that you want.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of become a pile of dead leaves hanging onto your teaching.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: It isn't really helping and in fact it might actually be sucking away some of your energy.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: In a moment of honesty,
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: this made me look out at the sweet little basil plant that's growing on my porch
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  SPEAKER_00: and I realize that it is often easier to ignore those dead leaves than
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: to pull them off.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Putting the basil plant on my to-do list.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, brown things aren't just related to your teaching.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: They may be hard interactions you've had with parents or students or if you're
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: a homeschool parent with yourself.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: They may be times when you feel you aren't making a difference at all.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: They may be your frustrations with things you are required to do
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: or even frustrations with weaknesses you see within yourself.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Every single one of those things can be the brown stuff that's sucking your energy and joy.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: You see,
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  SPEAKER_00: When we refuse to get rid of the brown stuff that is no longer working,
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: or if we are holding on to frustrations or negative attitudes,
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: we are in actuality withholding growth from our garden
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  SPEAKER_00: and keeping our compost pile
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  SPEAKER_00: from actually being able to fully form.
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  SPEAKER_00: So
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  SPEAKER_00: The green stuff.
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  SPEAKER_00: The ideas that are new and exciting but maybe not really workable or usable
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  SPEAKER_00: at this moment or ever.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the brown stuff.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: The things that are dead but just hanging around are all elements that may be seen
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  SPEAKER_00: as classroom waste.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: However,
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  SPEAKER_00: We need to remember that if handled properly,
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: nothing we have invested into our garden needs to be considered waste.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: That is what composting proves.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: If a gardener Can make this black gold by taking grass clippings
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: and plant trimmings,
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: dead plants and leaves, mix in some coffee grounds and add in some water?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: A teacher in any size garden can take those tried ones and failed lessons.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: The procedures that should have worked, they're Tried and true but no longer working ideas.
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  SPEAKER_00: Possibly water them with a few tears of frustration.
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  SPEAKER_00: Mix them with a few cups of coffee and create a wonderful pile of compost.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing wasted and a gardener's best friend created from the pieces.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps that's one of the marks of becoming a wise gardener.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that nothing ever dies or needs to be trimmed.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Instead,
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: it's understanding that nothing invested in the cultivation
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: of our gardens is ever truly wasted.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: I trust that whatever your teaching situation,
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's in a classroom or co-op or homeschooling,
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: that you have found these ideas not only encouraging, but challenging as well.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can listen to all of the episodes of The Grammar of Classical Education
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: I also have available a weekly teacher's newsletter that includes some teacher tips
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: and freebies.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can sign up for that at the Leading to Wonder newsletter found at darlenegomes.substack.com.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: To learn more about me and Leading to Wonder, please visit the website leading2wonder.com.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: No spaces.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to reach out if you have any questions or if you're interested
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: the virtual or in-person workshops that I offer for schools,
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: co-ops, homeschool educators, and parent groups.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Again, my name is Darlene Gomes and thank you for joining us.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Until next week, remember, as E.B.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: White said, Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.