Positioning of the Pansies (Educational Environment)

Positioning of the Pansies

08/23/08

As the beginning of the school year looms, I have been thinking about several things, some of which may concern subsequent scribblings. However, the first concerns my garden. I have surrounded my small farm house with flowers and vegetables this summer, and as I have pruned and watered them this summer, I have thought about the many extended life metaphors that have presented themselves through plants. In particular, I have a wooden window-box on my front porch with white pansies flanked with red snap-dragons. With pansies you have to prune them back and often the blooms die back when older blooms and dying under-foliage are not trimmed back. So I peeled back some of the extra baggage carried by these and other plants. I watered and cared for the plants and yet there seemed only to be minimal growth. After some thought, I considered the position of the box on the porch. On a whim, I moved it to a side that would get more in-direct, rather than direct, sunlight. Within days, the flowers and foliage exploded. I hadn’t done anything except moved the position of the plant to a slightly different environment. And the flowers thrived. Sometimes, I think, you have to trim old baggage and sometimes it simply takes a change of venue. This can be taken a myriad of directions, but I will take it in the pedagogical sense.

Thus, in like manner, as I begin the new year at the schoolhouse, I have thought much about the environment of my room. Not only to be an extension of myself and my methods, I want the room to feel welcoming and comforting to all the students. In this way, students will be encouraged, not threatened, and thus possibly more apt to learn. In high school, I remember a banner over my Junior English teacher’s board that read, “What we learn with joy, we never forget.” And that room felt like home. In addition, I want to be more mindful this year of the positioning of students in the room. Each class has a distinct chemistry and personality and the more I consider the positioning of the flowers, the more I think that students will develop differently and drastically even if they are moved even a few feet in a different direction. I will keep that in mind for plants and people...

Cheers and blessings for a good year,

~Newton