About Education

Over the next few months, we plan to share with you our thoughts and approaches to education – what we think it is, and how we try to provide education to our members. We recognize education has many facets, and to start, we’ll offer different visions of education, beginning with education as adventure.  Other articles… Continue reading About Education

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Lifelong Learning: Another Take

St. Dominic, Fra Angelico, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In his October 22nd blog article, “Lifelong Learning”, Bruce McMenomy asked: “What does real lifelong learning look like when no one else is looking?” In answer he wrote: “I would say that the chief identifying characteristic is probably humility, a posture of respect for and submission to the truth. Genuine lifelong learning prioritizes the truth… Continue reading Lifelong Learning: Another Take

Answers and questions

Questions are the raw stuff of education. It behooves us to understand them and how they work. The general assumption is that a question is subordinate to its answer. A question by nature seeks an answer, after all: that’s its point. But the relation is not so simple. The value of a question is not… Continue reading Answers and questions

Thinking Outside the Cell

Transmission electron microscope section of two mammalian mitochondria. Wikipedia Commons public domain.

One of the greatest difficulties I have as a teacher is getting a student to ask questions. In the modern classroom, asking questions means admitting ignorance, and somehow, despite the fact that the student is there to learn something he presumably doesn’t already know, not knowing has become a character or moral failing. Some students… Continue reading Thinking Outside the Cell

Lifelong Learning

St. Jerome in his study (Jan van Eyck, 1390-1441)

“Lifelong learning” has become something of a buzz-phrase lately, and I find myself a wary adherent. Certainly I am in favor of learning throughout life — my own, especially, since it’s the only one I have any control over. My unease with the phrase is partly born of the fact that it is so ill-defined… Continue reading Lifelong Learning

The Aha! Moment

Grand Canyon South Rim CCA 3.0

Have you ever visited the south rim of the Grand Canyon? If you come via Interstate 40, either from the west (Barstow, California) or from the east (Gallup, New Mexico) you drive north through flat desert plateau — if you’re lucky in timing your visit, there may be some spring desert blooms. If not, it’s… Continue reading The Aha! Moment

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The Parking Problem

Full city parking garage.

When we first moved to Seattle, we were entranced by the wealth of cultural and educational institutions: art museums, parks, opera, symphony, musical theater, zoos, aquariums, historical monuments.  We had quite a list of places to explore, and were excited about visiting them. But after a few years of actual residence, we realized that we… Continue reading The Parking Problem

Learning to Speak in Your Own Voice

Pupil writing at a school in Ghana [Amuzujoe, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons]

In elementary school, the questions and answers are frequently simple: What is the capital of Washington? Olympia! What kind of triangle is this? Isosceles! What is the sum of 1/3 + 1/5? 8/15! In cases like these, the teacher has provided the answers or the calculation method. Your job is to repeat back what you… Continue reading Learning to Speak in Your Own Voice

Education as Transformation

Luca di Tommé (fl. 1355-1389), The Conversion of St. Paul [Seattle Art Museum]

Conformation → Information → Transformation Education is a risky undertaking. It has the power to change us, to lead us out of one state into another, most commonly out of ignorance into knowledge. Indeed, if it does not change us, we might question whether the undertaking is really education.  When we are children or students,… Continue reading Education as Transformation