Today reinterated my need to stop, slow down, and observe. Taking time to just sit allows me to find new subjects. And what a breath of fresh air this would be for students. Students walk into our classrooms loaded down by 25 pound back packs, concerned about last night's math homework and properly formatting the lab report due tomorrow. how will I get home from practice tonight, and I don't understand why Ms. So-and-so gave me a C on my book report. As Richard Louv points out, and then as reframed by today's presentation by senior gardener Tim Jennings, as teachers we are not in the business of selling drills. As part of his presentation, Jennings pointed out that we don't buy a drill simply to buy a drill. We buy an end result. We buy the drill so that we can build something we need. Similarly, as teachers we don't teach the comma because students need commas. We teach for the end result, so that students become clever and competent writers. Unfortunately the metaphor of selling drills that Jennings used is an apt metaphor for teaching. After all, we've learned that the "drill and kill" method of teaching is not useful. However, how often do we think of our teaching in this manner - that students need to learn this or that concept, idea, or term.

Instead, teachers must be in the business of sharing the right tools that help students come to their own polished result. As teachers it is our job to breath life into the learning process, to let students practice and find their own way, to find their own understanding. We can't do this if we take over the process for them, or as Louv said, if we build the playground for them. Teachers must give students the space to be creative, to get their hands dirty, to imagine, to make their own sense of the world. If we don't, we take a world of understanding away from our students.