Testing & Grades Are Obsolete

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“One looks back with gratitude to those teachers who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the soul of the child.”

– Carl Jung

This morning I saw an ad for an app called Cograder. In the advertisement, a teacher spoke directly to his colleagues, “I teach high school English in Colorado”… He complains about having no time to do anything personal because grading takes so long-until he discovered Cograder, his A.I. assistant. Rather than teachers using artificial intelligence to help them grade, further separating the relationship between teachers and students, I propose a completely different solution: Eliminate tests and grades.

For an educator to suggest doing away with tests and grades is tantamount to blasphemy. But I believe that it is vital at this juncture in time when the uses of artificial intelligence are increasing on every front, to take a very close look at how we teach now and what the expectations are for students to come. 

The current concept of how schools should be was devised during the Industrial Revolution. We are currently in the midst of a Technical Revolution. Just as at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution there was no way to conceive of what the future would bring, in a rapidly evolving technology explosion, it is equally, if not more, impossible to predict our future. However, there are some things that we do know, some things that do fit a current and future world’s needs.  As the modern world becomes more and more divided into us and them, there is a desperate need now for building relationships, social skills, critical thinking, and empathy. 

A.I is here, it will evolve as it will, and let’s hope it’s for the best, but more than ever in an increasingly technical world, teachers’ relationships with students need to be built on compassion and understanding of each and every student as a unique individual.

When I say that our schools would work much better if we did away with testing and grading, I do not mean to suggest that we lower teaching standards, quite the contrary.  What I mean is that we must offer an environment that actively encourages learning, an environment that supports the innate yearning to grow, to lean toward truth and understanding.

Testing, grades, awards for high achievers, etc, are designed to promote competition rather than excellence, orchestrated to encourage children not to make mistakes, to be ashamed of mistakes, and to avoid them at all costs. Yet just about every professional in the field of education agrees that thinking of mistakes as the perimeter of a students’ mastery of a concept, and using that benchmark to create a better path to increased understanding, is the very best way to learn.

An atmosphere of discouraging mistakes creates a class room of children who inhibit their creativity out of fear of being thought foolish. Essentially, students silence themselves. They do not feel free to follow the rabbit trails of connections that lead to true perception. Comprehension of new concepts is a process that involves curiosity, creativity, and an open mind. It takes place in an environment of trust. Mistakes in a classroom should be  seen as opportunities to learn, and children should be encouraged for thinking outside the standardized boundaries.

Testing is too often a stressful experience that leads not to true or lasting understanding, but short term memory, all night cramming, and sometimes, cheating. Cheating (which, ironically, may entail a student using A.I.) may seem a viable alternative to failing if mistakes bring your grade down, which could affect your final GPA, which could affect your admittance to a prestigious university, which could affect your ability to get a decent job, which could affect your entire life…ad nauseam. Even if these strictures once were true, technology is changing our lives so rapidly that they can no longer be true, as we have no idea what the future will require.

Rather than doing things as they have always been done, let’s ask the question: What do we want to achieve through education? Are we succeeding in these goals by training students to test well, at the expense of teaching them to think?

At the risk of sounding utopian, try to imagine a school in which a child is truly respected. Although we cannot know what the future holds, one thing we do know is that our children are the future. Let’s stop expecting them to go into the factory of our current education system and come out a fully formed human ready to follow all the rules. Instead, let’s encourage them to wonder, to explore, to be curious and caring individuals. Let’s teach the whole child, and this means truly seeing the individual student, being sensitive to the nuance of how each student expresses herself. This cannot be accomplished by feeding a child’s responses into a virtual assistant without capability of emotion or nuance.

What is needed now, what is vital,  are teachers who are more human, not less.

When AI tears up at hearing an old song, knows the heart ache of seeing children suffer in senseless wars, stares in wonder at the night sky, falls down on its knees awestruck by the splendor of it all, the magnificence, the marvel, and the miracle of this beautiful blue spinning planet, when this happens, I will consider changing my opinion. 

“When I say it’s you I like, I’m talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.” 
-Mr. Rogers

Reading Comprehension Affects All Learning

Early Development, Education, , , , ,

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So often “reading comprehension” is  placed in a separate academic box, apart from social studies, science, and especially, mathematics. Does being adept at reading or good at math just come naturally?  Studies on the theory of being left or right brained are now thought to be unscientific.

Whatever the truth of genetic predispositions may be, I believe that we are asking the wrong question. How we learn is a complicated issue. 

One thing, however, is for certain. Reading well is critical to comprehension in all subjects, for every subject tells a story. 

Being able to understand math directions alone can make a big difference in a child’s self confidence and therefore success. I have taught many children who don’t read directions before completing a worksheet or taking a test.

These children, inevitably, find reading difficult and, rather than stumble over words they can’t even pronounce and are not absolutely sure of (equation, difference, ascending order, digit, ordinal number, denominator, expression, addend, dividend, divisor, equivalent fraction, common multiple, etc.), would rather plunge in and hope for the best.

In their early years, these same children look at the numbers in a word problem, and take a guess on whether to add or subtract. Later, when problems involve two or three steps, they are at a loss if unable to comprehend the story of the word problem itself. They will get a lower grade in math, if this is the case, but does it mean they don’t understand the math?

I admit I am a romantic when it comes to reading. Reading takes you to fairylands, under the sea, to the moon, to the past and to the future, it builds understanding of others, which leads to caring about characters and growing the mighty roots of empathy.  But reading is also 100% practical. It points us in the right direction, it teaches us how to assemble a shelf from IKEA (maybe), it helps us understand how to make up our own minds about what to believe and what not to believe-because in the written word we search for the truth, and, if we read deeply enough we can read between the lines, consider the source, and analyze and support the ideas that will lead us all to a better future. 

“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” Albert Einstein

The Lost Art of Nature Journaling

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“Our society is much more interested in information than in wonder, in noise, rather than silence…And I feel that we need a lot more wonder and a lot more silence in our lives.” Mr. Fred Rogers

Nature Journaling, a popular pastime in the late 1800’s, has, like long walks, poetry, deep conversation, and, for children, playing outside from dawn to dusk, become a quaint thing of the past. Yet, nature journaling has a quiet power that is invaluable in our noisy world.

At the beginning of the Covid related lockdown while many people stayed inside with their computers, wildlife was returning to its long abandoned paths. Dolphins were seen playing in the Venice Canals of Italy, elephants wandered African freeways, and I, here in Southern California, watched a large mountain lion glide through my yard.

Nature Journaling needn’t be so dramatic. You don’t need to observe a hundred year old oak tree. A stalwart weed growing out of crack in a driveway can be as much a subject of wonder as any other.  Bees, crickets, ants, moths, snails, spiders, lizards, and dozens of birds busy themselves in their buzzing worlds, so mysterious to we humans. And yet, within all the mystery, do we not see ourselves in each and every living thing? Our bustling traffic, our structures, our language, our need for water, food, rest, and a flock of our own? The essential joy and truth revealed to us through the silent attention necessary to nature journaling is this…we are all intrinsically and beautifully connected. 

In the next few weeks try concentrating on becoming an observant naturalist. Pause and look at the world with respectful attention, all the while creating a journal that will be unique to you.

You will not need much…an inexpensive notebook to start. The best ones for nature journaling are spiral form so that the book can stay open in your lap or on the table. You want something that won’t be cumbersome to take with you on a walk. Find the size that you like, perhaps something that will fit in your everyday handbag. I work with 8 1/4” x 6 7/8” spiral books as a rule. A lined journal can work, if you tend to get wordy, but an unlined one is more traditional. Also put together a small pouch with a pencil or pen and several colored pencils, or watercolors.

Your journal will quickly become an extension of who you are. What is it, out of the proverbial “thousand things” that you observe? Why? In addition to your sketch, time, date, place, and weather, you may want to include a childhood memory, a poem that you love, even a dream, but all that a nature journal really needs is observations. So often people say that they can’t draw. Don’t let this concern you. My experience is that when you look at something carefully, you will surprise yourself at how well you draw. In the end, it is not about the photographic likeness, or the scientific name that the naturalists is after. It is about the reverence that comes upon you as your hand and heart connect when you try to draw the details of a spider web, a tiny flower, or a feather.

There is always something to observe when you begin to look with intention. And, when children see us journaling, they want to do it, too, guaranteed. Be ready with a notebook and box of crayons for them. For it is by modeling that we teach. It is by sitting quietly that we show our children, who, through no fault of their own, were born into an ever increasing fast paced technical world, how to appreciate the sun on their skin, the silhouette of a bird against a deep blue sky, and the soft grace of a butterfly.

In Support of Writing Your Own Spelling Words

Children, Early Development, Education, Learning, Literacy, Reading, Uncategorized, , , ,

 “If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.” 

Spanish poet Juan Ramon Jimenez 1881-1958

Sadly, our institutions of learning are often more rife with rules than with inspiring knowledge. The photograph below, (a teacher’s note found stuffed into the bottom of a Spiderman backpack along with a collection of old potato chips and small rocks) is an example of one student’s independent inventiveness in handling a homework assignment.

The world needs more Charlies. Those who ask why. Those who try it a different way. Perhaps, in the eyes of authority, it is not a better way, but how can you ever know if you are afraid to try? 

Schools have become brightly colored factories of fear rather than places of trust. Fear of bad grades, of tests, of not being smart enough, good enough, cool enough…not to mention the very real fear that many children suffer of being bullied. It is time to allow all students to grow in whatever rambling ways they will inside the halls of learning. Time to encourage the true seeds of knowledge – wonder, curiosity and the freedom to explore. Schools should not exist to clip wings, but to encourage flight. So, go ahead, make up your own words. And may they be wild and free enough to address an unknowable future.

Raising Children Who Care

Bullying, Children, Early Development, Education, Empathy, Learning, Literacy, Reading, , , , , , ,

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Caring is an act of compassion. It is not simply an act of graciousness or generosity. It comes from deep inside the heart.

All children know the damage that a bully can inflict and they know the feeling of powerlessness when their friends turn and walk away, pretending not to see. How do we teach our children to turn towards, to see, and to act?

Showing your child how to be a caring, involved citizen, doesn’t mean that you have to lead a march or run for office. It is in the small everyday things that children learn. As parents and teachers we are the first role models. How do we treat others day to day? Do we show respect and concern for all beings? When we listen, share, and help, our children see who we are and imagine who they will be. They also see when we ignore, dismiss, or act selfishly.

Books, and the conversations they inspire, are great ways to instill compassion. When a child wants desperately for Dorothy to get back home and the evil witch to dissolve, the seeds of compassion and yearning for justice have been planted. Books can also take you to other places, teaching that there are many cultures and that each one is unique and special. Include books on the history of your own country, and of the world. These kinds of books will open your child’s mind and heart in ways that go far beyond what is literally on the page. 

The future is in our children’s small hands. And, as unknowable as it may be, one thing is certain, that the next generation will need courage and clarity of vision in a world that promises to be confusing and chaotic. They will need to know how to discern truth from lies and how to raise their voices against injustice of all kinds.

Long long ago a Native American chief was sitting by the fire with his grandson. “Tell me about the battles you have fought!” begged the little boy. His grandfather looked deep into the fire. “The most important battle I have fought is between the two wolves that are within us all.  One wolf is greedy, angry, arrogant, a liar and a hypocrite that thinks he is superior to all other wolves. The other wolf is gentle, full of hope, love, empathy, truth and kindness.” The boy became very quiet. He was listening for the two wolves inside him. “Which wolf is stronger?” he asked. “The one you feed,” replied his grandfather.

There is much in this world that needs heedfulness. The fate of our planet depends on it. Helping to solve these seemingly insurmountable problems will need critical thinking, of course, but equally as important, it will need hearts that truly care.

Earth Day

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“I think birds turn into owls at night.” Shane, age 4

Children remind us, everyday, to look at the world anew. As adults, do we really see, and feel, and know wonder as we once did? If we’ve lost wonder, have we also lost love? Can we fight with all of our heart and soul to protect something that we don’t love?

The sun rises on the regal trees, the elephant, the ant, the ocean and it’s joyful tears of salt, on the moon above, that gives silver light to our dreams. Silently, nature watches over us, and most of us ignore her, too busy with immediate “matters of concern”.

The reminder of Earth Day, is that we are not to take for granted our beautiful blue planet. We are here for such a short time, it is our sacred honor to revere, respect , honor and protect her.

The planet belongs to our children. We can begin to acknowledge this profound truth by making sure that our children grow in the wisdom that they, in turn, will become caretakers. Get their little toes in the streams, their fingers on the wildflowers. Show them the stars, the clouds and the birds, teach them to listen to the rain, the crickets, and the waves. Read to them about tadpoles, tigers, tornadoes…answer their questions with the dignity they deserve, for curiosity is the soul of science.

Do this, talk to them about how precious the earth is and what you are doing to keep it so, and you will begin to fall in love again. And, what you love, you will protect.

Tis The Season

Children, Early Development
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“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

—Marcel Proust

We are now officially in the height of the holiday season but most of us will not be celebrating as we normally do. We are all nourished by tradition but, children, in particular, build important foundational security on the repetition of cherished rituals.  The holidays mean parties, friends, and extended family. They mean laughter, hugging, sitting shoulder to shoulder at a candle lit table.

How do we make this year, this strange and unprecedented year, a time of peace, joy, and hope for our children? How do we rise to the challenge and the opportunity to learn to express our love in new and different ways?

I believe that the most important idea to convey to school age children is that we are celebrating differently this year precisely because we love our friends and family. We love them so much that we want to be absolutely certain that we do not put them in harms’ way. No matter what is said, children, with their innate emotional intelligence, are adept at seeing beyond words. In the innocent gaze of a child we see our reflection. Children lift us through their need for us to lift them. This is one of the many blessings of being responsible for children.

Children look to us to be their guides through this brambly world. We know, with our years behind us, that there is daylight and starlight above the densest of forests, but children don’t know this. Knowing that time will bring change and that hope is sustaining are realizations that only maturity can bring.

This year we can soothe our children by embracing the intimacy and simplicity that this time demands, by allowing ourselves to be vulnerable and, in this allowance, showing trust. Teach the wisdom of knowing that we are in the throes of something beyond our control and must adjust our sails and travel on. Teach them to understand what giving really means and the joy that comes with giving from your heart.

This year is a perfect time to try to forget our own problems for the moment and remember others less fortunate. Does counting blessings sound haplessly cliché? Try it. You’ll be surprised. And have your children try it, too.

It is also a perfect time to reflect on gratitude for what we have, not what we will get. To embrace simple pleasures – walking around the block to look at birds and clouds, planting nasturtiums seeds (they sprout quickly), cooking, or reading side by side.

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand   And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,  

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand   And Eternity in an hour.”

—William Blake

It is a perfect year for children to experience the transience of time in a visceral way. To let them know that they are living history-that one day they will tell their own children that they were part of the great global pandemic of 2020. 

Take this opportunity to discuss hardships that people through the ages have experienced, and how they worked to overcome tremendous difficulties. Discuss the importance of science! Let your children know that scientists and doctors all over the world have worked together to discover a vaccine that will help the Corona Virus disappear. Inherent is a great message of a global connection that this virus brings to the forefront. That we are all in this together (as we are all in this together in every other way, one might add) and that only by working together can we fix it. What a beautiful lesson in the brotherhood of man.

So, this year we may not be able to sit our children on Santa’s lap, fight crowds at the airport, stand in long lines at the mall, get caught in holiday traffic, or wait forever in a crowded restaurant for a table….Hmm, actually, that’s not so bad. Let’s bake some cookies, light a fire, and read about flying reindeer.

Classic Holiday Books:

The Polar Express – Chris Van Allsburg

The Wish Tree – Kyo Maclear

Great Joy – Kate DiCamillo

Snowmen at Christmas – Mark Buehner

The Snowy Day – Ezra Jack Keats

How The Grinch Stole Christmas – Dr. Seuss

Let’s Celebrate-Special Days Around The World – Kate DePalma

The Snowman – Raymond Briggs            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A3THighARU

Holiday Season – 2020

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The Importance of Reading Stories to Your Child During the Pandemic

Children, Early Development, Education, Empathy, Learning, Literacy, Uncategorized, , ,

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Reading, thoughtful reading, is more important than ever for children during this time of social distancing and on-line learning.

Deep reading is the giving up of oneself to a story, falling into the character’s lives, sharing their hopes, fears, successes, and failures. Whether the characters are wizards, orphans, bullies, hedgehogs, or heroes, we experience their trials as universal.

Early childhood experts and social scientists agree that reading fiction (from picture books to classic novels) helps build Theory of Mind. TOM is the ability to understand the desires, intents, and beliefs of another. To be able to identify with another is a key cognitive skill that begins developing early in life.

Humans, as the current state of distancing has brought into sharp focus, are social beings. Social beings who, for the sake of themselves and others, are living now in a state of modified distancing for the near distant future. But just because we are physically in a bubble, our minds, hearts, and souls do not have to be.

As the brain reads it becomes very active. It literally sparks! Neurobiologists have discovered that the same regions of the brain are stimulated by reading about something as they are by experiencing it.  While reading, hundreds of neural connections are made that include recognition, understanding, awareness, and acceptance of different points of view. New thoughts and feelings arise, as we read, that nurture our ability  not only to make important cognitive connections but to feel empathy.

Reading, because it has the power to shift perspective and encourage one to think outside normal bounds, has the power to change society. In this binary time, when there is an ever growing tendency to believe that one is on one side or another, reading opens minds and develops the art of listening.

As we are well aware, most of the healing needed in our society will not be solved by a new vaccine. By reading often to our children and, as they grow, encouraging them to read, we can, in our own homes, be part of a process of building the necessary compassion for all people that is vital to our future.

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The Palace of Discovery

Children, Early Development, Education, Empathy, Uncategorized, , ,

IMG_6968Days of Discovery – Monterey Bay Aquarium

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“The Palace of Knowledge is different than the Palace of Discovery.” Mary Oliver

As students go back to school, and even at very young ages experience the mounting pressure of being judged on their “knowledge” it is important for both parents and teachers to think about what knowledge truly is, and whether or not it can be tested, bell curved, and graded.

Is knowledge acquiring a perfect score of 100%? If one’s intellect can be confirmed as superior by “A” grades, by being able to re-state exactly what has been told to us, students might as well be on a conveyor belt that boxes up perfectly educated children and spits out discards, those who just won’t fit in that box, misfits whose report cards generally fall into the standard deviant, below average range.

I recently had the experience of watching a dedicated team of staff divers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Days of Discovery spend hours in the water with several groups of children… Children whose disabilities and special needs ranged in varying degrees of severity, those with cognitive impairments such as Down Syndrome and autism, others with physical restraints, muscular dystrophy, spina bifida, cerebral palsy…
These children, some of whom are paralyzed and others whose own minds keep them bound, were, for a short time released… floating freely in the bounty of the Aquarium’s Tide Pool, discovering the startling cool water, the clamminess of kelp, and the delicate whorl of the tidal snail.

Watching their alert faces and expressions of joy there is no doubt that they were learning, but were we to test them on their experience how would they fare? Can a child’s mind be evaluated on the intricate neural connections that are made by the scent of the sea, the spikiness of a sea star, or the ability to trust a smiling stranger in a scuba mask? Can what the heart discovers be graded? I would not want to be the one who has to decide such a complex and intimate attainment.

Regardless of age and regardless of subject, the more that we can impart the glory and the wonder of the world to students, the more they will learn. Learning is not static. Information continuously flows from one synapse to another creating patterns of recognition and understanding that build knowledge. It cannot be forced or coerced into being. It cannot be accurately labeled as above or below average.

What can educators learn from the children that participated in the Days of Discovery program? That all children have special needs, wants that are so well hidden we often can’t recognize them. Champion the child that doesn’t fit into a standardized mold. Trust that knowledge is being imparted in different ways to each child and, knowing this, to offer a variety of ways to learn.

Brilliance is often overlooked because it is defined by creativity which cannot truly be measured. Be wary of putting to much emphasis on testing, for children will universally shut down if they are shamed by poor grades. I witnessed a child at my local library the week that school began put her head down and cry twice within a half hour over her homework. Her mother becoming increasingly impatient and irritated as her child erased answers again and again. Ask yourself what will be learned from this experience.

There has to be a better way to teach in which students are seen as explorers, encouraged to float freely in this odd and beautiful world – where knowledge is not judged by quarterly report cards or an arbitrary standard,  but acquired in the soul, a sacred and individual palace of discovery.

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young scientistMichael Esgro 1991 – Volunteer D.O.D. Scuba Diver – Lifetime Explorer

The Symbiosis of Writer & Illustrator

Children, Early Development, Education, Empathy, Literacy, Poetry, Reading, Teaching, The Arts, , , , , , , , , , , ,

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One of the earliest books ever read to me was Honey Bear by Dixie Wilson (1923), illustrated by Maginel Wright Barney. As a very young child I was mesmerized, both with the rhyming story and the exquisite illustrations-the dusky velvet sky, the deep lavender shadows, Honey Bear in his rumpled rose colored jacket…

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Once upon a summer in the hills by the river

Was a deep green forest where the wild things grew

There were caves as dark as midnight

There were tangled trees and thickets

And a thousand little places where the sky looked through

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Later, as an adult, I read Algonquin Publishing’s introduction to their series of books for children:

“The makers of Sunny Books believe that books for children should be not only entertaining, but conform to the highest ideals of beauty in book-making, so that the fortunate child who owns them will develop good taste in reading and in art.”

Fortunate, indeed, I was, to fall so completely and sweetly in star dusted love with literature long before I could read.

When choosing first books for your child, be aware of the quality of both writer and illustrator. There is deeper enchantment in the reading of a story when both artists work in harmony with respect and passion for their material.

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The Mad Hatter: “Have I gone mad?”

Alice: “I’m afraid so. You’re entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are.”

Alice in Wonderland has been illustrated by many artists over the years. But, the original black and white John Tenniel drawings reflect best the oddness and dreaminess of Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece. Carroll was a visual artist as well as a writer and knew the importance of the illustrator’s contribution to the integrity of the story. He could have chosen among dozens of children’s book illustrators adept at depicting whimsical fairylands. Instead he chose the acerbic Tenniel, known for his wicked sense of humor and grotesque political cartooning. The choice is intriguing and telling.

My mother often told me the story about how, when she was a little girl, she would sneak down into her grandfather’s library after everyone was asleep and read. Late at night, in the shadows of the dark room, she was both spellbound by Alice’s adventures and terrified by Tenniel’s drawings. A fact that, I’m sure, both gentlemen would have appreciated.

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Piglet: “How do you spell ‘love’?”

Pooh: “You don’t spell it…you feel it.”

In a similar close relationship, A.A.Milne worked with Ernest H. Shepherd to create the charming Winnie the Pooh books. Together they capture the elusive innocence of a young child’s long golden days at play…the simple drawings a metaphor for the zen like simplicity of the characters. Disney’s much commercialized renditions, with their artificial cuteness that have turned Pooh from a humble sage to a bumbling clown, are loud, garish, and awkward when compared to the delicate and sensitive drawings of the original illustrator.

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Charlotte’s Web would still be a classic without E.B.White’s collaborator Garth Williams’ illustrations, but has anyone else ever drawn Wilbur, Charlotte, Fern, or the well meaning Mr. & Mrs. Arable with greater humor, compassion, gentleness, and love? This is a difficult book emotionally as its principal theme is suffering and death. Yet Charlotte’s story shimmers with hope. Williams’ tender black and white illustrations attend to the sacredness with which the author sees life and death.

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But Charlotte,” said Wilbur, “I’m not terrific.”

“That doesn’t make a particle of difference,” replied Charlotte. “Not a particle. People believe almost anything they see in print. Does anybody here know how to spell ‘terrific’?”

In cases in which a wonderful writer is also an accomplished illustrator, such as the works of Maurice Sendak, Rudyard Kipling, or William Blake, the reader is twice blessed with this deeper plunge into the original story creator’s mind. The fantastical fracas of Sendak, the exotica of Kipling, and the metaphysicality of Blake are omnipresent; as much in each brushstroke as in each word.

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“It is such a mysterious place, the land of tears.”

Although Antoine de Saint-Exupery never considered himself a visual artist, who can help but fall in love with the earnest Little Prince? The spareness of Exupery’s watercolors perfectly express the underlying message of his simple yet profoundly wise moral tale. And although I agree with The Little Prince that “What is essential is invisible to the eye”, it is often through, not only our reading and uses of imagination, but through our contemplative gaze that the invisible is revealed to us, clear, in all its squalor and glory.

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“Let The wild rumpus start!”

Maurice Sendak

Where the Wild Things Are