Back to the being lost and not lost, which is a good enough description as any to explain what it feels like to re-enter a community as a returning student or come here for the first time. I’ve been doing this September thing at  Gould for more than half my life and still get that feeling. But out on the trails this morning, I loved seeing Davis’ Detour, Charlie’s Hole, Chandler’s Crossing, McGuire’s Bridge. These places and signs are references to retired teachers at Gould and provide more than sign posts to  help me navigate the Nordic trail system. These somewhat weather worn signs are reminders that guides are all around Gould to welcome you and help you find your way.

Some of the books on the lists for these kids were long and hard books: Main Street,  A Lesson Before Dying, The Sun Also Rises.  As I was working alongside them, strategies for how to get through the summer reading quickly migrated to internet aids: Spark Notes, Monkey Rags,  book summaries, Good Reads.  Because they were generously donating a whole afternoon to helping back up books for the  Tumaini Junior School in Karatu, Tanzania,  I did not jump on them with righteous indignation about reading versus reading aids.  As well, I am in the middle of my own battle with my second grader in getting him to read  his required book.

In short, I get it.  Until the American educational systems has a total recall and re-thinks its agrarian schooling schedule, summer in the US is a time for long expanses of time when you  move hour to hour, adventure to adventure, swimming hole to swimming hole. Summer is UN-scheduling yourself and summer reading requirements fly in our face, assault our independence, and remind us of routines and expectations. In fact, I am no different. I spend my summers reading what I want to read versus have to read. But now, turning into mid-August hints at the reality of September all the time in the summer to finish what I have to read has simply just vanished.

So here are the options weighed out with pros and cons:

1. Don’t do it. Take a risk. See what happens and start the year off knowing you are going to fake it and take the consequences. Since many of us in education treat the start of school as some type of New Year fresh start, this is a tempting option but a brazen one that does not position one well.
2. Half do it part one. Wait until a few days before school starts. Just as you are getting all your stuff together and trying to pack and spend time with friends,  speed read chapters late at night. On the one hand you will have some marginalia, and the book maybe dog-eared, but you will have no substantive comprehension.
3. Half do it part two. Spend time on Spark Notes–even cross-reference the quotations selected by the Spark Note guru and make marks in your books! (Ah-ha! Had not quite thought of that one, eh?) In a discussion, some points may sound vaguely familiar, but I guarantee your teacher is well versed in the points of the aids. Good effort for cross-referencing, perhaps, but absolutely no points for originality.
4. Half do it part three. Ask someone who has read the book to tell you about it and show you what they wrote. FYI, we call that cheating.
5. Schedule yourself. You could take a rigorous approach and develop a hard-core schedule. Total the number of pages needed to read, account for  MFOs (mandatory family opportunities), work, driver’s ed, packing and develop a schedule a STICK TO IT! This all sounds great and might work for some, but bear with me until my last point.
6. Make it a part of your normal routine. And with this last option, lies the purpose of summer reading requirements. The explosion of the information age has created a reliance on the print word like never before. Vital information is posted, tweeted, and pinned in vast amounts.  We function in a text/image rich world and reading is a part of our days. But, to be fair, reading books is not a part of many people’s days. Reading means for many tough going–work, quizzes, papers, reports, discussion. All kinds of stuff that might compete with the fun stuff in our lives–especially our summer lives–which is more fun. But school, like swimming lessons of driver’s ed, is about developing a skill or habit that enhances and advances one.  Reading a book, I mean reading it, can develop you as a person and to be honest, Gould’s summer reading lists have some very good choices.

If you are struggling to get into your summer reading, if you are tempted by the “half do it” approach part 1,2, or 3, I urge you to think about your day, and figure out where you could take a few 15 minute sessions or one 45 session every few days to read. If you make summer reading a normal part of your summer day routine, the whole process will run more smoothly.

Tonight, the place is packed and the students have settled into their patterns.  Laptops and books exist together, smartphones and paper planners are used in tandem. Students need scissors and headphones. The printer needs more paper. A student who does not like to read so much asks if  we have The Merchant of Death. We don’t have a print copy, but I download it on a Kindle. He can not believe I am getting the book, and I can not believe that he is asking me for a book!  A few teachers cruise in to check on students; a few students just cruise through checking out to see who is here.

The debate about libraries in the 21st century did not get much traction this weekend as 150-200 people came to Gould to celebrate the new space.  Trustees snuck in a some browsing time between meetings, former faculty looked at the resource section they used as teachers, and students just kept on using the space.  How this space will be used even in the next year will change. Patterns will fade, new ones will develop and internal and external forces will shape the facility and its patrons.

  

The Sunday Night Boys

But, as this picture from tonight reveals, libraries offer a refuge to think, a place to work alongside someone doing a similar assignment. Libraries offer distractions. Libraries are distraction free. Libraries give you a room to think and create.

Thank you to all who celebrated the new space. You are invited in at any time; we have books, terminals, tablets, inspiring art work, comfortable chairs, tons of magazines, and someone here to help you out.

In discussing Carr’s premise, we quickly integrated our own experiences with the advent and avalanche of the internet to that of the students. In truth, there are many cross-overs. We all struggle to carve out sustained silent reading time (yes, the hallmark of upper elementary school, SSR)  and wonder if our rapid linking and clicking makes us smarter or as Carr intimates in his Atlantic article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”. As the discussion developed, the debate over Google and  intelligence no longer seemed to matter; moreso, the discussion amongst teachers and parents about how we see our children / students developing and emerging claimed center-stage.

Jay Riley, English teacher and Dean of Athletics, was struck that students find all sorts of ways to “read” a book but wonders if they short-change themselves because they have not practiced what he coined “immersion and dwelling”–not to be confused with the popular DWELL magazine found in the library!  Riley’s I+D notion supports Carr’s call to keep the neurological pathways of the brain fit to read long spates of text sans Google. Riley asserts that, “From that immersion and dwelling comes wrestling and contemplation and more wrestling and subsequent contemplation (some of that used to happen in the outdoors time for which Goldberg yearns), and from immerse-and-dwell time comes revelation, original thought, and **VOILA!** that’s the development of an idea that has enough value for which it’s now worth learning some communication skills (writing and speaking.)”

Brad Clarke, a history teacher, agrees with Riley AND brings us to a point of reality: we work with teenagers. They are social and rebellious. Reading just may not be at the top of the chain right now. They may not want to communicate an original thought.  And, if you read the book choice for the winter, the article “Beautiful Brains”, Brad is absolutely correct. SSR (sustained silent reading) during high school is more like SSR (social survival readiness).

Riley, in his email to me post reading group pondered this, and  I think it is worth keeping on the front burner as we transition into the summer rhythms: “if there is anything about Google that impairs our intellectual progress, it might be how Google reduces the time we spend in the crucible, time previously spent reflecting, wrestling, and contemplating, all in our effort to find out what was Our Special Idea.”

“Our Special Idea”–a phrase worthy of standing alone. A phrase to give pause. A phrase to invite contemplation. A phrase to welcome one’s child back into the home for summer.

In the end, Google is good, as Brad Clarke and many parents agree. And alongside Google, ensure that space is secured for some I+D (immersion and dwelling) t0 contemplate “Our Special Idea” for who we are in this moment.

Wyatt is a gregarious nice as they come senior who takes all sorts of intellectual and social risks. He addresses the school on tough topics like bullying, intolerance, and decency. He puts the sleepy audience at ease with twitchy hand gestures, shout outs to all things diva, and Lady Gaga-isms that connect me to the fast beating pulse of the adolescent world.  Today he showcased his senior Four Point Project, an internship with Bill Green. At the mic he was Wyatt in true form: funny, engaging, poignant with a dash of inspirational.  He came off as being best buds with  Bill Green from WCSH and learning that broadcast journalism might be a way to put his talents to a career. If you have never talked to Wyatt, he can make you feel at ease and willing to share your story. PRESTO! Professional journalist.

In the library today I commended Wyatt on his presentation this morning (complete with advanced ppt skills, but not ppt to death). He said it was so hard, and he had practiced the presentation about 7-8 times.  The ring of authentic assessment encouraged Wyatt to reflect, create, and practice–all things that are learning. There was no test, fill in the blank, or write for only 30 minutes.

The Chronicle is onto something, and I hope Gould is as well. Thank you Wyatt for the hours you put in Sunday night to make our Monday morning inspirational and a demonstration of authentic assessment. And thank you senior Four Point faculty, Dave Bean, Lee Hughes, and Brad Clarke, for helping the seniors experience assessment that is sans cram and jam.

As students begin to understand the scope of the assignment and begin to brainstorm ideas, I started to wonder about the proverb, “curiosity killed the cat” . Now, if you have not worked with Wiktionary before, you will find the familiar citation and discussion tabs and see also and translation links. It is pretty cool to see the phrase translated into so many languages, but I am at odds with the definition: “One should not be curious about things that can be dangerous.”

I think people need to be curious about dangerous ideas! Think steam power, electricity, high speed travel, the telephone.  And, point well taken (I can hear it out there) what about Dr. Frankenstein? He was curious, with perhaps a large dollop of ego. He , well his “soul” exhorts,  ” So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein—more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation” (Frankenstein, Shelly).  Shelley’s novel forces its readers to grapple with the boundaries of curiosity, and this is an important topic for students to kick around. Luckily, Mrs. Tornrose, the sophomore English teacher, and Ms.Stack  collaborate on the English and history curriculum so 10th graders are reading Frankenstein and researching inventions concurrently.

Which gets me back to curiosity, wiktionary, and the killing of a cat.  Unsatisfied with what wiktionary offered me for a definition / explanation of the proverb “curiosity killed the cat” I clicked my way to wikipedia. Here is the post: “Curiosity killed the cat“ is a proverb used to warn of the dangers of unnecessary investigation or experimentation. A less frequently-seen rejoinder to “curiosity killed the cat” is “satisfaction brought it back”. HA! “satisfaction brought it back”.  I love it! Good thing I was curious about how else the proverb was understood.

Good luck with your research work, and I invite comments on the proverb or the best invention of the 18th, 19th century and modern times.

Regardless of how much a reader enjoys Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell, or what information or perspective is gained by reading the text, when one closes the back cover they will thinking about thinking. This is a bizarre cycle to commence and can lead down a confusing road of doubting your own thoughts and questioning the explanation for nearly all your actions. Ultimately, the book leads to the question of, “Who is really in control?” Is the conscious mind steering the ship or is another hand actually on the wheel, a hand most people have little or no connection to?

The book is comprised of a collection of stories taken from psychologists, art curators, car salesmen, army generals, food tasters, policemen and musicians. Each story focus’s on the power of the unconscious mind, and the immense power it has in controlling our feelings and actions, for good or ill. In the opening tale an art curator, Thomas Hoving, is brought to observe a kouros, an ancient greek statue like David to comment on its authenticity. As Hoving was brought in front of the statue he recalls, “ ‘It was ‘fresh’ – ‘fresh’’ And fresh was not the right reaction to have to a two-thousand year old statue.” (p.5-6) Later in the narrative Gladwell continues, “Hoving turned to Houghton. ‘Have you paid for this?’ Houghton, Hoving remembers, looked stunned. ‘If you have, try to get your money back,’ Hoving said. “If you haven’t, don’t.” (p.6) This is simply the first of many examples outlined in Blink of the immense power a split second reaction has. What makes Hoving’s declaration that much more incredible is that prior to his observation of the kouros, a team of accomplished scientists and geologists had pored over the kouros and after spending weeks studying it had concluded that, contrary to Hoving’s belief, the statue was genuine. But, after hearing Hoving’s response as well as many other art curator’s “intuitive repulsion” of the statue, the museum that purchased the piece backtracked further and quickly found unquestionable evidence that, in fact, the statue was a complete forgery.

With this as a powerful initial hook Gladwell then explores the idea of “thin-slicing,” the idea that sometimes having less information, and time, to make a decision on something may in fact result in correct choices far more often than gathering and synthesizing as much information possible and waiting to make a decision. This idea however is completely contrary to what every human is taught from childhood, the idea of “haste makes waste” and that one should always stop and think about a decision rather than diving in and choosing one based entirely on gut feeling. What people fear about gut feelings and initial responses is that most people can’t understand what made them feel the way they felt. Snap judgements are locked behind the door of our unconscious and Gladwell explains “ I don’t think we are very good at dealing with the fact of that locked door. It’s one thing to acknowledge the enormous power of snap judgements and thin slices but quite another to place our trust in something so seemingly mysterious” (p.51).

As the book progresses, this innate fear humans have of their instincts is not such a bad thing in some circumstances. After displaying a number of examples in which snap-judgements are extremely beneficial, Gladwell goes on to tell the story of four policemen who, one late evening, spotted a man outside on a doorstep in a bad part of the Bronx late at night. The men immediately had the snap-judgement that this man was suspicious and most likely a criminal and they stopped the car to ask for a word. The man, who was the resident of the apartment above and who had simply walked outside for a breath of fresh air, was terrified to see four white men approaching him from a car in what he also knew to be a bad part of town. He turned and ran back towards the door at which point the officers drew their weapons and took chase. As the man turned and dug his hands into his pockets, officer Sean Carrol again impulsively felt that he was drawing a weapon and opened fire. One of the other officers, Ken Boss, later testified, “ Shots are still going off. I’m running. I’m moving. And Ed was shot. That’s all I could see, Ed was firing his weapon. Sean was firing his weapon into the vestibule…. And then I see Mr. Diallo. He is in the rear of the vestibule, in the back, towards the back wall, where that inner door is, He is a little bit off to the side of the that door and he is crouched. He is crouched and he has his hand out and i see a gun. And I said, ‘My God, I’m going to die.’ ” (p.193) As it turned out, Mr. Diallo was simply reaching for his keys in terror to try and escape the men now chasing him, but the officers had the gut feeling that this was not the case. How then, the book questions, does one know when to trust their gut-feelings and when not to?

In the final chapters of the book Gladwell gives some explanation to the difference of the two. When the human body is brought into contact with an intense stimulus, such as the fear of a firefight, the human pulse skyrockets. This change leads to a systematic “shutting down” of any unnecessary body functions in preparation for the oncoming conflict or struggle. Unfortunately, this also leads to a shutting down of the brains ability to correctly thin-slice. In these situations, like the one in the Bronx that night, the human mind very easily mis-interprets signals which normally it would pick up on, and terrible mistakes are prone to happen, mistakes that can cost lives.

In conclusion, Gladwell expresses once again the amazing ability our mind has at deciphering and understanding situations on an unconscious level far quicker than our conscious mind can and the immense benefits this can have on your life. But, warning the reader again, these instinctive feelings can be sabotaged by not only our heart-rate, but Gladwell also explains, by our stigmas and bias towards certain groups, such as African-Americans. In the end, Blink does not explain or dictate how one should think and operate, but rather that if one can understand what is truly prompting their own thoughts and actions, they will be more prone to following the beneficial snap-judgements, and less likely to be sabotaged by choices made due to the wrong type of thought process. To put it more simply, Blink is really all about thinking about thinking. Quite the topic for a book.

The gap between build up and review points to the magic work of pleasure reading. Hands down what happens in your mind ignites your imagination in ways that a movie can not. Yes, a movie can scare you, make you edgy until the climax, and make you cry, but the build up of emotions and expectations through reading is something that is not easily captured by a script–and it really fun to read a book that you can not put down!

It is tempting to ease my way into a stance about books before films, but what really matters–whether it is book before film or film before book–is that kids are talking about books and films. They are engaging in what we train them to do in English classes, but they are doing it on their terms with their independently generated evidence.

So, I like to think of that $214 million profit as a boost to reading as well as viewing. Libraries can not keep Collins’ books on the shelves, nor do the Dragon Tattoo books stay for long. And yes, not too long ago it was Harry Potter.

And, all the avid Potter watchers and readers have united to do good in the world–a model that is quickly spinning into the orbit of the Hunger Games. Hunger is Not a Game is a website from the The Harry Potter Alliance’s Imagine Better Project . And whether you read the book or saw the movie, this website brings you into the reality that hunger is NOT a game and food scarcity is a global issue that needs the energy, intelligence, and activism of youth–whether they read the books or watch the film.

As for me, I am headed to the movies this week !

Serendipitously, Matt Ruby, the incoming Head of School, is at Gould this week to meet with students and teachers as he prepares to hit the ground running this June. On my end,  his investment in teaching and learning is really energizing. This morning we were talking about  research and learning with Jerry Bernier (Head of Facilities),  and my thinking was prompted with a recent read called Beyond the Hole in the Wall: Discover the Power of Self-Organized Learning.  This short TED book cleverly got me to think about how kids learn and how we teach. After reading it, I really started to wonder how much I was in the way of student learning? If this amazing self-learning was happening in remote places in India with no instructors, just kids, might my kids be best served with me out of the way?

As I looked at the new facility, all the books, the technology, the care taken to ensure that anywhere anytime learning can happen between teachers and students and students and students, I got a little pang –do we really need this amazing facility? Mr. Ruby must have read a little pause in my vision / confidence because later that morning he sends me a quick quotation and link to an article. Here is the quotation:

“We’re all informavores now, hunting down and consuming data as our ancestors once sought woolly mammoths and witchetty grubs.”

Rachel Chalmers, “Surf Like A Bushman,” New Scientist

Okay, so the quotation is so clever I fire up MARVEL and JSTOR to find the entire article.  Chalmers claims that  our information gathering patterns follow the patterns of hunters and gathers, and we use similar strategies of energy expenditure and material gain to figure out what to go for. This was a whole new spin on the research process!  The article was fun to read, and linked to another article about “information scent” and “being wary of what is overgrazed”.  So although the kids in India are teaching each other amazing things, the role of a librarian and the role of teachers is not becoming extinct. In fact, we are more important than ever in modeling the very best practices of gathering and perhaps pointing out the overgrazed areas and working together to find new patches of promise.

So, thanks Mr. Ruby for the quotation and  stopping in to visit. And do we need the new facility? Yes! It is fertile grazing ground!

I answer these questions with a yes and a no. Yes, books will be around and no, Britannica will not be eclipsed. Both, though, will adapt to the needs and opportunities that electronic books and print  resources offer.  Now,  adaptation is the focus, and this adaptation is evident in the new library space. What was once preserved as a quiet and hushed space has been re-designed for a little more bustle and a lot more bytes. Learning in the 21st century is not silent; it is collaborative and still supported with resources–some in print and some electronic.

Students and teachers will adapt to looking for resources in new ways (the University of Maine supports the elementary, middle school and high school editions of Britannica in English, Korean, Chinese, French, and Spanish through MARVEL) and libraries will develop new ways to replicate the curious experience of looking up a topic in a four pound brown book and be delighted in discovering three other things on the same page equally as interesting.  The paper thin pages of an encyclopedia may be replaced with TUMBLER or LibGuides; nonetheless, a very good education promotes curiosity and Britannica in print or not, the library is still one of the best places to be curious and make discoveries.

So, I welcome you to the newly renovated library. Find a comfortable place to be with others or alone and be curious. Books and bytes surround you. Enjoy!