Teaching Journal

Day 131, Monday, April 27, 2009

 

     TS Today I overheard someone say (not very nicely) to someone, “Hey, think your own thoughts”, and it reminded me of something I‘ve been realizing recently – that we can’t actually think our “own” thoughts. SD Every idea that comes to us comes from a multitude of sources, and therefore each of these sources has some share in the ownership of the idea. CM Any thought that I call “my idea” actually originates somewhere outside of me – in a book, a conversation, a song, a movie, or any of an infinite number of sources. CM I simply borrow ideas from different sources and somehow they blend together to make other ideas that I sometimes proudly refer to as “my own”. CM They’re not my own any more than the air I breathe is my own. CM I borrow air for a few moments and then pass it on, and I borrow and give away ideas in a similar way. SD I see this communal sharing of ideas in my classroom every day, and I should remind my scholars of it occasionally. CM Each day we loan ideas to each other in our discussions. CM It’s as if we say to each other, “Here’s an idea I borrowed from a conversation last night. I’ve taken what I need from it, and perhaps you could make some use of it now.” CM The ideas came to us from somewhere else and now, in English class, we pass them along to somewhere else. CS Ideas are now our “own” – never have been and never will be – and my scholars and I need to remind ourselves of that now and then.