We fully embraced the excitement of Halloween this week and found many ways to tie this spooky holiday to our learning. We started off with a dive into the world of bats, learning about the various species, where they live, their diets, and the important role they play in pollinating and insect control. We had Halloween-themed numeracy pages, addition, subtraction, and place value colour-by-number pages, and some fun bat crafts that hung around all week in studio.
This week we also explored a very big question - are monsters real? It turns out, they are! Together we learned about the three monsters we deal with in our Acton studio (and, really, all throughout life); the Monster of Distraction, the Monster of Resistance, and the Monster of Victimhood. We spent one day on each monster, learning about what each is, how it harms us, what it might try to tell us, and the antidote to defeat it.
The Monster of Distraction is always trying to pull us away from deep, meaningful work. It harms us by wasting our precious time and leading us astray, pulling us from the important toward the trivial. The antidote for this monster is focus. To dive deeper into focus and what we can do to strengthen this muscle we read "Focused Ninja". This story walked us through examples of common distractions children face and the actions we can take to remove or limit our exposure to each one. The Monster of Resistance is a mental block, our inner critic who scares us away from taking the first step of any project, or tricks us into thinking we can do it later. This monster harms us by keeping us from "taking the leap"; from trying new things and from taking a chance on ourselves. It holds us back from personal growth and development. The main ingredient in the antidote to defeat this monster is maintaining a growth mindset. When we have a fixed mindset we believe that our abilities are fixed and no amount of effort can improve our situation. It's a very defeatist outlook, and thankfully, not grounded in reality. Lastly, the Monster of Victimhood (or a victim mentality) tells us that it's always someone else's fault, that bad things only ever happen to us, it holds grudges and avoids personal responsibility. I asked the group, "So how does having a victimhood mindset harm us?" One learner responded in a way that took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes. He said, "Because it makes you dip into your own bucket." He went on to say, "And when you take personal responsibility it fills your bucket and other's too!" He was referring back to a book we read in Week 3 called "Have you Filled a Bucket Today" (see post here) and the connection was brilliant. It was such a moment, and the bridge he made between these two concepts was very impactful for us all. We learned the main ingredient in the antidote to victimhood is having an attitude of gratitude. Looking for the positive and appreciating the gifts we do have, the things we can control vs the things we can't, are surefire ways to counteract victimhood.
After learning about each monster we set out as a group to draw them and proudly posted them up on our walls. They had SO much fun collaborating on what these monsters would look like, what their lairs would look like, even what their pets would look like! These will serve as reminders and inspiration, so that when we feel one creeping up on us we can identify it and slay that monster!
For our artist's workshop this week we read the story of Yayoi Kusama, a renowned Japanese artist known for her instantly recognizable work featuring dots....so, so many dots! Born in 1929 in Japan, Yayoi grew up in a time when being an artist was not an acceptable path for a woman, and furthermore, her style was not in the traditional Japanese way. Determined to stay true to herself, she saved her money and when she was 27, took a one-way flight to the United States. There, her artistic endeavours flourished. Her work has taken many forms, but perhaps her most iconic are her pumpkin art installations. Yayoi has a deep fondness for pumpkins, harkening back to her first encounter with one as a young child while out with her grandfather. She said she was "enchanted by their charming and winsome form" and their "generous unpretentiousness." What better time to try our hand at pumpkin art than Halloween day?! We had a blast painting our pumpkins and putting our own spin on this work, inspired by Yayoi.
This week we read the story of another real-life hero, Wilma Rudolph. The 20th of 22 children, born in 1940 in Tennessee in a time when African Americans had very few rights or access to medical care, premature and often sickly throughout her infancy and early years...there were plenty of cards stacked against Wilma. Then, when she was 4 years old, she was crippled by polio and told she'd never walk again. Wilma would watch with a heavy heart as her siblings ran off to school while she was forced to remain at home. Instead of allowing this despair to devour her, Wilma turned it into fiery determination. Aided by the support and dedication of her mother, Wilma relentlessly exercised her leg, received physio therapy, eventually a brace, and by the time she was 12 years old was able to walk and packed up the brace for good. She proceeded to join her school basketball team, was recruited by college scouts, and received a full scholarship as part of their track and field team. She later went on to represent the USA in the 1960 Olympic Games as a runner, where she won 3 gold medals, the first woman to do so in the history of the games.
After reading her incredible story we had a Socratic discussion. "Imagine this, you're Wilma and you've been told by doctors that you'll never walk again. You're watching your brothers and sisters playing basketball and running off to play with friends outside, while you're forced to watch from the sidelines or bed. You're faced with a choice: accept your fate, or fight with all your might, even though there's no guarantee you'll heal. Which would you choose and why?" Then..."Inevitably, at some point one or more of the monsters creep in. Which monster do you think would be the strongest or hardest to fight, and why?" There was a case to be made for each one, and we had a lively discussion about whether resistance or victimhood represented the greatest danger. Our call to action after this discussion was "Wilma was told by doctors she would never walk again, but she refused to accept that. Through grit and perseverance she achieved that and much more. What lesson from Wilma's story will you never forget?"
On Friday afternoon, by popular demand, we read the sweet story "Stellaluna". It tells the tale of a young bat who's separated from her mother and raised by birds. As a bat in a bird's world, she feels out of place and awkward and finds deep sadness in conforming to fit in. Thankfully, while out on a flight she is reunited with her bat family and, as darkness sets in, is able to use her unique bat-abilities to lead her bird siblings safely to their nest. One philosopher's interpretation of this book is that it is attempting to show that children are neither good or bad; children with non-conforming behaviours may be expressing their abilities and needs. This brought to mind the famous quote from Albert Einstein which so deeply aligns with the Acton philosophy, and which I shared with our group as we prepared to say goodbye until next week...."Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid."
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