Differently . . .

Bear with me.  I have several different thoughts in my head and they haven't quite made their connection yet.

First, in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, I just read the section where the author used the phrase "Differently Ethical".  It really did seem to fit so well.  The people that she had met seemed to be doing their best to live ethically within the framework of their culture.  There was no intent to deceive or abuse.  They had the best intentions for the children, family, and clan at heart.

Then I somehow jumped to standardized testing.  Hmmm . . . Something about marking all the right boxes.  And, as I type this, I'm sure my thinking was influenced by the description of the extremely creative crib sheets described in the book.  But it was more than that.  The phrase "Differently Intelligent" popped into my head.  One of the examples that Jason used in his class immediately cam to mind.  A middle school boy who had wonderful social skills, and tremendous knowledge of the natural world, but was still learning to write the alphabet.  I was also influenced by reading a blog post by one of my classmates from earlier in the year, "No scraps for that beast" by Orshi.I thought about how much we've discussed how standardized tests only measure a student's ability within a limited scope on a certain day.  Did they have a bad day?  Will they retain any of what is on the test?  Is it important? Will they learn how to solve problems or just memorize answers?

The idea of boxes and definitions persisted in my brain.  I then began thinking of contribution and inspiration.  What do I most admire?  How inspires me?  How do I measure their success?  The first few people who I aspire to be more like do not have an impressive net worth, if we measure worth financially.  But they are some of the richest people I know in relationships, love, discovery, compassion, and countless other ways.  They listen, they learn as much about the people they are helping as they can.  They don't run around distributing handouts.  They do work closely with people and find out they best way they can help them to help themselves.  They are not trying to move everyone out of their neighborhoods or change the lifestyles, they are simply helping them to live.

So, I still don't know where I'm going with all of this.  I feel like I need Jenn to hear my thoughts and say them back to me in her eloquent way so that I can nod and say "Yes, that is what I was thinking."

I think it still has to do with all the boxes.  Who designs the boxes?  What are they really for?  What catastrophe can be imposed on those who don't fit inside?  What if they don't even know they are supposed to fit in the box?  I had this image of a dark background and all of these different sized and shaped quadrilaterals all sort of layered and merged but still somehow retaining their own shape.  This must be Maria's abstract art and geometric shape influence.

I'm also picturing the rendering of synapses from one of the video's in Jean's class.  I feel like those electrical impulses in my brain are firing, but they are not quite reaching the intended destination.  I love that I feel like I have been exposed to so much over the past 5 weeks that my conscious mind is struggling to keep up.  I think that might be learning.  I can hardly wait for the next piece to fall into place and make all these connections complete.