Recently I heard a story about a
landscape overhaul. The narrator
suggested that before he could plant something new, he had to assess the
current conditions of the yard. More specifically,
he said, “You can’t plant a house on a foundation without uprooting and toiling
old soil.”
This was a powerful quote for so many
reasons. I thought about the students
that we work with on a daily basis. As
educators we are trying to build a solid foundation in various disciplines, but
we haven’t quite uprooted all of the “old soil” that exists. “Old soil” is essentially the baggage that
comes along with learning something new.
Many times, as we begin to lay the
foundation for a new way of learning, there is quite a bit of baggage
associated with previous knowledge. We
need to know and understand the baggage and unpack or uproot it. Similar to unpacking “standards” or creating
objectives, we must uproot common misconceptions and begin there.
Learning doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The students don’t just magically fall from
heaven, they are coming to us with various ideas and thoughts about
learning. It is our job to take what
they have and create something new while at the same time uprooting what needs
to be weeded out.
