UTNE Reader page Linda Hart

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1998

Answers

UTNE Reader June 1998 The article 3Learning in the Key of Life2 reminded me of my husband9s grandfather Emile Frrancat. He had lived his entire life in Antwerp, Belgium. He lived to 96 years old. He served in WW1 as a teenager. He and his wife Adele, who also lived into her 909s, raised five daughters during WWII. He worked for the Port of Antwerp and retired as a Port Director in the 609s. He spoke and read over five different languages. He worked on the creation of a common European language in the l9209s, that was to be called Espironto. When I met Emile twenty years ago in 1978, he was reading War and Peace in Russian. He said that he had read the book years before in French. He was reading it in Russian so that he could refresh his memory of the Russian language and it helped to have a familiar story to read. He was very interested in cameras, photography, European and world politics and people. He had that joy and love of learning. The article called it slow knowledge. It was not in any assignment and it had no due date. It was in his everyday experiences.

-- Anonymous, November 15, 1998

What an incredible story about your husband's grandfather, Linda! It made me remember that our ultimate goal as educators is to try to instill that life-long desire for learning in our students. So many times I become frustrated when my students perform for external motivation only ( grades , money , "we make them"). It was great to read about someone who wanted to learn for the sheer joy of knowing it.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 1998

That was a great story Linda. How lucky to have known such an educated man. My grandfather had no formal education yet he is one of the smartest men I know. He is 94 and he and my grandmother still live in the same home they have lived in for over 70 years. An amazing couple! Your response led me to ponder the need for formal education vs the desire to learn. We seek the former out of need for a job to support ourselves and families and for some that is where an education stops. For others like your husband's grandfather, the desire to learn never ceases and the search for knowledge continues until death. In my work with kids, I wonder if the desire for knowledge and slow learning is a part of this and future generations or a thing of the past?

-- Anonymous, November 23, 1998

Utne Reader article #3 from Linda Hart

In the article The Stuff of Life, Russell Sanders shares an unforgettable moment that he experienced with his seventeen year old son while backpacking in the Rocky National Park. This experience helped Sanders rethink his need for more, bigger, and better things. Restraint and simplicity, he says, could lead us to seek a spiritual rather than material growth. Living modestly and sharing what we have, Sanders says, would also allow our needs and the needs of the planet to peacefully coincide. And by slowing down, focusing on the present, we would be able to enjoy life and our work better through art, literature, friendship, and nature.

I discussed the article with my husband. Sanders article reminded us of our own family camping trip to the Rockies. We laughed about the video that no one took the time to watch until we found an unmarked video tape that needed to be put away. We put the tape on and quickly realized what was on it. Everyone sat on the floor in silence and awe and watched the prairies dogs pop in and and out of their holes. My husband had taken the video two years before on our three week trip out west. After the trip we had gone right back to our over scheduled lives and no one had taken the time to watch the family video.

My husband and I also talked about the changes in both of our jobs over the last twenty-five years. We both say that we are enjoying our careers more. But we also feel that our busy schedules and increased work loads have made our work not easy and more stressful. We agree with Sanders that taking time for the simpler things in life are important. But we feel the commitments to our work, raising our two teenage girls, giving time to our elderly parents, and keeping our house, cars, televisions, house appliances, and computers repaired and running makes it much easier said than done.

-- Anonymous, February 28, 1999

Hi Linda!! I also read this article. Doesn't it sound nice to get out of the rat race of everday life and start to enjoy the "simple" things in life? But when you really think about it, it's not so simple. What are we willing to give up? Who's going to pay the bills? Who's going to take care of our families? I think instead of selling the house and living in the woods, we just need to remember to take time to enjoy the simple things when they present themselves. We need to take time every now and then to step out of the "rat race" to gain perspective of what's important. I think that enjoying the simple things in life shouldn't be an all or nothing proposition.

-- Anonymous, May 23, 1999