After I wrote last week’s blog, I knew I had to talk with Dennis Rader. There were questions that came to mind about how he learned to bring fresh knowledge into his work. But first, let me introduce Dennis a bit more formally. He is a Visiting Professor for the Frankfort Independent Schools in Frankfort, KY. He works to foster a culture of creativity in the schools by enhancing the imagination, initiative, and interests of the high school students.
When asked how he keeps fresh knowledge flowing into his work, his answer was immediate. “I have a wide ranging curiosity. I look around at a lot of things.” I thought I could see how this would bring fresh knowledge flowing in all the time, but Dennis went on to explain what he meant further through a story.
“One day when my Dad and I were out hunting deer, my Dad said to me, ‘Stop looking for deer.’ Well, I had been looking so hard at every possible place where a deer could be that I thought I was surely doing the right thing. Instead, my father said to just take a walk in the woods and let my mind do what it does well when it doesn’t have to concentrate on one thing – it observes the unusual. When we don’t demand that the mind concentrate on something, it is free to absorb all the subtle signals from its surroundings – a movement, a different color, a sudden noise, a sudden silence. It was then that I began to really hunt for deer.” Today, Dennis says, “We all need to unharness the right brain and take walks and sit quietly – ‘explore the woods.’ In this way, we allow for greater learning.”
What a great metaphor, Dennis. How many of us would find it easier to ‘see the deer’ if we just relaxed and let our brains work as a massive filter of our experiences, of our senses. This is a new way to understand observation.
When was there a time you saw something you weren’t looking for? How did you recognize it? How might you apply ‘exploring the wood’ in your work?
As Dennis talked, he explained how he knows he has learned something, “I know it when I see a guiding metaphor shift. For example, a colleague once said to me about my teaching, ‘God sends threads to webs begun.’ As soon as I heard this, I began to change the way I taught. If the student doesn’t already have an interest, a base on which to hang what I am talking about, then it won’t stick.” He went on to say, “Now my instruction to students is to come to class with questions. We spend the time with me responding to their questions.” As I listened to Dennis, I realized again how his approach has confirmed something I have always said, namely, that we don’t build without a foundation.
