Deb Fuller wrote:

>From a job announcement:The manager works with classroom teachers "to activate the discovery process in each student"
>
Deb,

I saw discovery illustrated beautifully, at least for me, when I took a
course in Ethnographic film and saw John Marshall's film "Nanook." He
narrated the story of the Eskimo building his igloo and then said 'but
one more thing is needed' and was silent for 30-40 seconds so that the
viewer stopped listening to him and watched and realized that the eskimo
was cutting the block of ice to drop in as a window for his house. I
thought it was brilliant how he set that up and the 'discovery' was
coming to the realization of another use of the ice other than for cold
drinks.

I have been teaching college art history survey for years and require my
students to visit a museum go to the gallery of the period we are
studying, select a piece and write about it. They would come back with
new information and early on I felt inadequate because I did not cover
this or that in class. No more. I now realize that that is the fun for
them--that they go on an exploration and 'uncover' new information on
their own and then come back and share it.

I used to be really good at memorization when I was a kid. A whiz even.
Not any more--in fact, I have trouble retaining things. But I feel I am
using another level of cognition instead which gets deeper into
concepts, symbolic abstractions and interpretations which I enjoy much
more. So to me it is a trade off, but well worth it.

I am doomed to use index cards throughout my teaching career! Hope this
helps.

Terri McNichol
Ren Associates
Museum Consultant and Educator
Princeton NJ
609-586-8441

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