Animals in Architecture
melissa_hice
My two dc (dd8, ds5) were downtown in a nearby city for a Children's
Production of Madeline and the Bad Hat (by the way, the first song
sung by "Miss Clavel" really spoke to me about unschooling -- she
sung "Let all of Paris be our school" wow!).
Afterwards, dd wanted to walk around downtown and see all the big
buildings. My children have been in the car as we drove downtown on
just a few occassions, but have never had the opportunity to actually
experience the buildings except just looking out the window. So, I
found a parking meter (boy, that parking meter was an event all by
itself!) and began our adventure.
As we wandered around looking way up, up, up, at the buildings, we
started noticing a lot of animals used in the architecture. We saw,
among other things, snake, mouse, rooster, lions, and eagles. Dd
suggested that next month when we come downtown to see the next
children's production, we take our camera and take pictures of the
animals and then make a book or album page about it.
I had another idea: Wouldn't it be neat if others took pictures of
animals in architecture and we could post them in the photo section,
or email them to each other. Then we would have animals in
architecture from all over! Just an idea.
Also, we have a building called the Atlas Building. At the very top
is a statue of Atlas holding the world on his shoulders. I don't
remember much of the story about Atlas, but I told the children what
I knew. They want to know more, so I've ordered books from the
library and we are anxiously awaiting their arrival to our local
library.
Isn't it interesting that architecture can be an adventure leading to
all sorts of possibilities? Also, parking meters!
Melissa
Production of Madeline and the Bad Hat (by the way, the first song
sung by "Miss Clavel" really spoke to me about unschooling -- she
sung "Let all of Paris be our school" wow!).
Afterwards, dd wanted to walk around downtown and see all the big
buildings. My children have been in the car as we drove downtown on
just a few occassions, but have never had the opportunity to actually
experience the buildings except just looking out the window. So, I
found a parking meter (boy, that parking meter was an event all by
itself!) and began our adventure.
As we wandered around looking way up, up, up, at the buildings, we
started noticing a lot of animals used in the architecture. We saw,
among other things, snake, mouse, rooster, lions, and eagles. Dd
suggested that next month when we come downtown to see the next
children's production, we take our camera and take pictures of the
animals and then make a book or album page about it.
I had another idea: Wouldn't it be neat if others took pictures of
animals in architecture and we could post them in the photo section,
or email them to each other. Then we would have animals in
architecture from all over! Just an idea.
Also, we have a building called the Atlas Building. At the very top
is a statue of Atlas holding the world on his shoulders. I don't
remember much of the story about Atlas, but I told the children what
I knew. They want to know more, so I've ordered books from the
library and we are anxiously awaiting their arrival to our local
library.
Isn't it interesting that architecture can be an adventure leading to
all sorts of possibilities? Also, parking meters!
Melissa
JRossedd
Melissa's post reminded me of a popular Harvard professor/author I read
about, John Stilgoe.
His course starts with deprogramming these overachieving students away
from what Schooling and grades taught them their whole lives was
important to notice and remember.
He takes them on casual walks around Cambridge and tries to get them to
see the streets and buildings (the "built environment") with the keen,
omnivorous eyes of a toddler again, thinking their own quirky original
thoughts and having idle creative ideas just looking at signs and doors
and windows, connecting everything to everything else without artificial
rules in their heads about what will be on the test!
And btw, he says it is not easy!
That it's almost too late for most of them. . .
Here's the article I first read about him:
"The Eyes Have It"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/31/60minutes/main590907.shtml
and here's the book he authored with his ideas about learning to see anew:
"Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places"
http://www.amazon.com/Outside-Lies-Magic-Regaining-Awareness/dp/0802775632/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-0191450-3509745?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192114705&sr=8-1
"His new book,. . .as informal and chatty as Common Landscape was
scholarly, looks at the physical state of America today and encourages
his readers to become "Explorers": unhurried, clear-eyed observers of
the world they rush through. The book is wildly uneven: the section on
motels, for instance, does little more than belabor the obvious. And the
repeated refrain to Open Your Eyes and Look Around becomes hectoring,
but when Stilgoe lets his imagination run free, the results can become
breathtaking.
The chapter on interstate highways touches on such things as what's
written on the backs of signs, the dirt tracks that parallel
expressways, roadkill and what happens to it and what seemingly random
patches of wild flowers may really signify.
Perhaps the best chapter deals with fences and other ways people draw
lines across the landscape to mark boundaries or create the illusion of
privacy. Stilgoe calls this a "straightforward guidebook to exploring"
whose purpose borders on the evangelical, but it's the sort of book that
makes the reader want to buttonhole anyone handy and say, "Listen to this."
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
about, John Stilgoe.
His course starts with deprogramming these overachieving students away
from what Schooling and grades taught them their whole lives was
important to notice and remember.
He takes them on casual walks around Cambridge and tries to get them to
see the streets and buildings (the "built environment") with the keen,
omnivorous eyes of a toddler again, thinking their own quirky original
thoughts and having idle creative ideas just looking at signs and doors
and windows, connecting everything to everything else without artificial
rules in their heads about what will be on the test!
And btw, he says it is not easy!
That it's almost too late for most of them. . .
Here's the article I first read about him:
"The Eyes Have It"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/31/60minutes/main590907.shtml
and here's the book he authored with his ideas about learning to see anew:
"Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places"
http://www.amazon.com/Outside-Lies-Magic-Regaining-Awareness/dp/0802775632/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-0191450-3509745?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192114705&sr=8-1
"His new book,. . .as informal and chatty as Common Landscape was
scholarly, looks at the physical state of America today and encourages
his readers to become "Explorers": unhurried, clear-eyed observers of
the world they rush through. The book is wildly uneven: the section on
motels, for instance, does little more than belabor the obvious. And the
repeated refrain to Open Your Eyes and Look Around becomes hectoring,
but when Stilgoe lets his imagination run free, the results can become
breathtaking.
The chapter on interstate highways touches on such things as what's
written on the backs of signs, the dirt tracks that parallel
expressways, roadkill and what happens to it and what seemingly random
patches of wild flowers may really signify.
Perhaps the best chapter deals with fences and other ways people draw
lines across the landscape to mark boundaries or create the illusion of
privacy. Stilgoe calls this a "straightforward guidebook to exploring"
whose purpose borders on the evangelical, but it's the sort of book that
makes the reader want to buttonhole anyone handy and say, "Listen to this."
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
[email protected]
-----Original Message-----
From: JRossedd <jrossedd@...>
Melissa's post reminded me of a popular Harvard professor/author I read
about, John Stilgoe.
<snip>
And btw, he says it is not easy!
That it's almost too late for most of them. . .
Here's the article I first read about him:
"The Eyes Have It"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/31/60minutes/main590907.shtml
-=-=-=-
The coolest thing from this article:
“I think people see it. But most people, when they learn to read, stop
looking around,” says Stilgoe. “I try very hard in this university,
which selects students based almost entirely on how well they do with
words and numbers, to teach them that there's another way of knowing.”
We've talked about that here several times: that after we learn to
*read*, our perception of the world changes. It may be best to read as
late as possible! <G>
It's just that as soon as we learn to read, we see things as *readers*,
and we quit seeing things as they *are*.
~Kelly
Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
http://www.LiveandLearnConference.org
From: JRossedd <jrossedd@...>
Melissa's post reminded me of a popular Harvard professor/author I read
about, John Stilgoe.
<snip>
And btw, he says it is not easy!
That it's almost too late for most of them. . .
Here's the article I first read about him:
"The Eyes Have It"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/31/60minutes/main590907.shtml
-=-=-=-
The coolest thing from this article:
“I think people see it. But most people, when they learn to read, stop
looking around,” says Stilgoe. “I try very hard in this university,
which selects students based almost entirely on how well they do with
words and numbers, to teach them that there's another way of knowing.”
We've talked about that here several times: that after we learn to
*read*, our perception of the world changes. It may be best to read as
late as possible! <G>
It's just that as soon as we learn to read, we see things as *readers*,
and we quit seeing things as they *are*.
~Kelly
Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
http://www.LiveandLearnConference.org
ENSEMBLE S-WAYNFORTH
I've noticed that a lot with Simon and Linnaea and myself. Linnaea and I read, we look for text without thinking about it. Simon sees. He finds things that we don't see or that we see later. His vision of the world is much more immediate, much less dictated to him by the layers that someone else's writing places upon my view.
Cool. I'll have to go and read the article. I've got it open along with the excerpt from amazon from the book.
Schuyler whose got 167 e-mails in her inbox having not had internet over the weekend while we moved.
www.waynforth.blogspot.com
---------------
Melissa's post reminded me of a popular Harvard professor/author I read
about, John Stilgoe.
<snip>
And btw, he says it is not easy!
That it's almost too late for most of them. . .
Here's the article I first read about him:
"The Eyes Have It"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/31/60minutes/main590907.shtml
-=-=-=-
The coolest thing from this article:
“I think people see it. But most people, when they learn to read, stop
looking around,” says Stilgoe. “I try very hard in this university,
which selects students based almost entirely on how well they do with
words and numbers, to teach them that there's another way of knowing.”
We've talked about that here several times: that after we learn to
*read*, our perception of the world changes. It may be best to read as
late as possible! <G>
It's just that as soon as we learn to read, we see things as *readers*,
and we quit seeing things as they *are*.
~Kelly
Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
http://www.LiveandLearnConference.org
Yahoo! Groups Links
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Cool. I'll have to go and read the article. I've got it open along with the excerpt from amazon from the book.
Schuyler whose got 167 e-mails in her inbox having not had internet over the weekend while we moved.
www.waynforth.blogspot.com
---------------
Melissa's post reminded me of a popular Harvard professor/author I read
about, John Stilgoe.
<snip>
And btw, he says it is not easy!
That it's almost too late for most of them. . .
Here's the article I first read about him:
"The Eyes Have It"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/31/60minutes/main590907.shtml
-=-=-=-
The coolest thing from this article:
“I think people see it. But most people, when they learn to read, stop
looking around,” says Stilgoe. “I try very hard in this university,
which selects students based almost entirely on how well they do with
words and numbers, to teach them that there's another way of knowing.”
We've talked about that here several times: that after we learn to
*read*, our perception of the world changes. It may be best to read as
late as possible! <G>
It's just that as soon as we learn to read, we see things as *readers*,
and we quit seeing things as they *are*.
~Kelly
Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
http://www.LiveandLearnConference.org
Yahoo! Groups Links
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]