"When they enter the classroom, we chop their tentacles off." David Warlick, K12 Online Conference 2007It's an image I can't get out of my mind: school personnel ruthlessly hacking tentacles off the torsos of hapless students.
The sci-fi films of my adolescence featured monster squid with powerful suckers and deadly teeth. But some plants and mammals also have an "elongated flexible unsegmented extension".
The broader meaning of the word refers to "the ability to grasp or stretch." So by removing, "chopping off", students' "tentacles", we are restricting their reach, limiting their ability to stretch and grow.
“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?” -Robert Browning
Photo by Dawdles
2 comments:
That image of the tentacles was really impressive, wasn't it?- A pleasure to have interacted with people like you on the live chat after this great Opening of the K12 Conference
Alicia,
Online collaboration and the sense of a community "without boundaries" is the most powerful enhancement that technology provides for me.
Pleasure to meet you!
diane
Post a Comment