Inquiry, Search, Results, Applications

Inquiry

The Problem:

While cleaning out some of my fathers, miscellaneous possessions, I found the item pictured above. Since I inherited dad's curious mind, along with material odds and ends, I set myself the task of learning more about these bits of metal.


Search

Facts:

• appears old
• made of metal, possibly silver
• number 13
• 6 charms (hand with pinkie & forefinger extended; heart; bottle?; basket with flowers?; shell; purse with flower design) and space or empty chains for 7 more charms
• Italian heritage

Educated guesses:

• superstition involved because of the number 13
• dated from at least the 1940s, judging from the other things in the same bag
• possibly had some sentimental value

Method:

The people most likely to have personal knowledge of this curious trinket, my grandparents, father, and godmother, are no longer with us. I'll eventually check with my younger uncles, but, for now, I decided to press ahead on my own.

Since "13" is a number with a lot of superstitious connotations, I started with keywords like "Italian superstitions" "Italian charms" "Italian amulets." Within a relatively short time, I came across the term cimaruta (Chee-Mah-Roo-Tah). After that, my search was easy and profitable.



Results

What I Learned:

• The Italian concept of lucky and unlucky numbers is different from other parts of the world. Some older Italian Americans still hold the belief of lucky 13, especially when gambling
• The Cimaruta is an very old charm rooted in Italian folklore. It is used for protection from the bad luck or the evil eye. Cimaruta or cima di ruta means ‘spring of rue’ and the branches of the charm are the branches of that most sacred plant.
  
• The Cimaruta of today is evolved from ancient Etruscan amulets; historical uses are as protective charms against malevolent magic, witchcraft, and the evil eye, especially for infants.
  
• The Neopolitan (both of my father's parents were from the Naples area) custom was to make charms of silver and blood coral since these two materials were sacred to the Moon Goddess (Luna/Diana) and to the Goddess of the Sea, Venus
  
• The hand gesture known as the mano cornuta wards off the Evil Eye by extending only the pinkie and index finger like a pair of horns and pointing it down.
• One example of a Christian addition to the design is the appearance of "the sacred heart" of Jesus. However, ancient Roman charms did include a heart symbol, which may indicate that the heart on the cimaruta is a later Christianization as opposed to an entirely new creation.
• Vervain flower blossom represents protection; a vervain blossom, in Italian lore is connected to fairy lore (and folklorist Charles Leland refers to Diana as the queen of the fairies)

What I Surmise:

• Since my father was never (overtly) superstitious, I would venture a guess that he was given this charm by a friend or relative
• Alternately, it could have belonged to a family member and was cherished by dad as a memento
• At first, I thought this protective amulet might have been intended to protect a soldier in battle; however, after learning more about the traditions associated with cimaruta, I wonder if it were meant to safeguard a baby
• This Cimaruta varies from the traditional design; it may have been an inexpensive lucky piece for a gambler

Applications

I love to learn about the extras in life: family history, homey artifacts, local lore. In a school setting, inquiry-based and authentic learning makes classes more meaningful to students, empowering them to extend their experiences while acquiring "real" information.

Buffy Hamilton had her ninth graders research their surnames on Ancestry.com. Students might also be challenged to learn more about a family heirloom, local landmark, historic photo, etc.

The possibilities are endless.





"Cimaruta" by dmcordell
"Cimaruta amulet" from SymbolDictionary

So Are the Ants

"It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?" -Henry David Thoreau


Seeking to revise his district's guidelines for student research papers, Patrick Higgins asked a series of questions today on Twitter. His search for curricular relevance led to some reflective thinking on my part.

Patrick began by wondering, "Should we be teaching our students the Dewey Decimal System?"

As a School Library Media Specialist, I deal with this system daily in my professional life. Dewey numbers are standard in most K-12 and public libraries. There are, however, other ways to categorize and arrange material, including the Library of Congress classifications that students will encounter in research and academic libraries.

I don't feel that it's necessary for anyone to memorize Dewey numbers. Traditional and online catalogs provide the "address" of a book; all students need to understand is how to interpret the information to find what they are seeking.

The key concept is organization: how are things ordered for ease of access?

When asked to design their own grouping method, students in my classes have come up with some interesting suggestions:

• by color
• by size
• by number of words
• by weight
• by gender of the author
• by smell or taste (!)

Some of the children described a system that resembled the tagging now being used to sort and locate all sorts of resources. Others fantasized about having a device that could track and locate a book electronically, making shelf arrangement irrelevant. Our hand-held inventory wand could easily be adapted for this purpose.

Knowing the reason for the Dewey Decimal System is the key concept; the numbers themselves are only symbols.


Patrick next asked, "Should we be teaching them how to manually prepare a works cited page?"

This question was debated by some of the classroom teachers and librarians from our regional BOCES. The majority of us felt that using a tool like Citation Machine is perfectly appropriate. Few adults remember the finer points of citation formatting; why agonize over something that can be done better online?


I posed a question of my own, "Will it still be a research PAPER or will there be a choice of outcomes: e.g. Senior Projects like these?" to which Patrick responded, "This is for English classes: very traditional situation. Paper, undoubtedly."

Senior Projects are usually built over the entire four years of high school. They might begin with a research paper, then expand to encompass some type of culminating physical project and a presentation.

These projects embody the spirit of Inquiry-based Learning, a constructivist philosophy "driven more by a learner's questions than by a teacher's lessons." This approach allows students to become experts in their chosen topic, giving them a positive motivation for pursuing knowledge that is relevant to them.


Patrick ended by asking for more information about Zotero, "a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources." Obviously, he is still exploring, weighing his options, searching for the best possible tools and most relevant content.

I hope that he shares his final product with us. In the meantime, I've benefited immensely from using his questions to examine my own professional practice.



"When you stop learning, stop listening, stop looking and asking questions, always new questions, then it is time to die." -Lillian Smith






"Ant at Work" by DavidDennis