David Garcia | Professional Educator | Fruzen Intermediate School
December 2021 - Through the Iris
I Love the Colors Nature Emits
I am fascinated by the majestic beauty that surrounds our natural environment. Nothing
soothes my soul (not even rock music) like the natural tones set by multi-colored fall
leaves against a skillfully layered blue sky backdrop. On my phone, I store more than 300
photos of early sunrises and late sunsets. Photographing mages with mesmerizing skies
has recently become a personal hobby for me. When I carefully compare most of these
photos, it amazes me that no two sunrises or sunsets are the same.
Build a Colorful Kaleidoscope of Human Connections
During the frigid winter months, my family and I enjoy taking nature walks near a local
township cemetery close to our home. Last year, we discovered three American Bald
eagles roosting high on some distant trees on a field; two grown adults and a young
squawking immature eagle that cries out while flapping its wings as though to grab the
attention of its parents. Now, we cannot wait for winter to arrive, so we can trek
through the tundra along the rushing river to witness nature unfold right before our
binoculars high up in the branchless trees. On our nature hikes, the mysteries created by
living systems we discover along our path remind me that learning should imitate an
adventure that is always open to pursuing new discoveries. This endless adventure
should also lead us on numerous expeditions that expose us to colorful inquiries that
produce continual questions rather than thoughtless answers; yes or no answers.
Through these journeys, we as human beings can begin to discover the world we live in
and use our differences to build a colorful kaleidoscope of human connections.
This journey should not be strictly about discovering ourselves because we risk creating
isolating barbed wire fences that could breed irritations. These irritations can deeply
divide us through our infatuation with ourselves. As an intricate web of complex human
interconnections, learning should imitate an active biological system that seeks to create,
evolve, and nourish life, not kill it.
On the other hand, schooling and education in their most current form impart the truth
as a means to an end. A process in which learning resembles an immovable rusted
mechanical conveyor system that forges raw lifeless malleable steel into melancholy
silhouettes that dance to a necrotic symphony of nothingness. This outdated process
yields students to be seen as controllable beings because the system works to control
how the world enters them and does not consider the colorful world students bring to
learning.
In addition, taught in this automated design are independent jigsaw pieces (math,
reading, science, writing, social studies) that fail to connect and make connections with
students’ lives and the world that goes on around them. It’s as though this lifeless
information is seen as money that can be deposited into an account only to be retrieved
later. Learning does not occur in the context of the four classroom walls; it extends out
like green branches representing school subjects within a colorful ecosystem that thrives
amongst dead weeds.
Like a Complex System of Life, Learning Should be Guided by More Questions
As an illustration, to compare the world of color with a world with no color, I refer to the
novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry. The Giver is about a stale and colorless society that
serves as a dark contrast to nature’s ever-evolving active living systems. It is also a story
about a futuristic utopian society where community members experience sameness. The
novel is written from the perspective of an eleven-year-old boy named Jonas. Jonas is a
bit different than most other society members in that he has pale eyes; most others have
dark eyes. Jonas possesses the unusual ability to perceive things that change in terms of
color. The rest of society is not aware that things have color. Color is as absent as pain
and fear. For example, Jonas saw the color red in an apple, in Fiona's hair, and in people’s
faces at a ceremony since human tissue has red color in it.
As I reflect on my love for nature and The Giver novel from an educational perspective, I
cannot imagine myself as a teacher not seeing my students through more color. Even in
the face of the challenging, risky situations my students experience at home that might
place them at risk for failure in life, I adjust the knobs in my eyes to zero in on the colors
my students emit. My focus should be on what my students can do and not what I think
they cannot do. It is so easy to zero in on the negative colors than the positive ones.
Despite some of my students demonstrating shades of grey representing challenging
attitudes, behaviors, or social situations at home, I amplify the lens to let their colors
overcome those dark, dreary colors that could cast a dark shadow on their destinies.
I Must Ask Myself Some Tough Reflective Questions
In addition, whatever specialized teacher training I have accumulated should not blind
me to neglect equitable behaviors that might enable my students. I must be aware of the
implications my teaching methods or strategies have on my students. Why do I treat
certain students the way I do? What am I doing to actively change the system to give all
students a chance to succeed in school and life? Am I aware that how I use specific
teaching strategies leaves a particular group of students out of the educational process?
Do I teach to unearth my students’ potential, or do I make them live out bleak destinies
brought forth from humiliation and shame I might impose on them?
Students See Themselves Through our Eyes
We can choose to blanket our students with colorful, positive, and dignified colors for
them to radiate, or we can bury their self-respect with dark shades of grey. Our students
bring to our classrooms vast color experiences grown from their everyday curiosity to
belong somewhere. Every positive colorful human interaction we have with them should
act as a paint stroke on their inner art canvas to be utilized as a tool to navigate through
life’s journey. We have to enable them and not disable them with our tendency to use
sharp tongues.
If we emit a dreary outlook to our students, they will likely follow through on those
perceptions. The goal in our interactions with our students must be to inscribe a sincere
and vigorous work of art that shines with a “can do” and “capable” disposition to
confront a world in need of transformation. A world, as I write, that increasingly gets
violent, hateful, discriminatory, and insensitive towards humankind.
How will you choose to adjust your iris and look at your students this year?
