“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language And next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.”
~ T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding, Four Quartets
How might choosing to be curious about language influence our familiarity with, understanding of, or comfort around the very words we use to express curiosity — or anything else? That’s where this fascinating conversation with University of Arizona linguistics professor Sonja Lanehart started.
But it wasn’t long before we were talking about new words for curiosity, the forthcoming Oxford Dictionary of African American English, and curiosity as a privilege reserved for those who have already managed to establish legitimacy for their fields of study.
I think of “anti-wokeness” as a lack of curiosity, whereas “woke” is all about curiosity and allowing your mind and yourself to reimagine — to awaken — to things in ways you haven’t before.
It’s the Lunar New Year, Year of the Rabbit – a year of longevity, peace and prosperity. I hope it finds you feeling optimistic, energetic — and curious, of course.
You might have noticed a little flurry of blog posting activity yesterday. I apologize for whatever confusion that might have caused. I was more behind in sharing my Choose to be Curious episodes than I had realized. But now you’re all caught up, and maybe a little inspired to listen to some great conversations from the last six months that might have gotten by you. Curiosity has been a gift that just keeps giving, year in and year out.
The Big News on my end is that Choose to be Curious is now available on the Pacifica Radio Network, which means I’m syndicated, potentially available on as many as 225+ stations across the country. Audiences from Asheville (NC) to Florence (OR) can now catch the show on their local community radio stations. I’m gradually picking up more and more stations and just yesterday heard from a cousin excited to find me on his local station in Bellingham (WA).
It’s really a splendid thing to be learning about hearty Two Harbors and weathering a northern Minnesota winter (KTWH) and enjoying the various and delightful show notes from the small-but-mighty Work FM in Midlothian, Virginia (WRWK).
I feel incredibly lucky. As we round the corner toward year seven (can you say: longevity?!) for Choose to be Curious and the world continues to find staggering ways to be at war with itself, I hope that good fortune rubs off and that the coming year is indeed a time of peace and prosperity for all of us. Wishing you a hopping, healthy, happy new year!
“That’s what is important about inquiry…you start with what they are passionate about, remind them of the need to connect with each other, and then: let’s walk together toward that learning, whatever it may be.” ~ Alysse Kennedy
Natural Curiosity is both an entity and an idea. The entity, a nonprofit organization based in Toronto with a lab school and eponymous teaching guide, embodies the ideathat environmental education must center our relations with all things, seen and unseen.
Propelled by unequivocal recommendations from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Natural Curiosity brings indigenous perspectives into environmental education. It is, as they put it, “the starting point of an important conversation about learning in relationship with Mother Earth.”
Alysse Kennedy and Aleksa Nitsis join me to unfurl what “indigenous perspectives of inquiry” entail, especially in the hands of non-indigenous teachers and learners. And we learn a few things from some 6th graders who model these lessons in a powerful way.
Research shows that this form of active and transformative learning continues to have a positive impact on student agency, student mental health, and their relationships with each another. ~ Aleksa Nitsis
Listening to the Universe 