Stop daydreaming.
posted by Sarah @ 1:24 PM
6 Comments
Friday, February 27, 2009
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My last 2 posts were a bit on the negative side and this one is following suit. I'm definitely jumping offline after this one so that I can look with new eyes at a different time. I agree...daydreaming is time well spent. It's valuable. It's important. BUT, there is such a limited amount of time that we have to cover what we need to cover, I can't imagine throwing in 10 minutes of 'think time'. Where? Maybe with an extended day it could be fit in somewhere. Maybe we could give 'daydreaming homework'. Trust me, I don't discount the act of daydreaming, but I think the author is daydreaming if he thinks we can throw that one in the day, too. I promise I won't be so snappy on my next posts!
Stop Daydreaming, brought tears to my eyes. Our youngest son Jeff was identified early on as gifted. He and all of our other three kids were all identified as gifted. One year all four of our kids dropped out of the gifted program. They dropped out because the gifted teacher was also the LD teacher and she had all of our kids making pine cone turkeys with her LD kids. Our kids were disappointed to be pulled out of class for crafts. Anyway, the three older kids progressed through school in the "normal" and "expected way". Not Jeff, he dropped out of high school to "think". It drove me crazy, as day after day and after and hour commute from work; I would arrive home to find Jeff in his room in his sweats, "thinking". We took him to the doctor, he wasn't depressed, or anxious, or sick. There was nothing wrong with him. We took him to the psychologist, who retested him and concluded that he was gifted and that he was just "thinking". I about went nuts, to me he was wasting his time, daydreaming his life away, etc. I reminded Jeff that there was no such thing as a "free ride"; so he got a job and spent all of his off time, "thinking". Finally, Mike and I realized that while he was thinking that he had been reading, all of the books in the house. All of our college textbooks, which Mike and I and the two older kids had at home. He had also read volumes of books from the library as well as dozens of book ordered from Amazon. Finally, he went back to high school. He enrolled as senior but only had the credits of a sophomore. He then scored very high on his SAT, etc., and went online to earn needed H.S. credits and he also clepped out on many of his undergraduate college requirements. He graduated from H.S. on time and additionally earned a four year scholarship to NAU. After completing two years in the Honors program at NAU, he dropped out and blew his scholarship. He needed more time to "think". First, he built houses for Ameri-Corp in Florida. Then, you guessed it he left home to "think" and to "travel" the world. Two years later, he came home, borrowed the money, and finished his degree in Archeology. Now at age 29, he works several months a year; and travels several months a year. As he explains it, he needs time to "think, and to "give back to his community".
Daydreaming, I am an expert at this. I spent many hours as a child in school doing this exact thing. I think that we need to allow time for daydreaming but keep in mind that we are here to engage the children in learning.
MB, I hear what you are saying and for the last two days I have "watched" my students. Many of my Honors students are daydreamers. I know this, yet I wanted to see how much actual time was spent in an average period. Two days of data is inconclusive but it did show me several things - my dreamers have insights my others frequently miss. I have one student in particular who often appears disengaged - he's dreaming. I have tried a number of things with him to keep him on task. Recently I stopped and when he got that "look" I waited 5 to 10 minutes and then asked him simply "please, let me participate in your thoughts". The look he gave me was heartwarming and as he talked his daydream was content based and amazing in its perception. I know that minutes are valuable but I can't help but believe that thoughts are valuable too. Somehow I know I must find a compromise - a middle ground.
Is the morning "moment of silence" enough time for "daydreaming??" Haha..just kidding. I think it's easily to confuse a student who might be daydreaming as opposed to a student who truly might not be comprehending concepts. I'd imagine that "checking in" periodically with such students will give us insight to what they're thinking about. As teachers, we are expected to reflect about our practice and think about our teaching. A good reminder that students need opportunities to do the same!
I think this is such an interesting idea, but can certainly understand the difficulty finding time for it. Seems if we could at least find a few minutes here and there to squeeze it in, it would be worthwhile.
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