Well at least my study looks like writing is happening here. Books and articles are strewn all over the floor and post-it notes with bits and pieces scribbled all over them lie around the carpet. Whenever a thought crosses my mind, or someone says something interesting I write it down. For example over sashimi and sake last night, in our favorite crowded Japanese restaurant, Tom and I were discussing the concept of internal ethnography, a term he created for me about a year ago. He described it again last night as, "Making a deliberate, detailed account of our inner feelings ... what academics [he was speaking for himself at this point - not about all academics] might call internal ethnography." I wrote it down on a napkin as he was talking. He had discussed it with colleagues in Paris last week while sharing with them what I do in my work. Our conversation about it had started while walking the Wissahickon yesterday morning. He had discovered that some people believe that external forces are to blame while others, very few, are willing to take account of their inner feelings and make connections about how those affect their interactions with others. Almost like two different belief systems, life attitudes, ways of viewing the world or, even, solving problems. I noted our discussion in my brain as we walked, holding onto its memory until we reached home and I could write it up in my journal.
People say the most interesting things. I think I have developed an inner third ear over the years. One that only hears interesting, challenging, humorous, mind-blasting snippets. Sometimes I spin around, do a double-take or focus in, when I hear a slight comment that no one else has noticed. And very often those pieces of seemingly unimportant remarks contain within them pearls of wisdom, keys to a person's soul, or cries for help that would otherwise go unheard.
Here's a post-it I found attached to a book I have recently been asked to review, called Unsmiling Faces: How Preschools Can Heal. I must have written on this particular post-it two or three years ago, perhaps while attending some workshop or other on behavior management or discipline or something. It reads:
... always the troubled kids that I loved the most. Most teachers hate those kind of kids because they feel so out of control - it's not that they hate them as much as they feel uncomfortable and out of control - just don't know what to do with them ...
Writing is not just about sitting at the computer tap-tapping at the keys. It is all about listening, observing, thinking, watching, talking, holding still, being silent, imagining, wondering. It accompanies me in the shower, through my breathing exercises, on the treadmill, walking through the town, sitting by the sea, in my dreams, reading other writings, poetry, articles, books, when I am watching movies, all day and most of my night.
Talking of internal ethnography, I love this saying I found about twenty years ago. It accompanies me through my work, and I share it with all who work with children and families. I am sure you have probably seen it somewhere. You see, it is not about those people out there making our lives a misery, or doing stuff to us. It is related to the connections we make with our own inner feelings and the way we interact with others:
To ponder by Haim Ginott
I've come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my personal approach that creates the climate. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I have a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or deescalated and a child humanized or dehumanized
A year ago at Mining Nuggets: It's my pleasure
Internal ethnography is a very interesting concept and of course it does exist, and Tom has coined it so to speak.
Haim Ginott's quote, what a wonderful insight, to realise the individual power that we may have and be aware of it.
Posted by: ainelivia | August 05, 2007 at 06:45 AM