Students of Thought
By R. Wayne Shute and Sharon Gibb (©1993)
Irene contributed a chapter in the book Student of Thought. The book is the collaboration of 10 authors in a cooperative effort. This book is their journey into teaching and learning through the interrogative mind; a journey which is deeply personal as each author reveals thinking through writing on teaching.
Irene’s chapter is called “Toward the Forgotten Thoughtfulness and begins with the following excerpt:
When I was a child,
I played as a child.
When I became a student,
I was encouraged to put away my childish ways,
And decipher meaning from the world through word and number.
When I became a teacher,
I rediscovered the values of play,
And other ways to experience and learn.
Naested, 1991
Thoughtfulness Forgotten
The environment experienced by humans is both natural and man-made, filled with images, sounds, smells, movement, temperatures, animal and plant, and human life forms. To be a thoughtful learner one must develop the means for information gathering from many sources in order to consider all things. I have a strong belief that thoughtfulness prevails in environments where perceptive multi-sensory modes of information gathering, expression, and communication are promoted, encouraged, and where they become part of the cultural norms of the group and the individuals within the group. Words alone cannot completely help humans to understand the personal and cultural nature of thoughts and feelings even when all the words are commonly known.
p.77
Publication of this book has been discontinued and there are no longer available copies.