Wonderment and Awe: Responding or Searching?
Adapted from Habits of Mind
Why is it that some people are able to find so much passion, so much wonderment and so much awe in what they do, while others don't? What makes one persons response to the same situation so different to anothers? The answer is that although they are receiving the same images through their eyes, what they are seeing can be very different.
The response of Wonderment and Awe is one of recognising something as being very different, exceptional in some way, beyond the ordinary or every day. When I stand in an Art Gallery looking at a piece of art I see a pretty painting and am fairly underwhelmed. When my colleague, an teacher of Art, sees they same painting they are seeing a history, comparing it to hundreds of other paintings and noting how this one is so much surperior in so many aspects. She sees not just the pretty picture, but the difference between this and all the others that make it unique, special or exceptional.
In order to respond with wonderment and awe we then must have two essential components: (1) an understanding about what we are experiencing (we need to have an idea of what normal is). And (2), we need points of comparison. We must be able to compare what we are experiencing with our understanding of "normal" and recognise it as exceptional.
Some people fail to find wonder in the world simply because they don't look. They wait to be shown.
It is easy to be amazed when someone shows you something and explains why it is so amazing. Many of us will relate to the experience of not finding something intresting until someone explained to us why it was so special. At the heart of this Habit of Mind is not "Responding" with wonderment and awe - which is easy - but the Search for it.
People who build passions search for wonderment. They ask questions, they are curious, they seek out what is special and outstanding in everything around them. They don't wait to be amazed they go out looking for it. Encourage students to question, investigate and search for what is special. It is the search that will bring life long joy and wonderment, not waiting to be astounded.
Responding with wonderment is a natural response for a child. You don't have to be taught how to do it. They respond this way because everything is a new experience to them. Everything is out of the ordinary. But to keep this response as the world grows more familiar and the media bombards us with extremes, we must learn to seach for the wonder in the world. Schools don't teach the wonder out of us, but too often they fail to teach us how to find it!
The response of Wonderment and Awe is one of recognising something as being very different, exceptional in some way, beyond the ordinary or every day. When I stand in an Art Gallery looking at a piece of art I see a pretty painting and am fairly underwhelmed. When my colleague, an teacher of Art, sees they same painting they are seeing a history, comparing it to hundreds of other paintings and noting how this one is so much surperior in so many aspects. She sees not just the pretty picture, but the difference between this and all the others that make it unique, special or exceptional.
In order to respond with wonderment and awe we then must have two essential components: (1) an understanding about what we are experiencing (we need to have an idea of what normal is). And (2), we need points of comparison. We must be able to compare what we are experiencing with our understanding of "normal" and recognise it as exceptional.
Some people fail to find wonder in the world simply because they don't look. They wait to be shown.
It is easy to be amazed when someone shows you something and explains why it is so amazing. Many of us will relate to the experience of not finding something intresting until someone explained to us why it was so special. At the heart of this Habit of Mind is not "Responding" with wonderment and awe - which is easy - but the Search for it.
People who build passions search for wonderment. They ask questions, they are curious, they seek out what is special and outstanding in everything around them. They don't wait to be amazed they go out looking for it. Encourage students to question, investigate and search for what is special. It is the search that will bring life long joy and wonderment, not waiting to be astounded.
Responding with wonderment is a natural response for a child. You don't have to be taught how to do it. They respond this way because everything is a new experience to them. Everything is out of the ordinary. But to keep this response as the world grows more familiar and the media bombards us with extremes, we must learn to seach for the wonder in the world. Schools don't teach the wonder out of us, but too often they fail to teach us how to find it!