Thursday 4 April 2013

stale metaphors are forbidden

Winter semester wrapped up a couple weeks ago, spring break last week was unseasonably spring-like (flowers! sunshine! bike rides!), and now spring semester at grad school has started.

The class is allegedly about designing your preschool classroom to optimize children's learning, but to hear the professor talk about it, it's actually about metaphors. I approach classroom design practically. I mean, I just want to know which plants are poisonous so I don't put those ones in reach of the toddlers, I'm not really interested in developing a literary analysis about the symbolism of the toy bin placement. That's the direction the professor leans. Did I mention he's the director of the program?

During the two and a half hour first class period, the professor didn't bother to ask our names (or introduce himself), but he did lead a guided meditation which involved evoking pleasurable sensations and then listing adjectives for all five senses and combining them to make... yep, metaphors. Metaphors for learning.

Even though the professor doesn't know my name, he was all impressed that my default words were ones like "dappled" and "susurrus," which is only remarkable because my classmates tended toward "hot" and "salty." So I guess I made an impression anyway?

It might be a bizarre semester.

Hugs,
-MP

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