Staying on topic

I had a bit of an obnoxious realization last night- kind of like my best friend's advice that I hate taking but is always right. I attended Young Urban Zen (YUZ) at the zen center. I'll talk about it more in a later post but for now, let's just call it a study group for people who are interested in putting into practice what they're learning at the zen center.

So, the normal format of YUZ includes an introduction of a topic, then a break out into small groups to discuss the topic, then a sharing out again with the whole group. Because the group was small last night, we just discussed as a whole group. The topic was 'chanting.' I don't really like chanting but I thought that the discussion would help me to understand it better. I ended up enjoying the class but I have to admit that about a third of the way through the class, the teacher in me surfaced.

Shundo (he's the Ino- the one in charge of the meditation hall) started off by just asking us about our experiences with chanting in general. People had a lot to say about chanting and we talked for awhile. Then Shundo actually passed out the chant and we talked about how to chant, and that went on for a while. Then we actually chanted the chant. Then we talked about how it felt to chant the chant. We also talked about yoga and religion and music and Bill Gates and I started to get nervous. In my mind, we were off topic. I thought that Shundo had an agenda and we were keeping him from it (and I say we intentionally because I was just as much a part of the discussion as everyone else). I looked at Shundo to see if he was feeling the same distress as I was- nope, not at all, he was just listening.

And then I got it, it wasn't about the agenda, it wasn't about Shundo talking, it was about all of us in the room and what we thought. Drat! Actually, it was a really beautiful evening and I learned a lot because everyone in the room was talking.

Now, I'm an experienced teacher so I know about 'everyone participating' and 'activating prior knowledge' and that 'the one who's learning is the one who's speaking' and all that but hold on a minute! When I saw Shundo smiling away and came to the realization that that's what this is supposed to be about I thought Oh no! How am I going to do this with third graders? We will talk about Pokemon and poop all morning long. And I know that it's not that simple and no one thinks it's a good idea for me to just let the kids talk but still, this is going to be a tough one for me. I really do think that what happened tonight was important- it really is true that what the kids bring to the conversation is what it's all about: I learned way more tonight than if Shundo had just lectured. But I also know the reality of 'covering' third grade standards in nine months and the responsibility of making sure the kids understand the content (and I actually like what we learn in third grade, I want them to learn about inference and simile and metaphor). So, I think I'm going to have to muddle over this one for a good long while to figure out how to translate it into teaching place value.