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If I could gather the world's adults....especially educators, I assign The Element:How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Sir Ken Robinson.
I am a Teacher Librarian of a certain age that just drove her eldest to their first year of University. After shedding a few tears, I listened to the final chapters of The Element on my drive home. I'm so glad my child chose the University they did. I know my darling will find their element there.
Near the end of his book, Sir Ken reads a poem titled The Hundred Languages. Because it's a translation of Loris Malaguzzi's work, I am sure that it is more soulful in it's original language of Italian.
I want to foster all the languages of all my students....the ones I drive to university and the others I only know for a school year.
The Hundred Languages
No way. The hundred is there.
The child
is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
A hundred always a hundred
ways of listening
of marveling, of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.
(read the rest here)
Please visit Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe for more Poetry Friday
ways of listening
of marveling, of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.
(read the rest here)
Please visit Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe for more Poetry Friday
Gosh. This took the wind out of me. Thank you. I am going to copy it into my copied poem notebook. So heartbreaking. I am going to read that book - just one step behind you, Linda, with our eldest beginning next year. Where does it go? So good yours found the good home...with the element just a'waiting. Hug. xx
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you had a nice goodbye and settling in of your child, Linda. I would hope that everyone raise their child to rebel as this one did. Will look up the book! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteA hundred way of touching ones heart, and they take away 99. Luckily we poets embrace the one hundred. What a wonderful poem with an important lesson.
ReplyDeleteLinda, I looked up the original in Italian and it is lovely (and I'd make a couple of tweaks to the translation!). :) Thank you for introducing me to this poem and this man, of whom I'd never heard. Fascinating!
ReplyDeletePowerful poem, Linda. Thanks for sharing this today.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you say we get Renée to read it in Italian, Montiverdi playing in the background... just to make sure our heartstrings have been pulled as far as they will go. Beautiful– thanks for sharing, Linda.
ReplyDeletesounds good to me!
DeleteMaybe not me -- not sure how lovely it will sound with my terrible accent! :D
DeleteI pledge allegiance to the hundred.
ReplyDeleteLet me not be the one who separates the head from the body.
What Heidi said.
ReplyDeleteI'm all ears for a link to listen some time down the road, if Renee is interested. Love this idea, Michelle.
ReplyDeleteLinda, you are clearly one of the ones strengthening children's connections to their hundreds and hundreds and hundreds more, ways of knowing, seeing, feeling, living, learning. Appreciations for this beautiful sharing. The title of the poem & the book are each new to me.
(At my bookseedstudio site I went fullMom mode, in comments, regarding The Drop Off At Freshman Year Away From Home. So excited for your college kid!
A hundred thanks to you for the introduction to the poem/poet. Lovely. =)
ReplyDeleteI've been listening to The Element while out walking the dog, so I just heard this a couple of days ago, and was also quite struck by it!
ReplyDeleteFantastic! I love the stories in The Element. Gives me hope that I can continue to grow as a writer and a person.
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