Sunday may be part of the weekend but I always wanted to know why it was etched on the calendar as the first day of the week. Always being the curious kind, fascination and intrigue empowered me; I loved life! New questions amazed me as to just how much there was to learn; yet, there was a time when I didn't even know that!
My explorations were ignited by my school librarian, Mrs. Toli, who loved to question things and show my class not only where to find answers to those questions, but also how to question things ourselves. You would say that she got us hooked on unlocking our imagination by using our senses when writing stories, uncovering clues within mystery books, and fueled the detective's mind, in all of us. Well, I've learned that being a detective not only solves those mysteries or helps the exploration of reading adventures but also helps us to be a type of super sleuth.
My class learned to hunt down answers to questions that we have. A year or two ago, we didn't even know that we had questions. You see, Mrs.Toli, through example and talking to us with excitement in her eyes, taught us to think differently. In fact, we didn't even know we were learning-it just happened!
She said, “You will learn as time goes on, to be responsible adults, and you yourself are responsible for your own learning”. Raymond snickered, “we have to learn ourselves? No more school? No teachers? Huh?” Mrs. Toli continued to explain but waited until the next library class to go into detail. I guess she was afraid to chatter too much. She probably didn't want our brains to explode the pizza we had for lunch or those candy bars we had on the playground!
“Mastery, not mere exposure” I would hear her saying to other teachers. Guess they're were talking about something scientific! All I know is that she always told us to use the brain that God gave us, and she would show us how.
Well, another week had passed, and she called on me. “Darlene, do you feel that your brain is being exercised lately?” Talk about taking things literally! Reminds me of a character in a fictional book. I think her initials were…'A. B'. Maybe I'll remember who she was later. “No, Mrs. Toli, I think you are wrong. Brains don't exercise, bodies do.” She chuckled for a minute and said, “Darlene, think deeply about what I am asking you. Does your head hurt with all the information I gave you last week?” Again, I said, “Mrs. Toli, I don't have a headache. Besides, if I had a headache for a whole week, I wouldn't even be able to think!” What a sweet lady she is but I think that she is all mixed up. Mrs. Toli, our teacher and school librarian said that “you'll understand someday, on your own, what I mean”, and continued with the lesson.
Weeks and weeks and months and months went by, with her talking “in a secret code” that I think only my class seemed to understand, and developed an…“I need to know…anything and everything” attitude. I want to know who won the World Series, why the sky is blue and who invented ice cream. The best part of our week is in the library. When I am there, I feel like I'm on a treasure hunt and my librarian taught us how to look for our treasure!
She says we are becoming “information literate”. I just know that I feel smarter when I am in her class and she doesn't even give us homework. What I am curious about is how did that happen? She wants us to figure that answer ourselves. Again, why isn't she telling us?
Our information bulletin board is one of our Centers! We can't wait to answer one of the questions that younger students posts on the board! The best part for them is that we write down where we found the answers. We also get to write questions, but we are already figuring out others should be discovering the answer.
I wonder what kids used to do when there was no television. Maybe I'll find my answer in the 800 section of the library, the history section. The younger kiddies may think to look up the word “TV” (if that is a word) in the encyclopedia, but I know that will only give the history of TV. I need to know the history of the 20's, or 30's, or even the 1940's, and see what life was lie before that invention. That's why I am going right to the 800's and see what the world was like in the olden days. Gee-maybe I will even see what kids used to wear. Imagine a world without jeans and sneakers? I wonder what else I can learn!
