Meeting Wendell Berry
12 December 2015
“I saw you at Actor’s Theatre last year with Gary Snyder,” I stammered. “Gary said the first thing we should teach all children is proper penmanship. I asked you about education? What we should teacher students in school?”
His eyes lifted as he finished signing the first book. More than anything else, his presence came off as comforting.
“I’m not sure what good it is to teach children the things we do,” he explained.
One of the most significant opportunities for growth in education, in my small mind anyway, lies in curriculum. Content. Standards. The what of learning seems more important than other more popular topics, like how and where. So of course I agreed.
“What good is any kind of knowledge without self-knowledge to shape it?” I responded.
“Absolutely right. You’ve got that right. Yes,” He agreed with enough enthusiasm to make me wonder if someone else had their hand in the back of my head and used my body like a Ventriloquist. Better introduce myself.
“Mr. Berry, my name is Terry Heick, and I’m a teacher. Your work has influenced me greatly. One of the things I do is take your ideas, and help contextualize them for other teachers. Or try anyway.”
“Well, I’m not sure I’ve had any ideas. These ideas aren’t mine. I got them from other people, who got them from other people. And so on.”
Read more about Terry Heick's encounter at Teach Thought