I love this, Nicole. Like you, I’ve been amazed and given hope by the students I work with (mine are a bit older, college freshmen and upperclassmen, too), and, like you, I’ve loved watching them light up and enjoy reading and writing when we’re able to come to it from curiosity and passion rather than “have to” and “should.”
The line that stopped me cold was curiosity breaking the performative certainty of this online era. Everything out here rewards the confident take, the answer, the hot conclusion. A genuine question is almost countercultural now. And you did the bravest possible version of it, ending on Rilke's falcon line instead of resolving it. You practiced the whole essay in its last sentence. Growth over conviction is the harder road because conviction feels like arriving and a question feels like admitting you haven't. But the question is the only one of the two that ever takes you anywhere new. I'm keeping this list for when I travel west this fall.
I love this, Nicole. Like you, I’ve been amazed and given hope by the students I work with (mine are a bit older, college freshmen and upperclassmen, too), and, like you, I’ve loved watching them light up and enjoy reading and writing when we’re able to come to it from curiosity and passion rather than “have to” and “should.”
Wonderful questions to explore the world with! I’ll be using these with my kids!
Yay! I hope you all have fun with it :)
The line that stopped me cold was curiosity breaking the performative certainty of this online era. Everything out here rewards the confident take, the answer, the hot conclusion. A genuine question is almost countercultural now. And you did the bravest possible version of it, ending on Rilke's falcon line instead of resolving it. You practiced the whole essay in its last sentence. Growth over conviction is the harder road because conviction feels like arriving and a question feels like admitting you haven't. But the question is the only one of the two that ever takes you anywhere new. I'm keeping this list for when I travel west this fall.
I am very burnt out on hot takes! When I feel like I have one, I throw it out of my mind and see what I can exchange for it LOL
I read through these questions with no small amount of wonder and curiosity. I can’t wait to take them out into the world to experiment with.
Hooray! Lmk what answers you find ❤️
Loooove this!!!
Loooove you! Boop!
This was a fantastic read!
Thank you for sharing this.
It was a fun thought exercise!