Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention,

on purpose,

in the present moment,

non-judgmentally.

 

—Jon Kabat-Zinn

Claudia L’Amoreaux

Mindful Digital Life

Alison Gopnik

Reading, reallocating time, and a failed search for 36 hours in a day…

© by Claudia L’Amoreaux

photo of astronomical clock in Prague

Prague Astronomical Clock by Jerzy Strzelecki

 

Time. Try as I may, I have not yet been able to find 36 hours in a day. Maryanne Wolf in her book Reader, Come Home offered me an alternative to conjuring 12 more hours in a day—reallocate time—which I did to read the book The Gardener and the Carpenter. I enthusiastically completed Alison Gopnik’s book this past Monday night. But the big question is: how did I find the creative strength to reallocate that time? I can actually pinpoint the moment—after listening to an interview with Maryanne Wolf, I had a spontaneous conversation with myself about what I valued.

I often write about dedicating time weekly in the family for intentional conversations about technology. I believe conversations about values lay the foundation of those “tech talks.” Instead of foundation, perhaps a better metaphor might be pulled from the domain of navigation . . . pole star, astrolabe, compass. Identifying our individual and group values helps us navigate vast seas of ever changing, utterly fascinating, insanely irresistible content to arrive at whatever destinations we identify for ourselves. (And yes, we can count on gale force winds showing up.)

I wasn’t certain I’d succeed in reading all of The Gardener and the Carpenter. I am certain that I never would have succeeded had I not noticed that I really wanted to read the entire book to understand Alison Gopnik’s perspective on what children and teens really need from the adults who care for them. I identified a destination and an ideal arrival date. Destination: read the entire book. Arrival date: within the week.

These inner conversations with ourselves illuminate our own struggles and ideals. They can become a source of mindfulness and modeling in our weekly conversations with our children and teens when we can take the focus off our kids for a moment, open to our own vulnerability, and transparently begin to share our own experiences navigating. Our apprenticeship in navigation never ends.

Reminder and Invitation: This is the third week in a row I’ve written about my current journey with Maryanne Wolf and Alison Gopnik. You can find the previous two posts here. A few of us will begin an experiment on Saturday, December 1, for 10–12 days reading Maryanne Wolf’s chapter on Deep Reading (she wrote the book as a series of letters so it’s actually a letter). It’s not too late to join us. Just respond to this email with “I’m in.” It’s a no-fail experiment to develop more awareness and insight for anyone who is thinking a lot about reading, devices, books, reflection, critical thinking, democracy, children, and teens.

Conversational technologies: A year ago I wrote about a group of folks in the Netherlands who are designing conversational technologies in the form of card decks with questions. I used the first Vertellis deck with my daughter and her husband after a dinner one night before the 2018 new year. To play, you work through 4 rounds of questions—some individual questions, and some to be answered by everyone. The game was an excellent conversation catalyst, nudging us gently into a deeper level of sharing. In the past year, based on feedback and requests from people using the prototype deck, the Vertellis design team has added a deck specifically for families. I haven’t used it myself yet, but I’m pretty certain it will be helpful in drawing out everyone’s thoughts around values in a playful and engaging way. Let me know if you experiment with it. I’d love to hear about your experiences.

 

tl;dr (too long; didn’t read) Deep Reading part 2

© by Claudia L’Amoreaux

Very large and close rain cloud in blue sky above hills with sun flares behind cloud
Gratitude—Highway 46. November 22, 2018

Life-changing rain arrived Wednesday, November 21 on the Central Coast and north. I have been living in the AQI (Air Quality Index) along with all the other residents of this part of the country. On one day, I noticed San Francisco was getting media coverage for having “the worst air quality in the world” that particular day. Gives a person great empathy for Beijing’s inhabitants when SF beats Beijing for a day. The recent rain moved the entire area from red to green almost instantly on the AQI map. I took this photo at the top of Highway 46 looking south towards Morro Bay. I stood there for a long time, turning a full 360, appreciating these enormous, beautiful clouds.

Note: Last year I wrote a 3-module unit on Air Quality Monitoring and Citizen Science. Let me know if you’d like more information about it. It’s a first draft, has a Creative Commons license, and is loaded with stories about citizen science projects about air (and water) quality.

 

In my last post, I wrote about listening to a few programs on NPR while driving south from my home in the Bay Area. I talked about Maryanne Wolf’s book, Reader, Come Home, and put out an invitation to join me in an experiment. That invitation is still open until Nov. 30.We start Dec. 1. Scroll down to see the invitation again—I revised it slightly. I hope some of you will join us. It’s a no pressure, no fail experiment.

In that same post, I briefly mentioned listening to an interview with Alison Gopnik, psychology and philosophy professor at University of California, Berkeley, making a mental note to read her book, The Carpenter and the Gardener, and finding that I already had it on my iPhone Kindle app. I had made it through the first chapter when I bought it in January of 2017 according to my highlights in the book on the app.

So, I picked it up and started reading. Here’s what I discovered. I have been moving easily and steadily through the book, reading at night on my iPhone. I haven’t paid much attention to how long I read exactly, but it’s about 30 minutes. I’m beginning Chapter 6 next. I enjoy and appreciate every paragraph. I am focused. I reread a few paragraphs. I highlight a lot. I find reviewing the highlights pretty useless on the phone but this is where the Kindle combination of phone/laptop really shines. On my laptop I can easily scroll through all my highlights for review, and find key ideas to consider more deeply. For example:

screenshot of kindle app on laptop showing highlighted quote by gopnik. here's an excerpt: Love doesn't have goals of benchmarks or blueprints, but it does have a purpose. The purpose is not to change the people we love, but to give them what they need to thrive.

 

Noticing in my own reading life, where I read SO MUCH CONTENT as my livelihood, I think I am just becoming extremely discriminating about what books I read (and probably always have been). When the content connects with my fierce passions, and the writer is a great storyteller, despite my daily hours in “screen reading mode” per Maryanne Wolf’s work, I have no problem deep reading. So yay. Good to know. There is something here in how we think about reading and young people. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

What I am reading online: I found this piece on Edutopia this week—”The Benefits of Ear-Reading“—food for thought on considering reading today.

So here’s that invitation, again: Join me for an experiment. We’ll read the Deep Reading chapter in the book Reader, Come Home together, doing a similar process to Maryanne’s experiment that she describes in detail in the interview: 20 minutes a night (or morning or noon—whatever works for you, but I think choosing a particular time and being consistent might be useful), over 10–12 days. And we’ll discuss together in a Zoom video call at the end. During the 10–12 days, I’ll send out a daily email as a reminder and check-in. There’s no failure here, only awareness and insight. I am pretty certain the experience of at least attempting to read the Deep Reading chapter ofher book in depth will help us as we think about how, where, and when our children are reading, and the complex relationships with books and digital devices we all have today. And for those of us with children (and grandchildren) 0–5, I unabashedly believe her book is essential, thought-provoking reading. Of course, parents of children 0–5 will have the least amount of time to reallocate to any kind of reading, so for you, an audio version of the book is available on Audible. To participate, drop me a note with the message “I’m in.” I will follow up.

 

Seagull standing on a piling with view of bay, sky, and Morro rock in background
Morro Bay, before the rain