An Argonaut is a type of squid, among other things.
I had a blog once. Actually, I’ve had a few. Screaming Argonaut was my first serious attempt at maintaining a presence on the Internet, but somehow
A man can be destroyed but not defeated.
Ernest Hemingway – The Old Man and the Sea
The Hero’s End – The Final Stapler Comic
I love this.
Because it’s true. Because it’s not working. Because he feels down, but not defeated.
When’s the last time you saw someone honestly fail on the Internet and not whine about it.
In a just world, this would have a million hits.
Metaphor is a strong motivator for students. If they can understand the whys and hows of what they’re attempting they can engage more deeply with the content. Presenting a lesson as a hero’s journey (in the tradition of Joseph Campbell) can provide an enticing framework.
It starts with
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
We are all failures- at least the best of us are.
J.M. Barrie
If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.
Ken Robinson
Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill
Following up on the video from earlier this week, I can’t help but connect John Cleese’s thoughts to education. I’ll skip the first premise that must be believed to follow this line, that the primary goal of education is to teach the skills of creativity and not to impart a collection of received knowledge. That is a topic for another day, and that day was thirty years ago.
Key points of the talk:
The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.
Benjamin Jacobson 