I had some serious fun today with students. I was alone which is not the norm, but, on short notice, the parent helper could not make it. It is extra demanding on those days where I learn alone with the kids, but it is, many times, the most interesting times. While I was away a most interesting question came up: “Do pigs have udders?” Apparently, this was a hotly debated topic and it was brought up again today. I laughed. It was funny and pointed to an irrevocable truth: human curiosity and eloquent questions lead the way as we learn.
A simple question
Eloquently posed
Curiosity fueled;
The energy behind learning.
What does that mean?
Is it true?
Many more queries;
We seek and fill gaps–
Not with certitude;
Uncertainty prevails.
Years later
I am sure I will smile and chuckle;
I recall–
Appreciate the quality
A simple, provocative question–
Do pigs have udders?
As best as we can learn, they do and it was fun trying to figure it out. Adolescent children ask the darnedest things. Laughter is a great cure for even the most challenging moments.
About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope, nonviolence and its anticipatory relationship with the future, as essential elements to teaching and learning.
Academic publications can be found at Ivon Gile Prefontaine on ResearchGate
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
I am sitting with a smile… They do indeed ask the most wonderful questions…
The innocence of youth is so refreshing… Thank You, Ivon, for such lovely words…
You are welcome Carolyn.
hahahaha So cute. I like your poem – it says it all!
Kids have a way of doing that for us.
Fine teachers are easy to pick out, but harder to find these days. Cute post!
It only begins to capture the moment. Living it was truly gratifying.
😀
Right back at you Gary.
Nice post! Love the humour involved in teaching!
It is the part I do not have to pay for and is a great reward along with observing young people grow.
Interesting question really! I’m all smiles and wondering how such a question came up. Pigs sure have udders! 🙂
The first day it came up I was away so I do not have all the details, but they are an interestingly curious group. The topic was hotly debated as a couple of students live on farms and were sure, as you say, they do have udders. It could have been as simple as wanting me to give some indication of an answer which I did to the affirmative and still had to show the one doubter a Wikipedia article. Still it very funny.
Must have been an interesting class. You are the type of teacher that makes learning fun.
It was a very interesting class. I have been fortunate to have students who bring out the best in me over the years. They have made it easy to laugh and have fun. The two are indispensable to learning.