Getting where we're going

Maps are dominating my 8th grade world cultures classroom this week. Conversations about maps, about what they look like, what they can do, how they can be...how they can change us and the ways we think and understand and relate to each other.

The world of maps is a world of transforming possibilities. Maps help us navigate, but they can also be abstractions, diagrams of relationships, or interactions over times.

Maps can reveal how diseases spread, how plants and animals form food chains within an ecosystem, how society evolves as a result of correlating sets of data, delivered on maps. One of my favorite TED talks is Amy Robinson Sterling's 2013 talk about mapping the brain.

Maps are awesome and we've been looking at Gapminder, the CIA World Factbook this week as we all try to make sense of cultural, social, political, and geographic transformations, struggles, successes, and opportunities on the continent of Africa.

The best moments, though, have occurred when my students get out from behind their maps, detatch themselves from pages of data, and connect with each other. They lean into the work of their peers and become overtaken by moments of "Whoa, that's so cool!" and "Your maps are so awesome!"  and "Hey, did you see ----------'s maps yet? Their correlations are CRAZY!" They are looking for correlations, but they're also looking for connections.

They are adolescents. They are academics. But they are also undeniably human animals who crave interaction with one another.

I asked them as they left class the other day, "Who's not having fun with their data? Who is frustrated?" 

A few hands went up.

"That's okay! Share what you're looking at with your classmates in study hall today; if you're still frustrated in the morning, come find me and we can make sure we find some fun in it together!"

It wasn't about me. It wasn't about them. It was about us. About the connections, and about being frustrated...frustrated alongside each other. Because when we invite others into our frustration, our trials, we aren't alone any more.

Doesn't that kind of make us like road maps? Aren't we networks of spiraling connections between things?

Some days we're zooming on interstates, connecting with gobs of other off ramps and roundabouts, brimming with ideas, going somewhere.

Other days we're one lane dirt roads through the forest...we're going slow, taking our time, wandering, rambling through the day.

But what about the days that are parkways or bi-ways or alleys or cul-de-sacs? What of the dead ends, the bridges, the toll plazas, the one-way streets? 

There are purposes for all these things, but I think the key is that we don't always stay in our own cars. We need to carpool; we need to take public transportation; we need to drive; but we also need to be passengers. 

And sometimes we have to walk.

How are you getting where you need to go today?