sp200410 Rewards and buried treasure:  What it’s all about 

  In his academic years (which never ended, it seems) he read about anticipatory learning, the role which anticipation plays in our life. For some, the anticipation of treasure is the thing. For others, it is a big win – either to achieve oneself or a team.

A lizard and a ruby

As a kid I was fascinated by buried treasure. One time I put several of my most valued things in a glass jar – the dried carcass of a chameleon I’d had a while, a fake ruby and such – twisted the lid on tight and buried it. I thought some day I’d go unearth it but never did.

The movie, Treasure Island stands out as a film I still like – in fact I “unearthed it” on the web a while back. I realized I hadn’t remembered the details but one, the treasure itself. I probably watched the whole movie to see the treasure.

In my academic years (which never ended, it seems) I read about anticipatory learning, the role which anticipation plays in our life. For some, the anticipation of treasure is the thing. For others, it’s a big win – either to achieve oneself or see one’s team make.

I’m no kid anymore, but as I thought of a topic to write about and seal it in my computer along with others in this directory, reward popped into my mind, and buried treasure. What did I think I’d find if I had dug up that glass jar? Would the chameleon look any different? Would the ruby turn out not to be fake, after all, but worth thousands?

Reading notes

In my middle age, I was fascinated by books about creativity and human potential for problem-solving. By this time, I was an art professor; and some I was considered an artist, but that meant less to me because, in my pursuit to be a great teacher, research taught me art is not as essential to sustainability as science, technology, engineering and math.

STEM, today, reigns supreme. The coronavirus pandemic is a demonstration of this. For the past three decades, climate change and a score of other critical needs have shown it, too. Art is critical for communicating the need for STEM in early education especially.

The most important thing I learned in school is that printmaking is the best communicator among the arts. We need design and craft, but the repetition of a message is what makes it important to STEM.

I believe printmaking could be the “A” in STEAM, a small movement among educators who try to blend the terms for a more rounded, interrelated curriculum for kids. They are correct in this, but it’s more difficult when the masses were educated in a half-century of fragmented curricula.

Resistance to STEM starts in college, where teachers are trained to be suited to autocracy. The politics of college and university programs is legend and trickles down to educational policy at the government levels from the local school board all the way up to the federal government.

Map to treasure

Most efforts to educate the masses have failed, leaving youth to find meaningful ways to satisfy our shared sense of anticipation. Business has rushed in to fill the void where school failed to provide meaningful goals and treasure maps. Games prevail.

Fantasy and delusion are the cure for depression when people face the coronavirus pandemic. The tiny cadre of microbiologists, epidemiologists and other researchers are working overtime to find a solution, a cure or a vaccine against the virus (or mutants) causing it.

Every healthcare worker spent years learning their art and now they’re on the front lines of a war they never really expected. Kids are shut out of regular schools and colleges are also shut down. People are ordered to stay home, and the world economy is depressed.

Is there a map showing how to get out of this alive? Who are the map makers? Where are they now, when we need them most? Are they the fantasy and delusional artists who have entertained kids for decades – and adults who, early on, found respite from school in games?

Daily I face this question. I wanted to be a map-maker, to at least begin drawing maps for the students in my classes. In my drawing, design, printmaking and video art classes, that’s what I was doing – sketching possible roads and byways they could try using to fulfill their anticipated treasure hunts.

It has come to this: Writing an essay a day and storing it on my hard drive – sometimes putting on my old, outdated blog online which, in fact, few people find, and no one comments on.

Still I look to find a reason to believe.