A great way to think deeply, and really get to know and understand yourself, others and the places around you is to be more ‘attentive’. Being attentive means taking the time to pay attention and really observe in detail what is actually going on around you. Scientists, artists, architects,historians, researchers and, in fact, anyone who is trying to understand the world, use this skill all the time.
It means listening and paying attention with your ears, but also with your eyes, nose, skin, heart, mind and imagination. For us, there seems to be two main kinds of attentiveness: active exploring and deep listening. Both involve making a whole body/mind connection and both produce new, personal, embodied knowledge, understanding and values but in different ways. ‘Active exploring’ occurs when students are moving around discovering and investigating. ‘Deep listening’ requires stillness and allows students to notice the minute details that they can easily miss.
In a Storythread Unit, both kinds of attentiveness, active exploring and deep listening, aswell as the reflection that follows, can be used to heighten students’ awareness and connect them to the ‘places’ around them in authentic ways. Being attentive allows people to see, and value, the ‘extra’ in the most ‘ordinary’ of situations.
At PEEC, we have discovered that when students are taught the skill of deep attentive listening or observation, they begin to discover what is special and important – about themselves, other people and the places around them. When they do this, they often begin to care more and to act with respect towards themselves, other people and the natural world. This is what we mean by ‘Growing a Sense of Place’. A Storythread Unit is significantly heightened when students are provided with the opportunityto develop a ‘sense of place’
