July 30, 2021
Hello ,
Learning to pause has been perhaps the most important work of my life. A pause sounds so simple, “a learned skill, where you take a break, stop or cease to react, speak or act.”
I spent probably the first 40 years of my life reacting to the various events of my life automatically without taking time to think or assess. In many ways I acted habitually without considering there might be a different way.
I would sometimes tell my husband, “I can’t change. That’s just the way I am.” I sounded stubborn and rigid, but I really believed it. I didn’t know any better.
Luckily, for myself and my marriage, I gradually become aware that a pause gives me the freedom to respond wisely rather than react automatically, and continuing to practice this skill is a priority for me.
Over the years, I’ve often lamented that I didn’t learn how to pause at a younger age. Occasionally, I’m thrilled to read about teachers of young children making this type of mindfulness a part of their daily lessons.
What’s the point of of this today? I can't wait to tell you! Please follow along here as I give you a wrap-up of my recent Media Literacy Project.
Highlights: My Dive into Media Literacy
Jennifer Legarde was one person I definitely wanted to interview on the topic of media literacy. She's known as @LibraryGirl on twitter, and I'd been following her a few years, long enough to know that she is passionate about kids and literacy of all kinds.
Right off, Jennifer framed the issue in a new way for me. She said media literacy is less a problem, than a consequence of a world we're living in, and went on to explain.
"We want information to be free. But because we don't pay for information in ways we always have, we now pay in this new way, we pay through clicks.
"All content creators whether we're talking about a trained journalist, a troll or a social media influencer, they all have the same goal in part which is to monetize, to tug on our emotions to get us to click. To get us emotionally invested in the content.
"If we can recognize when those feelings are triggered and what to do about it we have a much better hope of disrupting those systems."
If you're on Instagram, you can see my interview with Jennifer if you click the photo below.
Traditional news and information literacy is focused on skills and tools for learners to interrogate a piece of information. That's important, but Jennifer says it leaves out what we ourselves bring to the task, our own human behavior.
"We can't keep up with the technology in a way that will help learners be able to anticipate every single tool that might be out there to influence or manipulate them, but human behavior is remarkably predictable. So if we can look internally at what we bring to the table, then frankly I think it's an easier problem to
solve."
And that's where the pause come in!
Educators are teaching students of all age levels to pause and ask themselves one question about information they see on the internet, whether text, video, audio, a news pieces, a tweet or a tiktok. Not: Is this true? Rather...
"How does this information make me feel?"
Jennifer says the answer to that question can result in the thought process, the discussion or strategy that will make us smarter at navigating information on the net.
"Because once we say, gosh this makes me feel upset, or this makes me feel smarter than everyone in this story, or whatever that emotion is, then we can start asking bigger questions like "Who would want us to feel this way? Who benefits if I feel this way?
"Especially if the feelings that are triggered in me make me feel negatively toward someone else, make me feel anger, or hate or resentment toward another person or group. Who benefits if I feel that way. What are they hoping I'll do?"
Asking the question, how does this make me feel, then pressing pause, instead of clicking share. Wow.
An invitation to press pause can lead to so many positive outcomes.
And yes, there's a book about that.
Gaining the skill to pause in moments of strong emotion has improved my relationships, my mental well-being and given me freedom to make choices I didn't even know I had. Children who learn to practice the pause when facing the ocean of info coming at them on the internet will be well-equipped to practice it in all aspects of their lives. This gives me much hope for our world.
Correction: Last week I told you about Belle Valentine and
her heroic effort to save her husband when he'd been captured POW by the Japanese. I mentioned that she became a U.S. Army nurse in the Philippines after the war. In fact, soon after her husband made the Bataan Death March, Belle joined the Philippine resistance and also worked as a nurse in the U.S. Medical Corps during the war.
Here's what I've been reading. I told you about this author earlier this year, and so glad I finally got to one of her books. It was incredible. I listened to it on audio, and hearing the voices of the black boys in the story adds a lot to the impact.
This book is a great example of why I like to read books for teens. It's about a 14-year-old black boy who gets shot and killed by a police officer while playing in a park with a toy gun. I don't want to read a story like that!
It's horrible. I can easily read stories like that in the newspaper. Of course, they need to be written. Of course, we need to learn about racial injustice and commit ourselves to being anti-racist and being part of the solution. But it's so painful to read about.
Authors of books for young people know how to write about topics like this in a way that pulls you in and holds your interest and attention without depressing you, scaring you, making you feel hopeless.
Jewell Parker Rhodes deals truthfully with racial injustice in this book, and about the pain of a family and a community experiencing the loss of a child in such a brutal and unfair way. But she is so skillful! Bringing you up close to the truth in a gentle way that helps you bear the pain in a way that is constructive, not destructive.
In addition, what I loved about this book is that it ties the present into the past. She weaves threads of history deftly into the contemporary narrative, adding context and significance to the story. I highly recommend it.
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