Imitation, Innovation, and My Second Personal Vision Board

I have talked about numerous parts of what would be my second personal vision board--bread, the golden apple, the cornucopia.  There are three parts that remain.  I was not sure when I would get back to it, but I heard a story while driving to pick up my 13 year old from boychoir last night that inspired me to bring it out now.  

The program is a program that I hear on the local public radio station.  The program is called The Story.  The stories are long discussion format like some other public radio programs.  But the discussion is usually between the host and one person at a time.  There is no call in.  And each night there is usually a theme.  I'm not sure what the overall theme was last night, but at the conclusion of the program they were reflecting on some feedback they had received on a story about plagiarism.  Being a college professor and serving on or as chair of numerous academic committee, I think about plagiarism a lot.  It, for obvious reasons, has many very negative connotations.

However, the discussion about the piece on plagiarism also spent some time reviewing the concept of imitation in general.  And they closed with a thought for which I hav found a link that attributes it to jazz trumpet player Clark Terry: that the learning cycles can be summarized in three words: Imitate. Assimilate.  Innovate.  

That is a pretty cool thought.  The key is that the first step really is imitation.  Of course, I must begin by saying that this does not in any way, shape, or form excuse plagiarism.  But there are lots of ways in which I have imitated.  Prayer.  Lecturing style.  Overall approach to research. Playing bass.  Writing music.  Parenting.  The list goes on.  The key is that I have learned from others and whether I imitate consciously or subconsciously, I know that a lot of what I have done over time is to take the best of what I have observed and tried to make it mine.  It is just that I don't have to put in a footnote when I imitate through my parenting.

The assimilation.  Going along with the prayer theme, it is taking the ideas and making them an ingrained part of my way of living.  Taking the teaching, it is making an approach to leading a lecture or helping others to develop their faith (in Sunday school) or professional opinion of economic or cost-effectiveness (in my day job) a part of what I always do.  Yes, I am imitating at first because I learned from my teachers from elementary school to graduate school what are some of the best ways to present information.  However, I then assimilate and make each part a part of me.

Finally, I innovate.  Once I am comfortable using whatever the approach is in writing, playing, parenting, teaching, or praying (or anything else that I have learned from others), then I begin to make up my own themes.  I change things a bit.  I experiment.  I try things on for size.  Eventually, what was a shadow of what my mentors had done and then became an integrated part of my persona becomes truly mine as I find ways to bring it alive that are unique to my interest.

Now, unlike my love of the kitchen that could be usefully summarized in bread or my love of teaching that could be usefully summarized in a golden apple or the abundance with which I have been blessed that could be summarized with a cornucopia, it is not so obvious how one would summarize the learning process that is encapsulated by the three words: imitate, assimilate, innovate.  

However, I draw on The Hunger Games for some inspiration here.  Perhaps that is just a function of what I read this summer, and I certainly would not have been able to call on this image before this summer, but I like the mockingjay.  Why?  Well, think of the third book.  It is when Katniss who has really been led into things earlier on and has tried to imitate (listening to Haymitch) and then assimilated (taking what Haymitch said and acting on her own decisions) truly comes into her own and innovates.  It also fits quite well with a description of the mockingjay that appeared in the second book, Catching Fire on pages 91 and 92 of the hardback version.  I will close with that as I imagine having a mockingjay sitting atop the cornucopia on my virtual vision board.

“The jabberjays were mutations, genetically enhanced make birds created by the capitol as weapons to spy on rebels in the districts.  They could remember and repeat long passages on human speech, so they were sent into rebel areas to capture our words and return them to the Capital.  The rebels caught on and turned them against the Capitol by sending them home loaded with lies.  When this was discovered, the jabberjays were left to die.  In a few years they became extinct in the wild, but not before they had mated with female mockingbirds, creating an entirely new species.

 “But mockingjays were never a weapon,” said Madge.  “They’re just songbirds.  Right?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I said.  But it’s not true.  A mockingbird is just a songbird.  A mockingjay is a creature the Capitol never intended to exist.  They hadn’t counted on the highly controlled jabberjay having the brains to adapt to the wild, to pass on its genetic doe, to thrive in a new form.  They hadn’t anticipated its will to live.

Now, as I trudge through the snow, I see the mockingjays hopping about on branches as they pick up on other birds’ melodies, replicate them, and then transform them into something new.  As always, they remind me of Rue.  I think of the dream I had the last night on the train, where I followed her in mockingjay form.  I wish I could have stayed asleep just a bit longer and found out where she was trying to take me.

Vision Board II in Text Part II: A Golden Apple

As I continue to think about what my second vision board would contain, I turn to the idea of the golden apple--and how it symbolizes teaching.  It represents the center of my of my professional life.  It represents the highest goal that I have for the remainder of my professional life--to be the best educator that I can be.  Educator, for me, means a combination of teaching and showing students how to do research and teaching them about being professionals.  I'm not always sure I do the last of these very well, but it is something that I strive for.  All three of the things I listed are "teaching" but not all teaching in the classroom.  Teaching can be so much more.

I am fortunate enough to have been awarded two Golden Apple awards at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  They involved teaching online.  That is somewhat like teaching in the classroom, but not identical by any means.  There may or may not be more awards in my career.  Whether there are or not does not affect my desire to teach.  My passion about teaching.  Regardless of whether I ever get more awards, the two awards I have received symbolize my emphasis on teaching.  It has been a big part of my life in the time since I began graduate school and it will continue to be a big part of my life as long as I continue to be a faculty member somewhere.

As I envision how this would fit with the first element of my second vision board (bread) I see different types of bread around a golden apple.  The bread is the sustenance.  The golden apple is central to my existence.

Why is teaching so central to my existence.  Because while I have emphasized teaching within a graduate school setting so far, that is not the only opportunity I have for teaching.  Obviously teaching can be of my own kids too.  Teaching can be within the Sunday school setting (and although having St. Sebastian in my first vision board shows that I value spreading the word of God, the element of teaching about the word of God now becomes front and center).  Teaching can be within the community.  Teaching can occur any time, any place where I am with someone.

I also like to think of teaching by example.  Teaching by my behavior.  Teaching by my choices.  Teaching by what I do as much as by what I say.  Teaching by showing how to use what I teach and not just teaching things for the sake of the information itself.

Finally, I not only hope to continue to use my teaching skills but I hope to continue to improve my teaching skills.  Just because I am good at something does not mean that I should not continue to make an investment to be even better.  It is intellectually stimulating.  And it is what my students deserve.