Education Rethink: Note to Self

One of the bloggers I read a lot is John Spencer. His blog is called Education Rethink. One of his latest entries was this:

Education Rethink: Note to Self

Here is the text from the entry if you don't want to go to the hyperlink:

"Note to Self: It's not chaos.  It's not "controlled chaos."  It's natural.  It's necessary.  It took you way too long to figure out and you'll never completely let it go.  But you're hunch is more than a hunch.  It's a reality.  You can't have mental freedom if there isn't a chance for physical freedom.   The standing centers were a good start.  The hands-on projects and movement-styled debates were a good follow-up.  But maybe it's time to let it go entirely.  Movement is a good thing."

This struck me as we strive to move forward toward our fully formed Learning Community. I know I'm an advocate of movement in the room, but I never thought about it exactly in this way. There are times and places where I feel like movement is chaotic. And I do feel like there is a difference between natural movement and chaos. The trick is figuring out how to keep chaos from happening but still allow and encourage natural movement.

I was really struck by the line in the very middle "You can't have mental freedom if there isn't a chance for physical freedom." This is such a huge concept - and I don't think it is overstated. Sometimes we get caught up in our needs and forget about the needs of the kids. If we really believe in mental freedom, we have to give up "control" and let them have physical freedom as well. it isn't real control anyway.

Thoughts?