A few days ago, I was baby sitting with my youngest grandson. He is not yet a month old. As I held him in my arms, I watched his sleeping face intently. It is, of course, beautiful. He was swaddled, as is the fashion nowadays (not in my day). As he slept, I saw his expressions change, from a frown to a knitted brow to a tiny smile, and then utterly placid, and repeat, in random order. I took his little hand out of the swaddling blanket, held it in my large hand, and marveled at his long, perfect fingers.
And I thought of these lines, “Not in entire forgetfulness,/and not in utter nakedness,/But trailing clouds of glory do we come/From God, who is our home.”
That is a tiny excerpt from a lovely poem by William Wordsworth called “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.” I read the poem in college many decades ago and have always loved it,
I know it may seem strange but I could see and feel those clouds of glory surrounding and trailing little Asher Saul.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Pictures??
Diane
What a lovely image.
To observe the obvious, imagining days, months, and years of the same before kindergarten – no doubt holding books (not devices), hearing stories, singing songs…
If only “they” understood that. Billions down the drain for Rttt hardware instead of Parents As Teachers (best program out there and, yes, research-based) and others that matter.
Goals 2000 – no teeth or funding but the only federal plan with the right goal: Every child ready to attend school.
So tired of college and career ready as if saying it accomplishes something – how about “kindergarten ready” and address the root causes of success and no success in school?
beautiful. lucky you. lucky little boy.
Congratulations on the birth of your youngest grandchild! I love that poem, it always makes me well up. When I used to teach AP English literature, I taught that poem, and I had some students who later told me it was their favorite work studies all year. When you love something yourself you can’t help but teach that love too.
Congratulations, Diane. I love babies. Seeing my children for the first time were the 3 best moments of my life.
Enjoy this new life in yours.
Sheila
Congratulations on this birth and the opportunity of grandmother & grandson to get together. Grandparents & grandchildren are are a wonderful combination.
Hi Diane Nice. Thank You. Phil Kaldahl Old Grandpa
Congratulations to you on your new grandchild, and words cannot express my thanks for sharing yourself with all of us……
Diane,
Your last two blog posts reminded me of two quotes:
“If the child is safe, everyone is safe.”
G. Campbell Morgan 1908
“The Children are our treasure.”
!Xoma N!a’an
Dobe, Botswana, 1999
One from a Scottish minister, one from a Ju/’hoan man in Botswana.
May your grandson develop in all his glory. Nothing better than a grandmother’s arms, love, wisdom.
Thank you for such a heart-felt essay on this Sunday morning. It emphasizes the urgency to preserve the anchor of our democracy, a strong public education. I want my grandchildren to be enlightened, creative thinkers and artists, not dumbed down regurgitators.
Your quote reminds me of a favorite quote from Dickens: “It is no small thing that they, so fresh from God, love us.”
Enjoy your precious gift!
Poetry is not just concentrated language on a page, but a state of being, and you captured it beautifully.
Thank you.
Lovely! Heart felt congratulations:)!
“A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.” Carl Sandburg
Diane,
Thank you for sharing these wonderful thoughts. How nice to have a space in your education where you were encouraged to study and reflect on this poem, so that, years later, these living ideas can inform and expand your life and experiences still.
“You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.”
Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV)
I held my first grandchild, a little girl, for the first time about a year ago when she was a month old. It is amazing how quickly the nurturing mode kicks in again. Congratulations.
Congrats on your newest grandchild. Holding a baby changes everything.
what a beautiful poem! thank you for sharing this exquisite moment with your grandchild, and congratulations.
I hope he grows up in a kinder gentler world then we have now.
First read those beautiful lines with a magnificently strange grad student who shepherded my freshman English class at Boston College in the 70s and opened for me the world of British Romantic poetry that has nourished my thoughts for a lifetime.
I taught for 15 years in a unique private school that allowed me free reign to bring literature to students in whatever manner my mind should tell me. I had an advanced degree in classical studies from a distinguished program. The naive administrators (humanities grads themselves) at the school assumed I should know something about reading good books and freed me to develop my own teaching practice and curriculum.
I feasted for those years on the varied and deeply reflective responses from my students who came from local communities in rural Maine and, via a boarding program, from every corner of the globe. I never once gave thought to “standards,” “learning outcomes,” “essential skills,” or “best practices.” I was decidedly unscientific in my pedagogy, and my curriculum really just reflected my tastes and interests. Many of those students graduated into some of the best schools in the country; many chose non-academic pursuits; some faired poorly, some flourished; several achieved fame in the lives they fashioned. Many stay connected to me online now; we still discuss the books we shared for the brief moments our lives crossed in light air above ancient desks.
As I come to the end of my career, I find myself in a small public school on an island in Maine. The students are a friendly and mostly respectful group, but inordinately distracted by a Hydra of digital devices and the boundless quanta of sensual candy which streams out of those devices. These students are bright, enthusiastic and brimming with all of the competing passions that adorn the adolescent soul, but it is more diffiucult now to foster a love of great books or more complex literature in them. And, here where I feel my students need my reading experience most, my teaching practice is now largely hyperfocused on my teaching practice. The ideology that informs the administering cohort is marked by pseudo-empirical proof that changing teacher and learning methodology are the silver bullets to better results in education. So it’s accountability this and Common Core that and, after all the standards are unpacked and aligned, and the incessant evaluation and assessment of everything that moves and the siren call of charters and Federal aid, little time is left for anything subtle or refined.
I deeply lament the truly tragic and progressive loss of a more natural experience of teacher and student sharing fine words finely placed that are shared as humans for humans engaging the world as it is given before twisted by conventional fads, scientism, sophistical cupidity and misguided politics.
Thanks, Diane, for bringing sanity and poetry to the subject of human learning.
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither;
Can in a moment travel thither—
And see the children sport upon the shore,
And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.
This post made me mushy. How wonderful for you and your family, Diane! 🙂
Having a grandchild is a wonderful blessing and for that grandchild to have you is blessing, too.
Thank you for sharing your personal experiences. I feel as though I know you. I’m so happy you have the time with your new grandson. You are a very special person. We are all fighting for a better world for these children.
Congratulations! A lucky grandchild! This was lovely and I shared it on Facebook.
Just read all these lovely thoughts and mellow feelings posted with love. Asher Saul will forever have the support and affection that his grandmother made possible. Thinking of you both with a big smile on my face. It is the best!