light of lights

“Consciousness is that which makes all things and events knowable. Without consciousness eyes could not see, ears could not hear, and mind could not think. Consciousness is like a pure light energy whose power is to make events knowable, just as an electric light makes objects visible. Consciousness could be called the light of lights because it is by its light that all other lights become visible.”

—Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game of Tennis, 1986; quoted in Experiential Learning: A Best Practice Handbook for Educators and Trainers by Colin Beard & John P. Wilson, second edition, 2006.

pisa italy

good news for the kinaesthetic learner

“Learning spaces . . . have micro-climates consisting of tiles, ceilings, walls, floors, desks, books, computers and many other objects, all of which can be used in creative ways to enhance the learner experience. The floor is ideal to create models and concepts with large groups of people, using masking tape, large pieces of coloured card and other training aids. The walls are places to create “graffiti walls” using decorating lining paper, so that people might contribute thoughts or reactions to events through drawing or scribbling words or phrases. Walls can also be used to place and move stick-it labels, or to project colours or images to influence mood. It is likely that futuristic classrooms will have walls that become large functional working spaces, made of glass in the form of a touch screen that can be written on. In this way, handwritten material and electronic text, pictures, diagrams and other images can be interchangeable and moved by hand (rather than with a mouse) in a similar way to the functions found in interactive whiteboards. This is good news for the kinaesthetic learner who prefers not to sit behind a desk for long periods.”

—Colin Beard & John P. Wilson, Experiential Learning: A Best Practice Handbook for Educators and Trainers, second edition, 2006.

that colour that belongs to the chair

“When I look at a chair, I say I experience it. But what I actually experience is only a very few of the elements that go to make up the chair, namely, that colour that belongs to the chair under these particular conditions of light, the shape which the chair displays when viewed from this angle, etc. The man who has the experience, as distinct from a philosopher theorizing about it would probably say that he experienced the chair most fully not when looking at it but when meaning to sit down in it precisely because his experience is not limited to colour under specific conditions of light, and angular shape.”

—John Dewey, inventor of the Dewey Decimal System, from Experience and Nature, 1925. Quoted in Experiential Learning: A Best Practice Handbook for Educators and Trainers by Colin Beard and John P. Wilson, second edition, 2006.

A Blue Chamber

“Although Mr. Gradgrind did not take after Blue Beard, his room was quite a blue chamber in its abundance of blue books.”

—Charles Dickens, from Hard Times, 1854.

blue book.

Blue-bound statistical reports issued by the government.
—a footnote to the 1993 Norton Anthology Edition of Charles Dickens’ Hard Times, originally published in 1854.

a town of red brick

“It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but as matters stood it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage.”

—Charles Dickens, describing Coketown in Hard Times, 1854.

white satin and jewels

“‘You were coming out of the Italian Opera, ma’am, in white satin and jewels, a blaze of splendour, when I hadn’t a penny to buy a link to light you.’”

—Charles Dickens, from Hard Times, 1854.

link.

A flaming torch used to light up the street for pedestrians.
—a footnote to the 1993 Norton Anthology Edition of Charles Dickens’ Hard Times, originally published in 1854.

Fairy palaces

“The lights in the great factories, which looked, when they were illuminated, like Fairy palaces—or the travellers by express-train said so—were all extinguished; and the bells had rung for knocking off for the night, and had ceased again; and the Hands, men and women, boy and girl, were clattering home.”

—Charles Dickens, from Hard Times, 1854.