Slowing things down

Recently I heard a wonderful comment from a teacher.  She said, "I help children slow down, to really look at and listen to the world around them."  What better skills could we teach children who are growing up in a world that is so busy and based around quick sound bites of information.  There is so little to sustain children and engage them for long periods of time and while education should support such skills, more often than not it seems to support these quick bits of information, with no true engagement in learning.  And this is why project work is so important because it supports engagement and sustained interest in a topic, supporting in-depth research and investigation not only for the students, but for teachers.  As teachers we are often so focused on covering so much content in order to "teach" that we forget the role of sustained engagement and uncovering an understanding of a topic based on real life experiences.  Project work returns this element while bringing joy back to teaching by providing a space in our education for the teacher, side-by-side with the students, to rediscover the world and uncover knowledge.