observation | A Sagittarian Seeker

February 22, 2026- Hana enjoys sitting and watching her mother do simple household tasks. She is very intent while Yunhee folds clothes or cleans countertops. Of course, when Mommy is putting a small piece of furniture together, that brings a smile to Hana’s face. It’s almost as if, the more complicated the task, the more it captivates her. I can see that once she starts walking, Hana will be her mother’s shadow and will probably want to help in small ways.

Babies, being pre-lingual, can learn best by such observation. How ironic it is that so many of those with the power of utterance forget to be observant. There is a seeming disconnect between the five senses and speech. We are at a stage where, for too many, my late father-in-law’s wry comment “In the brain, out the mouth” is a rule of thumb. Pop would have liked Hana, just quietly watching everything that goes on, and only fussing when her initial cues of discomfort are not noticed by her grown-ups.

She has only one standing request, to be included in the life of the family, no matter how quotidian the course of events. It means the world to Hana to be sitting on the lap of one of us at the dinner table-again watching how we eat, listening to our conversations and seeing how we care for one another by passing food around the table and sharing everything.

We could all stand to remember what it’s like to not yet be mobile, and yet so observant, drinking in all the practical skills that will be needed later.

April 21, 2015, Chino Valley- After a frenetic day of rushing here and there, I found myself in a sublimely beautiful, rustic part of town. Here, among some well-intentioned, but rather judgmental individuals, I enjoyed a tour of the organic farm, and a delicious, varied vegetarian meal, while doing my best to observe silence.

Then, the discussion turned to education. Some representatives of one of the area’s least progressive school districts were bemoaning the lack of interest in things like organic farming, art and music, shown by their peers and the community’s parents. These people exuded powerlessness.

That set me to thinking- exactly what is education, and what is it not? So, here are my thoughts, few of which I saw fit to share with the group last night, given their own rather narrow minds.

Education is: Observation– Pestalozzi, Audubon, Einstein- in fact, just about anyone associated with achievement, throughout history, has begun his/her quest with keen observation of their surroundings. and expanding outward.

Note-taking- The observer takes copious notes of what is experienced. No one can commit all the essentials of an experience to memory.

Synthesis- Distilling “wheat from chaff”, so to speak, gives us the tools for adaptation.

Application- What makes our species a surviving species is the ability to make good use what is observed and internalized. The same could be said for microbes, but we have been given the role of stewardship.

Wonder- I will never be done exploring, and hopefully, neither will the best of students.

As to what education isn’t:

It is not Test-taking, for its own sake; repitition; blind imitation. “Teacher (or Coach, Principal or parent) says so” doesn’t work, once one is past the age of seven, if it even works that well before then, except in cases of personal safety. Basing our education practices on a misunderstanding of how education works in China, Singapore or South Korea (which has the highest suicide rate, among teenagers, in the developed world), is just throwing good resources into the money and energy pits.

Those are thoughts which went through my head, and which I chose to keep to myself this evening, while in the presence of self-styled heavy hitters.