Wheatley’s reading reminds me of the story of the pearl.....
In the past, it was believed that at some time in the course of the oyster’s development, a foreign substance such as a grain of sand gets into the little muscle and irritates the oyster. In response, the oyster covers that irritant with a secretion. The longer the irritation is there, the more the oyster coats it. Pearl oysters vary in size and can be quite rough and ugly. Yet what is happening inside is a combination of rainbows, moonlight, and bits of flame. Once the oyster accepts the irritation as part of itself, the pearl begins to develop. The worst storms, gales, even hurricanes will not dislodge it. As time goes by and this oyster is finally pulled up from the bed where it has been for many years, it is opened only to reveal a beautiful pearl.
Today researchers have found that oysters make pearls in response to a mantle injury. Sometimes a wound will heal in such a way that a cyst or pocket forms which fills with calcium carbonate from the mantle’s secretor cells. These excretions in response to the injury are what become the pearl.
Without an irritant or injury, there would be NO beautiful pearls. Often times in education we have to hit the bottom to see we are in need of change. We become overwhelmed, struggle to balance it all and yet in the end we are able to evidence the beautiful pearls that have come from the tough times!
“Dissipative structures demonstrate that disorder can be a source of new order, and that growth appears from disequilibrium, not balance. The things we fear most in organizations- disruptions, confusion, chaos-need not be interpreted as signs that we are about to be destroyed. Instead, these conditions are necessary to awaken creativity….order out of chaos” (Wheatley, p.21)
As for education, how do we move beyond what we know?
Rather than remaining like “bewildered shamans, performing rituals passed down to us, hoping they will perform miracles” (p. 28)
