Apples from the Orchard
My friend has a friend who owns an orchard. He actually inherited it, which is such a work-intensive legacy — many next-gen farmers are like, ‘hmmm, no thank you’ on the whole run-the-fam-farm thing… but this guy took it on. During peak apple season, the place is jam-packed with cars parked clear down the road, haywagons full of kids on field trips, families doing pick-your-own bushels, volunteers harvesting apples for sale & distribution, influencers taking hashtag-pics with juicy apples or adorable farm kittens or haybales and sunshine and apple pies. The best part? Apples direct from the orchard, farm-to-belly.
Apples are pretty greaty-great — rich with relevance (original sin, discovery of gravity, marksmanship, gifts for teachers, keeping the doctor away, tech and operating systems, etc.) and storied histories. There are happy science benefits to eating apples, and with over 7,000 types of apples in the world, you’re bound to find a favorite. So versatile, you’ll find apples in desserts, salads, beverages, main dishes, side dishes, baby food, school lunches, breakfast, dinner, supper, snacks; they are the jack-of-all-trades in the produce section.
Back in grade-school there was a whole ‘apple’ unit: in social studies we learned about the Yakima Valley, and in science about splicing and grafting, and in history that Johnny Appleseed planted only from seed (and mostly from Ohio west to Illinois) which resulting not in eating-apples but in cider-apples. Of course, it involved a field trip to an orchard — and that’s where the apple-ness of apples was discovered. There’s nothing like a firsthand experience, particularly a tasty one; apple orchard field trips are indeed core memories, in many ways.
In development theory in Education, we have a favorite theorist, Vygotsky, who (and I’m simplifying here) says we learn best from someone who already knows, and even better if we work side-by-side with them. So true. It’s how we learned to tie our shoes, brush our teeth, make a sandwich, write our name, sew a button, and on and on. It’s the powerful combo of ‘show’ and ‘tell’ that has proven effective across generations. My spouse is remarkably handy, learned alongside his father who could truly fix anything. This Christmas, he gifted our son a full set of tools, culled from his own collection and those he inherited from his dad, because — no surprise — this son has proven to be mighty handy himself. I see it handing down recipes and well-loved cookbooks with notes in the margins, with musicians teaching their kids to play, others coaching the fade-away jump in the driveway, or bent double holding up a little one ice skating on a frozen pond, or gardeners gardening with grandchildren. Leading camping trips and field trips, pilgrimages and nature hikes, saying ‘look’, ‘listen’, ‘watch’, and then the dawn of understanding and realization cracks through.
Vygotsky is not wrong. ‘From the source’ is unequaled. More than learning alongside, the benefits of hearing a first-person narrative adds vibrant dimension. Listening to stories from Mississippians who lived and worked in Freedom Houses and Freedom Schools in the summer of 1964, hearing my own uncle’s StoryCorp telling of being the Catholic priest on call to the White House when President Kennedy’s body was flown back from Dallas, my father-in-law telling of cutting ice blocks from Lake Michigan to sell as his first job, my sons’ experiences rebuilding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina — first-person narratives are too rich to be missed. It’s why live music and theater hit a certain way. It’s direct, it’s from-the-source: apples-from-the-orchard.
We don’t always think about all the skills we were taught along the way. Not every learner learns the same way. For those of us in Education, with a new semester underway, we start to see some new skills manifesting. Leaders leading, peers connecting, listening and laughing and greeting by name. And it’s working. These are life skills — show the way, then watch the lessons unfold in real-world ways. For any new students (or colleagues) joining at the mid-point, we welcome, and say ‘this is the way’, so they know what’s what, and feel included. If we are lucky, we never stop listening, including, inviting, joining, and (eventually) feeling confident, about where we are, and what we know. We are reminded every day: we we were not born knowing this; we learned this, someone showed us. Just like when I peel an apple all in one long cascade, exactly as my mom did, holding the paring knife just so. Like show-and-tell, teach-and-learn go hand-in-hand.
