All about the elephant

I’m aware the title of my blog is odd and unfamiliar.

I have always been fascinated with the parable of the blind men and the elephant. It was one of the parables taught to me in primary school and still resonates with me at every stage of my learning journey.

 

The story goes like this. A group of blind men who have never seen an elephant explored the body of an elephant. One blind man touched the trunk and thought the elephant looked like a snake. Another touched the side and thought it is like a wall. Another touched the ears and thought the elephant is like a fan. etc. It is a story about perspectives and about the corruption of knowledge and misinformation that could create when the information perceived is incomplete.

“File:Medieval Jain temple Anekantavada doctrine artwork.jpg” by romana klee from usa is marked with CC BY-SA 2.0.

Looking from a teacher’s perspective, imagine if each blind man went on to teach their disciples their own version of an ‘elephant’. It gave so much insight to the responsibility of a teacher librarian who provide the information needs to support the learning and teaching of the whole school community.

When I was thinking of a name for my blog I also came across the lovely book written by Susanne Gervay called ‘Elephants have wings’. It is a journey about discovery and searching for something important.

My elephant is the every day journey as I learn and grow with this course.

I would like my elephant to fly. I have perceived it’s wings.

“Leap of Faith” by mitanei is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Sources

  1. Blind men and an elephant – Wikipedia. En.wikipedia.org. (2022). Retrieved 5 March 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant.
  2. Gervay, S. (2014). Elephants Have Wings. Flying Elephants Media.
  3. Openverse | WordPress.org. WordPress.org. (2022). Retrieved 5 March 2022, from https://wordpress.org/openverse/image/2deaec79-75c8-4fcf-b247-5d208c3821f4.
  4. Openverse | WordPress.org. WordPress.org. (2022). Retrieved 5 March 2022, from https://wordpress.org/openverse/image/76e8e25e-15d6-48fe-a105-3bdab6dc15bf.