Welcome To Mama Wonders

Naptime musings on politics, culture, and learning out loud

Friends, 

When I was on maternity leave with Agustin, we would watch a lot of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Auggie & I were lulled by those lonnngg shots (and Lady Aberlin’s early 70's fashion #lewks). When I came back to Amplifier and started to think about new lesson plans, I told my colleague at the K12 Lab at Stanford's d.school how much that slow-moving show held up over time. He said, "There's this book called If You Wonder, You're Learning, if you're on a Mr. Rogers kick." That scratched the itch. It turns out that Mr. Rogers’ entire show design - from shot angles to content - is meant to foster wonder in the viewer. The idea is, if you can suspend belief and wonder ‘what if’, you can take in new information. And if you can do that, then you can learn.

As Auggie and I awoke from our naps, society seemed to be doing less and less of that. The frameworks I have relied on - the journalistic theory that if people learn the correct facts, they will change their minds and desire new consequences - don’t quite seem to be holding. Somehow a criminal is actively running for presidential office, and four years after the start of the pandemic, most people still can’t distinguish between a viral and bacterial infection. I tell my 3rd grader that [recess] bullies can’t get away with bullying, yet despite protests around the world, the war rages on in Gaza, with 1 million people are now at risk of starvation. Most Americans want a ceasefire, but their their tax dollars are still being used to fight the war. And Russia is still attacking Ukraine. It’s all too much, to the point where people are offloading on Elmo.

In Sesame Street, when the muppets get stumped, they say, “I wonder, what if, let’s try”. In my stumped-ness, I thought of Ilana Glazer’s lines, “"I'm looking at [my infant daughter] and I'm like, 'Woah, dude.'...how she's growing and learning every day…makes me realize that I'm growing and learning every day — okay, not at the rate at which a baby does — but still, just our unfolding….It feels like a privilege to have that to remember, like, dude - you’re just a baby - I say to myself, as I’m looking at this baby.”

My children remind me that discovery and learning are at the heart of the human experience. Agustin’s new favorite word is “oooooh”, and my oldest, Caetano, breathlessly asked me the other day, "Mom, do you know about triangles?!"

Welcome to Wonder mama, where I’m trying wonder on for size. This is my sleepy assertion of a new theory of mind - a place to hedge my bets, in between putting Auggie down for naps. It’s inspired by the Cranky Dad Substack of Ali Noorani (who runs the U.S. Democracy program at the Hewlett Foundation), journalist Ann Friedman’s newsletter, Girls Who Code founder Rejama Sejani’s newsletter, and Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim At Tinker Creek. I’ll be writing about culture, politics, and learning out loud, every few weeks.

These are my cronicas - chronicles - , as I wonder, What is interesting? What is good? What is ridiculous? And how can I change my mind?

Tell me, what are you wondering about?
~Emily

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