Metaphor: Fire

"And this is the red, orange, yellow flicker beat

Sparking up my heart

And this is the red, orange, yellow flicker beat-beat-beat-beat"

Lorde

Ideas are like fire, 

Smouldering...

Igniting...

Bursting into flames...

Smoking...

I'm wondering where are the ideas that are smouldering?

The ones we don't see or hear but we sense they are happening.

On the day Lorde released her Song Yelow Flcker Beat, was the day I met with a couple of educators. We were talking about writing an interim report anchored in our understanding of working with Complexity.

I said, I have this crazy idea... 
How about we use the metaphor of fire and use lines in Lorde's song from Yellow Flicker Beat. I explained that I was thinking fire was like ideas... some times igniting.. some times smouldering and some how we need to work with the certainty and uncertainty  that fire brings.

I suggested that  each of us use lyrics from Lorde's song where ever they have meaning for us in our reports.  The intention would be that the metaphor fire would be what brought our different ideas together. 

Since this time, I have started to notice,

People gather around ideas in the same way we gather around a fire. Some times the ideas are too big and we watch from a distance. Sometimes the idea is comfortable to poke and prod with a stick and then 'pop' a spark jumps out!

I've been thinking about metaphors for Knowledge Building, Knowledge Creating. Working in complex spaces, how to work with certainty and uncertainty in the classroom, What transformation looks like, disruption, being disrupted.

Metaphors are important as they help me to explain to others what something looks and feels like.

What metaphors are you using?



So I'm starting a collection. (Do you have examples / stories to add?)

Fire Stories - Stories by the fire

1. Ally Bull  tells me she attend a  Pasifika Educators Leadership workshop where the metaphor of fire was prominent. 

2. The metaphor Fire was picked up my Rose Hipkins (from NZCER) as she mentioned that the NZ curriculum  was like a slow burner.