A dance of mutual creation

"The physical world is not a disjointed mass where independent entities intermingle; but rather it is made up of interdependent entities locked in a continuous dance of mutual creation."  -Semali Ch.1, pg. 7

I don't know if it is because of the readings we've been doing in American Lit. I or what, but I found this quote to be particularly striking.  Think about it for a second; think about what it's saying.

We have to understand that no single piece of information acts on it's own (at least none that I can think of).  Everything happens in a context, a place, a time.  Everything is connected through some means of association.

As humans--not even as future educators--this is something that we need to keep in mind.  Our presence affects everyone around us in a number of ways. Even the little things can eventually make big differences.  We are acting to together to create tomorrow.

As educators, we have to be mindful of this phenomenon for numerous reasons.  The most obvious is the fact that we will constantly be on display to our class.  Our attitudes and body language will be directly on display for our students.  If we aren't excited about our work, they won't be excited either. The deeper, and possibly more important thing to interpret from this quote is the realization that learning can be achieved more fully when put into proper context.  When we look at archaic literature that students often find no interest in, we have two options: 1) explain and learn about the historical context, examine references within the work, and tie it to other works, or 2) examine a work explicitly separate from others.  The second option is dull, shortsighted, and overall a terrible way to teach anything.  The first is a much better way to encourage students to learn more and hopefully enjoy learning it.

Obscure metaphor:
You can't bake a cake without mixing your ingredients.

In other words, to get from eggs, flour, milk, etc. to cake, you have to make "connections" between them all in a mixing bowl.  To get from single passages about Puritan Literature to an understanding of early American writing, you have to mix Bradstreet, John Smith, etc. into a unit with plenty of contextual connections.

...I feel like I didn't quite explain that the way I had wanted, but I think you get the idea.  Basically, knowledge is pointless without application, context, etc. Thoughts?