Beyond the Stars
How does constellation literacy benefit the American adolescent?
Constellations are beautiful collections of tiny dots, giant fireballs.
To the student there is often no perceived value in gazing at the stars. Perhaps they’ve heard that the sailors of old used stars in navigation, or that the mystical stars somehow influence their days or destinies through elusive horoscopes. Why study them academically?
To the teacher (even the physics teacher!) there often seems to be no lasting value in teaching the constellations. Why waste precious class time on star charts? Why give the students yet another thing to memorize and remember for the test?
The christian perspective offers a logical response to those questions: the heavens shout the majesty of God.
For every teacher: what does the study of constellations have to offer? How will this help the English student, the history connoisseur, or the musician?
Should teachers encourage constellation literacy among high school students?
Does constellation literacy benefit the average American adolescent?
Chris Burnett in Reading the Sky: The Visual Literacy of Constellations and Planetaria (2014) states that “human knowledge of the stars, observational skills, and understanding the heavens… along centuries of development (sensitivity and skill and ability) [allows one] to perceive patterns that regulate all kinds of things for human societies.”
Studying, recognizing, and describing the constellations leads to heightened abilities to recognize patterns and relationships among other subjects.
Consider graffiti. “Graffiti almost by definition is tied to walls as a substrate or architectural buildings, and in barricades… the figural forms almost become separated from the wall as a substrate and they become… constellational” in the common sense (Burnett.)
A true artist can appreciate graffiti as a whole, rather than as substrate. Similarly, an understanding of constellations cohesively, not just as substrate within the medium of the universe, promotes wonder and mystique. As students and teachers recognize the workings of our world and the context in which they exist, they tend to apply the same wholesome perspective to other subjects, too.
Consider history. Rather than viewing a history lesson as a single event, a student is encouraged to explore the context, the characters, and the plot of any event; to see the constellation, not only the stars.
Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe (2016) explains this beautifully:
“I have found the constellation metaphor to be very evocative. What does it mean for stars to be in a constellation?
If we think about the night sky, we never see all of the constellations clearly.earth rotates … seasons change, …[the] visible to us change[s]…there are aspects of positionality and relativeness when we think about constellations.
I believe the constellation metaphor is helping us see that it’s a matter of bringing a perspective to the information literacy documents and seeing which of them are in brighter relief for us at a given point in time and which are most useful for us.”
She continues by contrasting the nature of two example documents: “They each have their own shape, size, and components but we can recognize them as related… they ‘hold hands’” as the Twins (Hinchliffe.)
Promoting merely the visual literacy of common constellations encourages teachers and students to connect the dots in new ways.
Those who grow to wonder beyond the stars achieve a literacy of the mystery of our world. According to Plaut, one who is literate does not simply regurgitate material (Plaut.) He can explain, apply, and teach the material in great depth. As Sousanis (2015) notes, “Immesered in the complexity of the environment, star, birds, patterns in the wind and waves, the illuminating presence of undersea life, everything offered a living sign. Attuned to these invisible traces — vectors — they found their way” (Sousanis 136.)
Consider the complexity and the extensiveness of all things.
Encourage literacy.
Resources:
Burnett, Chris. (2014) “Reading the Sky: The Visual Literacy of Constellations and Planetaria.” Website. < http://ivla.org/new/reading-the-sky-the-visual-literacy-of-constellations-and-planetaria/ >
Hinchliffe, Lisa J. (2016) The ACRL Information Literacy Constallation. Website. <https://lisahinchliffe.com/2016/06/19/information-literacy-constellation/#jp-carousel-2766>
Plaut, S. (2009). The right to literacy in secondary schools: Creating a culture of thinking. New York: Teachers College Press.
Sousanis, N. (2015). Unflattening. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
