(Last Updated: June 11, 2012 - WHAT'S NEW?)

Welcome to our 2011-2012 Inquiry

Veil (vāl): a concealing curtain or cover of cloth ; something that resembles a veil ; especially - something that hides or obscures like a veil.

Veiled (vāld): having or wearing a veil or a concealing cover ; characterized by a softening tonal distortion ; obscured as if by a veil : disguised.

Starting Place

“We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
~ Anais Nin

There are many ways in which we see and understand our world. The perspectives we have very much influence how we understand the world. Our life experiences affect the outlook we have - whether we are positive and optimistic or negative and pessimistic. We can face the world as an active agent of change or feel that life just passively happens to us. Sometimes we have experiences that lift our veil to allow us to see the world for what it is and our ultimate place in it.

When one of the students brought a book up to us to show us a passage, we were very excited at how this author had captured the essence of our inquiry. The book is entitled "When You Reach Me." Here is what the author, Rebecca Stead, wrote:

Things You Push Away

Mom says each of us has a veil between ourselves and the rest of the world, like a bride wears on her wedding day, except this kind of veil is invisible. We walk around happily with these invisible veils hanging down over our faces. The world is kind of blurry, and we like it that way.

But sometimes our veils are pushed away for a few moments, like there’s a wind blowing it from our faces. And when the veil lifts, we can see the world as it really is, just for those few seconds before it settles down again. We see all the beauty, and cruelty, and sadness, and love. But mostly we are happy not to. Some people learn to lift the veil themselves. Then they don’t have to depend on the wind anymore.

She doesn’t mean that it’s a real veil. And it isn’t about magic, or some idea that maybe God is looking right at you, or an angel is sitting next to you, or anything like that. Mom doesn’t think in those ways. It’s just her way of saying that most of the time, people get distracted by little stuff and ignore the big stuff.

I’ve thought a lot about those veils. I wonder if, every once in a while, someone is born without one. Someone who sees the big stuff all the time. Like maybe you.

There is always much of the world that we often don't know or don't understand and that we often just 'see' things for how they are and take them at face value without giving them must conscious thought. The veils we have are sometimes concrete and physical - being differently-abled, our gender, our height, etc. - but for the most part, our veils are invisible and metaphorical - beliefs we have about ourselves for example. Veils can, at times, be beneficial and at times detrimental to us. There are veils that we put up ourselves and veils that others impose on us by trying to protect us or by revealing too much to us.

Come with us on a journey of discovery of the veils all around us.

Click on the tabs to the right to be taken along on our journey.

Teacher Planning at IO

Please remember to check out the teacher planning found at Intelligence Online.