How to carve a Pumpkin for Halloween

Is he kidding? Everyone knows how to do this. We have been doing it the same way for years. Cut out the top around the steam. This becomes the lid. Reach in and spend the next 15 to 30 minutes scoping out all the seeds. Huge mess. Take a sharp instrument and scrape the bottom of the pumpkin to get a flat spot to set the candle on. Spend the next five minutes washing your hands and arms to get the sticky mess off. Now we carve a face as desired. Take it to the front porch and sometimes shim the bottom so it will sit just right. Put a candle in the pumpkin and struggle to light it without burning yourself. Easy.

We should never think that just because this is the way we have always done it that it is correct. The part in the bottom of the pumpkin that needs to be scraped out to make a flat space for a candle actually has all of the seeds (and mess) connected to it. I cut out the bottom. I very carefully pull out the bottom and most of the seeds and mess come with it. I do need to reach in and get a few but this only takes a minute or two. No need to wash hands and arms. Cut the face as desired. Light a candle and set it down on front porch. Place pumpkin, with its nice flat bottom that I created, over top. Now that really was easy.

We should never think that just because we have been doing something in one way for a long time that it is the only way. The results at the end of both exercises is exactly the same, you have a nice carved pumpkin. The path to get there was very different. As educators we need to keep this in mind and start to embrace the ever changing world. The result of an educated student will be the same, we will just be taking a different, and in some cases, a much better path to get there.

Have a happy Halloween.

Jeff
Jeff's Blog by Jeff Murrell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.