Digging Deeper

Thinking more carefully

by Brian Radcliffe

Suitable for Key Stage 3

Aims

To explore our understanding of personal research and careful thought.

Preparation and materials

• You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (Digging Deeper) and the means to display them.
• Optional: you may wish to read the Bible passage Matthew 13.13-14 during the ‘Time for reflection’ part of the assembly. It is available at: https://tinyurl.com/45n5t58e
  

Assembly

1. In AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the city of Pompeii under metres of hot ash. Many of the city’s 12,000 residents were killed by the gases, the super-heated air or the ash that suffocated them.
   
   
2. The city lay buried for many centuries, until excavations began in 1748. Some of the early digging was haphazard, with treasure-seekers exploring the site too, but more organized projects followed.
   
   Over the last 250 years, buildings, paintings, sculptures, mosaics, jewellery and many other artefacts have been carefully excavated. Plaster casts have been made of the bodies of people and animals killed in the eruption, frozen at the moment of that cataclysmic destruction.
   
   Pompeii is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is known throughout the world as a representation of what a Roman city used to look like.
   
   
3. Show Slide 1.
   
   Excavations have been happening in Pompeii since 1748, and continue today. A third of the city still remains to be unearthed.
   
   
4. Show Slides 2-7.
   
   - Slide 2 shows excavations taking place in Pompeii in 1876.
   - Slide 3 shows a basilica in Pompeii.
   - Slide 4 shows a bakery.
   - Slide 5 shows a fast food outlet that has some extraordinary decoration.
   - Slide 6 shows a wall painting.
   - Slide 7 shows a large villa starting to be excavated, just outside Pompeii’s walls.
   
   
5. Recently, archaeologists have begun to dig deeper into the ruins. They have learned that significant parts of the city had already been affected by a severe earthquake in AD 62. They also discovered that the Romans didn’t found Pompeii. Instead, the Romans had taken over a city populated by the Samnite people, who themselves had thrown out the Etruscans, who in turn had followed the Greeks, who had themselves settled where early Neolithic tribes had lived since at least the tenth century BC.
   
   Digging deeper has led the archaeologists to uncover more and more information. There is layer after layer of history beneath the initial known excavations.

Time for reflection

When we discover a new piece of knowledge, how do we respond? Do we file it away in our mind, make a note of it or take a picture so that we can regurgitate it in the next test? Do we take it in at all? How about digging a little deeper?

Jesus reflected on this tendency. He talked about listening, but not really hearing; looking, but not really seeing or understanding. It’s the same kind of idea. We can take something in, but not let it sink deeper into our minds.

Optional: you may wish to read the Bible passage Matthew 13.13-14: ‘This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.” In them, is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “You will be ever hearing, but never understanding; you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving.”’

So, what can we do to take something in on a deeper level? Here are some tactics that we could adopt.

First, we can be curious. We live in an enormously interesting world. We may not care about all of it, but there will be some things that catch our imagination. We may be intrigued by a historical character; a geographical location; a music track; a ball skill; a technology innovation; or a personal experience of wonder, fear or happiness. There will be something that interests us! So, let’s not leave it there. Let’s ask ourselves questions: how does it work, why did they act like that, what if they tried to do it now? Let’s be curious.

Second, let’s try to pass our interests on to someone else. Putting something into words requires thought and precision. Passing on a skill requires practice and dexterity. We often find that our understanding grows as we explain something to others. This helps our personal discovery to sink deeper.

Third, let’s work out how our new discovery affects us. Is it going to change the way we do something, the words we might use, our emotional response? Each new piece of knowledge is like an additional app that becomes available. It can open up possibilities, encourage us to dream dreams and leave behind less adequate resources.

Finally, all this will require time. To an archaeologist, digging deeper means using a small trowel and working slowly. So, let’s schedule some periods of time to research and review.

Here’s a suggestion to close with: why did Jesus say what he said? Who was he talking to? What was their reaction? Dig a little deeper.

Pause to allow time for thought.

Song/music

‘I can see clearly now’ by Johnny Nash, available at: https://youtu.be/b0cAWgTPiwM (2.48 minutes long)

Extension activities

1. Encourage the students, at the end of each day, to note down three new understandings or pieces of information that they’ve gained during lessons or in casual conversation.
2. At the end of the week, review these notes in a group. Become aware of similar new discoveries and share these with one another.