TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL

Stonehenge

Shakespeare wrote that the world is a stage and we each play our roles.  Today was day one of the next adventure in my life.  The next role.

Education, teaching, passing on knowledge, memorization, interpretation, discussion, truth, hypthethesis, frame of reference, theological backround, family influence, peer influence, pc, not pc, challenged, gifted, ADHD, GED, rating, grading, opinion, disagreement, poverty, elitism, private, public, no child left behind, home school, preschool, night school, adult education, special ed, tardy, Plato, diversity, energized, a,b,c,d,f were the words, phrases and explanations I heard from many people in the classroom today.  Numerous backgrounds and experiences representing divergent thinking and a similar goal- to teach.

So begins day one of the flight from the safe harbor into the roaring sea.  So begins a challenge of questionable outcome, but distinct passion.

So teach me about the picture,  what is it?  To a 4 year old it is a bunch of rocks, to a 10 year old a series of placed rocks, and to a 15 year old it is either an enigma or boring. The geologist sees the type of rock, druid sees a place of worship, an engineer a feat of significant accomplishment, a tourist a great snap for the album and the historian a mysterious collection of explanations all based on conceptualizations that come from their frame of reference.

All are correct, none accurate- absolute truth is not truly ever obtained and sometimes 5 + 7 = 14 (base 8).

What I see from day one is there will be absolutes, basic goals and structure and this will be mixed with countless variables, personalities and frameworks. 

Google Earth TM shows us two other perspectives of the same structure.  Each represents a different image and internal picture of
the traditional representation above.  Frames of reference act in similar ways in all settings.  Close in there is a feeling of order and strength.  Permanence and archaism, yet balance and almost a lightness of the precarious and yet balanced structure.  We see units that are in themselves both autonomous and yet connected.

Then from above the same structure loses some of the order and adds a level of chaos and decay.  We can see the fragility and the randomness of the entropic nature of time.  We have to imagine the structure as it was in the past, have clues to what it might have been
but also see these are ruins of something massive, now returning to
earth and losing form.

The beauty of this simple series of observations is that they mirror the challenge and the teacher's potential to use one example to impart upon the student physical science, history, culture, engineering, imagination, the natural processes of aging and take these concepts anywhere. 

A simple image becomes a tool for the instructor to use their skills to impart a variety of learning experiences.  The possibilities become endless. 

So the world is a stage, a place for growth,  and the role of the instructor is that of the facilitator of a student's growth.  Most wonderfully the student can make his or her own interpretation, in whatever depth that they can master, and be completely right.  It is the instructor's role to formulate the question to allow for students at any cognitive level to achieve a successful outcome. 

We all remember teachers from the past, personally I remember the alphas and the omegas.  I remember the ones who stimulated me the the most and the ones who made class an ordeal. The ones that were just instructors of facts fall into a group that with time has lost identity.  Those that influenced me were excited and positive; they loved their field and wanted to convey that passion.

They were mirrors of the words of Gandhi:

“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.”  

Our stage is the classroom, it is our world and our student's world- may we each positively inspire the flame of learning in as many as we can- but as Gandhi alludes, positive thoughts and habits in ourselves are the honey that attracts young minds to the sweetness of learning.