crooney85:
Author Gilbert Chesterton said that “Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.”
Reading this got me thinking…
What if this statement is true? If it is true, let’s think for a minute about what our current education system looks like? Does it reflect the soul of our society?
For teachers, how can you use this to inspire yourself to be a better teacher?
For those who work outside of the classroom, can you think about your soul and the soul of society when making decisions and performing your duties?
For parents, is the education your child is getting a reflection of what you think our society looks like? Is it a reflection of the society you want your child to grow up in?
I think there is some truth to this statement. However, I believe there is work to be done to create an education system that reflects true learning, true growth, and the accompaniment of students in their lifelong learning journeys.
Just a thought on education…
- CRooney85
It has been my experience that we teach who we are, and we teach what we know. Society does impact our character and can create a filter with which we use to see the world. The same is true for the students we work with. How can educators create a learning environment of curiosity, possibility, passion, action, and reflection? How can we create a society of educated people who are more interested in asking powerful questions rather than having empty answers? Society is not perfect and it never will be, however education does have the power to transform the people. After all society does not change, develop, or grow - people do.
- The Professor’s Apprentice
Courage, like fear, is a habit. The more you do it, the more you do it, and this habit—of stepping up, of taking action—more than anything else, will move you in a different direction.
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Tony Robbins
How do you teach courage?
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You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.
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Wayne Gretzky
How cool would it be if Wayne Gretzky were to come and talk to the students? His words speak of belief in oneself, risk taking, practice, teamwork, and accompaniment. Sometimes life is the best teacher.
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The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He [or she] is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.
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Untitled:
Ronald Reagan
A quality which is found within great educators, great managers, and the best coaches.
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This is a quote from Coehlo’s work, Veronica Decides to Die. When I read these words I apply them to education and the need for us to learn to be ourselves and to think for ourselves. On one hand, institutions of education can be centres for change, revolution, brilliant ideas, and immense creativity. On the other hand, if we are not critical, these same institutions can become factory lines, where instead of developing heads, hearts, and hands, we are creating widgets. Now that is crazy.
There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.
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Margaret Fuller (via adventuresinlearning)
The caterpillar teaches us to trust and to believe in that which we cannot see.
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The Dalai Lama started his talk by saying, “You are my brothers and sisters, and I speak to you from that place, because we are all the same.” When he said it, it resonated with everyone out to the last row of the stadium. That is what makes being in his presence transformational: He is so at ease with himself, he puts his audience at ease too. You sense his authenticity and as he talks there is an overwhelming sense that he embodies the words he is saying.
The place to improve the world is first in one’s own head and heart and hands, and then work outward from there.
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Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values
We must begin with ourselves first, then we can branch out to teach others. I do not know about you, but I still have a lot of work to do.
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I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.
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Eleanor Roosevelt
As educators we have the power and the platform to bring about the most magical learning experiences - nurturing the gifts that are already within the students. In this way, we are all fairy godmothers. If a fairy godmother could endow you with the most useful gift, what would that gift be?
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Work when you have the energy, don’t work when you don’t have the energy, and the rest of the time do something else.
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Lorne Ellingson, On time and energy management advice for students
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