Bird Droppings May 8, 2012

Breathe a sigh of relieve

 

Officially there are eight days of school left and another year of teaching will have come to fruition. It has sped by with so many events to try and recall and understand that on some mornings I am baffled as to how to unravel and make sense of it all. I recall several years back typing that last paragraph and breathing a sigh of relief, whether it was because my paper was done or the fact I actually wrote a fifty page paper I am not sure. But it is a relief. Of course the grade might not be, a professor may not see eye to eye with your view and or you did not touch on points they deem important. Education is about as Piaget whom I quoted in my paper several times says.

 

“The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done — men who are creative, inventive and discoverers.” Jean Piaget

 

I find it humorous that one of the great child psychologists and developmentalists of all time developed and wrote about his observations of his own kids. Maybe someday I will be famous too for studying my own kids or grandkids, yet out of that narrow window of research came some very insightful ideas on children and education. Something that intrigues me however is how much time Piaget spent with his children observing and listening and I often wonder did he interact or was he simply the scientist observing.

 

“I am entirely certain that twenty years from now we will look back at education as it is practiced in most schools today and wonder that we could have tolerated anything so primitive.” John W. Gardner

 

I Have always found it interesting how John Dewey who died in 1952 was making statements like this in 1914, his contemporary and also great thinker John Garner was making this statement in 1940’s or so. We still are making the same statements today from Educational groups nationwide. John Garner had been speaker of the House, Vice President, and lived to be the oldest living Vice President passing away at ninety seven in his home in Texas.

 

 “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” William Yeats

 

Several times as I have written I have borrowed from Sidney J.  Harris who compared much of education to stuffing a sausage or as he felt it should be culturing a fine pearl, which would we prefer. Many so called teachers liken education to the bucket filler we only have this amount to put in and then it’s full in this confined space, limited space at that. I prefer to think that a child is like a vast field or forest and when applied correctly and in a manner appropriate fire can make that field grow and flourish, a controlled burn, years ago lightening would do it now with society so restrictive it is controlled. Using the illustration of fire it can be so similar to education borrowing from Yeats. 

 

“Education is too important to be left solely to the educators.” Francis Keppel

 

We are each directly involved in our own education as well as the education of every person we come in contact with. We are teachers to friends, family and even our teachers, professors and even enemies. Education is something that occurs continually not simply in school or college but it is elemental to existence. Sadly in many cases education is left only to the schools. Parents are far too busy to pay attention to their children. Few are like Piaget observing every move and interaction.  

 

“Education, we see, is not merely gaining knowledge or skills helpful toward productive work, though certainly that is a part of it. Rather it is replenishment and an expansion of the natural thirst of the mind and soul. Learning is a gradual process of growth, each step building upon the other. It is a process whereby the learner organizes and integrates not only facts but attitudes and values. We have been told that we must open our minds and our hearts to learn. There is a Chinese proverb: Wisdom is as the moon rises, perceptible not in progress but in result. As our knowledge is converted to wisdom, the door to opportunity is unlocked.” Barbara W. Winder

 

So education is far more than the confines of school of a class it is a task we are participating in from the day we are born till the day we cease to function as human beings upon the earth. All it takes is watching the eyes of a four year old grow when ideas and questions are forming. I have said numerous times how crucial is that young child’s development that it not be stifled by trying to limit questions. Little kids are like sponges absorbing everything and learning as they do.

 

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Chinese Proverb

 

For many years I had upon my wall a banner with this saying, a simple concept, but when you apply it to knowledge and to education it becomes so much more powerful.

 

“Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.” John F. Kennedy

 

Dreams and aspirations can be achieved through education, we can and will fulfill our dreams if we continue to learn, to advance in our journey in life. It is those who halt who stagnant and flounder in the stream who never achieves their dreams. A movie title “What dreams may come?” Actually more about a concept of afterlife but as I look back life here now is what we make of it.

 

“Our dreams, and if we can think of it we can attain it” Frank E. Bird Jr.

 

 My dad once told me that when I was a child and as I think back watching him putter with pieces of plastic, metal and such on the kitchen table, nearly fifty years ago. He was looking at various safety toe shoes as he puttered. I wasn’t sure what was going on but somewhere he had an idea a dream and eventually it became a metatarsal guard for heavy industry and reduced foot injuries and damage significantly with several hundred thousand pairs being used nationwide.  Dreams aided by education and we can accomplish anything. 

 

“Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.” Benjamin Disraeli

 

It is Tuesday morning and into a new week and to finish off one last quote from nearly 3000 years ago and with that have a great week and please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your hearts and always give thanks.

namaste

bird

 

“Only the educated are free.”  Epictetus