“Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.”
W. B. Yeats
Beyond the Quote (26/365)
The mind does not have confines like the walls of a bucket nor does it have a maximum limit like that of a bucket—it is unbounded and is of unlimited potential. The mind needs to be thought of like a fire. Not only is a fire wall-less, topless, and without a maximum limit, but it has an insatiable appetite that will continue consuming for as long as you continue to feed it—like that of the mind. This is an important distinction because when we change the way we view our minds, we change the way we treat our minds (and the minds of those we’re treating).
If we treat our minds and the minds of those we’re trying to educate like little “buckets” that need to get filled from classrooms in a school, then we’re missing the most important point of education. The most important point isn’t to “fill” people up with what we already know, it’s to light them up and set them out to discover, create, re-create, and share what we don’t (ultimately).
Rather than looking for “hoses” to fill everybody’s buckets up with, we should be “sparking,” teaching how to “spark,” and setting students’ (and our own) curiosity, imagination, and engines on fire. Once the fire is lit, we can show them the resources that can help keep it lit, show them where the best wood might be found, show them how to best maintain the fire to keep it alive, and maybe even introduce them to a few people who can help them along the way, but after that—we should leave them to it and only step in when their flames are notably low.
How does this translate? Education shouldn’t be based on memorizing facts. If it can be looked up on Google, why memorize it (unless your profession requires it)? What needs to happen, instead, is education should always start with an interesting question or problem—one that captivates, engages, challenges, and “sparks” the minds of the students—and should be followed by proper facilitation in helping the students find their way to the solution.
We might point the students in the direction of proper resources (library, websites, professors); show them what the next steps towards solving that question or problem might look like (proper wood); instill lessons of self-discipline and consistency of work so that they can maintain their momentum (and keep their fire alive); and maybe even get them into groups or introduce them to some people who are working to solve the same challenge or problem so that they might synergize and find their way to the solution, faster.
The specifics, of course, are for the teacher to decide and are unique to each situation—this is where the art in teaching lies. And THIS is where the focus of the educator should be—not on how to fill up buckets, but on how to nurture the tender, young, and unrestricted embers of the mind in the best way(s) possible. We don’t need people graduating with more of the same memorized facts.
We need people who can think critically, look creatively, act intelligently, decide clearly, and engage properly with people along the way. Because when we become great at graduating more people like that, our potential for solving interesting questions and problems increases indefinitely—and boy, could we use more people in the world who could help solve interesting question and problems. There are certainly no shortage of those.
This post became the introduction for: 30 Uplifting Quotes for Teachers for Whenever They Are Needed (Because We Need Them)
Don't Let the Motivation Stop There...!
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