i absolutely love my major: because education
is completely focused on
motivation.
change.
improvement.
success.
{ i've become quite obsessed with
the concept of change lately. }
"the purpose of education is not knowledge,
but results producing actions." --steve anderson
why do we learn if we don't plan to act on what we acquire?
yesterday i talked with jane at spencer's house.
jane is my role model. in more ways than one. i have
yet to meet a more positive, friendly, accepting, inspiring
person. when i talk with her i leave practically glowing
with excitement, inspiration, and motivation to be a better
person, simply because i know her. we talked about this
semester: how our goals from LEAP were unfolding, and
individual successes. starts, for me: mastering a daily schedule
that i've fallen completely in love with. for her: doing
things that previously scared her. and on and on.
i mentioned i've been pleased with my success in the things i've
been working on and this, of course, led to a discussion about
how inspiring change is.
{ "i feel like there are so many things i want to change,
to improve on, to grow, to learn, to know!" i said to her.
"isn't it exciting?!" she replied. }
it was the perfect jane thomas response.
but it really got me thinking. it's true. the fact
that we have so much to learn and know and do and
improve upon and change is, to me, on of the most motivating,
exciting things out there! call me nerdy, but that's why
i read books like "launching a leadership revolution",
"the servant", "blink", and "the tipping point" in my spare time.
because i'm completely inspired by the excitement of change
and learning, coming to those results that produce actions.
i just finished an extensive research paper on an amazing
education pioneer, ann l. brown. her work redefined education
in the oakland area. she finds it inspiring that children are
completely motivated by the need to understand and succeed.
we all have the innate need and desire to make sense
of the world around us. and that desire feeds into our
need to understand and succeed. it is visible in children.
why do we lose it? where does it go? why do we complain
about educational opportunities or projects or tests, when
the whole purpose of education is to inspire change?
"if you want your education to be
tailored to you, ask questions."
education exists to motivate, change, and improve people,
all while helping them find their way to succeed. personal success.
a good friend of mine, amanda burri, once said,
"i merely wish to inspire, be inspired,
and aspire to be something aspired."
though simple, i find this statement completely inspiring in and
of itself, and have therefore adopted it not only as my teaching motto, but
as a motto for my life, next to
"you teach who you are before you teach what you know."
[ the educational world is full of great quotations...hah ]
tonight as i sit and read my final article for my
historical, social, and cultural foundations of education
class, i came across the following, which further
embodies why i find education so motivating and change
so empowering. social activism and change are real, all we
need is the hope, determination, motivation, and understanding
to persist and pursue that which we as humans need most.
"hope is not the same as joy when things are going well,
or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously
headed for early success, but rather an ability to work
for something to succeed. hope is definitely not the same
thing as optimism. it's not the conviction that something
will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes
sense, regardless of how it turns out." --vacval havel
if the purpose of education is not knowledge, but
results producing actions, then maybe, just maybe,
hope is our starting point. do we have the hope we
need? the hope to make sense of our world. the hope
to motivate us to change. the hope to empower us
in our quest to succeed. the hope to ignite that
excitement surrounding the ongoing journey
to inspire and be inspired by the way we teach,
through who we are, not what we know.
thank you.
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