Education is not the
filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.
Attributed to WB Yeats & originating with Heraclitus around 500 BCE
I can't always choose what happens to
me but I can choose how I experience it. Whether I see it in
terms of motivation, inspiration, warning or confirmation, its all
learning.
I set out to live my life this week
lighting fires rather than filling pails. I went to a networking
meeting in
City Hall, worked with the
Museum in Docklands on a local
history project, got some news of the 'life threatening' variety
relating to my daughter's health one day and went to her graduation
the next. I learned that fire could be a metaphor for warmth,
security and light. It could be the cosy feeling of safety or the
flicker of inspiration or the kindling of a passion. It could also burn. All could motivate.
Light
The meeting in City Hall was
surprisingly enlightening and inspirational. It sparked ideas. It
prompted me to think about writing and learning from it and learning
and writing about it. A see-saw
Kolb's Cycle. We do something, think
about it, make conclusions and surmise, try something and start all
over somewhere in the cycle – back and forth and round and round.
Warmth
On the history project, during a tour
of St Annes (one of the
five Hawksmoors in London), I noticed all the
publicity materials and commented that our centre didn't have any.
Milly, a 15 year old working on the project said 'You don't need it.
We know what you do and we know how good you are.' This made me feel
a warm glow. Maybe I was doing something right.
The Burn
 |
| Our campfire where we toasted marshmallows |
The life threatening news relating to
my daughter's health burned. It was a terrifying shock and although
she lives with a somewhat debilitating condition already,
most long term degeneration is trumped by the slightest invocation of
the 'C' word. We hoped it was a warning shot across the bow. A fire that
wouldn't take. That it was the hot stove or fireplace where we
learned not to play with fire. An early diagnosis would mean early
intervention, like a small fire could be more easily put out. But
forest fires all start the same – small. I had to tell myself to
see it as good news, its not as if the fire was out of control. It
could still be a good thing. A warning can be good. That's what I
told her.
Security & Passion
Then came graduation day. I had
encouraged my daughter to go from the start. I had no idea if it
would be a good experience or not but I knew that as much as she
could regret going she could also regret not going and at least if
she went she could have a basis for her opinion. We went and it was
wonderful. Jenny was anxious and nervous, from the putting on of the
gown to the walk on stage to receive her scroll but she felt like she
had been acknowledged for her achievements by her peers and an
institute which shared her passion for learning and it felt good. She
had worked and paid her own way through her education with the
Open University and had shared with us everything from the excitement of
the opening of the box of course materials to the slowly incremental
word counts to the too close for comfort deadlines. We got to also
share the celebration.
Tony Benn's son was there to receive
an honorary doctorate posthumously on behalf of his father. He talked
about his fathers activism and love of learning. He talked about when
discussions abounded regarding raising the age of compulsory
education to 18 and how his father had disagreed. Tony Benn said that the
age of compulsory education should not be raised to 18 but to 95! He
advocated lifelong learning. He had not been challenged on this
assertion, apart from one man who told him that 95 didn't work
because he was 96!
'Its not every day you get your dream
job', a mum of a young man I have worked with, commented this week.
'Thank you', she said, he couldn't have done it without youse.'
None of us can do it without each
other. That's what I learned this week. We motivate and inspire each
other. We are each others fires.
Tony Benn was a great advocate of the Open University. His son received an honorary doctorate on his behalf at my daughter's OU graduation, where he told us of his fathers passion for life long learning and how he believed the age of compulsory education should not be raised to 18 but to 95! We were all inspired and my daughter went on to further study of a professional course in Learning and Development.
