Posts

Posted on

Campfire’s Glow

Tonight I joined my children at a bonfire with their youth group, and realized it’s been longer than it should have been since I have been to a campfire. I was reminded of an old Girl Scout song, that I sang to a campfire when I was 12. “You will find more meaning in a campfire’s glow than you’ll ever learn in a year or so.” [Experiential learning at it’s finest – song & action.] The meaning I found then in the campfire was my commitment to live by the Girl Scout Promise everyday of my life – to try to help people at all times.

Tonight, as I tended the fire alone, I opened my heart to what the campfire had to say to me now. I was reminded that the hottest part of the fire is the coals – not the flames, and that the element of Spirit is so often depicted as flame. Flamboyant flames jump & leap, constantly changing shape, licking the logs – this is just the edge of the Holy Spirit- nebulous and hard to capture. We see its effects, but struggle to hold its form. Like when you are beginning to build your faith, and you struggle to see God in the world around you…

The coals are another matter. They never lose the glow of hope, the promise that when stirred, the flames will rise to meet the world. This is the constant heat, that bakes bread, and warms hearths, that takes active intention to quench. It so fills its fuel that the shape of the fire is indistinguishable from the shape of its vessel. Here, in the glowing coals, the Holy Spirit lingers and transforms. Like as our faith matures, we are ready to ignite Divine Will and Divine Action, and we find God inside us…

There are no coals without flames, and no sustainable flames without coals. We need community to both see the Holy Spirit and sustain it.

When we are consumed with our faith, fully embodying our holiness, we glow with unmistakable light. I hope you find God both within and without.

Posted on

Organic Teaching

Learning is a natural phenomena of living. All living things come into the world with a set of tools to collect information from the world around them and interact with the world around them. Whether it’s sunflowers turning to face the sun, squirrels navigating tree limbs, or humans discovering the depths of the oceans, biological systems, like tropisms and nerves, are designed to maintain a dynamic communication between the organism and the environment to enable survival. I would venture to call living “organic learning”.

If learning is innate, then what function does teaching serve? After more than ten years in the classroom, and more than ten years as an aquatics, safety, and adventure educator, I was left trying to figure out what exactly my job was if learning happens even when I am not “teaching”. As a parent I witnessed first hand (as we all do) that learning happens even when our teaching is not intentional (ahem – curse words). So what does “teaching” do for learners?

Traditional classrooms and teaching methods hold that teaching is the only plausible link between the learner and the legitimate content they are “supposed” to connect with. There’s actually hundreds of years of scientific research (Piaget – child development, Montessori – child development and education, Dewey – education philosopher) indicating that the most authentic (and retained) information is discovered by, not handed to, learners. In fact for most of us our life experience indicates the same – our “most important lessons” did not happen in a classroom (and if they did, they are not related to the “book learning” that’s supposed to be happening there). It would seem that life is best teacher, offering the content and lessons we need when we are ready to see and use them.

As a trainer, my job is really assessment, particularly when I my training culminates in a certification! I am the “eyes” and “hands” that confirms that the student can use the content being offered effectively. Much of professional education has moved in this direction as it is a place where our role & task is clear (and grants us power over others). One of the eventual outcomes of this has been the drive for testing – which all educators (and most parents) agree is NOT teaching (much less generally helpful). As we pursue the tenant that teaching really means judging and qualifying others, we’ve certainly moved very far from the learning process and lost focus on content and learners.

In my experience (both personal and professional) the best teachers facilitated the natural learning process. How? Like gurus across time and cultures, they often show you where to look, but not what to look for. Or they spotted the backbends and challenge course towers. Or they lifeguarded while tentative exploration splashed. Or they answered questions when curiosity turned into frustration. Or they applied band-aids & encouraged renewed bravery. Most importantly, they learned (not taught) with me. That’s Organic Teaching.