WHY NOT SAVE THE WORLD?

What is the true education, if not e-ducare (L: e = out;  ducare = to lead), the drawing out of the potential in a person’s soul?  And what is the soul, if not the set of gifts and talents that make each of us unique and precious.?  And how might this kind of education become the center of public adolescent education - to help our nation’s students make the journey out of the self-obsessed narcissism of youth through the challenge of taking on an adult’s responsibility to serve the world?

Like Mary Oliver, I don’t know - but I do know this, how to be still in the early hours of the morning.  How to sit with my heart mindfully in silence.  Shall we not as educators pay attention to the smallest details and recapture the wonder and awe that we had as children?  Shall we not teach our students the same?

Here is a link to Ms. Oliver’s poem, The Summer Day,  which inspired the title of this post.

http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/133.html

And here is the link to Parker Palmer’s Commencement Address at the Bank Street School of Education.  In this address, he speaks to the need for the care of a teacher’s soul.

 http://www.couragerenewal.org/files/Bank%20Street%20Commencement%20Talk.pdf

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 6th, 2007 at 4:26 am and is filed under Philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.