Monday, July 22, 2013

a spark behind the eyes



the fire of discovery

I do not teach,
except in small doses,
as the way allows,
at my best
I enable learning
and I facilitate learning,

Gutenberg invented the printing press
and teachers as oral oracles were supplanted by the page,
now, with the internet, answers are easy:
it’s the questions, and the caring,
that come hard,

a learner can be turned-off to learning,
or paused, or short-circuited,

when a person is turned-on,
when there’s a spark behind the eyes
that can catch into the fire of discovery,
then the learner can learn,
and the teacher can help to tame the fire
so that it will service the actor in the acting,
to fuel the engine that can create the right questions
and search to find good answers,
answers that will hold for awhile
while the quest continues,
the quest to be the best one can be.


by Henry H. Walker
July 14, ’13

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