"Inspire,
Not Require" = "Educate, not Ignore"
There is nothing more
challenging for an educator than an excellent Love of Learning
Phase.
Day in and day out, week after week and year after year, the
parent-teacher's role is to inspire the child to happily, consistently and
unswervingly study, learn, search, discover, enlighten, know and apply.
The sad reason that people
sometimes think Love of Learning lacks substance or effort is that they have been brainwashed by the
conveyor belt.
When they hear "Inspire, not Require," their brains are so
conditioned toward combining "require" with "education" that they actually go
home remembering something very much like "ignore, not require."
The Thomas
Jefferson model is not about ignoring the student--but empowering her! (Obviously, ignoring a child is not very empowering.)
There are two common substitutes for education: Ignore or Require.
Either may be accomplished by a mediocre, disinterested, overextended
or otherwise ineffective adult-unit.
(...just can't bring ourselves to
use the titles "parent," "teacher" or "facilitator," as none of these
fit in such as case...)
The third type of education, Inspire, is extremely rewarding--and it entails an investment of soul and genius from the parent, teacher or other facilitator.
~adapted Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning, by Oliver and Rachel DeMille
For more on this topic, see:
