Of the Moment

I read an article this week, in the chaos of it all, that resonated for a number of reasons - the most pertinent being, was it possible that any politician, that any person could be, 'of this moment.' The answer remains elusive - and is not really the point.

As the week walked on I arrived at the position that we have spent far too long focusing on the person and not the purpose, ignoring what teaching truly is - the moment.

The moments of resounding success, profound tragedy, wondrous achievement, and unending opportunity.

And it is here, at the place where the textbook and actual teaching arrive at their impassable intersection, that a choice is required.

Actual teaching, then and now, has fundamentally changed - but the true meaning of education - to know - has not. The question thus becomes - how have we taught them to know?

Did we teach them to challenge, to critique, to be curious? Or did we just deliver content and call it curriculum so as to tick off the endless checklists of expectation written by those far removed from any classroom?

Every Tuesday we learn outside; rain, hail, blistering Irish wind or glorious sunshine. This past Tuesday we were exploring adjectives in preparation for a poem we are writing together.

As we walked out of the creaky door, five boys scurried up the old pine tree laughing, racing, squealing with delight. The girls rolled their eyes and gently informed me I would never see their return, and did I really think that that was such a bad thing?

As the quickest boy made his way to the top, he hollered out to his peers below, "step there, not there, move over that one, and around that one" - "no!" he screamed, "you are all going the wrong way."

Not one of the four boys beneath him listened.

They all went their own way, found their own paths, took their own risks, and reached him their own way - they problem solved themselves, held fast to their path and yet all arrived at the same place.

I smiled - there it was. No textbook could teach that.

Being of the moment is never about one person - and this is where our splintered society has got it so very wrong. It is about being able to acknowledge that everyone carries with them their own courage, their own curiosity and their own creativity and has something important to contribute.

When we choose to accept this, perhaps when we are forced to accept this - we can realise that textbooks do not teach anyone what it means to know, only experience does.

Lesson taught.