Three Amigos?
I always like it when things work out. You know, you discover those students who “get it?”
Subject matter clicks with personal soul condition. Mystery is entered into. Lives are in the process of being changed. Education, with all its beauty, wonderment, and weightiness is…happening.
A confession. I was not classically trained. So, I am a Geek for words. Perhaps because I missed my time at the SPA? Socrates…Plato…Aristotle?
Education comes from the Latin for educo. And it means to pour on. To draw out. I like that. And I am finding it offers a rich perspective, worth holding onto and pressing into, when it comes to this sacred trust we call, “Education.”
In my Accounting class this semester, sit 3 friends. Young men who did not know each other before the semester began. Young men who are forming a wonderful friendship. Young men who are in the process of experiencing what I hope is the beginning of a life changing reality.
Peter, James, and John (names changed to protect the innocent) are all swimming in the waters of accounting. That’s nothing new as all of my students find themselves so baptized. But what is different about them is that they are all discovering there is “fishiness” inside of them.
And what do fish do when exposed to water? Hmm….. 🙂
I did not put their “fishiness” inside them. It was there before they ever took their first step into our class. But I would love to educate it out of them; educo it out of them, if you will.
See the difference a simple word, “educo,” properly understood, can make?
These three amigos teach each other. Support each other. Encourage each other. They make me smile when considering the potential power of “group work.” They get it!
And they help me to remember why I do what I do in the first place. We all need this, don’t we?
Three young men forming a friendship around the subject of Accounting. Three young men experiencing educo. Three young men whose interaction with each other around the subject matter of accounting, will hopefully result in life change. Who would have known?
As for me, I am just thankful. Thankful to be part of what is happening in their lives. And thankful to be discovering and experiencing the depths, breadth, and height of this vocational entrustment called education.
I suggest chest waders as hip simply will not do.
If someone would be willing to pay my way, I’d be happy to spend more time at the SPA! Who knows what other words we might discover? Who knows what might happen when we come to understand what a simple word, like “education,” really means and how that understanding might inform our approach, philosophy, and response to engagement therein.
Lives change. Both for students and for faculty. I see the face of one of my own mentors, Parker Palmer, beginning to smile ever more. We are getting in the flesh what he envisions in the spirit.
And by the way, did I mention that two of the three have decided to major in Accounting?
Ole!!