I have grown to become a great fan of a wonderful movie by M. Night Shyamalan entitled “Lady in the Water.”

Bizarre. Different. Odd. Unique. These were my first impressions;  kind of other worldly if you will.

But upon reflection, and given time, I found myself wanting to return to this little gem. There was something drawing me to take a second look. A third watch.  A fourth study.  This is a film and message which needs more. Deliberateness. Wonder. Revelation. Effort.

Among other things, it is a beautiful picture of “community” done both wrongly and rightly. When “wrong” community is life taking. Death hovers over the human condition, the human potential like a thick London fog. In contrast, when “right” community is life giving and life sustaining. Like a flower growing in a richly fertilized, natural soil compost, it is able to become all the flower it was meant to be.

“Lady in the Water” is a mythical tale about an eclectic group of apartment dwellers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are divinely drawn together in this place of proximity to both fulfill a purpose much greater than any of them could imagine, and to discover the unique role which each of them plays. Each is necessary. Confusion is a central part of the process. The cause is eternal in nature.

As already noted, it depicts community run amuck as well as community well oiled.

What does any of this have to do with teaching and learning? A great question. But first you might want to grab a bowl of popcorn and watch this movie with that question in mind.

I am amazed at the number of students who want to know what their role is in the story of life.  They know there is something more, something bigger going on and believe in their heart that they are supposed to have and are designed for a certain role, a place and purpose in this larger story.

This is a human quest at its very core. It did not come with the internet. And there is no www which provides a satisfactory answer. The mysteries of the soul simply do not respond well when the offering is only “more information.”

But community? And community with a life giving perspective? Students are not alone in this quest. Hopefully we all are. I know I am. And that is the first thing I share with students who have the courage to take the first step, who ask the question, who think the thought, who decide to inquire and pursue.

I see my classroom as an eclectic group of city dwellers, not Philadelphia, but perhaps Traverse? We are all needed. We are all odd, especially me. But there is a higher purpose. There is something to which all of us are called to be a part. Something which “needs” the us rather than the I. Destinies are at stake. Words which are both spoken and left unspoken matter.

It’s a place of discovery. It’s a place which when “done well” has the potential to launch people into a calling, a vocation. It really can be life changing. That’s the weightiness of this sacred trust.

Education, understood classically, is a calling out. A calling out of something which is already present within a person. A discovering. A naming.  A claiming.  An owning, at least for those who are up to the task.

Education can be an unveiling.  It takes a “we.” I am one who both loves and marvels at the potential of this “we.”

If you have two minutes and 1 second, a click on the accompanying YouTube video might whet your appetite to take your own plunge.