"Navigating a new world of education." How do we serve our students and the world in an unsurpassed educational environment?

The four hours were slowly, and audibly, ticking away as I sat in my chair frozen, unable to think, or write. Every other desk was empty and I was the only student left in the room. My professor was staring at me, wishing, perhaps even willing me to rise and turn in my paper since I obviously had nothing more to write. 

The exam I was taking was called Comps, it was the culmination of all the coursework for the Master’s program I was enrolled in. Comps are pretty terrifying. Each student in the program was required to pass a comprehensive exam, drawing on the vast body of knowledge gained from study over the years of coursework. In our case, we were allowed to bring one sheet of paper into the exam room. Mine looked something like this, on both sides…

Going into the exam, I felt confident and ready. I was fully prepared, having spent days studying my notes, tests, and papers from all of my classes and meticulously creating my one page of allowable notes. My thoughts as I took my seat were filled with a little trepidation and a lot of cockiness. I had this. 

Each student was given a complex problem to solve. We had four hours to solve it by applying as many as we could of the theories we had learned in all of the coursework. With my notes on my desk and a blank test booklet in front of me, I picked up my pencil ready to fill the pages with the wisdom of a newly minted graduate student. And then it happened. My brain froze…literally. 

For the first, and only, time in my life I was overcome with a severe case of writer's block. I suddenly found myself unable to put any words, at all, onto the paper. I didn’t understand. My words flow. I love to write, and my words flow. For four hours I sat in my chair in a panic. It was the quietest, longest, most crushing, paralyzing, experience I ever had as a student. I tried to pray, but even that wasn’t flowing. I rose at the end of the four hours when my professor came to collect my exam book. It was empty. I tried to explain to him that my booklet was empty. He assured me that I was just being hard on myself. He knew me as an excellent student. I repeated that my exam book was empty, really empty. We left the room together and he quietly let me know that the committee would need to determine if I would be able to move to the next stage of the program. Comps were the key to unlocking the next step. 

I experienced a deep dose of humility that day. In the end, I was put on probation with every piece of my future work to be examined and scrutinized. What a change from my glory days of being respected as a straight A student. I needed a new mental strategy and from that point forward, I adopted an internal, mental commitment, to start every school project with gratitude and joy. 

As I wrote in last months Storyteller, “Gratitude has to pave the way for change. If you can’t be genuinely grateful, and intentionally look for the good that is happening in every situation, you can’t expect to see and realize the healing that is inevitably taking place. You have to bring energy to change.” 

The energy I brought to this experience was a deep sense of gratitude, before anything else, and the recognition that a day-to-day joy-filled reckoning and trust was what was needed to heal this situation. I looked for the lessons. Over the remainder of the program, I focused on being grateful, holding my head high, and knowing that if I could be joyous and love more, my future would be better for having had the experience. I found myself softened, and it became easier to express love for God, myself, and others. 

My biggest gain was a deeper sense of empathy for the challenges our students face every day. This experience made me think of my school and the changes we are putting in front of the students, as we ask them to transform the way they learn with the profound changes we are making in the classroom. With the changing world in mind, we are asking them to switch from memorizing great quantities of content, to fearlessly exploring integrated ways to learn and problem-solve. We are navigating a new world of education, and they are charting their courses along with us. The greatest challenge we are setting before them is to switch their focus from improving themselves to improving the world. All those same antithetical emotions are in play for them, as they were for me when I found myself on probation…gratitude and joy, a little trepidation, a sense of excitement, and a healthy dose of insecurity.

Our young people, across the globe are tasked, by a changing world, with setting out on an educational journey that will pull, push, and challenge them to learn in new ways, explore destinations that did not formerly exist, and to check their comfortable models of learning at the door and turn to embrace and explore the vast metaverse which looms in front of them. 

It is a different kind of probationary stage than the one that I was challenged with. Even so, stepping out with gratitude and joy will pave the way for a successful educational journey. The skills our students need to lay the course for success go far beyond listening, notetaking, and spewing back content. 

The following outlines what a successful student of the future looks like. 

Our school faculty read two important books this summer; The Greatest Thing in the World by Henry Drummond, and Education to Better Their World, by Marc Prensky. As I was reading these texts, I realized how close the two books are in their messaging. The following are a few of my observations. 

Henry Drummond cites the Biblical words of Paul, “ I will show you a more simple way, if you do one thing, you will do these hundred and ten things without ever thinking about them. If you love, you will unconsciously fulfill the whole law.” He writes, “Patience, kindness, generosity, humility, courtesy, unselfishness, good temper, guilelessness, sincerity, - these make up the supreme gift, the stature of the perfect man.” 

Talk about the portrait of a graduate! Teaching our students these specific qualities, and sending them out into the world ready to heal it…imagine! Drummond goes on to say, “The greatest thing a man can do for his Heavenly Father, is to be kind to some of His other children.” This is truly the stature of the perfect man. 

Now let’s look at Prensky’s words…“Our current K-12 education is wrong for the future because it has - and we have - the wrong ends or goals in mind. We - the entire world - have an outdated idea about the purpose of education in the third millennium. Up until now, education has been about improving individuals. What education should be about in the future is improving the world, and having individuals improve in the process. The model of K-12 education is changing from kids just learning about the world to actually improving it while they are students.” 

When we combine the qualities that Paul espouses for mankind, and the ends and goals that Prensky seeks for education, we will be serving our students and the world in an educational environment that is unsurpassed. 

Starting with gratitude and joy is a sure guarantee for a well-lit path. Teaching our students that the greatest thing in the world is love, is the best way,… the ONLY way to educate them for the future. Teaching our students to seek out and identify the world’s needs, and to apply what they are learning to help solve them is love expressed and lived, and it starts, as all change must, with gratitude.

October marks the official 1st anniversary of Storyteller. I can't believe it's been a year. It feels like I'm just getting started. As part of my way of celebrating the occasion, I'm going to do something I've never done before - launch my podcast! While this is both exciting and terrifying, I am truly grateful for the opportunity to create another platform through which we can grow together through topics involving faith, family, life, and learning.

Thank you for reading. I hope you've enjoyed this month's Storyteller.

Until next time,

Merry

Get ready, Storyteller LIVE arrives on October 19!

Storyteller LIVE is more than a podcast, it's a community of friends connecting over faith, family, life, and learning. I've created it as a way to bring my monthly Storyteller digital series to life. Each episode includes a discussion about a story featured in Storyteller and a special guest with unique life experiences that make them particularly qualified to discuss the topic.  

My first guest, The Reverend Will Hood, an Episcopal Priest, and Retired Navy Chaplain is a former colleague, dear friend, and one of the best most interesting people I know. We met while working at St. Paul's Episcopal School in Lakeview, New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. In this episode we'll discuss how we talk to God and how we've relied on Him during some of life's greatest challenges.

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August Storyteller

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