The Secret of Learning - In Search of a Tiger
The secret of learning is to have a purpose. A purpose begins with a dream, and then the encouragement from others or a sense of purpose from within to realize that dream. When my eldest daughter was a little girl, she loved to read stories of people having adventures with wild animals. In all the ways I could, I helped her construct her life about animals. We went to the zoo often, on weekends we explored fields and forests and I bought her numerous animals at different stages of her life. I watched her grow up, gain a B.Sc in Biology, then a masters on Meerkats in Africa followed by work with lions and elephants, and then complete her Ph.D with the Tasmanian Devil in Australia. The little girl I used to guide, now guided me through a jungle in search of a tiger. We did not find a tiger in the time we had, but as I followed my daughter’s steps over dead leaves that hid a thousand life forms and past trees home to snakes, spiders, monkeys and birds, I did realize the importance of every parent and every teacher inspiring children to search for their dream and to hold on to it. So many adolescents I meet today see no purpose to their studies or in their life. They learn because we demand it of them and they cheat where they can to satisfy our demands, but there is no life to their learning from within them. If only parents could find the time to tell their children more inspiring stories instead of leaving them alone to a world of computer games or of teachers beginning a lesson with a personal theme or an account of some woman or man who found their dream and followed it to make the lives of others better, then we could improve the grades of all. You can read about the importance of inspiring a dream in “Mediation: Crafting the Intelligence of the Child” on www.andersenroy.com
I returned to my UK office late on the 15th December after a 5 week tour of Asia. I would be delighted to share thoughts or offer advice about child development and school processing to anyone so interested. My email is [email protected]. You are all welcome.