A while back I took my son out camping in the mountains. At the time he was about 5 years old, and we were both excited to have some one on one time. We brought the fixings for s’mores and picked up some firewood on the way in so we could have a proper campfire and treat after dinner.
As a youth I grew up in the scouting program and earned the Eagle Scout award so camping and fire building is not a foreign task. The wood was large logs, but we did not have any kindling. My son and I explored the campsite and surrounding area for twigs, sticks, and anything that we could use to start our fire.
It rained the previous day so our available resources to start a fire were far from ideal. Within the first five minutes, my son was getting bored and asked me if I really knew how to build a fire. I broke the twigs, cut them up with a knife to make them easier to light, patiently blew on the fire to get it to take repeatedly. It took me a solid 30 minutes to build coals sufficient for roasting marshmallows.
I share this story because of a quote my wife shared with me this week.
“a student is not a container to be filled; a student is a fire to be ignited”
Jeffrey Holland
Teaching sometimes is approached like “I have something others needs to know”, this is just like trying to fill a student’s container. The reality is our teaching should be more like building a fire. For each student it will take time, attention, patience, and work to get the first embers burning. When the fire is ignited magic happens for the student and frankly for the teacher.
The question I am pondering now is, am I seeking to fill containers or ignite fires?
The challenge and invitation for you is to write down three ways you can ignite fires rather than fill containers in the work that you do.
Here are my three:
- Ask myself when I am preparing to teach, what am I trying to accomplish?
- Ask assessment questions to understand where the students are at early in the teaching experience. This can help guide me to teach things at the appropriate altitude.
- Invite the students to act, this increases the likelihood of an insight or spark that can turn into a fire.
