Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. Proverbs 8:34
My hubby was given the opportunity to go to Gettysburg, PA for a leadership seminar. We had been homeschooling, and the boys and I were invited to go along. What an awesome chance it was to explore and learn about a significant time in U.S. history! Of course we should’ve jumped at the chance to go.
I admit that the thought ran through my head that it would be different than we normally learn. It wasn’t part of the plan. We sit at a desk, follow a curriculum, have each subject taught separately, and do the pages in the workbooks. I was actually thinking that they may lessen their education by immersing themselves in history through walking those same paths that so many did so many years ago. Why? Because that wasn’t how we always did it. It wasn’t how everyone else was learning.
I learned some very important realities that trip. Education is about flexibility. Education is about taking hold of the opportunities to learn from experiencing. It’s about connecting one subject with another. It’s about excitement and growth.
We learned so much about important people that were there in Gettysburg. Then, we stood where they stood. We learned about the soldiers and how they would have felt. We did two trails; one confederate and one union. Education is about feeling and not just reading. We even visited the Eisenhower farm. We learned from people who were passionate and knowledgeable about that particular time in history.
The boys remembered so much more from seeing with their own eyes rather than looking at a picture in a book. It caused a connection with emotions being stirred up. Something as simple as going to a wax museum and looking at the presidents while learning some facts about them made it stick in their heads. This is what flexibility did for us. It unleashed God’s plans and blessings. It opened our eyes to a better way of learning.
If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn. -Ignacio Estrada
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence. -Robert Frost
The character trait for today is Flexibility-willingness to change plans or ideas without getting upset (definition from characterfirst.com).
In what area of your life are you missing out because you’re unwilling to change? When you don’t want to do something new, do you ever hear yourself say, “It’s how it has always been done. Don’t change something that isn’t broken.” Does it make you shake your head when someone else says it? Something doesn’t always have to be broken in order to make it better. Are we getting in God’s way of making it better? Is the system the cause of people being stuck?
Today, listen to others’ ideas and be open to a new way. God just might be showing you that you can fix something even if you didn’t know it was broken.
