Thoughts on Education and Understanding

The word "education" comes from the word "educe," which means to "draw out." So much of teaching is the opposite, a "pounding in" of facts, rules and methods. But there are moments magical to a teacher, moments of true "education," when the teacher engages a child's cognition -- and finds recognition.


"There is a who, what, when and where that comprises the usual history lesson. There is a how and why that comprises the lesson of history. To impart knowledge of the first, the teacher instructs. To elicit understanding of the second, the teacher educates."


"The average teacher explains complexity; the gifted teacher reveals simplicity."


"In many areas of understanding, none so much as in our understanding of God, we bump up against a simplicity so profound that we must assign complexities to it to comprehend it at all. It is mindful of how we paste decals to a sliding glass door to keep from bumping our nose against it. "


"Children do not instruct their parents, but they educate their parents wonderfully."


"Though it invariably meets the requirements of the school board, education is not the extension of ignorance to every subject in the approved curriculum."


"There is nothing instructive in a wise saying. It does not impart to you a skill; it does not provide you information. It is education in the purest sense -- a drawing out of what has been latent in your understanding. Your pleasure in the saying does not come from having learned something but from having something you knew elucidated and confirmed. What we call wisdom is the expression of what we already know in our hearts."



Odds and Ends

"Life is short, God's way of encouraging a bit of focus."


"There is nothing more ineffective than a political party that can't get its lie together."


"If it is not a theory or a practice, it is likely a code of ethics."


"I can't be a complete fool, because that would mean I completed something I started."


"We would not so much believe that fate rules our lives if we had witnessed our parents' bumbling first date."


~ Robert Brault