Teach Them Well
I was raised by a carpenter, then married a mechanic. This had no bearing on the great fascinations of my life. I love music, fashion and the fundamental processes of learning.
Nothing about carpentry or motors ever brings me to ponder the greater things of life like a concerto or an elegantly tailored ensemble, but to establish common ground I learned the difference between a miter saw, skill saw and table saw. When I married a mechanic learned the difference between a wrench and a ratchet. The key factor here is that I LEARNED! I didn’t come out of my mother’s womb knowing.
Holding a newborn puts the learning process into perspective. In tiny helpless humans we see the hope of greatness, yet….they can do nothing for themselves. There is a great journey between prospective knowledge and applicable knowledge. It is my opinion this process is often disrespected.
As a newly married couple, my husband and I spent a great deal of time in his father’s garage. Keith grew up in a farming community and survival meant understanding the basic maintenance practices for your implements and keeping work vehicles running. However, the man under the truck working can’t get much done if he has to continually crawl out and retrieve tools. When I joined the family I was promptly put to work fetching and toting. However, my lack of basic knowledge was a huge problem. It was frustrating and fights and hurt feelings resulted.
Falling in love qualified me to become a wife, not a grease monkey. No matter how much I wanted to do well, I needed a period of time to learn and someone patient to teach me.
My husband wasn’t being cruel. He grew up with two brothers in a world where everyone including his mother loaned a hand when needed. He didn’t remember a time of not knowing that gasoline and diesel were not the same and so he didn’t calculate that everyone didn’t just know.
There is a scripture that says, Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6 NIV
I show up everyday to my classroom. I have plans, I have tools, I have skills, but none of this means anything if the acts of teaching and learning don’t come together. There is a continuum of transfer that must exist. An infant knows nothing, but with his first breath he begins accumulating knowledge. He soon comprehends that his hands are tools. These tools can grasp and propel. Quickly that helpless infant becomes mobile and years later he is a self-sustaining adult, whose once tiny hands now build his life.
Somewhere among our instincts and teachers we become………. ourselves.
The sage of Proverbs, Solomon, knew that great and long lasting knowledge must first have wise and loving counsel. If a child isn’t taught that God is foremost and always, loving and kind, he won’t know, and he must, because when he learns, he will never turn from it. And so……. we must teach them well!
Happy Mother’s Day,
Love,
Gretchen
