I believe that processing information and travelling “IN” the journey is the key to meaningful learning; not only in the context of schooling and education but, in life. The analogy can perhaps be in a road trip taken towards a destination. Do we make the journey to our destination an experience of seeing new things, and opening up our senses for what the journey holds or do we wear blinkers, and look ahead, excitedly anticipating the end of the road and the final destination?
Personally and professionally, I would choose the first. There is so much to enjoy, absorb, experience and learn from being in the journey. Expecting the unexpected is essentially a part of life and the lessons that we learn and what we are awakened to, adds to our lives and the journey. The journey is the process.
When children are in an experience, living it, this is one of the most powerful things to observe as a teacher. Letting them be and engage with their friends or the materials provided, provides us with a window into their world. The world of sensing and being. They don’t know anything else. We as adults tend to take these existential moments away from them, as “we have a plan”; “we have a destination”; “we have a goal”!
Who is the plan truly for? Who is the goal truly for? Who is the destination truly for?
In a world where so little can be foreseen or anticipated, this should be the most powerful message for all of us. Live in the moment. Experience the moment. You will eventually arrive where you think you want to be! And if you arrive somewhere else this too can be okay!
