Years ago, as a volunteer for a non-profit arts organization, I wrote a grant request to a national foundation that funds programs that create joy through rhythm. While reflecting on how the program I was writing about cultivated and nourished students so they began to experience feelings of joy, I gained a new perspective on ‘traditional education’, which has since crystallized why I find the Merge educational approach so stimulating.
Like a lot of people, I have never cared much at all about disconnected information, and history that’s presented as pst events has always felt pretty dead to me. But I love anthropology: I get excited understanding different peoples, and seeing how life today, here and now, does and does not correlate to theirs. I am also inspired by others who have shown admirable qualities (which to me include, for starters, a joyful sort of chutzpa or spunk) including the desire to fight for what they believe is right, or champion people whom they see as underdogs. And I am happy – most often, at least – to learn by their experience so I can continue to progress as a human being.
There’s something joyful in that! In fact, I’d say it’s been through working with such people that I’ve been able to make some strides in that direction. And, it occurs to me, it’s because I’ve so wanted to become more like them that I’ve been willing to go through the often challenging situations that were required of me to make that progress.
So all of this has led me to ask what exactly effective education is. We are all learning, at all times, one way or another. And it seems to me that a major component of effective education is the modeling of a vibrant, engaged human being who is willing to put others first. That person is very alive, and often joyful. She or he is sincere, and trying, and willing to put in the effort to grow and be seen in all of the vulnerability that might cause. And he or she is a model to anyone around — at all times.
Mary-Helen Rossi
I remember when, in my teens, I had the good fortune to spend time with one adult who was like that. In fact, that person often comes vividly to my mind when I’m struggling to stay on course and keep growing. I knew him only for two months and in that time had only one direct conversation with him, but he was so sensitive and sincere, so considerate and thoughtful of me during that one hour or so that I was reduced to tears — tears of relief and hope. That person was the most valuable teacher I can remember from my younger years – was, in fact, the only person I ever knew like that until I reached my 40s. We all need teachers like that – and our kids today need them more than ever.
