This quote by William Butler Yeats grabbed me the other day:
"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."And then I forgot about it, or stuck it away in the back of my brain. So it could soak and get mulled-over and then jump again to the forefront of my mind. Yanked, like so many puzzle pieces, and forming again into a conscious thought as I carried out the practical reality of caring for the basic needs of my child.
The child who sat with me today was my only daughter, just wanting company and comfort for her aching tummy. Or maybe it was me who decided to quit with the cleaning already.
All the
CLEANING!
And picking-up, and rushing-about, performing the all-important
MOMMY tasks. To just stop for a bit and take time to sit with her.
I read a bit from her
favorite book. Then picked up homework from my class with the
Church Ladies. I asked if she'd like to help me. Her tummy-ache seemed to disappear as a smile spread across her face and she said "
Could I?" Which caused a smile to creep across my face.
I read the narrative from
this book and she looked up each Bible verse and read aloud to me. So I could answer the workbook questions and listen as she gave me her child-like thoughts. It was so easy and effortless; this exchange of wisdom. From Mother to Daughter and back again. From THE WORD OF GOD into each of our minds, trickling down to settle in our hearts.
In the window seat, on a snowy-cold Saturday, snuggled under a comforter.

No workbooks, no whiteboard, no calculators or ants-in-our-pants. Just the beginning of wisdom, for both of us.
As Myrna Alexander says, wisdom enables us to “live life with skill, like an accomplished craftsman who creates something of lasting value – in this case eternal. Our brief-as-grass hours are filled with decisions over the details of living. Proverbs gives explicit counsel about how life should be lived for our own good, as well as that of others. This book makes us aware that God will be glorified through even our smallest action. Thus, Proverbs lifts everyday life once and for all out of what man calls ordinary into the extraordinary of permanent significance.”
Isn't that a powerful reminder that wisdom from God is all a person will ever need to enjoy a truly successful and fulfilling life?
But what does it look like for me to truly believe God is wisdom’s source? That in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge?
Colossians 2:3It means I need to shift my focus from time to time. From fretting over workbooks and great works of literature. Or always trying to replicate a system of education that is broken beyond repair. To filling the pails of my children, one cup at a time, with more of the water that gives Everlasting Life. Filling their pails to overflowing and leading them back again and again. Until they've memorized the well-worn path back to that spring of life. So much so, that they may find their way alone, one day, to quench their thirst and offer a cup to a dark and thirsty world.
And guess what else happened? A new fire began to burn within ME. Sparked by the embers that began glowing the very day I was inspired to teach my children in the way they should go.
Yeats may not have intended such an outcome when penning his thought-provoking quote. But I'm grateful to him for helping me understand its application to my life just a smidge more today than I did yesterday.
Labels: teaching techniques