Sowing the Seeds of Learning - Are your seeds of knowledge falling in the weeds and rocks or on fer

I’ve worked in US public and private schools, international schools, and church supported schools. I have worked with the wealthiest families in the world who have bodyguards following the school bus and send their children on safari during the holidays. I have worked with families of migrant children who follow the crops and harvest rice, peaches, nuts, oranges, and apples. These students find themselves in two or more countries and several schools each year. I have worked with refugees whose children were born in overseas camps and suddenly found themselves on "another planet" in US schools. Regardless of country, wealth, culture or religion, there are universal learning principles that are verified through experiences, traditions, doctrines, and research. For example, a kindergarten teacher may not know the latest brain research, but she applies her knowledge of how the brain works based on her experience. She knows that little ones need to ask questions and to repeatedly experiment with the knowledge to build synapses and to learn. Khailearning is a pattern of Knowledge, Hope, Action, and Inspiration when repeated builds capacity.

One of my favorite connections to good teaching is is the Biblical parable of the sower. I’m changing the protagonist from a farmer planting seeds to a teacher sharing knowledge – and the result is a powerful metaphor:

“A teacher went out and shared seeds of knowledge. Some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

When we teach and simply throw knowledge out along the path, there is no guarantee it will grow. If we share our knowledge in the stony places without preparing the soil, we see quick growth, but it is not sustainable. If we share our knowledge in a prickly place, maybe because of sarcasm or threats of punishment, learning is choked out. When we share information on good ground, such as discovering what students already Know, working with their Hopes, motivating them to Act, then they will be Inspired and their learning grows a “hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.”