Being young I think means at times "being distracted"; being young also means being smart (and unspoiled) but also maybe a bit lazy about what one knows or what one doesn't know. As I reflect on teaching 14-year-old's, I realize I prefer them to the typical 18-year-old's. Why?
The older students have had several more years to be "ruined by education" -- to be stifled by "time honored methods"-- which I am just as guilty of relying on as all the other teachers I know. How does an aging teacher keep from being a bore? Or a jerk? Or someone whose only response to youthful energy is a "tsk, tsk!" I don't want to be that guy, that dull teacher -- but my ECCA students are already deluged by knowledge (as was last term's). I want all my students to greet knowledge with "fresh eyes" and "open minds." But even at 14, for many, that is too late to really be "all in" for knowledge.
The definition of an "intellectual" is: a person who can live their life with an open mind. I am still struggling to keep my mind open -- to youth, and process, and growth.
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