I Didn’t Catch Your Meaning

Educators often emphasize clarifying meanings, definitions, ontologies,
understandings to those they teach/lead/mentor. That is fairly
straightforward as part of pedagogy. But how do we get others to catch
the meaningfulness of why we are dedicating our days and lives to this
subject to begin with? What is so important about rocks that geology
became a fascination for you? Why grammar when some of us remember
diagramming sentences with as much affection as waterboarding? What was
that moment that opened the window to the classroom and let your heart
see your future fields of interest on the horizon?

Chances are you have a story to share about that moment, or the
culmination of those moments where facts and subject matter from some
connection to some other person in flesh, print, film or electron became
meaningful to you.

Sit down for a moment and write out a reflection (blog post, email from
your student self to your leader self) on the subject you’ve dedicated
yourself to. Try to recapture that moment:

- What or whom got you interested in this subject?

- Why?

- When?

- How can you pass that along to others in a new, preferably
fresh, way you may not have even considered yourself before now? (Can
you use media that’s familiar to them though perhaps not to you?)

- How did the spark jump the gap from subject to pass a class to
subject you want to pass your life in?

Passing that story to those you’re leading in any given subject in a
personal way to you, yet in their context, in ways they will understand,
should be part of any teaching methodology and curriculum. Without
catching the meaningfulness of the field of study, you do others and
the subject you’re trying to instill into them a great disservice.