And I have found my battle

Published by in disruptive-technology, leadership, literacy on September 18th, 2006

I was a bit unsure whether to post this here or on Eyes Right, but I’m posting it here since these ideas speak to the heart of many of the educational topics I frequently blog about on Moving at the Speed of Creativity. I wrote most of this in the back of my copy of “Wild at Heart” tonight, a great book by John Eldredge that I am currently re-reading. On pages 41-42, Eldredge writes:

It was one hundred and fifty years ago that Thoreau wrote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” and it seems nothing has changed. As the line from Braveheart has it, “All men die, few men ever really live.” And so most women lead lives of quiet resignation, having given up on their hope for a true man. The real life of the average man seems a universe away from the desires of his heart. There is no battle to fight, unless it’s traffic and meetings and hassles and bills. The guys who meet for coffee every Thursday morning down at the local coffee shop and share a few Bible verses with each other– where is their great battle?

I have found my battle to fight.

My great battle, outside of the struggle to be the husband my wife and father my children were born to know and love, is to engage our present educational culture which seems resolute to avoid constructive change amidst dramatic shifts in culture, economics, and technology. My goal is to act as a catalyst for constructive change, an advocate for authentic education and differentiated learning experiences that cannot be faked.

My quest is formidible and the journey will be long, but my companions are numerous and our combined power is beyond measure. The tools at our disposal to communicate, collaborate, and storm together the walls of the traditional educational “keep” are potent beyond our wildest imaginations. We are not the beginning, and we shall likely not see the end, but we shall stand together in this struggle– for the very future of our own children and the world in which we live together is at stake.

This battle is about hearts and minds, rather than aircraft and bullets. It is about perceptions and behaviors, beliefs and attitudes. I was educated at taxpayer expense to be a warrior, after all. This language and metaphor resonates with me deeply. “The enemy” is not as much a group of people as it is a set of beliefs and behaviors that remain deeply entrenched. Do not misconstrue my message, there is no one to physically “attack” in this struggle, at least not in the direct way we see portrayed in great heroic, epic stories. Yet the struggle is real, and the challenges are formidable. I take heart that indeed, because of our voices, our willingness to share them, and the cause which motivates us, we ARE armed and dangerous.

Let’s saddle up.

On this day..

5 Comments »
  • http://www.onlineprojects4teachers.com/wordpress/ Jennifer Wagner

    I truly enjoy reading your blogs. They both stimulate and educate me to be better each day.

    Just recently I found this quote — which has become part of my email signature — and I wish to share it with you. Perhaps it is echoing a bit of your sentiment which you posted in your blog.

    “I want to be thoroughly used up when I
    die, for the harder I work, the more I live….
    Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of
    splendid torch which I have got hold of
    for a moment and I want to make it burn as
    brightly as possible before handing it off
    to future generations.”
    George Bernard Shaw

  • http://www.wesfryer.com Wesley Fryer

    That is a great quotation, Jennifer. I had not read that befoe. Thanks for sharing!

  • http://hent.blogspot.com Roger

    Howdy Wesley – I’ll sidle up to your saddle for a while… but perhaps more for the journey than the “battle” :-)

    I think you are spot on with the need to challenge “perceptions and behaviors, beliefs and attitudes.” Perhaps we need to do the same when looking at change as well… I’ve caught myself several times replaying my old perceptions/beliefs of why the change I desired was not happening (at least in the way I believed it should) – only to discover later that change was happening in other unexpected ways; or that the resistance I believed I had encountered was not actually there; or that my call for dialogue was received as a call to arms; or…

    I understand what you mean by a “battle for hearts and minds” but perhaps we bring too much of the last few hundred years into the 21st century with that phrase. Perhaps we sometimes create the resistance we fear by unintentionally creating fear in others? More often I suspect we see resistance where there is really only confusion.

    What I think we need in our saddle bags are passion, shared purpose, modelled practice, compassion, creativity, sense of humour, … I can certainly see plenty of these in yours :-)

    I’m ready to ride together to “engage our present educational culture which seems resolute to avoid constructive change” recognising that we need to be the cultural transformation that we want.

    If we ride into the future armed and dangerous with our 21st century technology-disruptors we shouldn’t be surprised if we encounter a fortress or two… :-)

    OK – I know I’ve gone way over the top and well beyond what you were suggesting – but I think there is a point in there somewhere… :-)

  • http://killersurvey.com Tim

    Go get ‘em, Wes!

    I love it. Good to know that one of my Dools remembers what it’s all about (Hint: not making 30).

    - C2C Kane

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