How knowledge grows sharing from experience?

I remember when I was still in elementary school and feeling helpless because there were still so many years of school ahead of me. However through each subsequent year of school, I found my passion for learning growing and I realized how much I loved going to school, learning how the world worked and seeing myself grow in knowledge. This passion for education spread beyond my academic life and into my everyday activities. When I went to the gym I would find myself asking questions about how the machines really worked to target only certain muscles and why I had to reach a target heart rate in order to improve my weight. When I went grocery shopping me was curious to know how food started as wheat in the ground and came to be Corn Flakes in a cereal box and when I was driving around I found myself interested in the mechanics of automobiles and the principles of physics involved to drive a car. The excitement it raised within me was always that moment of “a-ha!” that pinnacle when everything clicks into place and suddenly I am able to understand, and I needed others to be able to feel that moment as well. This is when I knew that my love for information and knowledge and my need to share it with others in ways that would give them the same moment of enlightenment is what I wanted to do in life.

As a student, one needs to be receptive, understanding and diligent but the transfer of knowledge through education is a complex process that requires patience, attentiveness and flexibility on the part of the educator. Before reaching the pinnacle of understanding, there will be many moments of frustration, misunderstanding and incomprehension. But these can be alleviated and even limited through tactfully made and skillfully implemented curriculum. A proper curriculum can act as an outline to the learning process and in helping the student in their path to gaining the knowledge they seek. It can also aid the educator’s role in the teaching process, showing them how to impart understanding and appreciation on a particular subject. At its best the right curriculum can even bestow the same passion for learning and love of education that all teaches, professors, and educators share.

As an educator, I find that my job does not stop in the classroom. I love to be helpful and teach others whether it is helping a lost tourist with directions or showing a child how to make something with their hands. I always welcome opportunities that put me a position to either learn from others or to teach them what I know. Even in the classroom, education is something that needs full attention and passion and because each student has different ways of learning and various educational needs, my job as an educator is never finished.