As I browse through people's Twitter bio's, one word that catches my eye over and over is the designation of being a lifelong leaner. As my school's mission was revealed we as educators are supposed to create lifelong learners. And while yes, I would consider myself someone who aspires to be a lifelong learner, it is not something I am, yet...
You see, in my view, a lifelong learner is someone who has lived their whole life learning, and while I have learned most of my life, I have not finished living or learning. This may be just an attack on semantics but the title bothers me when I am supposed to create lifelong learners in my classroom. I am there to create learners, in fact my mission is to make sure that my students still love learning by the time they leave my room. So I suppose my goal is to create year-long learners and hope that every year someone will make it their goal to create year-long learners, as well, We cannot create lifelong learners, students must start on that journey through their own desire to learn and continue learning, no matter the teacher or lessons being presented. What we can do, though, is to not destroy the love of learning they bring into our room on the first day of school.
So make it your mission to continue to let them love school, love the lessons, the explorations, the challenges and even the teacher. Let them love the friends, the questions, the failures. Let them know that we learn through mistakes, that we learn by being curious and that most of all we must learn to evolve. If that means that one day my students will say they are a lifelong learner then mission accomplished, however, I cannot create that in one year no matter my passion, no matter my drive, no matter my urgency. Yet a year-long learner that I can do and I promise to not ruin the love of learning, no matter the costs, no matter the hardship. Can you promise the same?
