Follow the Directions
“Follow the directions” is a fundamental phrase used in the classroom.
Teachers get really, REALLY frustrated when students don’t follow the directions.
I understand how important directions, procedures and processes are in keeping an organized and smoothly operating classroom of 20, 30 + students, especially young ones.
HOWEVER, I also feel that sometimes we follow directions too stringently and cause ourselves undue stress. It can also open the door to a flood of judgment and shame.
The word “direction” comes from the Latin word directionem, meaning to make a straight line.
If my geometry knowledge serves me well, a direct, straight line is the shortest route between two points…a beginning and an end.
But WHAT IF, the learning journey is not the shortest distance nor the most “direct” path between two points, the starting point at the beginning, and an end point at the destination (end?)
WHAT IF the directions we receive are not the straight on nor the same for every person?
What I have learned from being both a teacher and a student is that the learning journey is a winding road that goes up and down hill.
The journey does not have a definitive beginning or ending point either because lessons to be learned are never really mastered, but rather, cyclical and spiraling.
Learning is not a “one and done” deal! And the lessons of life are very personal and different for each individual human being on the planet!
I feel that the more that the educational system has tried to give more direction to teachers…in the form of scripted lesson plans, professional development templates and standard procedures for teaching and learning…the more that children and their teachers have suffered.
The word “direction”, over time, has come to be used synonymously with the word “guidance”.
That is how I prefer to “follow directions”.
Not as a prescribed set of steps, on a specifically prescribed path.
I prefer to think of directions more like the yellow arrows I encountered on my journey on the Camino de Santiago through Spain.
Yes, the Camino has a path, with sort of a beginning and an ending point. However, there are many routes and many beginning + ending points on the different Caminos that cross all over Europe to find their way to Santiago.
The Camino route also had optional paths that a pilgrim could take depending on whether or not they wanted to go on an easier, flatter, less strenuous route or one that went through a city or one that went through a farmer’s field or…
Children and teachers are the same. They should have choices for different paths, pacing, scenery/context, preferences, experience, etc.
The yellow arrows were just guides, and sometimes, they were not the only way to go nor the most direct. Every pilgrim made their own meaningful experience on their path and on their journey following the directions of their heart and what was in front of them in that moment.
And what a journey it was! Not always easy. Not always hard. But, oh what a memorable and powerful journey for each one with personalized lessons that would guide them to their next step…and the next…and the next.
So, my hopes and dreams are that somehow the educational system stops prescribing pathways of learning and teaching and just will allow the freedom for everyone to just take the next step…and the next…and the next.
Those kind of directions are so full of hope, possibility, potential and power because they are full of choice and freedom.
If we just follow the directions of our own path, what could one want more than that?
Inspirational song:
Follow Your Road by Seawind
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