To all of you twenty-four- to thirty-five-year-olds: You don't "see" yet. it's a gift that comes later, and the best advice I can give you is to trust us. We are older, and we may not quite have your energy, but we have our own super power, and it's an understanding of the world that you can't get at such young years. We have the power to "see beyond" what is before us and truly understand the dynamics and motivation s that go into the actions around us. It's a wisdom that has to marinate over time, and when it comes, you will "see" situations much differently. There are some young adults reading this right now who are thinking, "Oh, I know what he means." You don't. You can't. Intellect does not afford you this superpower; it is only acquired with age. |
Colleges graduate students who find themselves in charge of classrooms across the land...and for some reason, many of them feel like they have learned all about the education process. They throw around lots of lingo, but they often fail at the practical. They persist in trying to prove that they have retained all of their four-year education, in spite of what the veterans tell them. They reduce their students to zoo animals. Their job becomes pest control. In effort to please their supervisors, they fall for every new initiative, every new catch phrase, every new gimmick.
But as Ron Clark explains in Move Your Bus, there are people around who might just be wiser. Odds are, they got into the biz for the same reasons as you, but they have seen the world (so to speak). They have many more experiences than you have. They probably have some wisdom that you, Rookie, do not have. You'll get there if you stick it out, but you're not there yet.
Perhaps it is the tone in which the message is delivered. Sometimes the veterans are cranky. Cynical. Sarcastic. Sometimes we exaggerate. Sometimes our memories are embellished with time. And sometimes our passion is expressed differently than yours. We may not jump in with both feet every time an expert speaks to the faculty. We temper our solutions with reluctance and patience. We see things through a different lens.
If you can crack that hard outer shell, you may find that we're not filled with eggy slime. We are filled with soft chocolate and gooey sweetness instead.