Lighting of a Fire

From Eduwiki

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. William Butler Yeats

By simply filling the pail, we only encourage memorization. The pail metaphor also suggests that the student is a wholly passive participant in the learning process. The pail is representative of filling the mind with facts, information, and numbers at max capacity without allowing independent thinking and personal inquisition.

By lighting the fire, we are encourage meaningful learning and give students the ability to expand and grow like a fire. The fire metaphor requires students to actively participate in and internalize the learning process. It allows for independent thinkers to evolve just as every fire burns differently, so do students. By igniting their fire we hope to inspire self-learning, questioning, debating, discussions, and pursuing a life of learning.

Learning is not just filling student's minds with information, it's inspiring students and provoking thought in them. WE as educators are attempting to light the fire in them as learners and/or citizens of the world.