To-you vs. by-you
This paragraph from Frank Forencich at Exuberant Animal caught my attention. Frank is speaking at the Ancestral Health Symposium, an event I am helping coordinate this August. Frank makes the fantastic connection between personal mythology, nutrition and education, an intersection I reflect on often.
When we look at teaching from this to you-by you perspective, we discover that education itself is fundamentally a by you enterprise. All genuine and meaningful learning is self-authored; we are ultimately responsible for teaching ourselves. Teachers can model, explain, tell stories and provide context, but in the end, education is up to the student. When we think of education as something done to you, we put it in the same category as surgery, root canals, antibiotics and chiropractic. It is not. Education has more in common with exercise, food choice, meditation and lifestyle change. Our most effective teachers do not perform procedures on or to students. They inspire and lead by example, just like trainers and coaches. The more we embrace the by you perspective, the more empowered we become in health, fitness and education. It’s all one enterprise.
