Teach & Serve V, No. 40
The Horse and the Water
May 6, 2020
… our job in this grand world of education whether we are administrator or teacher is not to lead the horses to water. It is to make them thirsty in the first place.
Have you led the horse to water this year?
I bet you have. I bet you have led many horses to water.
Those of you who are administrators have led your staffs. Those of you who are teachers have done the same for your students. You’ve brought them before all kinds of water: streams and brooks and purified water dispensers and more. You’ve led them to water.
Nice work.
This time of year – especially this year – it is harder to lead, to teach, to connect.
You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.
I am not an equestrian. I do know if this is actually true. Perhaps you can make a horse drink. I am unsure.
But I do know this: our job in this grand world of education whether we are administrator or teacher is not to lead the horses to water. It is to make them thirsty in the first place.
Anyone can lead a horse to water (he wrote remembering he knows nothing about horses). Throw a bridle on and make it so.
But getting the horse to want to go to the water? Getting the horse to want to drink?
Inspiring those we serve to want to participate? To challenge? To learn?
That’s the real trick, isn’t it?
And it’s real tricky this time of year.
It’s real tricky in remote learning.
But it’s no less important.