All I know is that I want to write a blog.
My name is Alan Newman. I want to be a writer. I teach writing in a middle school but I have never considered myself a writer. It is time that I begin to share my voice and record my thoughts for the world. If you are reading this blog, I thank you. I will try not to waste your time.
This space is going to be called “Hearts of Their Youth on Flame.” The title is inspired from a speech called, “The American Scholar,” given by Ralph Waldo Emerson to a group of Harvard freshmen in their first days of school. After awing in the power of his words, I often wonder about the young students that listened to this speech when it was first given. They were only eighteen after all and probably did not realize that what they listened to that afternoon would become one of the most famous pieces of texts of an entire movement in American writing as well as philosophy. How could they possibly have appreciated the gravity of the situation? They probably were bored, hot and wanted to go enjoy their newly found independence. The last thing that they wanted to do was sit in a crammed hall listening to some professor drone on about thinking freely and independently for over an hour. They wanted to get the party started. I can relate to Emerson, for such is the battle that every educator faces. Every teacher possesses an important message but how they communicate that message to the youth separates the good from the great.
Whether or not his audience was engaged in his oration, Emerson knew what he was talking about and his thoughts on the experience of the Scholar are as true today as they were when he first gave the speech in 1837. I feel obliged to share the passage in which the title of this blog is inspired:
Of course, there is a portion of reading quite indispensable to a wise man. History and exact science he must learn by laborious reading. Colleges, in like manner, have their indispensable office, — to teach elements. But they can only highly serve us, when they aim not to drill, but to create; when they gather from far every ray of various genius to their hospitable halls, and, by the concentrated fires, set the hearts of their youth on flame. Thought and knowledge are natures in which apparatus and pretension avail nothing. Gowns, and pecuniary foundations, though of towns of gold, can never countervail the least sentence or syllable of wit. Forget this, and our American colleges will recede in their public importance, whilst they grow richer every year.
Here, Emerson makes it clear that it is the responsibility of schools to inspire students. This belief is one that I take with me to the classroom every day. Schools must foster a life long love for learning and create an environment that fosters creativity in it’s highest form. Of course, there are endless factors that I cannot control as a teacher. But I can work hard to set the hearts of my students on flame. Though I can’t say that I know how to do that just yet, I promise that it is my number one goal and something that I think about every single day. How can I inspire my students? How can I get them to think independently and creatively? How can I get them excited to come to class and learn each day? How can I build concentrated fires?
These are some ideas that I hope to explore with you in future posts. The purpose my writing in this space is to explore the very nature of motivation and fostering creativity among the youth.
Enjoy the day,
Alan
