Teaching Metaphor

Although accounting for only about 1% of the total of the world’s total water supplies, fresh water is undoubtedly the single most important resource we have available to us. It is the water we drink, the water we bath in, the water we grow our crops with and it’s natural power, when harnessed properly, provides a large portion of the electricity we use on a daily basis. How we utilize and distribute this severely limited resource has long been a point of contention and will continue to be so (if not in a much more extreme sense) in the future.

Recently, while on a sight seeing tour with an uncle of mine in the Snake River Valley, it struck me in a way that I had never realized previously, how difficult and complex the process is to get water out of my tap, and to the fields that grow the crops that I eat. My uncle works for the Twin Falls Canal Company, and has a crucial voice in deciding how the areas water supplies are used. The needs of the people, the needs of the farmers, the needs of the corporations, the needs of the future are all things to be considered and weighed in turn.

While it may seem at first glance that my uncle holds the power in this situation, one is mistaken to view it in this way: the true power here is held by the water itself, and the natural energy and balance provided by its chemical makeup. With or without my uncle, the water will move forward and forge paths, destroy and create in equal measure. My uncle’s job is simply to understand how the water works and direct it in the path of which it will do the most good, as opposed to doing damage, or by misuse or misguidance, the path which might render it effectively useless.

It stuck me that this could make a rather useful teaching metaphor. If one views students as this valuable and powerful natural resource with a natural propensity to move forward, one can orient themselves and their teaching practices to harness or maintain the power rather than create it from scratch. In this metaphor the student’s natural curiosity and desire to master any number of different crafts and subjects represents the innate momentum of the water. As evidenced by the number of hours a young boy or girl will dedicate to master a videogame, fingerings on a guitar, or putting a ball into a hoop/net, for the sure satisfaction that comes from of doing something well. A teacher that is able to recognize this and focus the energy and curiosity on knowledge or skills of consequence, helps the student reach for their potential and gives them a set of tools that will help them continue forward progress after the teacher is out of the picture.

This metaphor is also useful in that it not only allows for all the good a teacher can do for a student, it shows how one can stilt or misdirect a students natural movement and energy. A teacher can damn up the students progress in any number of ways; he/she can try to do too many things with the stream, go too many directions, thus stretching it too thin rendering it powerless; the teacher can intentionally or unintentionally direct the stream towards those that will misuse or pollute its natural purity and balance.

Ultimately it is a teacher’s duty to help a student realize their natural potential to create or destroy, or in a less abstract sense, to help them see themselves as an integral part of a larger community in which they can choose to better their own lives as well as the lives and those around them. By helping students realize and utilize their own unique talents and directing them in the way consistent with their natural drives, he or she gives the student their greatest opportunity to become a constructive part of the ever-expanding world around them.