Inspire a Student, and You Won't Need to Teach Him

   The person who learns to think is the person who invents, while the person who learns to conform is less inclined. The thinker challenges norms and seeks things that are new. The conformer stays in a box and pontificates on things that already are.
    In America -- and in much of the world -- education creates a conformist. Learn this item, and this and this. Study this topic and that one. Here are the standards, now learn them. We are structured all across the board, from establishing a curriculum, to setting how many years school is composed of, to measuring success in grades from A to F, to standardized testing.
   Everything is structured. Everything asks you to conform.
   I am not saying this is all bad. But, there must be a point at which you turn the student loose to explore horizons of his own choice, and to pursue them at his own pace, and to reach his own aspirations.
   A dream is not a dream when it comes in a straightjacket. If we want dreamers, we must free them. Inspire the student to learn. Instill in him a desire to succeed. Give him a vision. These are things that spark learning more than a list of details to be memorized. Inspire a student, and you won't need to teach him. He'll teach himself.
   Birds don't fly when they are in cages. You must free them.