I was doing a workshop at one of our local colleges last week and talked about the idea that every educator’s goal would be to have students who are fully engaged in their learning. I called it consumptive learning and the President of the College came up to me later and told me that she had been looking for a phrase that described the kind of culture that she wanted her faculty to create for the students.

When my wife taught at the University her students would come up to her after the first class asking for clarification on her expectations for the year. They would inevitably ask, “Dr. Collins, what exactly do you want from us?” Her response was simple “what I want from you is for you to want to learn as much as you can” What made her such a great teacher was that she demanded that her students take responsibility for their learning and as a result they usually had a deeper appreciation for the subject matter.

In the workplace we refer to this as an engaged employee or as I like to think of them, someone who uses their discretionary energy and time on behalf of the mission of the organization.

Having a mindset of learning and looking for ways to improve the situation is a hallmark of resilience. It’s the quality of giving ourselves over to the task at hand and not holding back on our energy and commitment. That kind of effort creates a richness of experience and wisdom.

I always like to say that I am surprised by how stupid I was 2 weeks ago and I relish in new learnings every day. Take notice of your new learnings and savor them.

© Richard Citrin, All rights reserved, 2018

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