Education Synchronicity and Me

As I work on the documentary project, I am doing research on how to make "my" documentary as effective as possible by watching other documentaries.  To keep me on task with this, I have an ongoing list of documentaries in my Netflix queue.  For some unknown reason, and without really having time in my day to do so, I watched "Waiting for Superman" yesterday. 


As I watched, I was noticing what caught my attention and what kept my attention.  And my mind wandered to thoughts of my own education, how teachers always said my grades would be better if I applied myself, and how the thought of being in a classroom long hours sounds like torture to me.  I also thought about a couple of TED Talks by Sir Ken Robinson that address the problems of the current education system.  I am a big fan of Sir Ken Robinson- his ideas about teaching and learning resonate with me and inspire me.  


At the end of "Waiting for Superman" I was mostly disengaged and felt sad about the education system in the U.S.- and hopeless that it will ever be fixed.  I don't have any children, so I could not really relate to a parent's passion for wanting their child to have a good education.  On top of that, I was always a mediocre student (as referenced above).  Yet, I consider myself a very intelligent woman and I love to learn.  I just have a "meh" attitude about "traditional" education.  Thus the admiration for Sir Ken! 


So, imagine my surprise (and delight) when, as I sat in a church service where I go for corporate worship (Crossroads), to make a point about a special aha moment- my pastor showed this clip:

My pastor explained that the actual subject of education had little to do with his "aha" learning.  But that the notion of failing due to using a teaching approach established for a different time in history spoke to him.  


I think this is what was so scandalous about how Jesus taught while he was physically walking the earth.  He upset so many pharisees because He used non-traditional approaches to teaching the people about God's character, love, truth and grace.  It is this demonstration of God's character that resonates with me when I listen to Sir Ken Robinson- even though he is not talking about God.  And it is this complex yet simple illustration of God's truth and grace that I intend to use as inspiration while putting the documentary vision on film.