When we first brainstormed the idea of the Daily Livits, we were on a wild beach in the Basque Country of Spain. Blog readers were asking for advice about applying concepts that were important to Livology in their daily life. We have been careful, since day one, to write in the first person. Our goal has always been to share experience and let people make it their own if they are inspired but not to ever tell anyone the right path for their journey. We know now more than we ever knew before we left, that there are many paths and none of them have anything to do with geography.
As is true of many days of this journey, last week we had yet another experience that helped us refine what it is we are offering through Livology.
We have been talking a great deal about teachers and students and how we learn best. My husband and I are both former high school teachers and our kids have experienced everything from public school in the USA to a private, independent school, to a church-sponsored school, to a public school in a foreign country, to no school and world school and home school.
In a discussion with them last week about their learning preferences, given their most recent experience abroad, our 10-year-old son said, “I like it when teachers trust me to find the answer rather than waiting for me to get something wrong. I like it when I can give many answers. In math class in Italy, my teacher was saying that numbers are universal but then we had this talk about how the symbols for the operation you are supposed to perform, like division or subtraction, are on the opposite side and the lines are not drawn in the same place as they are in the USA. Even with something universal, there can be a different answer depending on how you look at the problem.”
Later that evening my husband mentioned that the Daily Livits are not providing solutions but rather reminders. Solutions for living more deliberately implies that one has a problem that needs to be solved – a problem living a deliberate life. We talked about what we are doing and how it is providing reminders to people that want to be more deliberate in their daily life. It seems like a small distinction but it is really pivotal. Where a problem suggests looking outside oneself for a solution, a reminder hints at an intrinsic, existing knowledge that needs unearthing.
Our sons’ reflections on learning made us realize that we, like our readers, are not looking for solutions as much as portals into our experience that may have been clouded by “doing versus being” over the years.
We now proudly offer daily reminders to any of you who would like to pause each day and celebrate the deliberate path we are on together!
