One of my life joys is teaching people to play the violin. Part of the joy comes in learning so much from my students. Take Micah and his most recent lesson. This second grader is a bundle of energy and curiosity. Sometimes that means we stop the lesson so he can run around the house a couple of times. Some weeks it does so much good, I ought to try that at my Crossroads work space!

More than his energy, it’s Micah’s curiosity and eagerness to explore that fills me with so much wonder and joy. He’s already trained me to expect that he’ll pop out some piece on me that wasn’t included in the assigned practicing for that week. I love to see what he’s experimented with. It actually seems to accelerate the rest of his skill development.

So often, I find myself thinking that a person needs to fit into my track and follow my sequence. Shari Glass, our Director of Kid Crossing was wondering why parents weren’t taking advantage of a certain take-home resource. We’re realizing that the way in which it has been presented doesn’t make a very easy, obvious, and strategic next step for parents. In an earlier day, my first response would have been to place the blame on the parents. Now I’m exploring what needs to change on our end of things so that the take-home resource will be more effectively utilized by our parents.

Exploring takes more work but it also offers the possibility of much more exciting rewards. Thanks, Micah, for reminding me that exploring can be lots of fun and can accelerate learning.