Keeping Score

Written Saturday, October 11, 2008:

This morning I watched the end of a movie I had seen before but it was a reminder of a truth that I know but, in the living of iife, I sometimes forget to keep in the forefront as a torch to light the way. In the movie, the mentor takes his student on a hike promising to show him something that the mentor believes the student is finally ready to view. After a thee hour walk filled with the student's excited anticipation, the sight to behold was simply a stone on the ground. To his confused and upset student, the mentor explained that even he did not know what would be found at the end of their hike, but he questioned the student's reaction since the student had been so happy and excited during the hike. After an initial frustrated outburst, the student has an epiphamy. The joy and excitement is in the journey, not the destination.

Why is in such a difficult lesson to teach and a difficult way to live? Perhaps it is that we are so focused on goals and the goals are often destinations. Maybe recognition of the importance of the journey is why I have not focused on the grades my children make or how those grades will impact the colleges they will get in. Instead, I have stressed the importance of developing the skills to be a lifelong learner and the love of learning. It seems that the development of the skill and the love gives one some of the tools for life's journey. Now, admittedly, the grades may reflect the development or existence of these attributes, but not necessarily. There appear to be so many students who are getting the grades and doing the activities, but are doing so for the resume. As a result, they may be developing the skills without a pure love of learning. Maybe this is a maturity issue and perhaps not. I probably fell into the group more interested in the resume when was younger and, like most, I probably now am stuck between the love of learning (which I truly believe I have) and the love of grade - but now, the grades have been replaced by a different scorecard. It is a scorecard that includes a broad range of subject areas - family, work, creatve endeavors (such as writing, movie- making, photography). The most difficult scorecard is the one in which it is not easy to know what constitutes a "score" and those tend to be the ones with the long range (not instant gratification) elements. The easier ones for the score card are, like grades, easily seen - how much work is getting accomplished, how much money is being made, how many clients, how many friends, how many this and how many that, and it is these that one has to get beyond to see where they lead. So, today I have recorded one more score on the scorecard of journal entries, but where will this process lead?