Seeds of Learning

The art of farming and teaching are very similar. Each is consumed with ideas of germination and growth - farmers as it relates to plants and harvest, teachers as it relates to ideas and learning.

Farmers know that they have no power to germinate seeds or to speed up the natural order of things.They work tirelessly to try to create the proper environment where things have the best opportunity to flourish.Teachers are also tillers of soil and planters of seeds. Our soil is the minds and hearts of our learners.Our seeds are ideas, thoughts, and knowledge.Our seeds are every bit as fragile as theirs.

Like the farmer we cannot force our seed to take root and prosper. We can, however, increase our success rate by creating the environment most conducive to support the self-determined growth and development of the seeds we sow.

Shipley Communication offers training that prepares the mind. Studies have shown that only 25 percent of work-place behavior is changed through typical training. However, if the soil is prepared beforehand, the success rate drastically increases. We have found that nearly 60-75 percent of employee’s change work-place behavior through our preparation.

Our success in the work of cultivating minds requires that we know the principles necessary to unblock the soil of our trade. Many teachers fail to thrive in their jobs because they don’t realize the only thing they can really control in their classroom is the environment. For some reason they have come to falsely believe they have the ability to make people learn.

All living things depend on the earth. Every spring it brings forth new life to sustain us physically. For each seed there is a specific season and set of optimal growing conditions. The law of the harvest determines much in terms of actual yield. It is the same in education and human development.