A life with a sense of purpose fuels education

Darleen,
I think the key is purposefulness, if that is a word. That is, a person's life and education are not two separate things and when there is a sense of purpose in one's life and education, get out of the way, amazing things will happen. When you spoke of your father, look how much emphasis he placed on the crucial roles children played in the lives of their families, of their farms and communities as a whole. In this context book learning is important especially insofar as they help a child help the family and community. So often we have to contrive the motivation and rationale for students to succeed that is often too abstract: "so you can have a good job, go to college, etc." We have to try to contrive the the idea that the students' lives have purpose, they don't come to us already knowing that. And it sometimes rings hollow. So the independence you mention coming at an earlier age occurs when the child knows he or she is a valuable and contributing member of something. To a child's heart, that takes precedence over an abstract future success in an academic pursuit. And your story of your father's experiences and his cherished memories exemplify this perfectly. So often in education I feel there is so little I can do about the things that would make the most difference, i.e. the sense of purpose. Oh, I make my efforts within the confines of my classroom but they are like a sterile desert in comparison to the kind of rich, meaningful integration of life, education and family/community that your father's memories recall for us. My point is that "education" must not be separate from one's source of purpose either in space or time, if that is possible.