Where Do I Start?

Before you read on, I need to begin with a disclaimer. I do not claim to know anything outside of my realm of experience. In fact, there is a lot more that I don't know than I do know. This blog is my attempt to understand how to deal with my not knowing. With that being said, let me introduce myself.

My name is Jay Seibert. I am an educator in Marlboro Township, New Jersey. My path to education, like everything else in my life, was far from typical. I am the type of person that wants to do everything that life has to offer. I don' t want to miss out on anything, so I often find myself chasing dreams. I have an eclectic background in graphic design, culinary arts, and audio engineering. I taught martial arts for 15 years before becoming a public school teacher. My interests have led me to do some really strange things like knitting, fermenting foods, fixed gear bicycles, and much more. My current obsession is hand balancing. Somehow, I found a woman who loves me for all that I am. We have started a wonderful little family together with our 18 month old daughter, who is already as crazy as I am.

Why do I tell you all of this? Because life, for me, is all about learning.  I love the mystery of the unknown, the building of curiosity, the thrill of the search for understanding, the joy of creating, the prospect of failure, and the ultimate sense of accomplishment when the goal is finally attained. No matter what my latest obsession may be, I have come to realize that it is the art of learning that I am truly obsessed with. I also believe that the desire to learn is innate in every human being, whether they realize it or not. 

It's no wonder that my career path eventually led me to becoming a teacher. For me, teaching isn't about disseminating knowledge to children. On the contrary, I believe educating is about guiding students as they learn how to learn. My goal is to spark that innate desire to learn in everyone that I meet. For some students, that innate desire burns like wildfire and I simply need to feed the flames. Other times, the flame needs to be ignited. 

In these cases, I don't believe that these kids lack a desire to learn. I believe that they yearn to learn, but are afraid that they don't know. They are full of the FUDs (fears, uncertainties, and doubts).

Society, for some reason, shames people when they dare to say, "I don't know." It is embarrassing for us to admit when we don' t know something. So instead of attempting to find the answer or solution, we don't even make the attempt. We opt out. For many students, they have opted out since day one and reinforced the habit everyday afterwards. What a shame! Some people never break the habit. They have snuffed out the desire to learn because they fear the unknown. 

In order to learn something, we all begin at the same starting point. It all starts with not knowing! Investigating what we don't know leads to more questions. Once we think we have an understanding of a concept, we put our ideas to a test. Our tests may lead to successes or failures. Our successes confirm our thinking and lead us to more questions. Our failures cause us to analyze errors in our thinking and correct them. So why are failures viewed so negatively? Why do we let our fear of failure dictate what we learn? Why do we run away from our fears instead of towards them?

This blog is a way for me to chronicle my journey of learning. I hope that others will follow me as I attempt to face my own fears head on. I also hope that others will be inspired to face their fears as educators and learners. Let us not be deterred by our failures, but instead be motivated by them. Let us take comfort in the fact that we don't know everything, nor do we need to. Let us remember that the treasure we seek lies within the cave we fear.