In case you missed the allusion,well-renowned sherpa Tenzing Norgay earned his fame by escorting Sir Edmund Hillary to the summit of Mount Everest. Ok - thanks for the bit of minutiae, you might be thinking. What, exactly, does this have to do with education in the 21st century.
Well, according to the folks over at Commoncraft (love those guys, by the way) one of the many roles of the millennial teacher (among the multitude of others) is the Network Sherpa. As the narrator rattled off the list of responsibilities of the teacher in the networked classroom -- learning architect, communication specialist, etc. -- the role of the sherpa really caught my ear.
Given greater thought, perhaps it was the mental image of the loyal Tenzing Norgay playing second fiddle to the virtuosity of Sir Edmund Hillary's glory? Humble, understated, dutiful... yes, I like it! Consider the following quotes by the two men: Hillary is reported to have said, "People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things"; Norgay, "If it is a shame to be the second man on Mount Everest, then I will have to live with this shame. "
That quote, in my eyes, captures the constantly evolving role of the teacher. No longer will we be considered the experts, instead we will be the guides, fearlessly leading our students toward the accomplishment of their own extraordinary things.
With that in mind, I'd better get started: I'm afraid that the ascent might be more difficult than I anticipated. As Hillary sagely advised, "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."
1 comment:
I love this analogy....sherpa is much more exciting than facilitator or guide or ....
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