Ernest Boyer captured every concept and motivation that I have regarding training through his essay, “The Educated Heart” – I encountered his thoughts 7 years ago and I was never quite the same since. The American educator introduced the vital question of, “with people becoming more knowledgeable, educated, and well-informed, have we actually become more human?” This question has always guided me and impacted greatly in my everyday dealings and encounters; quite significantly in the way I share myself in the community. “What really constitutes the educated heart?” “What does it mean to have one?” ‘What is it to be human?”
With the number of concerns that tag on us in our everyday lives, whether at work or in our private lives, we have the tendency to be fragmented and scattered, resulting to a compartmentalized life that assaults our calling for integrity and wholeness. This creates a problem when we exhaust ourselves by weighing and assessing as to “what part of myself would best solve this issue I am currently faced with?” Later finding ourselves more “divided”; and in our efforts to distribute ourselves towards specific needs we tend to lose those precious connections that define our relationship with ourselves, others, and God. It is thus the task of the one that lends himself to the platform to see the “connectedness” of things–social, personal, religious–to the past, to the natural world, to each other, and if possible, to the eternal. This is not an easy task for it takes more than knowing a specific set of skills or presenting an established procedure – the trainer must, and if experience allows, submit himself to these experiences and confront his own brokenness…he may not be able to move the world but to make a difference in another person’s life makes it much more worth it.
The Platform is a very powerful means to shape the human person – and it is definitely important to understand that communicating values should be at the heart of it…I have had my share through this experience, and as those people I have encountered who shared themselves with me, I too am compelled to do the same. Being a teacher or a trainer carries with it a social and moral imperative that is a challenge and a goal at the same time – he must also realize that this vocation entails a very daunting yet fulfilling responsibility where he must find himself consistently grounded and constantly growing.
