Yesterday for class Dr. Hite took us to BYU's (Brigham Young University) library to meet with Rachel Wadham, the library education specialist. Just being in a library inspires and awes me. Yesterday's experience was no exception as I caught Rachel's contagious enthusiasm for learning and accessing information.
When I first discovered libraries as a young girl, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I couldn't read enough books or gather enough information fast enough to satisfy my curiosity or desire to learn. The more I learned, the more I knew there was to learn, and I wanted to know it all. This insatiable appetite to learn it all is even harder now to address with the rate at which knowledge is expanding exponentially and when it is so accessible through so many avenues.
In spite of this strong desire to use my mind and to learn from books and other sources of intellectual knowledge, that alone won't quench the thirst or feed the hunger. The heart must be included in the search.
A few quotes to explain the importance of the heart in regards to learning:
- "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." Antoine de Saint Exupéry from The Little Prince.
- "The heart has eyes which the brain knows nothing of." Charles H. Perkhurst
- The human heart knows things the eyes don't see, and feels things the mind cannot understand."
- "..it came to a time in my life when my heart told me things that my mind did not know...." Harold B. Lee quoting a prominent university professor
- "When we understand more than we know with our minds, when we understand with our hearts, then we know that the Spirit of the Lord is working upon us." Harold B. Lee
- "The heart is wiser than the intellect." J. G. Holland
- "If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing." Marc Chagall
In order to learn from the heart and allow it to guide our rigorous intellectual and academic pursuits, it is imperative that we take time to be still and to listen. The heart whispers so we have to listen closely.
It is important that as we pursue the getting of intellectual knowledge with academic rigor that we don't look beyond the mark by being past feeling. There will be times our hearts will provide answers to questions such as how to best meet the needs of our diverse learners that all the intellect and all the knowledge in all the libraries of the world won't provide.
