Listen Closely for the Spark; Fan the Flame (Summer Reading 2019; Beha'alotecha 5779)

Mike Norbert, former NCAA All-American, founder of
Swim with a Purpose swim school in Atlanta

Summer was time for fun in my family. But it also was a time for learning with a purpose -- whether it was beginning swim lessons or lifeguarding courses at the local pool, learning new social skills at public school enrichment day camp, theater and literature classes at summer school, or reading one of my parents' favorite childhood adventure books. Summer was a time for exploration, taking risks, and pursuing a passion or two.

As I got older summer also became a time for work to earn bus and gas money and learn new skills. While we couldn't afford big vacations, our summers were rich with experiences. Many of those experiences have informed important life choices -- working with children, encouraging others to pursue their passions, being open to learning from all experiences and people, celebrating diversity and honoring differences among people.

Now, every summer as students engage their assigned summer reading, the entire JCHS Professional Community (educators and staff) also have assigned reading. This summer it’s a selection of four books one of which is William Damon's "The Path of Purpose: How Young People Find Their Purpose in Life." I offered this particular book choice to empower the JCHS professional community to frame the urgency of helping our students discover their purpose.

Damon's extensive research prompts him to observe, many teens "spend their high school years in a contest for credentials, accumulating grades, scores, and accolades they hope to leverage into a rosy future at a top college. For many, this is an intensely competitive, stressful process that crowds out other activities important to healthy development." Our trophy-seeking and pressure-cooker culture make it nearly impossible for teens to cope; they need adult support and encouragement. Damon reports: "The biggest problem growing up today is not actually stress; it's meaninglessness."

Damon sees parents, educators, and our schools and universities contributing mightily to this problem. The good news is he also believes they can all contribute to the resolution. For example, Damon recalls "I found my own passion for research and writing not in the classroom, but while working for my secondary-school newspaper. It was only then that I became motivated to pay attention to my English teacher in order to learn how to write well. Students ... need schools [and educators] that stir their imaginations and give them a chance to discover their deepest and most enduring interests." In other words, educators and parents should, "listen closely for the spark; then fan the flames."

A contributor to another recent book about the power of purpose, "Purpose Rising," Patrick Cook-Degan cautions, "it is good to remember as a parent and educator: you cannot give your child or anyone else their own sense of purpose. But what you can do is give them the experiences to help discover their own sense of purpose." 

"Listen closely for the spark; then fan the flames" also seems an opening theme for this week's Torah portion. In it, the biblical Aaron is charged with lighting the menorah in the wilderness tabernacle. Torah draws our attention by using an odd verb for lighting, literally "raising." As if the lamplighter's role is not simply to ignite the wick, rather it is to draw heat close enough to the wick so that the flame is literally lifted toward the wick and animates light. Until the heat is brought close enough, the inanimate wick stands dark and silent. Once ignited it comes to life and light. Commenting on this Torah portion, the Lubavitcher Rebbe (20th century, US) taught, "The purpose of life is to be a blazing lamp – to ignite one’s talents and potentials so that they illuminate one’s surroundings." It is not enough to pursue one's individual goal, one needs to help lift and light others too. 

At the risk of overstating the obvious, a lamp cannot light itself. In the Rebbe's language, it needs an "external source of energy to set it aglow. But the objective is that its flame should 'rise on its own' - that it be transformed into an independent source of light." 

That is our work this summer and beyond, to learn as parents and educators how to become better lamplighters for the purposes and passions that will animate our students toward a life of purpose and meaning. May we be inspired this summer to find the wisdom to do so.

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This summer JCHS educators were invited to choose one of the following four books for their summer reflection and collaborative work in the coming school year: