Of Legacy, Learning, and Cartography

Since the beginning of maritime history, ships’ captains made note of dangerous rocks, shoals, and reefs that lurked just below the surface.  They would record the place and provide bearing references so they could avoid the peril on future voyages.  As sons grew up in captains’ families they were told about the dangers and eventually someone started drawing maps.

It is easy to imagine captains sitting around a rugged table exchanging stories, drinking ale, and looking over a map laid out in front of them.  They would redraw the shoreline, talk of something new that was discovered, and make a mark on the map of a danger or some other importance.  Then someone would take the updated map to the cartographer who would draw a new map including the changes.

This is legacy.  The captains knew they had a responsibility to those who would sail those waters in the years to come.  They knew that someone had helped them to be safer and still alive from what was learned years before, and they knew it was the only honorable thing to do to share what they’ve learned; providing for the future safe passage of people they will never meet. 

As shoals shift with currents, as reefs grow and are destroyed by storms, as ships sink in some distant bay, there has always been a need to record what was discovered and share it for the sake of those who’ll travel the same way years later.  The cartographer is the clearinghouse, the repository, the librarian of such lexicons.  A cartographer will work with the new knowledge and make sure it is accurately represented on the map.  They will combine two or more reports of the same dangerous obstruction and get it as accurate as they can.  As years go by and more and more details come in, the cartographer – having never sailed those waters – keeps updating, editing, and fine tuning the map’s representation and usefulness; for the sake of countless souls who will sail those channels, rivers, and seas while relying on his map.

We are living in a glorious time of legacy building.  Our school systems have proven their obsolescence, their obvious need for updating, and the less obvious dangers of what may befall our students when they reach their adulthood unprepared to be worthy of a job.  We live in a time of huge opportunity.  We are charting new waters of learning.  We are venturing into seas of community involvement, parent groups that have researched the issues and options, and teachers who want to do great things despite the union that drags like an anchor.  We have many new and exciting opportunities to consider.  Like Henry Hudson sailing up river, or Balboa and Cabrillo sailing up the eastern Pacific Coast, we are discovering things that will affect millions who will follow us. 

Whether you are a teacher, a principal, an informed parent, an uninformed parent, a community volunteer, or even a student, you have the responsibility of sharing what you are learning about these waters with a cartographer.  Make notes of what you have seen.  Draw pictures of perils to avoid.  Keep a captain’s log with notes on the good and the bad of your voyages.  And, when you return to port, find a cartographer and share what you have learned about the best and worst ways of education.  Speak to a reporter.  Email a writer.  Create your own blog.  Write an article and share it in your parent group.  Ask teachers and experts to help make it stronger and more accurate.  Write a letter to Congress, state officials, county and district superintendents.  Debate board members seeking your vote.  Get your learning on the map!!

Do not leave some rock, poised like a glass shard on the beach, waiting under the water’s surface for someone who will sail the same way in the years after you did, and have done nothing to warn them.  Did you learn about digital learning? About STEAM education? How to build a parent group into a powerful voice? How to fight bullying in schools?  How to petition the decision makers so they feel included instead of embattled?  Did you speak to someone of vision who changed how you think?  Did you notice the shoal of negativity that drags on the hull and brings things to a halt?  Did you notice the Pirates of Selfishness who steal every good thing for their own sake and leave little or nothing behind for others? 

Who did you tell of what you found?  Whose future voyage did you aid?  What captains did you sit with over ales, or Caramel Machia Lattes, to discuss ventures, perils, and the wonders of discovery?  

What will be your legacy?  Will others have to find their own way, or will you have made it safer for them?  Will you have told someone what you learned for the purpose of aiding others so they can chart new courses to new shores, allowing new lands to be explored, developed and made fruitful?