Basic Training For Educators

The Lifespring Foundation designed a Basic Training for Educators. For the first training, in Washington, D.C., more than 150 teachers and support personnel gathered for a four-day program in discovery. The absence of long lectures, note-taking, and exams presented a new and exciting way of learning for this group of teachers as they began a process of self discovery to last not a semester, but a lifetime.

We asked a handful of these educators to chronicle their experience . . . here they share their thoughts, discoveries, and celebration with you.

Doug - Pediatric Dentistry Facilitator for Work/Study Program, Community College

"Goodbye everyone, the next time you see me, I'll be a changed person!" I said.

"I hope not," someone replied.

These were the last words spoken between me and my office staff when I left work before attending Lifespring. I thought about this brief exchange of words on my flight down from Boston. My remark was meant to be humorous, but as I thought about it, at 5,000 feet, I realized how true it ought to be. After all, wasn't that why I was making this trip? Didn't I expect to somehow be a "different person" after the Lifespring Basic experience?

For the last 4 or 5 years, close friends of ours have urged me to take Lifespring's Basic Training. And I must say, it has been their collective enthusiasm and persistence over the years that had finally gotten me to consider taking the training.

So, I have come to the course with the hope of getting to know myself better: what are my fears, my weaknesses, and my limitations that are preventing me from facing my life more deliberately and effectively?

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