"And we must rise -- with the occasion."

Abraham Lincoln once struggled through a time filled with war between brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, a fight to end slavery, and the ever constant battle between Congress and the President.  Over the years he made several speeches that have had many quotes come to be well known.  The following quote came from December 1, 1862 as part of his concluding marks to the Congress.

"It is not "can any of us imagine better?" but, "can we all do better?" The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, ... "

As I read this quote I feel like millions of things are speeding through my mind trying to decide how I can put this quote to work and how I can rise "with the occasion."  The thing I like about this quote is that it says we must rise with the occasion in order to combat the ever increasing difficulty of the situations.  Each day we are faced with a new challenge, some of which can be fairly simple tasks, or at the opposite end of the spectrum there are the life changing tasks.  The thought of rising "with" the occasion is so much greater than rising "to" the occasion because if you only rise to the occasion you may only meet the bare minimum to get a mediocre result, but if you rise "with" it then you are able to exceed all expectations and conquer any given task.

Such tasks in my life include dealing with the challenges of money, housing, and education. I work to follow a budget as best I can but there are always the unexpected expenses or the occasional splurge that can wreak havoc on the bank account.  I have always felt that money is not an issue of concern for me because money always will come and go, but how you live your life accordingly is the greater challenge. 

As I have continued my life path after high school I follow the usual course of undergrad.  During this time I changed my mind several times on what I wanted to do for the rest of my life; staying within the wide window of what interested me, science.  Like most people entering the field of science I was encouraged to spend my time working towards medical school in order to the become a physician of sorts.  However, this did not completely interest me for various reasons and at the last minute I decided this was not my path.

In late January of 2011 I applied to Bethel University to obtain a Masters degree in Teaching.  Early February I had an interview with staff to see if this was the right path for me and immediately it felt like the right place to be.  The past several months have been full of mixed emotions as I continue to work in a local hospital that seems to continue to re-affirm my decision not to pursue med school.  A negative of the teaching profession continues to be the heavy financial burden that educators find themselves in.  Each person has a story of their own but many have a common theme, "Teachers just don't get paid enough!"

This statement is certainly heard by many, however when it comes to deciding how to increase teacher pay there are very few options that interest most, or all.  As the American Education system continues to show that it just doesn't quite work how it is expected to, we continue to try to solve the problem by looking to those with experience in the field and using ideas they have.  This could work, but it hasn't shown to be effective. 

Each meeting for my graduate studies I continually find myself creating questions in which there may not be any answer.  These questions are what bring me to question the way that things are done and why things must be done the same way when what is expected as the end result has greatly changed nearly every decade since the beginning of the formal education system.

As the next generation of workers enter the full time workforce, more brilliants minds are going to professions that are able to pay them accordingly.  Teaching just does not fit into that category, but there are the few that pursue this difficult task.  These are the ones that rise "with" the occasion in order to make a change in the world.

A goal of mine is to reform the education system as we know it in order to instill a great set of moral ethics, strong passion for serving others, and investing the imagination and creativity of our youth to create solutions to the problems we face each day.  Dreams must be encouraged, must be followed, and must be obtained.  There has always been the nay-sayers, but must they always be there?  If we are to encourage dreams, creativity, and learning, can we not all say yes to what you desire?  Can we not all work "with" each other to develop new ideas and bring these things to forefront?

I close with a poem that should be a cause for questioning how we live our life and how we treat children that dream.

Cloths of Heaven
William Butler Yeats

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.