Ex Ovo Omnia

One of history’s most diverse thinkers metaphorically depicted humanity’s dangerous reliance on nonrenewable energy resources as an unborn chick in an egg. American philosopher, poet, scientist, and mathematician, Buckminster Fuller, described the nutrients in an egg as the temporary and extinguishable support required for the development of an unhatched chick. Once the nutrients are depleted, the chick must break from its shell and cultivate its own mechanism for survival. Symbolically, he explained that the human population must view the use of earth’s finite resources as the nutriment in an egg that can be provisionally relied upon in order to provide the necessary time and energy required for mankind to establish alternative energy sources for a sustainable future. I use Bucky’s metaphor to describe my own teaching philosophy; the role of the educator as that of a facilitator, or provider of the “egg”. Using this mindset and a variety of learning modalities in my classroom, I am hopeful that at the end of the educational process, my students emerge from their “shells” with the necessary skills to be renewable sources of learning unto themselves.