Metamorphosis in Time : Lesson from a Butterfly

Just a short story about an inspiration God gave us when we went on a trip from 29 November to 1 December 2012.

We are teachers in a school who were given chance by God to study more about teaching and education. We came from different backgrounds, and only one of us studied education in university. But the diversity did not really make us that different, because we have same passion for education. How we did come to have the passion is another story to be told, but at a point of our time, we came to realize that we do have the passion for the students, for the school, and for a better education. That passion also drove us to take teacher program called CEC and go on a trip to share our passion to other teachers.

At first, this trip was just an idea that came because we had to complete an assignment from the teacher program. Soon, the idea got good responses from other party. The date was set, and preparation was taken. Of course, there were several obstacles during the preparation time. But thank God, we could go there, and had great time together.

There, we discussed so many things, mainly about education and school. So many ideas and so many thoughts came and sharpened through the discussions. One of them is about the meaning of curriculum in education. Curriculum is not just about subjects taught at school, nor is it about lesson plan and syllabus. Curriculum is about the process of transformation, experienced by the learner, to become a new person described by the vision of the educator. 

The word "transformation" ticked us because when we talk about transformation, we talk about metamorphosis (change form). The process of metamorphosis itself is unique. Just a look at the nature God created – like the life cycle of a butterfly – will help us to understand the uniqueness of metamorphosis. This process of transformation cannot happen in an instant. It needs time and cannot be forced. To see the beautiful butterfly fly, we need to create suitable environment for it to go through metamorphosis and we also need to wait patiently. It would fly in its time, not in our time. We can predict and we can support, but it is the egg of butterfly which has to go through process of metamorphosis. It is up to the butterfly, whether it wants to stay as an egg, become caterpillar, pupa, or the beautiful butterfly.

The same thing happens to our students. We can make every effort and every support to help them grow, but the growth itself is up to them. We can only wait patiently and pray to God so that they can change, grow, and experience metamorphosis, to become a beautiful man and woman in God’s eye.  The road of metamorphosis or transformation is not a smooth road; it is a bumpy, broken road with holes along the way. But in the end of the broken road, there is a bright, beautiful sight of men and women who love God and represent Christ in their lives. That is what we want to see in our students 10 and 20 years later. That is what we pray for, and that is why we do our work. In all and after all, may God be glorified.

by: Devilim