Education is not the filling of a pail,

but the lighting of a fire.

Wiliam Butler Yeats

http://www.inspirational-quotes.info/quotes-about-education.html

Building a fire, like scaffolding, takes skill and planning. We must know what the end product will look like in order to determine the following: 1) materials will be needed, 2) time it will take to accomplish the task, 3) individuals needed to accomplish the task, 4) number of variables to consider, and possibly the most important thing, 5) purpose.

Filling a pail or adding liquid to a sponge denotes that we take nothing and add to it, while lighting a fire denotes have the right materials and taking the proper steps to create the fire so that it may continue burning; with knowledge as the kindling or materials to keep the fire going. In preparing our lessons, we take what already exist and light the fire so the student may seek his or her calling.