Honoring Erin Smalley: A Remarkable Young Writer

HONORING ERIN SMALLEY: A REMARKABLE YOUNG WRITER
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today I rise to honor a fine young Iowan, Erin Smalley of Johnston. Erin is a seventh-grade student at Johnston Middle School. Erin wrote the following essay for a school-wide contest for American Education Week on the topic "Great public schools for every child-America's promise." Erin's eloquent and inspiring words remind us of the importance of education in America. I would like to take a moment to share with you what Erin Smalley wrote in her essay, A Passion for Education.

William Butler Yeats, an Irish poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, once said, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." He made an excellent point, but reading through is quote just once will not make the meaning sink in. I am going to break it down to make it more easily understood.

The first part of Yeats' quote states, "Education is not the filling of a pail." I believe it means this: Education is not just putting information and knowledge into someone's mind. You can't dump fact, after fact, after fact onto someone because it will just go in one ear and out the other. Putting a lot of information into someone's head is just like filling a pail with a lot of water. It will probably just sit there, but it won't sink in. That is why education means something more.

The rest of the quote says: ". . . but the lighting of a fire." I believe this means that education is all about enlightening students and making them wonder. To light their fire is to make them want to learn more, to build a passion for what they are being taught. When they have an interest, then they will go for it. When kids are given an education, and they discover a passion for something important to them, then they will go higher and higher and never give up, until they reach their dreams. When the light goes on, that's when they start to discover and learn. That's when education is most important, because then it will hopefully become a turning point in their life.

Everyone should get to go to a free school to learn freely and learn new things. I want every kid to be able to have a passion for something, and be able to have the chance to go for their dreams. I want every kid to get the chance, because it's not fair if only some do. I hope that having an education will light all of the flames, and not just fill up the pails.