Letter From Don: The Value of Learning

This letter was originally published in the Winter 2015 RSF Quarterly.

Dear Friends,

If we are serious about transforming the way the world works with money, then we have an obligation to look at the role education plays in it. I know this because I get to witness my children every day engaging with people, playing, and slowly becoming who they will be.

I invite you to think through your own experiences of education. What remains of value? What was painful? What was most important? How did you discover what actually motivates you? And what of your education has informed how you stand in relationships, in your work, and in community? This inquiry leads to the core of the educational process—transferring wisdom across generations. And that wisdom is about how we know and learn rather than what we know.

As this issue of our Quarterly demonstrates, the relationship between individual and community, and the capacity to navigate our own development, and that between ourselves and others, is the basis for a healthy future—and probably the hardest of all “subjects” to teach. This is so mostly because in order to teach it, we first have to live it. Our hope is that money simply supports and follows these paths of relationship, and frees up initiative to educate, innovate, and cultivate community.

Trusting that you had a joyful and renewing holiday season, and we join with you in invoking the best in the New Year for everyone.

Yours,

Don Shaffer,
President & CEO, RSF Social Finance