While many readers may be too young to know of them, Kevin Costner has had many major film successes, including ‘The Untouchables’, ‘JFK’, ‘Field of Dreams’, ‘Bull Durham’, ‘Tin Cup’, ‘Waterworld’ with the most popular, no doubt, being ‘The Bodyguard’ and the most successful one (winning seven Academy Awards) being the epic western film ‘Dances with Wolves’.

‘Dances With Wolves’ is the name given to Costner’s character by the local Sioux tribe when he is sent to a remote outpost in the wilderness of the Dakota territory during the American Civil War, having been dubbed a hero after he accidentally led Union troops to a victory. He gradually learns their language, helps them defend against rival warriors, and falls in love with a white woman raised by the tribe, while earning the respect of the native people, as they learn from each other.

Whether we dance with wolves or just dance, dancing certainly has its attractions for many and awkwardness for others. George Bernard Shaw, the playwright, proclaimed that “Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire, made legal by music” while Bob Hope, the comedian, explained that “I grew up with six brothers. That’s how I learned to dance, waiting for the bathroom.” The comedian Henny Youngman looked at ladies dancing on pointe and pondered “Why don’t they just get taller girls?” However, many have promoted the importance of dance. Amit Kalantri, the mentalist, gave dancing a new dimension when he said that “The job of feet is walking, but their hobby is dancing” and Samuel Beckett, another playwright (though in the Theatre of the Absurd), called on people to “Dance first. Think later. It’s the natural order.” Then William W. Purkey, an American educator, famously declared that “You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching; Love like you’ll never be hurt; Sing like there’s nobody listening and live like it’s heaven on earth.”

The latter quotation has echoes of the classic “Live, Laugh, Love” lifestyle slogan that was an adaptation of a 1904 poem called “Success“ by Bessie Anderson Stanley which originally read: “lived well, laughed often, and loved much”. It is all good advice but perhaps it is missing one other L word Add “Learn” and the focus shifts toward continuous curiosity, education, and adaptability. And here there is the connection between dancing and learning.

As many may know, there is a Latin word ‘disco’ and many might assume we get our dance hall music word ‘disco’ from that, but the knowing ones will correct us and point out that ‘disco’ means “I learn”, hence our English words ‘discipline’ and ‘disciple’. Both have much to do with learning. A disciple is very simply therefore someone who learns although some will take the idea further and define a disciple as” a dedicated student, learner, or follower who deeply adheres to the teachings, philosophies, or way of life of a master, leader, or school of thought”. In the words of the Master Teacher, we are to go and make disciples – to make learners, people who are willing to learn.

What education comes down to, let us not forget, is to produce learners, simply people who are willing and able to learn, ideally, ultimately, by themselves. They are to be learners not followers (though social media loves to promote the idea of having people follow us). They are to be learners not regurgitators, in other words not people who rote learn something and pour it out in an exam. They are to learn not simply facts. Children must learn to learn for themselves. They must learn to want to learn for themselves. They need to learn from life and experience more than from textbooks. They must learn to live, to laugh, to love, even lose and lift, and above all and through all, to learn.

Education is about helping children continue learning into adulthood and old age. They need to learn in order to earn but it is not subjects that they must learn or syllabi or curricula. They must learn humility, kindness, patience, resilience, goodness, self-control, values. They must learn to understand people. They must learn to analyse, reflect, apply. We will be leading our children “a merry dance” (an English idiom that means to cause someone a lot of trouble, frustration, or worry, usually by making them go through a long, unnecessary, or confusing series of actions) if we do not help and enable our children to learn. Dancing is not everything; learning is. And let John Cleese, the British comedian have the last word: “He who laughs most, learns best.”