Experiences to Reflect Upon

Today I read this blogpost from Chad Lehrmann.  Chad is an educator in College Station ISD and he has a passion for student voice in his classroom.   The following thought stood out to me from his blogpost:

You have to have experiences to reflect on them.

At first, I thought of course, you need experiences to be able to reflect upon them.  But the more I thought about it, the more I thought about this question: How often do we make sure that people (children and adults) have actually had the experiences that we need them to reflect upon in order to grow? 
 
My experience as a school leader tells me that we operate under a lot of assumptions when it comes to the experiences of our students and fellow teachers.  This is why it is important to create learning experiences for our learners.  If we do not make sure they happen, then who will?
 
Think.  Achieve.  Succeed.
 
Jeff