Teacher Gifts

So many gifts are part of a fabric of exchange, based on familial obligation, or social economy. There is nothing wrong with this. A lot of teaching works this way as well, an exchange of knowledge and guidance for something else, perhaps social standing or satisfaction of obligation. Again, there is nothing wrong [...]

Deliberate Mistakes

Mistakes exist in context. In a particular card game, revealing your cards to the other player is a mistake. Outside the game, you can show any card you like and it does not matter.
Making mistakes while teaching is similar: a “mistake” depends on the moment, on the student, on the context. On [...]

Disaster and Despair

There are many ways for things to go wrong. A flat tire followed by a locked car door and a sudden, drenching downpour. A star student breaking an ankle before a critical performance, years of preparation ruined.
As spiritual seekers and teachers, we want to be good examples, but when one challenge follows [...]

Is it Fair?

In All’s Fair??” Burt Web writes about fairness and how it has different meanings for different people and different contexts, that fairness is not just one thing but many.
A teacher’s fairness matters because how a student feels treated in the classroom affects how they learn. In addition, how you treat your students becomes part [...]