Worship as a Barrier

In response to When the Student Worships the Teacher I was asked how a teacher might tell if a student’s worship is standing in the way of their learning. The implication is that we as teachers examine the student to see whether the student’s learning is blocked by worship and if so we do something about it.

This is perfectly sensible from the point of view where the student is learning, as though traveling from one point to another, and the teacher is already at the destination. That is, teacher as source of knowledge and student as receiver. But a teacher of depth and excellence is themselves traveling and learning. Moving.

We teach through who we are, so we are the first place to look for the answer to this question, not the student. This may seem counter intuitive. After all, the student is the one doing the worship. How is this question answered by looking at the teacher?

At the moment when student worship touches us, catches us, affects us, who are we? Is the student’s worship a barrier to their learning at that very moment? Well, at that moment, what are we teaching?

I have said: listen to the student and they will tell us what we need to know to teach them. That is, if we can hear them. If the voices of our past, our teachers, our own beliefs and fears all drown out the student’s voice, what are we hearing?

To discover whether worship or adoration is a barrier, look and listen, first to the parts inside ourselves where this tangles emotion, provokes insecurity, touches ego, pulls us off balance.

This is the territory to explore. To explore, not to conquer. If we treat this as a challenge to overcome, we will look with an eye to make changes and not see it clearly. To look without intending to alter is the only way to see a thing for what it is. This territory – these parts of ourselves – can confuse us, but can also be part of our teaching. How do we know what is what if we do not look first?

And so, to the question of how a particular student’s worship affects their learning, first ask: how does it affect the teacher? How does it affect the teacher’s hearing? Then we listen to the student for guidance.

My offered practice: recall a moment of student worship or adoration, or an echo of this, such as a compliment that took you by surprise. Imagine explaining, as if to a colleague, how this particular student’s action proves you are capable of teaching well, or how it counters some critique you have been given. This imagined conversation is a door to the territory of how student worship affects you, a necessary step in answering this question about the student’s learning.