I have been asked for an introduction to my work. The following is a collection of fourteen articles that I offer as an overview of the first two years of these writings. I have excerpted a bit from each article along with the link.
What is a Teacher?
“Teacher” is a lable. Sometimes it carries too much weight to be useful, and sometimes not enough. Sometimes a student crosses your path for only a moment, not long enough to make introductions, let alone to label the exchange, but long enough to offer something of value. Long enough to teach.
Exercises in Listening
Learning to listen well is perhaps the single most important thing that a teacher of depth can do….Here are some exercises that I practice:
Deliberate Mistakes
There is a myth, a script, that says the teacher does not, should not, make mistakes. It goes on to say that teacher mistakes should only seem to be mistakes to the student who does not yet understand the teacher’s true intent. Indeed, a clever teacher can arrange for the student to conclude this about nearly any misstep… Choosing to reveal your mistakes to the student changes this script.
Teaching Without Authority
Teaching without assumption of authority is a sort of stealth teaching. For those accustomed to being known as the teacher, this approach can be mysterious; how do you teach someone who does not consider themselves a student? Such skills can augment formal teaching and can extend a teacher’s range, but these skills can be hard to come by, especially if you are used to relying on your position to command attention.
This sort of subtle teaching is powerful because it comes in under the radar of defensiveness and fear. No one is being told they do not know enough, or that they should try harder. The “teacher” is simply solving problems as an equal. And learning happens.
Details
It is a teacher trap to think you can give all the information you need to give to a student, in any moment. No matter what the level of the student, it is not helpful to tell them everything they could be doing better. It’s too much.
Teaching Without Action
Another way to look at teaching is that our purpose is the student’s learning, and our actions should be in support of that purpose. So if the student is learning without us doing anything, we should stand back, do less, let them learn.
Finding the Teacher’s Clear Signal
A student can more accurately sense your disconnection from your own
integrity, from your own clarity, than they can your disconnection from any facts.
Seeking Truth with Curiosity and Wonder
As teachers we get mixed messages about curiosity. We are told to encourage wonder in our students but to stay on topic. We are told to stoke a desire to explore but not to upset the parents.
A delight in uncovering, unwrapping, and discovery produces agile, self-propelled students. How do we open the door to wonder and curiosity as an approach, and yet honor the limits of the world in which we teach?
Responding to Challenge
When possible, keep the conflict within the scope of your teaching. That is, include this issue, this challenge, this drama, whatever it is, in the study. Take the attitude that this conflict is not external to the study, and you will keep it in view rather than push it into hiding. The teacher who does not allow challenge to their teaching is missing a great range possibility for deep teaching.
Why Do You Teach?
What is the darkest, least flattering motivation you have for teaching? This is what constrains your deepest and most profound teaching ability. Left unseen and unknown, this is a blind spot you will teach around and a trap that will catch and prevent your best work.
Why Teach When There Are Books?
Words do not carry meaning, though they can, perhaps, point to meaning. This is part of the teacher’s job: to point to meaning. This requires us to have some sense of where to point to, and where to point from — the student.
Addressing Ego: When the Student Passes You
Look into the dark corners. In the privacy of your own mind and heart seek the extremes of possibilities: your talented student fails — are you relieved? The student succeeds brilliantly — have you any envy? The student comes to you asking advice. Are you reassured? “I need you,” the student says. What do you feel?
This can be a tangled set of motivations, even for the most self-aware of teachers. On the other side of this tangle, of course, waits our greatest prize: a student who goes farther than we thought our teaching could lead, who validates our deepest work as teachers. It is a tangle worth walking through.
Excavating Fear
As teachers we must be aware that our protected fears detract from our teaching ability. To avoid our fears we must look away from them, and we must keep looking away from them. Over time this focus on not seeing becomes an ingrained habit upon which we layer compelling explanations for why we do not dig in that spot. We cannot see this area, cannot use what is there, cannot go beyond. We limit our ability to teach anything that touches this.
On Being Done
It is easy to underestimate the power of a teacher’s advocacy to move forward, to clear a space for something new, especially when you are that teacher. A teacher’s help in making this transition can allow the student to focus on something new with confidence. A teacher’s approval for moving on, for being done, can be a great and freeing gift.
Asher-
Sometimes I get a little jaded. With your posts sometimes weeks apart, getting them whether I’m thinking about teaching or not, I sometimes get hung up on details, thinking more about me than what I am reading. Then you present it like this, as a digest and I am amazed by the quality of work you have done here and the amount of information you have shared.
Write the damn book.
Rory
ditto Rory:-)