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Today's
Meditation:
It's
so easy to slip into roles and accept that other people
are in different roles, without thinking further about
whether those roles are entirely accurate or not. As
a student I've sat in classes not imagining at all that I
could also be a teacher there; as a teacher I've found out
that my students have much to teach me, as long as I'm
willing to learn from them.
All
day, every day, we are in all of our roles. We just
have to decide how we want to fulfill those roles.
Some people "teach" through ridicule, criticism,
and judgment, and they're not very effective teachers at
all. Others teach through love and compassion and
caring, and their lessons are accepted and eventually
passed on to others whom they'll never meet.
Are
we active learners or passive learners? I've had
students tell me that I'm not doing my job if they don't
learn what they're supposed to learn in my classes, yet
they don't put forth much effort at all in learning.
Other learners work hard at retaining information, but
they don't go very far in looking for practical
applications of that material.
We're
all learners, so we all can have compassion for people who
don't yet "know" what we've already
learned. Some people act rude or obnoxious simply
because they haven't yet learned the value of acting
differently. So should we get angry at their
rudeness or should we reach out and try to take advantage
of a teaching moment or two? The decision is up to
us, of course, and that decision will go a long way
towards defining who we are as teachers and learners.
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