From a letter:
You write that you have taken a few years off from teaching to come to an understanding of “what it is all about.”
Tell me: once you have determined an answer to your question, what will you do then? And in the meantime, just who and how many have benefited from all your searching?
You will be more successful in your search if you go back to teaching and search there—while, in the meantime, you change the lives of your students.
what is sought to learn what is sought to understand and when you discover what you didnt ever expect to find and then seek for understanding.. for who does it benefit.? to discover and understand and have no one to tell merely because it ruins all that people know and where does one draw the line..? so sometimes its best to remain quiet and live out your days leaving it for another to discover and hopefully know a better way to break the news Reply
Wonderful advice! However, perhaps you do need a short break from teaching, which can be so draining!
Good luck.
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Aqiva said
that he learned much from his teachers, more from his study partners, and most of all from his students.
Their questions open the world.
So I always say, "good question."
And often say, "hmmm. nobody ever asked that before. How can I answer that?"
And the class may wait while I come up with a way to make it clear.
Or if it requires research we may come back to it another day.
And maybe one of the students can find an answer.
And the things the students learn may be about something quite different from the subject matter.
We don't teach subjects.
We teach students.
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Teaching
Teaching is like chasing chipmunks, and it takes a long time before you find out if anything you had to say had an impact, and you count that time in years.
On the otherhand teaching serves as wonderful test of whether your ideas or what you know hold water.
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teaching
Hi, Matt. I'm a teacher too. English literature.
Lots of opportunity for philosophic & religious questions. For example, a poem by Robert Frost--"Design"--asks whether the death of a moth (killed by a spider) is too small an event to be part of any design. Behind that question is the larger question of whether the universe has a design, and, if it does, whether it's a good design, and whether it was Gd or some evil entity who created the universe, and whether Gd exists, and whether Gd cares, and whether Gd's plan is more complicated than the simple "yes/no" that Frost's question would suggest.
I tell them frankly that Frost thought Gd is real & that Gd has a good plan but that it is not obvious to us from within the physical universe, & that I know that this is true but that I do not require them to believe it--they can believe anything they like: we have freedom of religion in this country.
I do know what I know. & there is much more I don't know. That's life.
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Teaching
I'm a teacher too. I teach math.
What I know, I tell the students.
What I don't know, I don't mention.
If they ask a question and I don't know the answer, I say, "I don't know." And I may add, "I can find out." Or I may not be able to find out. But I don't pretend to know more than I know.
That way I don't have to wait until I know what it's all about. The students are safe. I am not handing them misinformation.
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I can translate the Rebbe's remarks here. "Quit kidding yourself. Get REAL!!!" Reply
Time out
Understand "what it is all about" came with wisdom, reading and studying the Bible and history, time and patience.
"The fool run fast and is further than the wise. But when the wise stand up and walk, he is in the right direction."
Teaching came when you know you're in the right direction to avoid losing the time of others.
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Look what Allan said. Look what Ann said. We must always teach, because that is how we learn. I learned so much from one of my students last week.
As she told her story, the whole class broke into murmurs so she could not be heard. I said, "We are not here to judge or comment or give advice. We are here to listen to what she experienced."
And so they all listened attentively. It was a terrible thing to hear. We all learned something. No, we did not learn what it's all about. In fact, we learned a great question. But asking questions is an important part of what it's all about.