Learning and Teaching Appreciation

The little bio story about first grade.                    
- A repost of May 2013 writing
 
I think it was in becoming an adult that I realized that math was not only something that some could be very interested in but that it, just as much as trying to understand the opposite sex, the workings of the eye and the art of arranging images on a page, math could be a burning passion, filling one’s whole life with mystery and joy. What is it about math that would cause someone to devote their lives to it? As I began to appreciate the magic of math, I also developed a somewhat cheated feeling that my math education missed entirely this universal aspect of numbers.

I was drawn to teaching (and became a certified school teacher) based on the idea that for us humans it is the ability to faithfully clarify not only the facts of various naturally interesting and profitable fields of study but also the magic. The explainers or teachers like Neil De Grasse Tyson and Bill Nye the Science Guy must share an equal status as the scientists who come up with such great stuff to explain but who are often not capable of explaining it adequately for the novice.

I realized my own passion not only for drawing but as an adult my passion to be an explainer or teacher who was not afraid of inspiration and passion, a salesperson for the wonders of the world which all are able to share in, by virtue of being human, a creature without limits.

An article of faith that I somehow gleaned from my love of drawing and the disappointments and challenges because of it, that everyone could be an artist except for certain blockages which served to rule it out, such as the idea that “I can’t even draw a straight line” and the idea that “art is not for serious people." There is no unintelligent person there are plenty of those who grow up feeling that “knowledge waits” you might not have time for what you love and worse you might not have the capability for it.

Along with realizing our own limits, like death and an inability to know what can make us happy, it is our understanding or realization of what we don’t know about others potential that are in the heart of a good teacher. Let’s experiment Y’all, we will find great things. With a strong feeling of challenge about my life from Buddhist practice, I could see that the depressing feeling in me could be turned into great fuel for a teacher.

My deep distrust of systems and organizations made my teaching career one fraught with sufferings but very rewarding in the final analysis. I know the lives of the children I taught and this knowledge along with the heartfelt appreciation of so many parent is a treasure which can never be taken from me. I can see the faces of young people who feel the joy of learning, who have learned how to learn.