When teaching and learning occur in the same spirit, there's no telling the two apart. It's apparent that we are teaching what we need to learn and learning from how our teaching is taken. It's also obvious to both that the learner appeared when the teacher was ready. The educational experience is an intimate affair where boundaries and dissolve and benefits merge.
When teaching is done in a different spirit from learning, all hell breaks loose. There's no way for either side to deeply benefit from the experience. Both settle for superficial encounters, arms length transactions and bogus claims of value. The mistaken impression of learning in a different spirit from teaching leads to countless complications.
When the same spirit is restored and impressions corrected, it feels like awakening from a dream. The illusion of separate interests vanishes in the sense of how much teaching and learning have in common. It's obvious that the commonality comes together without effort when an authentic educational experience occurs.
"When teaching and learning occur in the same spirit, there's no telling the two apart." - I'll have to post that somewhere.
ReplyDeleteThanks Harold.
ReplyDeleteAfter I read your comment, it occurred to me that "in the same spirit" is a pattern. When we "solve for pattern" with this pattern, we will solve many problems at once. The problems with "in different spirits" arise from neglecting the pattern, solving isolated problems regardless of systemic consequences and falling for extreme fixes that cause more problems.