The teacher... and the taught

There are, as my Tai chi teacher rightly said, three types of difficult to teach students:
1. Those who are like inverted containers
2. Those who are like containers with a hole
3. Those who are like filled containers

My teacher was trying to explain to me the difficulties that a teacher encounters in teaching if the student is non-receptive.

Any amount of instruction will simply slide off the sides of an inverted container. Nothing can go in!

Any amount of instruction will leaak out of a container with a hole. Nothing will stay in!

Any amount of instruction will not be accepted by a filled container. There is no space for anything!

The blame for failed learning falls on the shoulders of the student. It never really is questioned that the student may infact, be the unfortunate one, having not met the right teacher! Such is the respect for and importance of the teacher in our culture that it is assumed that any failure is that of the student.

My college professor used to feel quite the opposite. Prof. Vishwakarma, my teacher of ENT, often said that the student comes to a teacher for a limited time. In this case only three years. The teacher, on the other hand has vast experience, often as much as thirty years. If a teacher who is so experienced is not able to impart the knowledge to a student in the limited time available, it is the fault of the teacher. That teacher needs to be failed in the assessment not the student!

These are two very opposite views that are instructional in how a teacher can approach a class to be taught. There are spirit whisperers who treat each available opportunity to talk to teh spirit of the learner. They do not point out mistakes. They point out learning opportunities. They do not inculcate fear. They encourage adventure.

Coming back to the topic of difficult to teach students, however, I submitted that there is yet another class of difficult to teach students. These are the ones who want to learn and seek more with each teaching. These students are very difficult to teach.

They, infact, bring out the best in a teacher. It is in teaching these students that the teacher has to delve deep inside his own soul and knowledge and try to impart all that he knows. These students may end up improving the teacher, too! We all teach best what we need to learn the most ourselves. In teaching something well, our own understanding of the taught matter rises to the next level.

One has to ask Who is a teacher? And who is the taught? What is the lesson? and what is learnt? How does a teacher assess a student and how does a student relate to the teacher? All these are extremely important in determining the outcome of this relationship.

There are far too many teachers who teach with the central idea of trying to find out what a student DOES NOT know. They do not stop here. These teachers then go to great lengths to prove just how much a child does not know!

There are a few teachers who set out to show- not teach just how much the student already knows.There is a famous old Indian saying. Learning is a matter of REdiscovery. We only have to realise what we already know. All knowledge is a common pool- we only have to have the courage and the strength to dip in.

While it takes a good and recieving student to learn a lesson well, it is equally important for the teacher to be able to tap into the spirit of the student and teach what is needed for a particular soul. Tai chi or any other practice is a matter of the soul and is only a physical manifestation of a much deeper drive. It is the responsibility, nay- duty of the teacher to be able to impart enough love and dedication for a student to start on a voyage of self discovery.

Sometimes this may require the teacher to instill a certain degree of desire and discipline in the student. It may require the student to be patient or even impatient in his learning. Each soul has its own destiny and each interaction, each action can either take us closer to self realisation or farther away.

A good teacher helps a student realise his own destiny.

In short, important as it is for a student to have a proper perspective to be able to learn, the true teacher is the one who is able to surmount even that barrier and is able to instruct despite a lack of 'proper perspective'.