To Teach Is To Learn

PC: Aaron Springston

The act of communicating knowledge can be interpreted as implying that others are ignorant and need to be enlightened on a number of subjects. So we may keep our mouth closed rather than giving much-needed advice in a variety of ways. Perhaps this is a reason our world is suffering so severely when solutions seems simple: people are not willing to step outside their belief systems and listen to logic and scientific fact. Maybe it’s a lack of trust and we feel others want to indoctrinate us into their way of thought. I’d love to see us all step back from labels such as liberal and conservative and simply seek truth. Who cares if someone is a man or a woman, or a member of a certain political party or religion? Let’s not be afraid to speak out, to question, to listen, to learn, to love each other without caveat!

“The role of teaching and learning is actually reversed in the thinking of the world. The reversal is characteristic. It seems as if the teacher and the learner are separated, the teacher giving something to the learner rather than to himself. Further, the act of teaching is regarded as a special activity, in which one engages only a relatively small proportion of one's time. The course, on the other hand, emphasizes that to teach is to learn, so that teacher and learner are the same. It also emphasizes that teaching is a constant process; it goes on every moment of the day, and continues into sleeping thoughts as well.” A Course in Miracles, Manual for Teachers