Why I Teach
I remember hearing an old saying back in grade school, “Those who can’t do, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach gym.” I remember thinking it actually had a point.
Of course, years later, having been a tutor for the past ten years of my life, I have a few bones to pick. It seems that this society values “doers” much more than “teachers.” It also seems to believe that “gym” or “physical fitness” can’t really be taught.
But where would we be without our teachers? Who was your first teacher if not your mother or father? These are rhetorical questions, for good reason. The method of transmission of knowledge and wisdom in our world is through teaching. In fact, a lot of things around us are teaching things all the time, even when we don’t realize it. When you watch a commercial, play a video game, or interact with certain types of websites on the Internet, what are you teaching yourself to say or do?
It’s not surprising that the vast majority of media messaging out there is designed to get you to do one thing: spend money. And they want you to do it addictively. The new “democratization” of media in the form of social media has placed power into the hands of literally anyone, but in the pursuit of followers and “likes,” the most “viral” videos and images will more often than not have to do with topics of little concern, or scantily clad men and women.
All the while, our world is burning. Karl Marx has said that “religion is the opiate of the masses.” Okay, we did away with that. Now, social media is the collective aspirin that we cannot stop taking every time we get a “headache,” or any indication that our lives is not necessarily going the way we want it.
Even doctors and pharmaceutical companies may be complicit in this mass tragedy. Under the guise of “do no harm,” well, aren’t we suppose to do better than that? Pain is our body’s bugle. If you silence the messenger who brings you a message from the ramparts you would rather not hear, you know that Birnam Wood is going to be coming soon to Dunsinane.
Our youth are drowning or hiding themselves away in their phones or in online communities, possibly, because of how disappointed they are with earlier generations that have left them a world of environmental degradation and war. The baby boomers are desperate for ways to prolong life. The top 1% are building lavish emergency bunkers deep within the ground in remote areas of the world. What does that teach our youth generation but to partake in lives of hedonism before the world actually blows up? The belief that we can do something to turn the tide is a mentality that we need to take on, all generations included.
But what does all of this have to do with teaching?
The flip side of teaching is learning. The two are two sides of the same coin. True teachers are lifelong learners, and true learners are lifelong teachers. It is by adopting the stance that no matter what situation we may be faced with, yes, we can change, and yes, we can make a difference, no matter how small our voices may seem.
There will be sinners, hypocrites, and inveterate criminals. That part about our world will not change, and may never change. But the situation is much more complex and dynamic than simply the battle between “good” and “evil.” As visually exemplified by the “Yin-Yang” (阴阳) symbol, there is a little “good” in all that is “bad,” and vice versa, and the two are constantly in a state of flux.
The reason I teach is that I believe knowledge and wisdom to be the property of the community, and the rightful inheritance of the young. Ironically, while material goods may seem to “disappear” the moment they are consumed or used up (leading to those who have wealth to obnoxiously hoard it) the fruits of the mind and spirit can only manifest when they are in the process of becoming illuminated in the company of others.
