Education Is Therapy

Education is Life by James 2020

For me, teaching is as much a spiritual journey as anything else. Whether it`s face to face or tutoring by Zoom, Skype or other platforms, there is nothing new under the sun. Plato and Socrates would tailor their teaching approaches to the individual and one of the very best teachers I ever met gave me great advice in my first year - simply get to know your pupils and they will follow you across the proverbial Rubicon. As well as getting the best results that they are capable of, perhaps more importantly, they will enjoy the journey.

Great teachers are caring adults who believe in the next generation and bring out the best in their students. They know that learning is a natural process that develops spontaneously and that their hugely privileged role is to act as a catalyst, enabling their pupils to become free independent thinkers embarking on a lifelong voyage of discovery. When I look back to the great teachers in my own life I remember courageous, kind, honest, compassionate individuals all of whom saw something in me and who helped to light that spark. I earnestly hope that I will have left a similar legacy.

I guess that all teachers have their Eureka moments. One of my most profound was when one of my pupils Sarah (not her real name), a profoundly dyslexic child in year five, stood up at a creative writing conference and asked if she could perform her poem in front of an audience of some fifteen hundred people. As her English teacher, I have to confess to a frisson of nerves as English did not come easily to her. There were parents and children from at least ten schools in the crowded auditorium. Yet I need not have doubted her as Sarah s impassioned rendition of her own highly original and beautiful poem met with a standing ovation.

For me, teaching is all about realising that I am but a tiny part of something truly great - the magnificent venture that is education. I am not so much a teacher, rather an awakener - what better role could there be than to enjoy the massive privilege of fostering a joy of learning? As I look at myself in the shaving mirror, I ask myself the question: Am I enabling those I teach to find out who they really are? Albert Einstein wrote that It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

None of this is new, yet I fear that in an era when individual freedoms have become imperilled by big data many of our institutions seem to have forgotten the wisdom of the ancients. Emperor of Rome and one of the greatest philosophers who has ever lived, Marcus Aurelius, wrote in his Meditations:

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.

That and being the best that you can be and enabling those around you to do the same.