What is teaching/learning to you?

We teach what we are learning. As Vygotsky elucidates in his theories of sociocultural

development he makes the observation of the private talking of young children after receiving
instruction as a precondition to the internalised organisation or self talk that accompanies feeling,
willing and thinking. In this seeming disappearing process of private talk we in a way replicate
that process of affirming our knowledge in later formal education. We socialise that self talk
dialogue in the form of the didactic scenario of teacher/student. And in contemporary western
culture we formalise it in the concept of a classroom in a school.

Therefore I see learning as a type of seductress; the innate value that we place on knowledge and
knowing appears to impel us to create whole life modes and ecologies to support its singular and
solitary joy. Of course learning has its communal benefits and no doubt it pays its way as a
mechanism of extended self preservation. And still unhindered by its severe pragmatism, there is
poetic brilliance in the whole of learning. Growing in intensity at that most tumultuous time of
life typified by secondary schooling, it is tempered only by its absolute necessity to carry
forward and onward. Or else it should not be real. To want to place oneself in that role is
similarly inconceivable if not for the fact of its own imperative.

So is teaching a form of high drama? In the classroom everything is conceptualised, everything

has the potential to be a conscious act of will and similarly a lost moment. I believe that it is a
most quintessential play, this enactment of teaching and learning makes explicit what it means to
be human. It is self perpetuating, a treasure and a thing to be shared and a tragic comedy when
one is without the object on which shines its light. Knowledge the jewel we can all possess. And
yet I still question my desire to teach. To want to take on that responsibility, I consider learning a
seductress for this reason, because of the mere internal suggestion that by challenging myself in
accepting that role of teacher, I will learn more of myself. I rush headlong to secure my place in
that play of infinite potential. It appears that to share ones understanding is in itself a type of
social imperative.

Like seeing a painting, our patterns of life and in detail the brush strokes, the choice of colour, all
combine to represent a picture. In the context of learning and teaching that picture is telling as
much about ourselves as it is performing the function of teaching, itself. So I’ll teach because I
want to know, if I have learnt enough of myself to be able to give to others in a dynamic way.
And ironically for me I think I will surprise myself and find a calling I had maybe only thought
and wondered at before but not thought possible to attain.

Om Shanti Om