What does teaching mean?

Sept 5th is celebrated as  Teacher's day in India. On that day Rohan an earnest young student friend of mine, telephoned to thank me for teaching him and changing his life, by my writing and our interactions.

I thanked Rohan for his kind words but clarified that crediting me with his learning was in my opinion unjustified. 

I should have been flattered or at least touched by his sincere greetings, but I wasn't.
I asked myself, "If it was not arrogance I felt, then what was it?"

He asked me "If this is not teaching then what was it?"
I had no reply but I had many questions. Questions, I had to seek answers to.

Today, October 5th, is World Teacher's day. I can offer the following thoughts.

Teaching and learning are two sides of the same coin. Unfortunately the two have grown so apart that they are effectively disconnected. No doubt, nowadays  there is a lot of teaching and even more testing but it is doubtful that there is much learning taking place.


As John Lubbock said about modern teaching, "We strain the memory instead of cultivating the mind."

Why is it said that? "A student is not a vessel to be filled but a lamp to be lit"


A vessel when filled cannot absorb anything more, in fact it rejects anything that is additional or new. That is why most students cannot retain much of what they are 'taught'. At best they retain information only for a short period of time, sufficient duration to get them through the tests.

On the other hand, once lit the lamp provides illumination wherever it reaches, thus dispelling the darkness called ignorance. A lamp also helps light other lamps. Learning demands more learning as a fuel, just like a lamp demands more oil to keep on burning. The greatest learning being 'learning to learn'.




This is all about learning but then what does teaching mean?

It could be said that -

    

Teaching is the art of assisting and facilitating discovery.

Once we set off on a voyage of discovery, life becomes an endless adventure.


On this adventure called learning we will discover many things and experience many relationships, not all of them pleasant or useful, but in the end like Rohan we will hopefully discover ourselves.