How can I protect my child from other teachers?

I wrote a blog yesterday (http://sloane-schoolandteaching.blogspot.com/)which deserved a follow-up, better sooner than later. You can read that too to obtain some premise of an overdue narration about 'teacher-training'.

But before we can really get into how you can become an effective teacher to your child, we need to do a little exercise to examine your current views about teachers and teaching.

Teachers are not
- authority figures
- surrogates for parents
- a special breed with superior intellect
- a power over you
- domineering
- stereotypical
- experts in what they teach
- people who have all the right answers


The list is a lot longer than that but I simply want to start off challenging the most common notions of what being a teacher is about. There is a big difference between what we perceive to be true and what IS. We have conformed to the idea of all the things listed above without actually having ever examined whether it really IS or isn't. And because we conform to it, it becomes true for us.

In spite of my perspective, I'm not a teacher-basher. If I appear that way, it is only because I am being measured against a very, very narrow definition of what a teacher ought to be. I prefer the premise of expansive thought to narrow thinking.

Even if a majority hold to be true what is not true, it doesn't make it true. It makes it real to the people who hold on to the notion, but it doesn't make it true, does it? A majority of people hold on to the things listed above as the definition of what a Teacher is. But I know you are one of the few who have started examining preconceived ideas.

A long, long time ago, a Teacher was someone who had the wisdom to see the inter-relatedness of ideas, information and thoughts and to weave a cohesive pattern that allows them to transcend, to some degree, a future. Teachers were philosophers, writers and vanguards of morality. They were not necessarily chaste and celibate because it was demanded of them or a code they had to abide to; they are moral because there is order in their hearts. That Order comes from a sense of Knowing that made Teachers appear more mystical, more mysterious - special. They hold a higher moral standard than others not because they get paid to do it or because it's a "should", they have a higher moral standard because they are closer to Truth, to Love, to Light. Being closer to Truth melts away the Ignorance that causes Conflict and Desire and pulls away the web of Deceit and Delusion shrouding our consciousness. Higher morality is something you Are because of an inner-change that comes within you. It is not a standard dependent on others' views or judgment upon you. It is simply a cessation or lessening of violence because Truth neutralizes a great many Conflict that arises in Man's heart.

At the root of all their Wisdom and Morality is simply Unconditional Love. They have developed and nurtured a sensitivity to Nature, which brought upon a blossoming and heightening of their Awareness. Some of this transformation comes after considerable movements of Time, but sometimes Awareness happens instantaneously. The point is, their Awakening is not dependent on Time, Skill, Knowledge, IQ, wealth, etc. It depended only upon Sensitivity and Love.

This Sensitivity and Love is necessary for Observation and Examination to take place, to have meaning, to have purpose, to navigate their direction. The process inside that includes Reflections. Eventhough I use 'navigate direction' as a metaphor, the process towards Knowing is a Pathless one.

A lot of people accustomed to the idea of gradual learning and development find it extremely difficult to internalize the idea that the movement towards becoming a Teacher is an inward, not an outward movement. Thus, the movement cannot be neasured in increments expanding outwardly, confirmed and awarded, like a certificate or graduation. If we can see and understand that the process of Knowing (as opposed to a state of Collective Information we loosely call "I know"....) is a reversion into ourselves, not a conversion towards a different label, name, form or status - then it is easier to understand why each and every person is essentially 'qualified' to be a teacher.

The problem we have with the world right now is that we had adopted a thought that we did not examine. This is the thought that the label 'teacher' is some kind of commodity. How many times have we heard children being made to come up with a sentence like, "When I grow up, I want to become a teacher/doctor/writer/monk/" etc.? It is as if, if all conditions and rewards are fine by me, then I "become" a teacher/doctor. But there is an ocean of difference between the 'name' teacher/doctor/monk and the actual practise of it, and any good teacher/doctor/monk can attest to that.

Based on the information so far and the beliefs you are asked to examine, how far are you with this? Since being a Teacher to your child or to other children is not a matter of incremental steps, it is absolutely imperative (for effect!)for you to understand that learning to go inwardly into yourself is not an external movement towards a destination. It is a return to yourself.

Accepting the role of a teacher is as much a spiritual quest as it is an actualization process for yourself and the children you nurture. Children need Teachers a lot less than we have bought into. Children are very capable of learning by themselves. We didn't walk around with a big white button badge that says, "Mummy" in big black words or out-loud when we're near Baby, yet, they learned language pretty effortlessly. There are so many things children learn through modelling, not through direct instruction.

For more evidence you would have to read the works of Maria Montessor, Jean Piaget, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and a host of others who are more intellectually qualified to relay this information to you.

When I first naively shared with people in my life that I wanted to be a teacher, I received nothing but outright criticisms. "Your face can be a teacher!" and "Why the heck would you want to go do a drop-out's job?". Not one single person understood that it was as much a spiritual journey as it was going to be a professional one. But along the way, I've met so many role-models who didn't start out (or continue to be) on the straight-and-narrow path of what we'd expect of a 'typical' teacher. Truly, we are doing harm to ourselves to believe that there is anything typical about spirituality and awakenings.

At this point, there is bound to be some conflict arising about how Parents can't make good teachers, or the notion that some people are better at teaching than others. Just because someone out there can be better than you at a chosen task doesn't automatically make it impossible for you to also be able to perform it. It would be like a man saying, "There are other men who can be better husbands and father better children with this woman here, so I might as well let another man do it." How ridiculous does that sound now? Or an IT businessman/investor saying, "Warren Buffet/Bill Gates can do (and has done) a better job than me so I shouldn't even delude myself into thinking that I'm going to be able to make even a measly $10million dollars a year." - Well, so what if other people make $100 million a year? Even $5million a year is not so bad. I'd take it any-who.

There is this widely-practised (yes, practised) belief that we cannot teach our own children - because...................Because we are so attached to them! All our judgments, perceptions, attachments, prejudices, preconceived ideas,unexamined beliefs are unleashed unto them! It is not that we cannot teach them, it is that it's too much work to work on ourselves, so we'd rather pay someone else to do the teaching! However, this doesn't absolve the fact that parents are their children's first teachers. A majority of the things they will use to define and value life comes from us, the parents. Their mannerisms, generosity, perspectives, influences, drive, motivation, direction, comes from modelling after us. I even believe that parents who complain about their children having a hard time waking up are themselves parents who are not morning-people! But it's a different story if the child is undergoing severe depression and not being able to get up is not just a case of genetics, but a sign of having lost perspective and being unable to face the day ahead.

It is our nature to want to get definitive, simple, clear-cut solutions to the most complex, personal problems we have. But to start off telling you 'Steps', 'Methods', 'Practical Approaches' or 'Theoretical Aspects' has a danger of making you put more pressure on yourself and your child to solve the question of whether or not you can be a Teacher. The only purpose a Parent should have in wanting to know if they can be a Teacher to their Child or other children is the acceptance of embarking on a spiritual awakenig of themself.