Here are a few thoughts (by no means complete).
These I take for granted:
1. No one knows one true’s potential.
2. No one ever fully actualises one’s true potential. There is always more that could be achieved.
3. Only at the moment of death can we say that it is over as far as actualisation of potential is concerned.
4. No one ever achieves the goals one sets for oneself, no matter how low or how high, as a consequence one should always aim unrealistically high. You will not achieve it, but in the process of trying, you will achieve some pretty high levels. Aim low and you will also not achieve it, and in the process you will still be pretty low.
5. Whatever the aim, for its achievement personal volition is necessary but hardly sufficient. There has to be the co-ordination of other forces for it to happen.
In regards to students:
1. They know nothing. Otherwise they would not be students. But you must humour them and not point this out to them too often.
2. They may not recognise it or even appreciate it, but without a teacher and the appropriate environment they would not amount to anything.
3. The role of the teacher is rarely to teach stuff. Stuff can be learned from books, TV, internet, you name it. But only a teacher can inspire, cajole, challenge, and sometimes infuriate the student enough so that he will fulfil part of his potential.
4. Students often confuse their potential with the actualisation of their potential. But unrealised potential is worth exactly nothing.
In regards to teachers:
1. Teachers should be sly, far sly in fact than they are willing to be. Much teaching can be accomplished by creating the environment that will bring forth on the student the desired response.
2. Teachers must set the benchmark in whatever they teach, “Do as I say, not as I do” never worked and never will.
3. Detachment is very important. Efficient teaching is not possible if there is misguided involvement.
4. The true validity of the teaching is in what the student has incorporated in his/her life. In this sense exams are worthless: I do not care if a student got top marks in his/her piano grade 8, and yet cannot play Happy Birthday to you in his/her little brother’s party.
5. In a teaching situation the teacher always learns more than the student.
In regards to teacher-student relationship:
1. The teacher is there to instruct, not to discuss or debate. If every lesson is a debate, there is no teacher-student relationship.
2. The teacher’s job is to teach. That is all s/he can do. The student’s job is to learn. That is all s/he is required to do. However most of the time, the teacher must also teach the student how to learn. Some teachers resent this, and they should not.
3. No student, no teacher.
4. The teacher-student relationship permeates the whole universe. Once one understands this, one realises that every one and every event in one’s life is a teacher. And everyone is a student. Also, when one understands this, one will not need a formal teacher anymore.
5. There is no end to teaching. There is no end to learning.
In regards to environment:
1. For understanding to take place, one needs a willing student, a competent teacher and a conducive environment. These three conditions are both necessary and sufficient. Miss any of them and learning will not take place.
2. Of the three, environment is often taken for granted and in consequence disregarded. A good teacher will make sure that environmental conditions are in place before starting the teaching, and a responsible student will likewise request such optimum conditions before embarking on a learning project.
3. If a competent teacher and a willing student are not getting anywhere, look at the environment, you will find that it is what needs to be fixed.
Best wishes,
Bernhard.
Topic: Sensitivity toward student's progress