On Teaching: CARING

Today was a special day of teaching for me, and it was all about caring. I cared for my students, first of all, in the sense that I tried to use caution in my teaching to avoid harming or endangering them. We say we would handle a crystal bowl with care, and that is exactly the way I approached my teaching today. I had 42 crystal bowls entrusted to my care, and I tried my best to treat them with delicacy and affection. I also tried my best to treat them with painstaking attention, the way a master painter might paint window frames and sashes. He would paint with great care because he wanted to bring out the beauty of the windows and sashes, and today I taught with the same kind of care and for the same kind of reason. My students are people of great inner beauty, and my job is to make that beauty shine. Finally, I used care in dealing with unforeseen situations, just as physicians and nurses give emergency care when it is needed. I don't have dire physical emergencies in my room, but often there are small, hidden, emotional emergencies -- a student's fear of being called on, for instance -- and I must be ready to give good care to the kids when these emergencies arise. Often, like today, it just takes a kind word from me to diffuse the anxiety a student might be feeling. The emergency room doctor dispenses medicine, whereas I just dispense kindness -- but in the end, it's all about care.