Thursdays With Jodee - 2

Thanks to everyone who participated in last week's dialogue. It turns out we have quite a few teachers out there - although we may not be teaching in the traditional sense.

This was brought to mind again in a different setting at my study group for A Course in Miracles earlier this week. Here is a portion of the text we were reading:

"A good teacher clarifies his own ideas and strengthens them by teaching them. Teacher and pupil are alike in the learning process. They are in the same order of learning, and unless they share their lessons, conviction will be lacking. A good teacher must believe in the ideas he teaches, but he must meet another condition; he must believe in the students to whom he offers the ideas.

"Many stand guard over their ideas because they want to protect their thought systems as they are, and learning means change. Change is always fearful to the separated, because they cannot conceive of it as a move towards healing the separation. They always perceive it as a move toward further separation, because the separation was their first experience of change."

I find it interesting that this lesson really supports those of us who either wanted to be teachers but aren't - or didn't want to be teachers but find ourselves in that realm at some level. Some of the people who responded to last week's question learned that if we're not doing what we wanted to do as children, there might be a hidden message for us. For those who can remember what they wanted to be, that probably is in there somewhere, dying to get out. For those of us who can't remember, maybe we can just think about what we are being in our lives and celebrate those times of ecstatic engagement, knowing it is honoring the child within us.

This week's question relates to our hidden desire to be teachers.

Who was your favorite teacher? What made him or her special?

I had two that I can think of: Mrs. B. and Dr. Hoppe. Both were English teachers - one in high school and one in college. Mrs. B. first introduced me to Richard Bach (author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull) and also to Kahlil Gibran, two authors who have many more similarities - to each other and to me - than I ever could have imagined at the time. Dr. Hoppe introduced me to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who became one of my all-time favorite philosophers. It's funny that I've always thought of those particular characters whenever I think of those two teachers, but it's not been until just this minute that I realize how uncanny it is that I would feel as strongly connected as I always have to those three people (Gibran, Bach & Emerson).

In connecting that right now, I see that both Dr. Hoppe & Mrs. B. must have recognized my need for support in my nonconformity because that is the link between what I remember most about each of them.

What shows up for you in the question about your favorite teacher or mentor?