Options

I am a teacher. I don’t just mean professionally, though I do in part make a living as a professor and teacher in many different contexts and settings. I am a teacher by my nature, and a learning space is my most natural habitat. And, as a teacher, I certainly work to share my knowledge and experience in a way that others hopefully find helpful and interesting.

Sharing knowledge and experience, though, are in the service of a deeper calling as a teacher — to make things that are difficult or mysterious understandable enough to stay on a path of learning, especially when the path is uncertain or just straight up scary. Teaching, in other words, is about seeing and generating options. In this I am inspired by two lines from the poem “The Laughing Heart” by Charles Bukowski:

be on the watch.
there are ways out.

Be on the watch. How? By asking questions. Questions create space and room to maneuver. They let you catch your breath so your thinking and judgment can hear the counsel of your emotions. Some questions are specific to a moment or arisen challenge. And some questions are just part of a basic toolkit, like a screwdriver, tape measure, and variable speed drill. Three of the best, no surprise, come from one of our greatest teachers, Ursula Le Guin:

Why are things as they are?
Must they be as they are?
What might they be like if they were otherwise?

What are your questions?