“Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.”
Chinese proverb
With whom does the responsibility for learning lie: the teacher, or the student?
The answer: probably both. The question presents a false dichotomy. (As my pastor growing up used to say: When you ask the wrong question, you get the wrong answer.)
The reality is that both parties share some responsibility in the process of education.
But teachers, let’s focus on ourselves for a moment: How can we open the door for our students? But further, what can we do to help empower our students to enter by themselves?
And now considering our teacher selves as the lifelong learners we are, and putting ourselves in the shoes of the students in our care: How can we help ourselves enter the doorways of learning?
This theme reminds me of a conference I went to many years ago. One of the presenters started by asking “What percentage of responsibility are you willing to give to this session?” He let us all think for a moment. I thought to myself, “I’ll go 50/50 with him.” Then he said to the group, “I’m going to give 100% to this session, and I hope you will too. If you’re only willing to give LESS than 100% for your own professional development today, is it reasonable to expect 100% from me…?” That was a great paradigm shift for me!
Wow, that’s a really interesting paradigm! Thanks so much for sharing, Mindy! It fits right in with the spirit of this Chinese proverb.