From a very young age we become accustomed to this paradigm of the teacher and the student. We understand that the teacher is instilling us with knowledge and ability, and imagine it to be something fully beneficial for us but this paradigm itself can often be more debilitating than empowering.
This is a paradigm that has natural aspects to it and also learned aspects. We naturally want to learn and to understand the world around us, and it’s clear to us that some people know more than others about certain subjects. For that reason it’s totally natural for us to seek to learn from people who know more than us.
Note: When I talk about teachers here, I'm refering not only to school teachers but to any paid professional that we see as an expert in something.
Why teachers suck
The learned aspects of the teacher/student paradigm can complicate things. The learned aspects include our stereotypes or expectations of teachers. From a young age we seem to be taught, through the amount of reverence and respect we are supposed to give at school, that teachers are all-knowing and perfect, or that this knowledge is something that we cannot obtain by ourselves through books and experience. We are forced to stay silent, sit at a desk, listen carefully. We get used to being hand-fed information, and worse yet, we learn inside of the context of arbitrary tests. These tests force us to take more interest in whether or not we are good enough for a passing grade, rather than giving us a chance to focus on the material itself.
As we grow up, there is this gatekeeper like position that teachers, doctors, and so-called professionals of all kinds are entrusted to hold. The gatekeeper aspect is all about power structures. It does not neccesarily come natural to us or benefit us, but it exists because it is fits in most coherently with the overall models of society. We want to be able to quantify skills which are often not able to be quantified, or where quantification only applies to some kinds of talent and ability. We need to prove ourselves to prospective employers or prospective customers. We need to put a price on our services in order to make a living.
If everyone can heal themselves, what need is there for doctors? If everyone can teach themselves, what need is there for teachers?
And so the SAT coach or the life-coach or the personal trainer or the health professional, legal professional, or financial advisor will often hold back sharing methods of self-improvement which may allow their client or patient or student to be come independent.
Empowering others is most profitable when spoon fed in tiny doses to keep people disempowered as long as possible, or sometimes we merely give the illusion of empowerment. This is how we can make it a lucrative business. There is little motivation to truly empower, or heal, or really teach. Give just enough that they see a result (real or imagined) but make sure they keep coming back. That is the model that teachers follow.
I honestly believe that most teachers and healers and professionals do not even realize that they are doing this half the time. It's just so ingrained into the grind of working life. Most people have a few things they are passionate about, and this idea that we are meant to work 40 hours a week for our main profession leaves most of us drained and hardly able to give our best, and many are worried about their own well-being to the point that they are too distracted to really give the best that they have to offer. Some teachers just had really shitty teachers themselves too, and it echoes through their own teaching.
I do not believe we will ever live in a world where there is no need for guidance and the direct passing of knowledge from person to person. The teacher will always be relevent. BUT, only the best and most unique teachers will remain relevent in the future.
Much teaching could be replaced by technology, apps, and videos to teach at scale, but there will always be new things to discover, better methods and things that are missed by those making the educational content at scale. Mediocre teachers will become irrelevant. But being a fantastic teacher is not something you can teach someone, it’s something a teacher needs to discover for themselves through exploration, experimentation, experience and intuition. Not something you can create through a curriculum or evaluate with test scores. It’s also subjective, cultural and subject to debate.
What will new systems look like
So in the end, the reason we have mediocre teachers is because we have a system than teaches us to respect authority, a system that needs to be consistent with itself and we have a need to create jobs for people because our system is based on scarcity rather than abundance.
There are other issues that get in the way of mentors and coaches really helping their clients that I’ll explore in a future post.
For now I want to talk about how to encourage better education and more empowerment. It’s not about the teachers or the training per say...the entire way we look at the human condition needs to change in order to create teachers that actually empower. Systems based on abundance need to be built.
A system of abundance would be one where the barrier of entry for survival would be non-existent or extremely low. What that means is that we make sure everyone is fed and has cloths and shelter. It's still difficult to imagine this working if we are being honest with ourselves, but thats where we could benefit from a massive variety of experimentation.
Sure, there are arguments that people will be lazy if they don't have to compete, but that may only be the case because we have grown up with the guidance of people who were stuck in a scarcity mindset. If our adults, and especially our teachers are high up on Maslow's hiearchy of needs (meaning they have a chance to pursue their own self-actualization, because their basic needs are met), we would likely have a population that would not become lazy even if all their needs were met.
Competition as a tool for sharpening us can be brilliant, but competition for survival or basic comforts only makes sense if we don't have the means to provide for everyone. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos aren't trying to go to space because they need the money. It seems that both probably have existential fears that drive them to work so hard, but these are just two very extreme examples of human beings who are pursuing future visions despite having way more than enough to survive. We don't need everyone to become rocket scientists or savvy business moguls, and so even just pursuing art and creation would be enough for most people in a society that has it's roots in belief in abundance.
If we had teachers who were sincere and honest AND a society that didn't contradict our sincere teachers lessons, we would likely become much more altruistic in nature, most of us anyway. We may have a few people who become lazier but is that not a small price to pay for a much more harmoious world where we all have the freedom and the means to create much more than we ever could before?
A vicious cycle?
We are stuck in this vicious cycle where scarcity creates more scarcity and weak-hearted teachers create weak-hearted teachers, and healers can't heal effectively because they aren't healed themselves. It's changing though.
The way all of us see the world has changed drastically in the past few decades and it changes faster and faster with every passing year. There are plenty of negative things to pick out and assume it's getting worse, but I feel we have more access to the world than we ever had and that is not nothing. I've become one or two degrees of seperation away from those business moguls, while at the same time becoming one or two degrees of seperation away from neighborhoods where most people struggle to survive.
We have to remember that when bad things happen, or when things suck, it allows us to understand clearly and to agree upon what we don't want, which helps us to discover what we do want. So the fact that there are so few authentic teachers and healers and professionals out there merely serves to create a demand for those things. It helps us unify our vision for what kind of world we want to live in.
Eventually, the students stop having any respect for teachers because they've been duped too many times before. Some generation eventually gets it, and then new kinds of teachers emerge.
A new kind of teacher
As most of our work becomes redundent in the current economy, and with so much uncertainty in the future, many of us will seek out new archetypes for teachers and professionals. Once again, look at Elon Musk. Who knew that the worlds richest man could also be one of it's silliest trolls？ THAT is a sign of the times. In the same way we see new breeds of billionaire, we will see new breeds of teachers and professionals.
Our definitions will change, and we don't have to let them be forced upon us anymore. We can start seeing teacher as people just like us who have a little more experience and insight. We don't need to see them as having something unatainable. If it took them 20 years to learn what they know, maybe we can do it in 5. And if we encourage more sharing, better kinds of economics and experimentation, our teachers and professionals will no longer be afraid of their students and clients moving past them, and will embrace the day when they are told "Thank you for everything, I think I got this now."
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Encouraging/enforcing dependence is pretty pathetic XD one of my greatest triumphs was when my younger sister finally started producing better drawings than I did (and now she helps me with drawing XD).
My next greatest triumph will be my kids not needing me anymore (but I hope they still love me ;-;)
I’d call it pathetic too but I honestly feel most people have no idea they are doing it. Glad some parents have their own lives....my parents didn’t know what to do!
Teachers have always been a wonderful gift every community has. Thanks for sharing this great piece.
Hear hear! Great write up.
this made me laugh but it's true.
A hug from someone who had loads of crappy teachers and tried to be a good teacher himself. These days I prefer to learn again ;<)
Future teachers will be silly trolls too! There will always be a place for you
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I prefer this fellow though:
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Thank you!
The educational systems are in general in line with the prevailing productive system, since they are fundamentally perpetuators of the circles of power, that is an undeniable truth; but it is also true that we need social institutions such as the family, the school, the churches, the civil groups ... the human being by his very nature that generally tends to be chaotic, requires a social contract to guide him; and this happens because we have forgotten our divine essence. I consider it essential to remember that nature, that knowledge that was lost or that is simply forgotten within us, in order to get rid of old schemes and institutions of domination, such as the school; But in the meantime, we must try to highlight those incredible teachers who can be supportive, inspiring and become actors of resilience, very, very important. I was fortunate to have excellent teachers, who together with my parents taught me to see beyond the apparent, to transcend the average and to search and inquire. Very good ideas that you raise here. Greetings and blessings.
Los sistemas educativos por lo general, están en consonancia con el sistema de producción imperante, pues son fundamentalmente perpetuadores de los círculos de poder, eso es una verdad innegable; pero también es cierto que necesitamos instituciones sociales como la familia, la escuela, las iglesias, los grupos civiles...el ser humano por su propia naturaleza que generalmente tiende a ser caótica, requiere de contrato social que le encauce; y esto ocurre porque hemos olvidado nuestra esencia divina. Considero que es fundamental recordar esa naturaleza, ese conocimiento que se perdió o que simplemente subyace olvidado dentro de nosotros mismos, para poder irnos desprendiendo de viejos esquemas e instituciones de dominación, como es la escuela; pero mientras, hay que tratar de resaltar esos maestros increíbles que bien pueden ser apoyo, inspiración y convertirse en actores de resiliencia, muy muy importantes. Yo tuve la suerte de contar con excelentes maestros, que junto a mis padres me enseñaron a ver más allá de lo aparente, a trascender la media y buscar e indagar. Muy buena reflexión la que planteas. Saludos y bendiciones.
I don’t want to destroy the fact that we have teachers and mentors, only the current mainstream sense of a teacher. I learn a great deal from some people and also teach many people. There is no feeling of superiority or gate keeping though, at least with the better teachers. Often we switch roles back and forth
But I agree, rather than destroying the old paradigm, it’s better to build something outside of it until people are ready to join
But I agree, rather than destroying the old paradigm, it’s better to build something outside of it until people are ready to join or find new ways to interact with it
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