The Teacher & The Student Parable
The Teacher & The Student Parable
One day at a prominent university, a professor of philosophy greeted the new generation of scholars walking through the historic corridor that entered his classroom with a pop quiz.
They all looked confused and thought it must have been some kind of joke as they had not even received a proper orientation. "You didn't even give us a syllabus yet..like, how are we supposed to know what to study"? chirped one of the uppity girls who ended up coming from old money.
I stared at the professor waiting for his response. He just stared right back at the class...through the class, actually. This wasn't the first time he was asked this question, but in his tenure he came to realize an answer was not necessarily needed. Knowing he did not have to dignify his position as teacher, he just remained silent and said "Answer the questions on the chalk board".
As I continued to watch his body language as he walked around the room leaving a parcel of loose leaf paper on each students' desk, I could feel the contempt in his energy. There he was a man of great understanding and teaching being asked, with such an entitled whine, why he was quizzing students who were supposedly enrolled to learn. He knew his university gets piles of applications all from the more privileged and wealthier classes of nations, and this year's freshmen were no different. The privilege could be smelled down the halls of this great institution, like marijuana coming from the bathroom of a community college cypher.
After receiving my single sheet of paper, I began the task at hand. Upon reading the words written on the chalk board, my mind spun to answer the questions: 1."What is the answer"? and 2."Why"?
I noticed the majority of my peers had begun to put the pen to the paper like pedal to the metal. I casually wrote down the first two answers that formulated in my head as I saw the sweat begin to drip from the students trying to fit their novels on the single sheet of paper.
Taking my sheet of parcel the professor squinted his eyes at me, as though he had never seen someone from my background in this very classroom. After reading my answers, a small head nod of approval followed. He then whispers to me "You are dismissed. But come to my office hours tomorrow as you need to fulfill the rest of this lesson".
Excited with the opportunity to leave class early, I remained puzzled as to what he meant by this purposed lesson. In having bigger ideas than the small town I was from, I was both excited and nervous about meeting one on one with someone whom I held in intellectual esteem. I skipped my normal morning coffee on the way to his office the next day as my nerves were already caffeinated and jittery.
Walking into that room, I was greeted by the professor who was holding all the remaining quiz exams in his hands. No greeting was exchanged, rather just the command "read these" after shoving the remaining exam papers into my hands. I began reading through the conceived answers my peers had jotted onto their parcels, and I couldn't help but let a few chuckles out.
After silently reading through the majority of the documents, I looked up to see the professor grinning at me; and more to my surprise was his attitude had shifted, towards the sense of he was now allowing me to feel as though I was his colleague and not merely a student.
"Pretty interesting answers we got here", he stated. "You were the only one who answered the way I was looking for", he added.
After reading through some of the self propelled, exaggerated theories ranging from enthusiastically proving flat earth, explaining how the dinosaurs went extinct, to the reasoning behind Anunnaki breeding, the professor looked at me and smiled when he noticed I was shaking my head in disbelief as well. Not at the lack of trying or failure to provide sources of their explanations, but at the sheer amount of effort to prove a question they truly did not understand.
"The first question that was asked, What is the answer?, did not have a correct answer; yet you were the closest to coming to the perfect response by reciprocating this rhetorical question with another: What is the question?", he finally said out loud.
At that moment I knew he was going to allow me into his own philosophic mindset. "So many times, the youth believe they know all. They think just because they thought of something, that no one else has ever thought that same thought. So, they think they must share it with the world; they believe their own understandings will change their peers' mindset, as their own has been transformed and that all must conform with their new ideology. They even feel so entitled to calling those who disagree "ignorant" or "close-minded", when in reality they are picking up and running with the theories of dead men that are centuries old, and do not understand the full context of the subject in which they feel entitled to teach. From one account they feel as though they are equal with the minds and think tanks of the great philosophers who dedicate their lives to such matters. As you can see they are too busy teaching that they have failed to learn."
Although realizing, I, myself had fallen into that category, I did not take offense to the wisdom of years of observation from which he spoke. From listening to the every day passing by conversations of the public to reading stories on social media, I also had come to the observation that most people were being mislead, or possible misleading themselves. This is the age of information yet some remain with the same education they were given through the lower levels of academia, or even worse some wish to remain ignorant to what is evolving around them.
"As for the question, Why?, another rhetorical question! One in which, was not accompanying the previous; actually, designed as a separate question perfectly disguised to further your peers into regurgitating all the so called knowledge they had soaked in while attending dinner reservations with their parents and their associates! If they had an ounce of understanding to go along with their pounds of self-righteousness, they would see their knowledge doesn't equate to wisdom in the slightest! Being able to explain in one sentence is brilliance compared to masking full comprehension with elongated vocabulary. Your simple answering of Why not? was enough to show me that you know much more than those who believe they know more. That you contain so much knowledge that in your wisdom you understand that you do not know everything. And by the looks of how far you have already come, I can tell you are destined for much higher learning than what you can be taught here." he finished as he motioned me towards the exit and padded me on the shoulder.
I never saw him again after that day. When I got to my dorm room I had received an email reading, "That concludes the lesson for the semester. That quiz yesterday actually counted for your midterm and final. Those who think they know all and do not even question their own understanding, have already failed. Those who question, and have a thirst for truth are in the midst of passing. Remember, you are always the teacher and student in the philosophic course of life."
This has been the parable of The Teacher & The Student by Paradigm Shift Edu
Paradigm Shift Edu is a philosophy. It is a manifested "love for wisdom", per definition of philosophy. Whether this parable is non-fiction or fiction, the morals contained are very true in regard to today's time.
"Think, Meditate, Know Thyself" - Paradigm Shift Edu
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