GratitudeLog

Chris Osborn
"'There Is No Such Thing As Teaching'… I ran across the title quotation in a story told by Monty Roberts, the famous "horse whisperer," in which he recounts something he learned from his best teacher that he later applied to his work with horses. It's a rather shocking assertion to say that there is 'no such thing as teaching'… especially to those of us who have given our lives to the profession. Here is the full quotation in context…Quote from the S&A Digest

Sister Agnes Patricia was the most influential teacher I ever knew. What I will always remember about her is her statement that there is no such thing as teaching — only learning. She believed that no teacher could ever teach anyone anything. Her task as a teacher was to create an environment in which the student can learn. Knowledge, she told us, standing very straight in her long black habit, her face framed by her white wimple, pointed at the top like the spire of a cathedral, needs to be pulled into the brain by the student, not pushed into it by the teacher. Knowledge is not to be forced on anyone. The brain has to be receptive, malleable, and most important, hungry for that knowledge.