The cup of tea
Parables and Illustrations for Values Education |
On one occasion, a Japanese Sage received a visit from a college professor who wanted to find out what was that this simple man, no postgraduate or special titles, had so much fame.
The wise invited him to tea, served his guest Cup and, when it was filled, followed by casting with a serene and kindly expression. The Professor looked bewildered how is overflowing the you full Cup, and not an attitude more than wisdom, could be explained it showed a sovereign stupidity.
-Is already full! It does not fit him more! -shouted the teacher without being able to contain.
- As this Cup - said the unflappable wise - you are full of your culture, your opinions, your titles. It is thus impossible to teach you anything.
The beginning of true wisdom consists in recognizing our ignorance and have wanted to get out of it, desire to learn. Only the ignorant believe that they know a lot, as authentic wisdom always rests on foundations of humility. "I only know that I know nothing," Socrates, a man who while in jail awaiting his execution, heard that a colleague sang a poem that he had never heard repeated. Socrates asked enthusiastically that he would teach. What you want it learn if you're going to die?", asked the singer. «To die knowing one more thing», Socrates replied.
Freinet repeated us that by far one efforts, it is impossible to make drink to a horse that has no thirst. The real farmer, who knows his horse, will put you to work or out to walk and when you are thirsty, the own horse will look water. Similarly, the genuine teacher will propose students activities that develop their thirst for wisdom and then themselves seek fresh and clear water of the new learning.
In his posthumous work. The first man, the French writer Albert Camus, reminiscent of their teachers and compares them to the primers of geese who prepare their food and make them swallow by hook or by crook... To do this, in the case of the students, they are threats, tests, notes... Students do not have another remedy that recessed food that teachers, throw them even if they don't feel the less hungry for it. But Camus added that he had a special, different master, Mr. Germain, «who fed on them discover hunger».
Genuine master, more that teach and require the storage of packages of dead knowledge, is able to arouse in students hunger to learn, discover, living in permanent quest of knowledge. This is only possible, if the master himself is hungry for learning, acknowledged limited and ignorant, has not lost the ability to surprise.
Einstein told us already: 'who has lost the ability to surprise, is dead in life'.