On Teaching: BREEZES IN THE CLASSROOM

Every so often, one of my students suddenly “gets it”: an understanding comes to them so that they “see” what I’ve been trying to teach. The analogy most often used to explain this phenomenon is the light bulb. I might say a light bulb switched on in the student’s mind, as though someone inside her head turned a switch and understanding was suddenly there. One moment the student is in mental darkness, groping among my words to try to find the way, and the next moment the lamp of his brain is glowing with a clear light that says, “I got it!” Another analogy, and one Jesus used, is with the wind. When a breeze passed by, he asked his friends if they knew “where it came from”. They were naturally puzzled because, of course, it’s impossible to tell exactly where any breeze began. Jesus went on to explain that thoughts are exactly the same: they suddenly spring up in our lives, but there’s no telling where they originated. Like the breeze, they are just suddenly and mysteriously “there”. Today, I want to be aware of this wonderful phenomenon in my classroom. All day there will be breezes of thoughts passing through the lives of my students and me, and all we have to do is relax and enjoy them. They don’t “start” in our brains, just as a wind that ruffles the leaves of a tree doesn’t start in that tree. The wind is part of the immeasurable forces of the weather that surround the earth, and our thoughts are part of the equally immeasurable Mind (sometimes referred to as God) that’s been gently blowing through the universe for all eternity, and that will be refreshing Room 2 at Pine Point School today from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm.