On Teaching: FREE IDEAS

Recently, a student asked me, concerning a classroom activity I had planned, if it was my “own” idea, or had I “found” it somewhere else. I’ve been thinking about her question, and my conclusion is that no, I did not own that idea, and that in fact I don’t own any ideas. I “find” them all. I don’t individually “make” any of the ideas that activate my life, but simply make use of them. It’s almost as if ideas are floating freely in the universe and I gently pull them into my life as they are passing by. Indeed, good thoughts are floating around everywhere, ready for me to utilize. I often find them in things I read, but they also exist in other people’s words, in movies, in television shows, in music, in signs along the road -- in fact, everywhere. The universe is filled with ideas; all I do is come along and borrow them for a while. It’s wonderful to contemplate a world like this – where no one owns ideas because they are all freely shared by everyone. Today in class, I will send out literally hundreds (thousands?) of ideas to my students, and they will do the same to me. We will spend 45 minutes in each class exchanging ideas. At the end of class, we will be entirely different people because we will be temporarily making use of brand new thoughts. Even more wonderful is that fact that we can then share these new thoughts with others, and still make use of them ourselves. It’s as if the world were filled with trillions of dollars and all of it was shared by everyone. Quite a marvelous world to live in – and we do.