On Teaching: "Let It Be"

My title, a familiar slogan, might be a wonderful reminder to hang above my desk at school, for it embodies a high kind of educational wisdom. In my classes, I all too often do the opposite of “letting it be”. I’m usually pushing, shoving, bending, and twisting so that something else besides “it” will happen. I’m rarely content with simply allowing the present moment (the “it” in the above quote) to peacefully unfold in my classroom. I seem to believe I have to make the present moment better than it is, or lead it into a better future moment, or some such nonsense. This attitude, an almost unconscious one, is what leads me to often adopt an offensive/ defensive posture when I’m teaching. I’m either trying to push my own agenda for the students or resist theirs. In either case, I’m tense, single-minded, and closed to alternatives. Far from “letting it be”, I’m trying to make “it” be something way different than what it is. I don’t mean to imply that I shouldn’t have an agenda, a lesson plan, for my classes. Of course I should, but it needs to be created out of a strong sense of humility. When I’m setting my goals for each day’s classes, I need to step back and remember that these plans will only truly work if my personal ego removes itself from the picture and “lets the lesson plan be”. To me, “letting” means letting my ego go. It means realizing that teaching and learning are ultimately vast mysteries which unfold without the interference of a teacher’s totally insignificant ego. My forty-two students in all their mysteriousness come to me each day and are met by me and my mysteriousness, and by my lesson plan created in meekness instead of arrogance. What happens then is largely determined by my willingness to “let it be”.