End of semester reflections and a poem, "Stones"
I’d
often been asked odd questions before- one day a young Korean woman asked me
what size shoe I wore and because I didn’t feel like answering, I launched into
a talk on taboo questions in America. Another
day, a young Asian woman asked me, “Why do you teach? It must be so boring- all those mistakes,
those corrections.” My answer was that I
liked to learn.
I’ve
been re-reading “Disgrace” and Coetzee’s main character reflects on that idea. “The
irony does not escape him: that the one who comes to teach learns the keenest
of lessons, while those who come to learn learn nothing.” I suspect my idea is
not so much learning humility but worldliness, meaning cultures of the world
and cultural norms outside of my own. That I have certainly found. On one job interview I responded to a
question saying I had probably taught students from most countries around the
world.
I found a poem I’d written ages ago,
perhaps when I was teaching at the University of Barcelona. So often in those days I resented a poem lost
as I stood in front of yet another classroom or a storyline I wanted to write
down with so little time to do so. These
days I am softer, more appreciative of this work I chose and I have learned
ever so much while enjoying myself. Perhaps the teaching is what I will remember
more.
Stones
Through the camel's eyelid,
one step off
the tree in bloom,
just out of reach
of day to day.
Freed from the cave,
I carry a sack of stones
to the classroom
to impart one by one
to the open mouths.
Outside, the softness
of the new
spring leaves
sustenance.
Very nice poem.
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