Make Your Students Happy

Make Your Students Happy

In my last years as a Professor, education had changed. Between the economy and student lawsuits, the new goal of education became to keep your students happy. Happy students stay in school, boosting stats, and happy students pay tuition, boosting profits. Keeping your students happy means positive reinforcement, motivational speeches, complements, breaking down challenges into manageable “chunks” …sort of like cutting up someone’s meal for them, or perhaps even chewing for them so all they have to do is swallow. Not sure if that is truly what education and learning is all about. Typically people do not learn without effort. Look at nature; you will see the same thing is true. Learning, both kinesthetic as well as cognitive and neural, requires effort and practice over time.  No shortcuts.

In the New Age Industry, anyone can declare themselves “teacher”  and many do so after a weekend workshop or seminar or after a few meditation classes and many people these days want a “career” in some ego gratifying new age type work and have absolutely no interest in Service. People will not admit to this however if you look at people’s choices, actions and behaviors, you will see the truth in their practice versus their wishful thinking or dishonest (even to themselves) thinking. Folks wanting a career, or wanting to feel or be acknowledged for being successful or “amazing” will keep their “people” happy. This will ensure both income and ego gratification. A kind of narcissistic self-stroking club if you will. There is nothing wrong with complements, motivation, breaking things down into “chunks” however if that is all you do,  like everything in this life, if it gets out of balance and what may start off as a good idea can become very dysfunctional if not even down right malevolent.

The truth is, people will learn, with or without a Teacher. How?  Life will upset them, challenge them, and flatten them. People definitely learn under pressure. Choosing to learn via choice is a much rarer trait. Under pressure people learn that they run away, or they stand and face challenges. They learn they are not a good friend, or are selfish, or they learn they are the best friend (or parent) one could ever want. Everyone is on a Spiritual Path, everyone is learning, whether they know it or not. Everyone has Teacher, and that Teacher’s name is Life. So why study with a Spiritual Teacher?  Why take swimming lessons? Why not just throw yourself (or your friend or your child) into the water?  Working with a Spiritual Teacher allows you to learn more quickly, to have choices as to whether to take the harder path or the less challenging (but still challenging) trail. Like getting a swimming teacher, you will still have to jump in, be scared, fail at times, make the effort, and practice. But now you have someone you are willing to listen to and trust, someone who has been through it, who has some mastery, encouraging you through the upsets and challenges, but not taking them away. Now you have someone who can help you prepare before you jump in, someone who can tell you don’t go in the deep end first, wade into the shallow end and lay in it to get used to the water and being horizontal, etc.  Your Teacher can help you self-assess when you are indeed being an ass, versus when you are being hard on yourself so you can eventually internalize this kind of mindfulness and learn to be more honest with yourself, less self-critical, and ultimately master making better choices in Life.

Your Teacher, a true Teacher, loves your Soul and will not encourage or cultivate your lower self-nonsense, your defensive personality quirks, or ego desires that are slowing you down or causing problems. So you can count on a True Teacher upsetting you.  If not your Teacher, life will, and those lessons, those pressures will come from circumstances, not from an energy in a human body with whom you can connect, talk to, ask questions, even confront or challenge if needed.  When life is your Teacher, it is you on your own, with Spirit, and usually when life is teaching you, it is harder (sometimes impossible) to connect, or feel the connection to Spirit. Those upsets are much more difficult than getting upset with a Teacher in a human body.  

If you decide to study with a Teacher, prepare to be upset, along with feeling supported, complemented, motivated, etc.   If your Teacher upsets you, know there is no agenda there but your growth, because if the Teacher wanted more money or adoration s/he would not risk upsetting you. So it must come from Love, love for your Soul Evolution not the cultivation of personality worship. If your Teacher upsets you, it is because your Teacher sees more in you than you are currently seeing or manifesting, sees that you can be stronger, or that it is time for you to take another step forward. If your Teacher upsets you, you have someone to talk to, to go to, even argue with, and a lesson you can embrace and step into because it is being offered as a choice. When Life is your Teacher, your choice is often sink or swim and typically because you have been resistant, or stubborn, or too filled with fear (and a million other factors) the lesson comes in hard with only two ways out, sink or swim. Embrace the “upsets” offered by your Teacher. Unless you are living in a cult, you always have choices, embrace or ignore, use the tools offered or do it cold turkey, start now or start a bit later, become conscious and self-aware or go back into denial or protecting your ego. When your Teacher upsets you, you learn as you go, in increments. When Life is your Teacher, you will have to survive then learn in hindsight. Big Life Lessons come via cancer, addictions, your children acting out, divorce, getting fired, etc.  Big Life Lessons with your Teacher often come with upset.  Which would you rather negotiate, uncomfortable feelings, or difficult life circumstances?  When given a choice, I will always choose the first over the latter.

Journey On