As soon as I entered the classroom on my very first day of graduate school, the professor pointed out two columns on the blackboard, one labeled Student, the other Teacher. He then asked me to write a word under each heading that represented my description-slash-definition of it. Walking toward a vacant desk, I took a quick glance at the smattering of words already written by my fellow students. Surprisingly, many, if not most, of them had distinctly negative connotations. For example, under Student, someone had written a number. (Well, it was the Seventies, although I’m not sure if the Bob Seger song, Feel Like a Number, had actually come out yet.)
As I stuffed my backpack & motorcycle helmet under my seat (hey, I said it was the Seventies!), I quickly scanned my own psyche for any hints of unhappiness, frustration or resentment at being back in college. I could find none. After a year spent working at a local government agency, heading to graduate school was my way of saying “no thank you” to a lifelong career as a bureaucrat.
In fact, not only did I have no axe to grind, my decision to pursue an advanced degree actually signaled something of a sea change in my relationship to formal education for I had turned to it instinctively as a way – as the way – to find some much-needed direction in my life. You see, I had always been brought up to value education. In a family where reading was a favorite pastime & even the books themselves were revered – saving your place by leaving one lying face down or by dog-earring a page always earned you a rebuke – knowledge & the pursuit of it were unvaryingly encouraged, supported & rewarded. But now, being at loose ends for the first time in my admittedly-young life, I had discovered that I had faith in education, too; faith that it would provide me with a clear way forward into what I perceived as my murky future.
So what did I end up writing on the blackboard that day? Under Student I wrote seeker & under Teacher I wrote guide. A year or two earlier, anxious to get my B.A. degree so I could “get on” with my life, who knows what words I may have written. But on that day & on every day since, those are the very words that best describe to me what it means to be a student & a teacher.
For the fact is, of course, that we all are, to one extent or another, both students & teachers throughout our lives. The opportunity to learn, to be a seeker of knowledge & of skills, surrounds us as long as we breathe air. Likewise, we constantly have opportunities to guide & mentor others in ways both large & small. Whether in the context of my studio or of my blog, whether at a museum, in a garden or at the cinema, I have found that both learning & teaching, seeking & guiding, enrich my life immeasurably & ultimately, they give it meaning in ways that nothing else can.