I learn from my students every day. This is a popular refrain, so let me narrow it a bit: I learn about my students every day, and in that learning, I am discovering how to teach, how to be human together. I am learning that trust is the true key to “development.” And I’m learning that development is not the right word. Discovery. Expression. Freedom.
I am starting to explore and try to make space for freedom. I’m learning that, like trust, we have to build freedom together. When a student sets their own parameters, becomes their own judge, there’s freedom. When a student reflects on their place and the world, there’s freedom.
I am learning from one of my students about the awareness of choice, about the rules that bear down, too. That negotiating that minefield is terribly hard and we need to open free space to create as an alternative. We need an escape that can change the landscape. I am learning from my student and working together, she is learning from me who a “teacher” can be: That we can be teachers for one another.