How to treat your students

I finally finished the first battery of course work for my teaching certification for public schools. This week there was alot of inspired teacher talk. "You make the difference in a child's life!"


"A child will perform to your expectations if you believe in them" We were being taught by a master level teacher Mark Benthall whose passion for education flowed over the crowd.



I was talking with one of my spiritual guides a few years ago, Master Aaron. We got on the discussion of the Dali Lama. I am heavily influenced by Zen thinking but there are some things my intellectual mind doesn't buy. I asked "Master Aaron, do you really believe the the Dali Lama is the current incarnation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion? Really?"



Master Aaron responded "What if you were to take a child, and tell him that he is one of the most important holy men in the world? What if you you were to give that child the best education and surround him with other holy men of the highest caliber? What if you respected that child's words and honored him?"



What if you were to genuinely tell every child that they were here for something very important? What if we made them believe they were responsible for leading us and teaching us the most important lessons?

Thank you for the lessons Master Aaron and Master Teacher Benthall for reminding me how I should not only treat children, my aikido students...but really how I should treat all people. They are all special.