My Favorite Teachers

I've written blogs about some of my favorite teachers before. Also some of my least favorite.
But it's become relevant in the past couple weeks again. I'm supposed to be a Spiritual Leader and Teacher, but I'm realizing that there are FEW if any exmaples of what that's actually supposed to look like as an ideal to achieve. 

You see, in our wondrous society, a Good Teacher is:

-Someone who encourages their students to do and be more
-Someone who makes kids get Good Grades
-Someone who is out-of-the-box creative
-Someone who is DOING ALL OF THE ABOVE

Basically it's someone doing ALL of the work pushing kids to Be MORE. And all of that Sounds great, but in reality it TAKES AWAY from the kids themselves doing more. You try bringing that into reality and what ends up happening is SOME improvement for a FEW kids, but the rest just follow along and STILL fail to see themselves beyond the span of their own reflection.

Some of the best teachers you will ever meet are more like Jesus. Or Yoda. 

They have this tendency to sit their annoyingly as YOU try figuring everything out for yourself. And you can ask them a billion questions and they CAN answer every one, but as soon as they do you don't care as much about the answer. It's only when you realize things FOR YOURSELF that those inner epiphanies happen.

The best teachers are available to call on whenever you really need to, and they WILL give you answers more by SHOWING you rather than TELLING -at least by their own personal experiences. But ultimately they make you feel like you already HAVE all the answers. They allow YOU to see for yourself how much you ARE and can be. 


And when these teachers do make a point, it's always to bring things back to the bigger picture: What Does It All MEAN? Where IS the meaning? What can your SOUL take away from this?
The same goes for effective leaders. GREAT LEADERS are actually kind of boring. 

In our society a Great Leader is:

-Someone who'll wage war, take a stand, and blast out their message to the world
-Someone who'll take charge and assign duties to others
-Someone who'll lead alongside his troops

Basically it's a War General. But in reality the best leaders are those Behind the Group. They are the GLUE. They are the ones who listen while everyone else tries to figure things out and then speaks when ASKED to -giving the great solution the group couldn't figure out on its own. 

It's someone who'll allow each individual to take responsibility and glory for the duties they are best suited for and are meant to do. It's someone who'll step aside and let someone else take the reigns when needed. A great leader is the WATER that the boat floats on to reach the island. It's the uplifting hope and the guiding principles and occasional insights.

Aside from Jesus, I've never really heard of or seen someone lead and teach in these ways. But it is the most effective way. To put others before yourself when leading and teaching. To allow others to BUILD themselves instead of trying to control everything. Having FAITH in PEOPLE rather than trying to CREATE PEOPLE.