Jewish, Special Education

10 Essential Lessons for Teachers and Educators

Today marks the 112th birthday of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of righteous memory (1902-1994).  Every year this day is celebrated as Education and Sharing Day U.S.A.

What is it?

[caption id="attachment_6862" align="alignright" width="210"] The Rebbe gives a coin to a young child to give to charity. Photos Courtesy of Lubavitch Archives[/caption] Established in 1978 by a joint Congressional resolution, Education Day U.S.A. focuses on the very foundation of meaningful education: instructing our youth in the ways of morality and ethics. Education Day U.S.A. was instituted in honor of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of blessed memory. It has been held every year on the Rebbe’s birthday. The Rebbe dedicated his life to teaching and encouraging others to be teachers and mentors. See proclamations from six U.S. Presidents.

The Importance of Education

In honor of this special day we bring you essential lessons for teachers and educators based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

1. Education is the Cornerstone of Humanity

Education, in general, should not be limited to the acquisition of knowledge and preparation for a career, or, in common parlance, "to make a better living." And we must think in terms of a '"better living" not only for the individual, but also for the society as a whole. The educational system must, therefore, pay more attention, indeed the main attention, to the building of character, with emphasis on moral and ethical values.

2. Learn to Teach and Teach to Learn

Learning means to teach; teaching means to learn.Immediately upon learning, you must teach. As you teach, you must learn.

3. The Mentor

Just as some people refuse to see their faults, so there are those who insist on digging too deep, persecuting themselves over every fault and making unreasonable demands upon their lives. Eventually they collapse from exhaustion, or worse, kick back with resentment. This is why no person should go it alone. Everyone needs a mentor, someone who can look objectively and say, “This is where you are right now. This is what you can expect from yourself right now.”

4. Leading Forward

You do not need to attain perfection in order to lead. You need only to discover which way is forward and begin moving in that direction.

5. Already Heard

Along the journey to wisdom, you will pass a muddy river. It may appear a river of wisdom, but don't steer your boat towards it. Oh so many have turned to it and lost their way. In fact, it is a river of exile. It is the river of "I have heard that already." To the wise, wisdom never ceases to sing.

6. Who This Really Is

What you see of a person, you may not like. Yet who this person really is, you can never know. As for the G‑dly soul inside—it is the unknowable itself. Speak to that: Look past the outer shell and talk to the unknowable inside. Only from there can come real change.

7. Present in Absence

The true teacher is most present in his absence. It is then that all he has taught takes root, grows and blossoms. The student despairs for his teacher’s guidance, and in that yearning, the teacher’s work bears fruit.

8. There With Your Student

If you truly want to teach, put yourself in your student’s space. If your student has wandered far astray, tear yourself away from your own space, feel what it is like to be distant. If your student is in pain, let that pain become your pain. There must be nothing that lies between the student’s space and your own. Teach in this way and you can bring even the most distant student to your own level of understanding. And yet higher: You will learn from this student that which you could never have learned from your own teachers and colleagues.

9. Learning The Child

There are no one-way streets in our world. There is no way to give without getting; there is no one who gets but cannot give. So it is with the child. Just as the adult gives the child the knowledge and wisdom of life, so the child can give the adult the keys of how to live it.

10.Childish Teaching

A child cannot learn something without running out and screaming it to others. And so it should be with all those who have knowledge. These lessons are based on letters and talks of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; words and condensation (besides for #1) by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman