We often limit learning to a classroom, school or educational institution. But what if every moment of every single day is an opportunity to teach and learn? What if life is really one ginormous classroom?
Parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, sisters, brothers, children etc. often claim their role in life by their title. But what if their title was not descriptive of their true role and, what if our true role far exceeds any possible title?
Every person has two key roles in life, no matter what our title is.
We all have exactly the same two roles including a ‘forever student of life’ and a ‘forever teacher of life’. Life is simply one big classroom, full of opportunities to evolve, learn, develop and teach new skills at any and every given moment.
Everybody has a wide array of developed skills and aspects of life they feel equipped to respond to, yet every person also has their own underdeveloped skills and areas of life yet to be self-mastered. Where we may differ is that our range of skills and the areas of life we have mastered (ie. where we are the teacher) or have yet to self-master (ie. where we are the student) vary.
The roles of teacher and student must never be defined by age, gender, role, qualifications or any title we may or may not have in life.
A true teacher is simply someone who is slightly more developed in one area of life which the willing student is choosing to bring their attention to.
Discerning who is the teacher of life and who is the student of life in any given moment is a constant and much needed development.
Claiming the role of a Student of Life
The ability to develop skills to respond to life first requires a willing student. When any one person claims they are a forever student of life they will embrace that they are already perfect just for being them; however, they will equally claim there is still much that can be mastered in how they respond to life and what it presents.
When a student is claimed, the lessons will appear and thus the opportunity for independence and self-responsibility will be a forever unfolding process.
A true student never holds themselves less than another person and knows we are all equal, no matter what skills we have or have not yet developed.
Claiming the role of a Teacher of Life
In claiming the role of a teacher, a person must equally acknowledge and appreciate the aspects of life they have already self-mastered or are actively developing to self-master. This is never done in a comparison or judgment of making oneself better than another, rather a knowing that we are all equal and have different strengths and weaknesses as well as developed and under-developed skills. Thus, a true teacher holds the student as an absolute equal at all times.
The teacher’s role is to facilitate development and evolution for the student, but never to relieve a person by either doing for them or taking away their life lessons.
Thus, the role of any teacher is to make their role redundant as the student becomes self-empowered to learn and commit to all aspects of life in full.
This cycle knows the student will also soon be the teacher to a newly presenting student. This cycle knows that we are all equal in that we are all forever students and forever teachers of this place we live — the classroom of life.
This article was originally published in the March 2017 Edition of Haven Magazine.
