A student for a time, one can move toward becoming a learner for life. We are students by necessity. We are learners by choice. Each may be seen as one, but as a teacher, I know the two to be different.
On a recent article, I focused on the “Four Essentials for a Student Determined to Finish”. Students, clarified as those who study in trade for a diploma, certification, or degree, inevitably anticipate a finish for a given purpose. What of the rest of life once that diploma, certificate, or degree is attained? Once done being a student, do we permit ourselves to stop learning? Worse, how many of us stopped learning so long ago, even as students? In class, I see two attend each day, the student and the learner. Which one are you?
Think. Finally, we arrive to have achieved our goal. No longer do we have to be the student. We practice our attained trade or profession pursuant to our assigned task at hand. No longer a student? Perhaps not by title, but have we progressed in development and change?
We talk. We walk. We do. We repeat. How many of us, to pause and think, aside from each of us getting older each day, are any more different of who we were as students to who we are today? When given each day as a “present”, how many of us dare to admit we look at any given day as just the same as the day before? When was the last time you’ve asked yourself the very question, “How are you any different today from yesterday?”
Okay. So you’ve arrived at your spot to have some entitlement of what you get to momentarily do or be for the rest of your life. In and out of our offices, classrooms, homes, buildings, and whatever you change into and change out of. In truth, though, and to reflect, how is that any different from the rudimentary schedule of a student?
How are you any different today from yesterday?
Can one change without learning? Perhaps. I suppose one can go through metamorphosis. That, however, is cyclical in itself, is it not? Know your path and the stages to follow is predictable to one’s certainty. Kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and you know the rest until cap and gown time.
Are we not the greatest living species to exist? Are we not to keep changing for the better? How shall we evolve to a better self? Are we thinking metaphysically or if, as a learner rather than a student, do we not hunger to develop and change simply in heart, mind, body, and spirit?
I see students entering and leaving my room each day. They are young with still so much to learn in life. My heart is understanding and forgiving. And yet, my heart worries. I recall taking pictures with classmates back at their age who are no longer with us today. I run into classmates from the past who have yet to know what they were meant to become. Or sadly, those who were meant to become something more settled for something so much less. Still, there are those who I came across perhaps for the very last time, leaving my heart not wanting to be convinced that because of the cycle they were in, the coming end to such life would be end itself. And yet, in the end, who will be of greatest wisdom, of greatest character, of greatest impact for oneself and this world? As a teacher, I can only use the power of control given to me- to equitably teach both the student and the learner with effort to convince one to choose the other.
Could we teach all students to be learners? If students are taught to just go to school to work toward that day they graduate, does the path have any substance along the way? Should we wonder why some students are numb from learning? Would you care to pick up anything if you knew whether you did or didn’t, you’d still get to your final destiny?
How does one separate oneself from being a student and rather, instead, be a learner? If taught the actual value and importance of learning, would one just wake up to the world to take up space, in and out of one room, one building after another? What if we were to actually tell each child today, “There is an individual plan for you to do something magnificent in this world, but you must do everything you can to gather as much as you are able to learn what that will be”? Can we thus teach the hunger for more to learn other than the mere premises of the need to be a student? Teach hunger, will we not forage for sustenance?
There are endless lessons to delve into about the world. There are endless things to discover about oneself within this world. If there are endless mysteries to discover in and out of this world, aren’t there most certainly endless mysteries to discover in and out of you? Are there not endless opportunities to seek understanding of how you, a one and only unique given masterpiece in the making was meant to contribute by first learning to master your own given talents? A student you were. But, have you started learning anything beyond duty to promote change in you to promote the change that should be happening around you?
A student seeks for those moments to shine. A learner seeks for light to shine upon thee any moment they can.
If you are not the light are you running toward it still? A student versus a learner.
Looking back, arriving to gain the position as a teacher was quite a long route for me. An immigrant kid moving from one school after another; one who ran into issues from reading to social interactions and classroom discipline; impoverished to a point of silent secrecy wondering if anyone else washed their clothes by hand, hung them above the heater in the winters with hope to not have to wear wet clothes during first period as pants and shirts dried from your body; those thinking in high school your finances were of no worry without seeing your truth of two jobs after school to pay for those competitions, school functions and demands, and whatever else were your push and pull factors from learning; pushing to believe that you can and you will finish regardless how many stumbles you run into or how much longer it takes just to fall forward.
For quite some time, falling forward one day at a time got me to where I stand today. I was a student by duty, being convinced that going beyond a high school diploma granted me escape from a cyclical environment.
When I became a teacher, no doubt I thought quite highly of my stature. In fact, whether culturally passed down or just not having comfort, I did not think to stand outside my classroom door as neither a necessity or part of what teachers should do. I simply waited for students at the front of my class as they quietly walked in, the same way I remembered my teachers to do (if they weren’t pacing back and forth already in their room).
My certification to teach did not incorporate the task to stand out my door to be a greeter. After all, I’m a “teacher”, therefore, I “teach”. I hadn’t thought that teachers were to do anything more than be the role of one in a classroom. My benign beliefs made me think making it as a teacher automatically left my student days behind. Greeting students somehow made me feel I was trying to go back to a student level. I was done being one. Unbeknownst to myself, I was still acting like a student, perhaps arrogant to think learning for me had just begun.
Others may have taken being a student for granted. I am guilty to say that up until high school, I did, too. You can be a student without the desire to learn. You have students, like me, who were taught to go to school, not get into trouble, do what they’re asked to do and repeat. Students like me typically do fine throughout the educational system and satisfactorily graduate. With no other absolute purpose, the end goal was to finish high school.
There are some of us, however, who gained hunger to learn along the way. Thus, the love for learning created an ongoing need to keep going. Funny how the change of your environment can influence how you see yourself and what more is out there for you.
I found myself surrounded by those who questioned, those who planned, those who saw beyond graduation within the classes I took part of in high school. And, all of a sudden, as others spoke of where they were going after graduation, I began to worry about what would become of me.
A student I had only known to be. I talked. I walked. I did. I repeated. Day in. Day out. And then, there were the learners. They were so much more. They didn’t do just to exist. They existed to do. They were putting life into living.
I started to see under the eyes of peers around me the value and purpose of learning. Destitute, both financially and mentally, I only knew the value of being a student. There I was, their finance president, judicial member, captain, and soon-to-be voted all-student body queen and commencement speaker, and yet, what would I become beyond that of a student just performing duty? I played the part, but the curtains were soon to come down. I have always hated the dark (and hate is a strong word for me).
If you were to see a fight between a student and a learner, you would see me fighting myself and I. As a student, I couldn’t see how to get further. As a learner, I wanted more.
I only had a few months of high school left. Thankfully, the decision to change is given from the power within. The value of learning beyond necessity- I had to observe, process, and absorb so I could go beyond a diploma. If I could teach myself how to eat properly with utensils by watching others through my peripherals while walking through dining halls, I could learn how to keep on the pursuit to go beyond being just a student soon to graduate.
I realized I just wanted to have access to knowledge like those around me for so long, but thought being a student would be enough to grant me access. I believe I made up my mind early on that to be a student required nothing more than the desire to sometimes get something out of a lesson just enough to achieve an end to it so you can progress or acquire something else.
A student learns ABCs today to understand words, to understand sentences, to understand paragraphs, to understand chapters, to understand novels, to understand series, to understand all that from the beginning tied me into becoming an author. And yet, all that time I was still… a student. Little did I realize that once having accomplished goals and aspirations, it was the value of learning that promoted me to becoming a learner, not just that good ol’ student.
A robot versus an AI.
I learned to just keep going as a student because I was afraid that stopping meant the end for what was to become of me. It wasn’t until I actually started teaching, however, when I returned back to having the hunger to keep learning.
Teaching at a public school for almost two decades has granted me servitude to create impact for all children passing my way. I teach in a district of rich diversity, and while race is still a factor with its own (dying) challenges, economical barriers is a widening gap with a must to break down for the generations to follow. Teaching children to be a learner and not just be a student will be key to taking away any obstacles trying to take a child down- mind, heart, body, and spirit.
My teacher’s certificate gave me the gateway to stand before a room with respected authority. I have been trained through hardship and sacrifice in life as a student and this, am given this position to serve my students not just math, but the value of “why”. As a learner, I am able to encourage my students to be the best they were made to be. The only way for that to happen is to not be the bystander of one’s life, but be the active influencer of the direction the path should go, one lesson learned at a time.
I learned that standing by my classroom door allows me not only to start our daily routine with a greeting, but I get to look into the eyes of each of my students before they walk in, the non-verbal communication which speaks volume of respect and honor for one another. This, by no means, is not a grade or a mark of any kind that need be met. That’s what a student would desire. As a learner, the lesson is so much deeper, one that understands real value.
To my students, I am their teacher. As their teacher, greeting each at the door is just part of my many roles. As a teacher, I’m no longer having to be that student going in to pay attention to the lesson to get the good grades. It’s no longer about good marks. I am now that learner who can ask myself daily, “How are you any different today from yesterday?”
How am I different today from yesterday? Yesterday came in a student through my door. Today, that student walked out closer to becoming a learner or a stronger and better one.
In the words of Peter Parker’s uncle, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
As a teacher, I have the superpower to change lives. However, I have to learn from my students each day to effectively use my superpower to its fullest.
As a teacher, I am more than just any X-Men, Avenger or a Justice League character. I am always able to grow, always able to change. Not only myself, but others.
That superpower? You have it, too.
