When one teaches, two learn. (Heinlein)
In all my years of teaching, I learned so much more than I ever taught. There’s an old saying to the effect that we teach most what we need to learn, and I can attest to the truth of that. I can’t tell you how many times I found myself saying to a class or to an individual words that I needed to hear. Words that had to do with being gentle with oneself, caring for oneself, opening oneself . . . Even today, several years into retirement, I wonder if I’ve learned those lessons.
Every once in a great while, someone will come up to me whom I’ve taught, and thank me, or speak of something that had been important to them about what I had said, and it’s always a thrill to know that a connection had been made. I’m not sure they understand when I assure them I received more than I had ever given, but it’s true. I wish they all could be reading this so that they could hear me say, “Thank You.”