Engaging Together in Discovery: A More Beautiful Story for Our Culture
What becomes possible if we meet each experience, each interaction, as both teacher and student, no matter our profession or situation in life? What becomes possible if we choose to connect and bring awareness to emotions, sensations and energy, not just the thinking self?
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I recently started another semester of teaching technical writing to university juniors and seniors, STEM students who are not typically fond of w-riting. They are required to take the writing class: some take it like bad tasting medicine, necessary for a better future but unpleasant in the moment; some take it with pleasure, having enjoyed English classes in the past and happy to have variety from their major coursework; some resent the hell out of it and are angry to waste their time and money. Sounds like life, yeah? Sounds like any group of people that you might stand in line with at a grocery store. In the classroom, all attitudes about writing are allowed. It’s normal for beliefs and attitudes to change throughout a lifetime, if not within the hour. I have felt all of these attitudes about learning, about writing and about other subjects. It’s normal for humans.
I love first times, and I know I’m not alone in this (que “Whole New World” from Aladdin). The first day of the semester is one of my favorites, full of potential, discovery, mostly unencumbered by our beliefs and stories about each other.
I also love when I teach them concepts that I imagine they are meeting for the first time. I get uber excited when they “get it.” They recognize my enthusiasm and enjoy it. Their energy is receptive, hopeful, and their faces turn towards me as I move around the room. I feel inspired by them; they feel inspired by me; we all feel inspired by understanding what we haven’t understood before.
What I love even more than teaching them concepts is to engage together in discovery. When this happens, the room is electric. I am illuminating rather than teaching (teaching, as in conveying information to encourage understanding); they are being illuminated and illuminating — the metaphor is brilliant (har har har). When I let my light shine and they add their light, the world is a brighter place. This happens through asking questions that don’t have a “right” answer, like
v “What is it like to feel connected to a writer through a piece of writing?
v How does a writer encourage a reader to feel connected?”
The first question asks them to tune in and focus on their inner world, to experience what is inside them; emotions, sensations and beliefs give access to so much more than just thinking. They have a response, not just an answer. The second question asks them to dream, to discover possibilities they might not have conceived before. These possibilities are rooted in their physical, emotional and energy self, so if they don’t access those parts, the possibilities aren’t available. When they share their responses, I often hear things I’ve never heard before. “I feel like I’m in a web where I can access anything.” “When I connect to one person, I can connect to any person.” The illumination is not so much the words in response to the question, it’s the feeling in the room, the feeling of opening and receiving. It’s a kind of awe and appreciation for understanding what is so simple and clear, and yet so powerful.
This is the part I play in our current cultural (R)evolution — inside a big ten research university, I am asking STEM students to feel their body, feel their feelings, experience, recognize and honor their inner wisdom for what it is, and bring it to bear in their professional work.
They grow AND they stay connected to their own knowing, their own power, and their own value. This happens even when they don’t like writing or they tolerate a writing class like bitter medicine.
We are all students in the School of Life. We can each practice connecting to our body, emotions, and energy, and engage in discovery in our personal lives and in our professional work. Choosing to connect plugs us into a source of energy, of wisdom, of transformation. Connecting to ourselves — to our experience of emotions, sensations and energy — is the first small step in our cultural (r)evolution.
