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Teaching
30 December 2013
In our remarkably warm winter spell, we've been sitting on the patio in the sun reading Oblivion, A Memoir by Hector Abad about his father, who was also named Hector, an epidemiologist and the founder of Colombia's National School of Public Health.
Golden Gate Park. Nikon D200 with 35mm f2.8 Nikkor at f4.0, 1/180 second and ISO 200, processed in Adobe Camera Raw 8.2 and Photoshop CC with Smart Sharpening.
Two-thirds through the son quotes from his father's second book, Letters From Asia:
What a great number of mistakes are committed by those of us who attempt to teach without having yet achieved the maturity of spirit and peace of mind experience and greater awareness bring towards the end of our lives. Mere knowledge is not wisdom. Nor is wisdom alone enough. To teach other men, one needs knowledge, wisdom and a good heart. We who became teachers without first being wise men should humbly ask our students for forgiveness for the harm we did them.
The elder Abad was a remarkable man, we might say to excuse ourselves from following his advice. But we find his combination of knowledge, wisdom and a good heart sum up the qualities we have admired in our favorite teachers.
So on the verge of a new year, we fold up Abad's words and tuck them into the pocket closest to our heart. They are the roots, trunk and branches of tree that grows here.