Relationships: students, tutors, and teachers

Yesterday in my car, as I often do, I began some heavy thinking. The forty-five minute drive that I make calls for some good music and lots of heavy concepts. 

I was in somewhat of an introspective mood when the following analogy came to me:

• A student can’t teach because they are occupied with learning.
• A tutor can assist because they have grasped the concepts, but they aren’t solely responsible for disseminating new information.
• A teacher is responsible for seeding and planting new information into students and tutors. They are given this responsibility because they have the curriculum.

Now it can be translated and inserted into several scenarios, but I was thinking about relationships. Two people who are learning the same lesson can neither teach nor tutor each other. They are two blind people walking closely together for protection and safety. Some of us have learned from certain lessons, and now they don’t repeat in our lives. From this standpoint, you might be able to tutor someone in a lesson you’ve already learned. You do this with caution and understanding if you are humble enough to remember how it felt to grow through that lesson. The teacher, is the only one who knows exactly how, what, and when. The teacher in a relationship is GOD. If you attempt to teach what you don’t know, you are just talking a lot of crap. People have learned, through creative writing and flowery analogies, to dress up crap. I don’t care how bad you want to be the expert in your personal relationship, God knows more than you. Now yes, I am studying marriage. Yes, as an occupation I will help fortify marriages and couples. Yes, I read books, but GOD is the ultimate teacher. He gives increase to what we plant. 

So don’t confuse tutoring with teaching. That Holy Spirit nudging in your spirit is the guide that is warranted. No, you don’t always get your way, what teacher does that? Not one. Teachers have autonomy in their classrooms, they control the ebb and flow. 

Puts a different spin on learning, doesn’t it?