The Tao Of Teaching

Adapted by Euoi Lo Ryi

Edition  0.20

Great debt is owed to Lao-tzu (c. 600 B.C.E.)

Enter a novice, observe, learn, and go forth.
A richer life is yours

INDEX TO THE TAO

An introduction to the TAO; its relevance to the art of Teaching.

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BOOK TWO: THE ANCIENT MASTERS

Description of the Professor being One with the Tao.

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BOOK THREE: THE LECTURE

The lecture and the Professor.

Does a mother not feed her homeliest child?

Does a Professor not care for and tend the lecture?

The philosophical chasm between Teaching and Administrating.

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BOOK SIX: INSTITUTIONAL WISDOM

The  Administration and the Tao.

 Administration is transient as a cloud and is important as the rain.

Does a Master lie to students?

The perpetual conflict between truth and that which is not.

The Master summarizes the lesson and dismisses his student. 

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Book One

The Silent Void

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Thus spake the Master:

When you learn to snatch students from the jaws of ignorance and direct

their pathway toward the Light;  when you are One with the Tao,

it will be time for you to leave.

       1.1

Something mysterious is formed, born in the silent void.

Alone and unmoving, it is at once still and yet in constant motion.

It is the source of all wisdom.

   Its name is unknown so it is called the Tao of Teaching.

 If the Tao is great, the learning is great.

If the Professors are great, the University is great.

All are pleased. Harmony exists and ignorance diminishes.

The Tao flows out as a stream, diminishing ignorance

as the water diminishes the rocks,

yet it returns refreshed on the rays of dawn to restore the stream.

1.2

In the beginning the Tao was.

It is the Mother of Knowledge and Diligence.

Knowledge and Diligence are the left and right hand of Teaching.

A Professor without the Tao is as a blind, lone mason building a great hall

using but his left hand.

A Professor with the Tao exhibits Knowledge and Diligence in all his endeavors;

He is as a mason building with two skilled hands, knowing the plan and seeing the vision.

How could it be otherwise?

Book Two

The Ancient Master 

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Thus spake the Master:

After three terms without teaching, life becomes meaningless.

Professors of old were mysterious and profound.

Alert, as a fox crossing deep water.

Simple, as an uncarved block of wood.

Deep, as a black pool in dark caves.

Resourceful,  as a wren building an aerie on high.

Persistent, as an owl stalking the toad.

Inquiring, as a wife answering the door at 3 AM.

Watchful,  as a hawk on the wing.

Poor, as a mouse of the field.

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Can we know the secrets of their hearts and minds?

The answer is with the Tao.

2.2

          A novice Professor from a private College returning from

a conference asked his Dean:

"What sort are the Professors from public institutions?

They behaved rudely and were unconcerned with appearances.

They wore not tie nor vest.  Their hair was long and unkempt.

They ate uncommon amounts of fiery chilies, constantly

partook of strong spirits, crashed hospitality suites

and made rude noises during my presentation."

 The Dean replied:

"I am remiss for sending a novice to a conference.

The Professors you observed live beyond the natural world.

They come and go without accepting limitations.

They access the Internet; some have their own web site.

 Trustees, Alumni, Policy Manuals

and directives mean noting to them.

They live only for their discipline and their students.

Some are even biologists;

what could they know of social conventions?"

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But they are alive within the Tao. 

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2.3

      A novice asked the Master:

"There are Professors who never read the text nor give tests.

Yet all who know them consider them superior.

How can this be?"

The Master replied:

"There are Professors, though few, who have mastered the Tao.

They no longer heed the Dean's acerbic comments.

They transcend the need for Power Point or Windows NT.

Their lectures are perfect, elegant,

clear as rivulets from melting alpine ice.

They do not become angry when students miss their lectures.

They know elephants trample grass and they accept

the universe without concern.

Truly, they are One with the Tao."

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But they lose their cars in the parking lot. 

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Return to the INDEX 

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Book Three

The Lecture

Thus spake the Master:

A good lecture is its own heaven; a poor lecture - its own hell.

3.1

Good lectures are agile, soaring as a bird on the morning breeze;

The topics connected as pearls on a string.

There is neither too much nor too little; there is no plagiarism,

There is no drivel nor arcane example to simply confuse.

It is pure and natural as a virgin on her wedding night.

Nevertheless, some students nod off.

3.2

A novice asked the Master:

"I have a lecture that sometimes goes well and sometimes it fails.

I have searched for the balance.  Still I am baffled."

The Master replied:

"You are unsure because you do not understand the Tao.

Only a fool expects rational behavior from students.

Students are as hooligans about to be caned in the town square;

They know not of the beginning, the intensity, nor the end,

but are frenzied nonetheless."

Only the Tao is perfect.

3.3

A Master Professor successfully lectured without notes.

A novice Professor, envying the style, began to do likewise.

When the novice asked the Master to evaluate his progress,

the Master criticized him for lack of diligence, saying,

"What is appropriate for the Master is not appropriate for the novice.

You must be One with the Tao before transcending structure."

"But how will I know when I am One with the Tao?" asked the novice.

"Your lectures will be as magnificent as the first rays of a rising sun;

content and form flow as one.  It moves as effortless as the humming bird on the wing.

Its impact crushes ignorance as an earthquake topples stone walls.

You see it radiate back to you in your students' eyes.

They ache awaiting your next lecture.

Summons from the Dean will be few."

3.4

An Exalted Dean questioned a novice:

"Why do you use such lurid examples in your lecture?

It troubles the faint of heart; they snivel and whine at my door because of the

discomfort you cause.

It is unseemly; see that it stops."

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The novice considered a moment,

then addressed the Dean saying,

"My Exalted Dean,

Do timid tigers rule the forest?

Do warriors without passion lead the charge?

Do weaklings take the helm in a storm?

Do I lecture to offend not the mewling buffoons,

or do I lecture to challenge the best?"

The Dean shrugged but sent him back to his duties.

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A novice approached the Tao.

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An insipid feast results from the hostess hoarding the spice. 

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Return to the INDEX 

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 Book Four

Continuing Truths 

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Thus spake the Master:

Though a lecture be but a hundred words, some will be lost.

4.1

A swift stream erodes the hardest rock.

A faultless grant proposal will be rejected.

A perfect Lecture is misunderstood by some.

4.2

A Dean asked a Professor to up-date a course

 and queried the length of the process.

"I will finish in three weeks," he answered.

"You are unrealistic," said the Dean, "tell me, how long will it take?"

The Professor reconsidered saying:

"I do have some new ideas - It will take five weeks."

"Even that is too optimistic," insisted the Dean,

"I'll appoint a committee to assist you in your task."

Several years later, the Dean, on the way to his retirement feast

passed a room where the same committee was meeting.

The first two weeks of the course were outlined.

Does a farmer neglect his crop?

Does a mother deny her ugliest child food ?

Does a father not teach his male child to golf?

Does a committee ever end its own existence?

The Master was explaining the nature of the Tao to a novice:

"The Tao is embodied in all you do."

"Is the Tao in a casual chat with a student?" asked the novice.

"It is." the Master replied.

"Is the Tao in a conference in my office?"

"It is."

"Is the Tao in a recommendation I prepare for a student?"

"It is there."

"Is the Tao in a course I teach on-line?"

The Master dropped his head, sighed and said,

"The lesson is over." 

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Return to the INDEX 

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Book Five

Administration 

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Thus spake the Master:

Let the Professors be many --

the Deans few --

And harmony will exist.

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5.1

Deans hold endless meetings - Professors cannot teach.

Rumors of tuition increase - budgets are about to be cut.

The President says "one happy family" -  dark clouds roll.

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Truly, this is not the Tao of Teaching.

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When Deans make commitments, Professors teach.

When long-range plans are made, order exists.

When the President addresses problem, they are solved.

5.2

Why are Professors non-productive?

Because their time is wasted sitting at round tables.

Why are Professors rebellious?

Because paper interferes.

Why do Professors play tennis in place of lunch?

Because co-eds play on adjacent courts.

Why are the Professors resigning?

Because administrative minutia suffocates them.

5.3

A Dean was about to be dismissed, but a novice developed a

popular course; enrollment soared.

Media coverage followed and the President smiled.

The Dean was promoted.

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The Dean wished to reward the novice but he refused, saying,

"I created this course for students,

not to curry favor in the University."

The Dean, upon hearing this, thought to himself,

"This novice holds such a lowly position in the College

and has never sat upon the dais at graduation, yet knows well his duty.

I shall appoint him Academic Advisor to the football team."

But when told this, the novice declined once again, saying,

"I exist to teach. If I am assigned elsewhere, I would not teach.

If I do not teach, I generate things on paper - I waste others' time.

May I go"? 

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To be an Administrator and One with the Tao is to have gills but nest in trees.  

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5.4

"Student evaluations indicate my course is too easy;  others say its too difficult.

They bemoan my tests as obtuse, ambiguous or too rigorous.

They rate me in the top 10% and in the bottom 10%.

What am I to believe?"

Eagles do value the judgment of the sparrows?

Elephants do request passage from the grass?

Generals do lead to please their cadre?

Or do they

desire only the easy and the comforting?

for that expands their knowledge and leads them towards the Tao.

Let not the babble of the uniformed be your guiding light.

Book Six

Institutional Wisdom 

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Thus spake the Master:

One may show the President a perfect course, but you

can't make him understand its inception.

A novice asked the Master,

"There is a great tree structure called the 'Administration'.  It is a huge beast,

bloated out of shape with Provosts, Vice-presidents, Deans, Assistant Deans,

Associate Deans, Coordinators, Directors and an endless list of others.

It issues multitudes of memos, each saying 'Go, Hence!'

or 'Go, Hither!' and nobody knows what is meant.

Every year titles and names change, but to no avail.

Consultants consult and yet it remains the same.

How can such an entity exist?"

The Master replied,

"Ha!  My naive one.  You see this monstrosity and are offended

by its corpulence, by its lack of rational purpose, by the way it thrashes

about as a headless chicken refusing to die.

In its eternal agony it flounders and returns,

transformed but yet it is the same.

Can you not take some amusement from its endless gyration?

Does your spirit not dance as one part countermands the other?

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But reflect for a moment - do you not enjoy

teaching beneath its sheltering branches?

Do you not anticipate the gold dripping from the unseen above?

Does it not well fill the hours for

the multitude of assorted minions?

Otherwise, pray tell, how would this sort pass their time?

Is it truly useless?"

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While the cobra admires its shadow, the mice of the field gather grain.

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6.2

In the eastern sea there is a shark,  larger than all the others.

It changes into a bird whose wings become dark clouds that fill the sky.

It moves across the land, bringing messages from the Administration.

The messages are dropped into the midst of Professors,

like gulls staining the beach.

With great raucous cackles, it wheels into the wind and

with blue skies at its back, it returns to its dismal home.

The novice stares in awe at the bird, for he understands it not.

Yet he scrambled to gather its droppings.

The average Professor dreads the flight

for he fears its droppings.

The Master continues his work,

for though he knows of the bird's flight,

he cares not that it came -- or went.

Book Seven

Upper Echelons 

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Thus spake the Master:

The Lord knowing not the toil of his servant, is soon servant to their toil.

"My students cannot read.

They know not the basics;

they cannot manipulate numbers;

they cannot reason;

they have not a single independent thought.

Am I expected to instruct them in advanced skills?

Pray, how is this accomplished?"

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The High Dean, looking down from his desk inquired,

"Worthy Professor, educated as you are, please consider this:

Were you employed to instruct me on the condition of students?

Were you to enlighten me regarding their academic skills?

Or, perchance, is it your responsibility to instruct them

in the advanced skills?"

The novice, seeing before him the opening maw of a trap, replied,

"My esteemed Lord Dean, how foolish of me to come to you

with such trivia.

I go now to flagellate myself until I am at One with the Tao."

The Dean, upon hearing this, turned to his Mentor saying,

"My Lord, he's a callow novice.

I assure you his tenure shall be shorter than rice after harvest.

What is this prattle of the Tao?

Will it ever end?"

A day dawned when a new President reassigned the

High Dean to a position as lowly Professor.

The ex-dean, was now appalled by his students' untutored state

and could no longer contain his rage.

On venting his dismay to the new Dean he was immediately rebuked:

Worthy Professor, educated as you are, please consider this -

Were you employed to instruct me on the condition of students?

Were you to enlighten me regarding their academic skills?

Or, perchance, is it your responsibility to instruct them

in the advanced skills?"

The Professor to returned to his office to study the Tao.

Grading

 Thus spake the Master:

The birds of the shore fashion their nests not to conserve twigs

but to stand the storm.

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8.1

Said a High Provost to a novice,

"Many of your students complain of difficult tests,

low grades and plummeting GPAs.

I trust that in your wisdom you will remove this onus from me."

Alarmed by the harsh tenor, the novice approached a Master saying,

"The Provost is really pissed!

Students demand high grades regardless the quality of their work.

I do not find it in my heart to award grades unearned.

But if I do not stem the parade to his office I shall have

to find employment for my wife, lest my children starve

and we are moved to the street!"

The Master Professor smiled and replied,

"Is there an Administrator One with the Tao?

Do Administrators have a role other than to protect those above

from the whines and cries of students?

What other purpose do they serve?

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Do you lie to students in your lectures?

Why would you lie to them in their grades?

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You must decide what you covet -

the approval of the High Provost

or Oneness with the Tao."

The novice returned to his office enlightened. But

from the newspaper, he quietly clipped "Positions Open" ads for his wife.

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8.2

A VP for Academic Affairs held a seminar to which all

untenured faculty were obligated.

The VP avowed learning best occurs only if the student

has a positive self-image.

She demanded all incorporate exercises to enact her goal,

at the risk of eliminating valuable course content.

Much grumbling followed among the novices;

 but without the Tao nor tenure they had not a clue.

Later, the same VP was struck down by an odious disease.

Amidst her great pain and suffering the bleeding flesh, she summoned her

physicians begging each to direct her to the most

knowledgeable specialist east of the Golden Sea.

In her inquiries regarding the physicians' qualities,

she asked not once about their self-image.

When a bridge must be constructed, the happiness of the

engineer is not an issue. 

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Return to the INDEX 

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Book Nine

Jewels of Polished Jade 

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Thus spake the Master:

Without the wind, the grass does not move.

Without the Professor, the student does not learn.

9.1

On a campus path the novice and an Old Master met.

The Old Master noticed the novice's concern with a list on paper.

"Excuse me," said the Master, "may I examine it?"

The novice handed it to the Old Master.

"I see your concern; this drop list has many names,

yet, in due time, will another list not follow?"

"Yes, of course.

But pray, great Master,"  implored the novice,

"what is the solution to this problem?"

The Old Master mused for a moment , then said:

Do some eggs never hatch?

Do some boulders become sand?

Do some eaglets never soar?

He dropped the list to the ground and  destroyed it under his heel.

He turned and quietly walked away.

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Suddenly, the novice was enlightened.

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9.2

A novice came to a Master saying,

"I've accepted a position within the Administration  and yet my soul is

as a ship tossed by storms.  My soul aches and I am distant from the Tao."

The Master asked,

"Is it because you no longer teach?"

"I believe that to be true.

But the opportunities they offer, the elegant paraphernalia,

the genteel socials and the gold; these are too fine to reject."

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Replied the Master,

"Is it not strange, a

day ago, in a dark byway in the village,

a whore explained her situation with the same words."

"When dogs cavort with goats, do they become goats

or only acquire the fragrance?"

Rebuttoning his vest and adjusting his tie, he walked away.

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Many who seek jade find it not; many seeking the Tao are blind.

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9.3

A Professor from a community college approached his colleague from

the University saying:

"I am well off here. I have fax, voice mail and a PC.

I am not offered up upon the altar of 'publish or perish.'

I do not hustle grants.

I teach and see my students daily.

Why do you not quit the University and join me here?"

The University Professor smiled, saying:

"The University is as an ancient sage amid gifted disciples.

Campaigns are mounted against ignorance on many fronts;

Generals should be as fortunate as we.  This is why I am happy."

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The community college Professor fell silent.

But the two remained friends.

Presently, the Master addressed them both:

"The Tao lies beyond the material.   It is beyond the lecture,

the course, and it transcends the University and its Colleges.

The coming and going of Trustees or Presidents diminishes it not.

It is as mysterious as silent pools of water in deep caves.

It seeks not fame nor fortune, therefore few know of its presence.

It is complete within itself.

It is invisible to those void of it."

Enlightened, both Professors returned to their campuses.

Boulders become sand.

Sand becomes soil.

Fields are tilled, planted and harvested,

Seasons change, children grow and have children,

They have children and the elders pass on.

Acorns sprout, the oaks soar into the sky,

 but they too fall, and rot.

Sand washes into the sea.

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Only the Tao is eternal. 

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Thus spake the Master:

"Campus commons are better maintained than classrooms.

Presidents come and go.

Administrators believe themselves indispensable.

Policy is ephemeral.

Birds soaring high are not battered upon the cliffs.

The highest sounds are the hardest to hear.

The greatest talent shows itself later in life.

Only the grass is trampled when elephants make love or war.

Those without the Tao do not know.

The foolish Professor is told of the Tao and laughs.

The average Professor hears of the Tao and is amused.

The Master Professor knows of the Tao and seeks it.

He who is One with the Tao has yet to deliver his best lecture.

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Some cannot hear, some cannot see,

some cannot understand, and some cannot laugh.

Laughter is good.

If it were not for laughter, there would be no Tao.  

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These are eternal truths.

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It is time for you to leave." 

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TAO is pronounced 'dow'. 

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Revised  Aug. 2004 

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