Teaching - A Put Down or a Lift Up
Question 3 :
You often tell us that we should not judge ourselves or other people.
I am a teacher, and because of my job I have to judge the students.
Now I am worried about how I shall manage with my job. Can you give me some help?
My saying that you should not judge does not mean that you cannot say to a student, because you are a teacher, "The answer you have brought is not right." It is not judging the person,
It is judging the act. And I am not telling you not to judge the act - that is a totally different thing.
For example, somebody is a thief - you can judge that stealing is not good. But don't judge the person, because the person is a vast phenomenon, and the act is a small thing. The act is so small a piece - that small piece should not become a judgment about the whole person. A thief may have many beautiful values; he may be truthful, he may be sincere, he may be a very loving person.
But most often what happens is just the opposite: people start judging the person rather than the action. Actions have to be corrected - and particularly in a profession like teaching, you have to correct; you cannot allow students to go on doing wrong things. That will be very cruel, uncompassionate.
But don't correct them according to tradition, convention, according to so-called morality, according to your prejudices. Whenever you are correcting somebody, be very meditative, be very silent; look at the whole thing from all perspectives. Perhaps it is the right thing that they are doing, and your prevention will not be right at all.
So when I say, "Don't judge," I simply mean that no action gives you the right to condemn the person. If the action is not right, help the person find out why the action is not right, but there is no question of judgment. Don't take the person's dignity, don't humiliate him, don't make him feel guilty - that's what I mean when I say, "Don't judge." But as far as correcting is concerned: unprejudiced, silently, in your awareness, if you see that something is wrong and will destroy that person's intelligence, will take him on the wrong paths in his life, help him.
The job of the teacher is not just to teach futile things - geography, and history and all kinds of nonsense. His basic function is to bring the students to a better consciousness, to a higher consciousness. This should be your love and your compassion, and this should be the only value on which you judge any action as right or wrong. But never for a single moment let the person feel that he has been condemned. On the contrary, let him feel that he has been loved - it is out of love that you have tried to correct him.
A guy lying in a hospital bed, coming around from an anesthetic, wakes up to find the doctor sitting beside him. "I have got bad news and good news for you," says the doctor, "would you like the bad or good first?"
"Aaagh," groans the guy, "tell me the bad."
"Well," says the doctor. "We had to amputate both your legs above the knee."
"Aaagh," groans the guy, "that's really bad." After recovering from the shock, he asks the doctor for the good news.
"Well," said the doctor, "the man in the next bed would like to buy your slippers!"
Just don't be serious!
Don't think that you are a teacher so you are in a very serious job. Look at life with more playful eyes - it is really hilarious! There is nothing to judge - everybody is doing his best. If you feel disturbed by somebody, it is your problem, not his.
First correct yourself.
-Osho, "The Invitation,, #25, Q3"