Further Thoughts on Teaching...

Human knowledge had become unmanageably vast; every schience had begotten a dozen more, each subtler than the rest; the telescope revealed starts and systems beyond the mind of man to number or to name; geology spoke in terms of millions of years, where men before had thought in terms of thousands; physics found a universe in the atom, and biology found a microcosm in the cell; physiology dicovered inexhaustible mystery in every organ, and psychology in every dream; anthropology reconstructed the unsuspected antiquity of man, archeology unearthed buried cities and forgotten states, history proved history false, and painted a canvas which only a Spengler or an Eduard Meyer could vision as a whole; theology crumbled, and political theory cracked; invention complicated life and war, and economic creeds overturned governments and inflamed the world; philosophy itself, which had once summoned all sciences to its aid in making a coherent image of the world and an alluring picture of the good, found its task of coordination too stupendous for its courage, ran away from all these battlefronts of truth, and hid itself in recondite and narrow lanes, timidly secure from the issues and responsibilities of life. Human knowledge had become too great for the human mind.

All that remained was the scientific specialist, who knew "more and more about less and less," and the philosophical speculator, who knew less and less about more and more. The specialist put on blinders in order to shut out from his vision all the world but one little spot, to which he glued his nose. Perspective was lost. "Facts" replaced understanding; and knowledge, split into a thousand isolated fragments, no longer generated wisdom. Every science, and every branch of philosophy, developed a technical terminology intelligible only to its exclusive devotees; as men learned more about the world, they found themselves ever less capable of expressing to their educated fellow-men what it was thtat they had learned. The gap between life and knowledge grew wider and wider; those who governed could not understand those who thought, and those who wanted to know could not understand those who knew. In the midst of unprecedented learning popular ignorance flourished, and chose its exemplars to rule the great cities of the world; in the midst of sciences endowed and enthroned as never before, new religions were born every day, and old superstitions recaptured the ground they had lost. The common man found himself forced to choose between a scientific priesthood mumbling unintelligible pessimism, and a theological priesthood mumbling incredible hopes.

In this situation the function of the professional teacher was clear. It should have been to mediate between the specialist and the nation; to learn the specialist's language, as the specialist had learned nature's, in order to break down the barriers between knowledge and need, an find for new truths old terms that all literate people might understand. For if knowledge became too great for communication, it would degenerate into scholasticism, and the weak acceptance of authority; mankind would slip into a new of faith, worshipping at a respectful distance its new priests; and civilization, which had hoped to raise itself upon education disseminated far and wide, would be left precariously based upon a technical erudition that had become the monopoly of an esoteric class monastically isolated from the world by the high birth rate of terminology.

-The Story of Philosophy
Will Durant

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Once again I must unfortunately take what is grand and lofty and make it pedestrian though my experience with the martial arts. Mea Culpa. Many of my teachers had performed acts bordering on magic. From taking my balance without physically touching me to holding two grown men back while standing on one foot, I have for years marveled at one impossible ability after another. Some may say these acts are fake but I personally know them to be true. I've felt them and believed despite all my inclination and desire not to believe.

While I have never achieved anything bordering on magic, I've always felt that my gift as a martial arts teacher was to make that which was esoteric and unclear, transparent for the average person. Slowly this became my raison d'etre for most of my learning in any subject. Professionally, my rold was often translating between the academics and trigger pullers and vice versa.

I don't believe anything is so complex that I can't at least understand its basic principles. The technical specifics might be beyond me but the principles, if they are indeed principles, should not be. I am no nephrologist but I understand broadly the way my kidneys work and what my treatment is supposed to accomplish. Because of that, I have caught my nurses and doctors in countless mistakes that would have adversely affected my health. All because I had one doctor who had the ability and inclination to take the time to explain it to me. I think the professional teacher's role has something to do with this.