I have learned much during these last four years; I've learned to see the world through the eyes of others, I've learned to say "no" more frequently (but still not often enough), I've learned to be a bit more patient, and I've learned that I can't do everything myself. I'm still not a great delegater but I've learned to delegate a little more.
Perhaps the strongest things that I've learned is that I am "called" to teach, that I miss teaching, that my work life is diminished without student interaction, and that I see teaching as a vocation. Parker Palmer puts it so beautifully in The Courage to Teach
“If we want to grow as teachers -- we must do something alien to
academic culture: we must talk to each other about our inner lives --
risky stuff in a profession that fears the personal and seeks safety in
the technical, the distant, the abstract.”
― Parker J. Palmer, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
― Parker J. Palmer, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
That might sound kind of abstract but even in teaching something as practical as database design I have learned that unless I am completely present the class doesn't "work" - I need to get into what
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls a state of flow, that feeling of total absorption. And in doing so I think/hope that I share something of myself, of my love for my material.
Somehow that doesn't happen when I'm in a meeting.
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