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Learning for a Lifetime

   "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -Chinese Proverb.
   The funny thing about my experience with proverbs is how I always struggled to fully agree to the majority of them. Even ones I should have no qualms against as a teacher, such as the above mentioned one, have always seemed to rub me the wrong way. I would venture to say that this has more to do with the fact that I believe that proverbs cannot apply to every situation as each situation encountered are unique and must be treated as such.
   With the above mentioned quote, my qualm has always derived from the fact that simply giving something to another indicates that charity or welfare is less valuable than letting people fend for themselves. While I would still disagree with that notion, Black Ants and Buddhists helped me to see that my thought process on this proverb is slightly misguided. I have now realized that I have largely neglected the meaning of the word "teach."
   Black Ants and Buddhists includes a story in which a community worker is faced with the problem of immigrant workers being mistreated at work and ask for her help. While the community worker initially believed that they would be speaking on the migrants' behalf, they instead requested that they be taught English so they may stand up for themselves. Upon reading that sentence, I realized that my approach to the old Chinese Proverb is misguided. I realize that both scenarios presented in the proverb require selfless charity, yet for reasons I cannot explain, I thought of the fish as the more significant gift. Perhaps because it is tangible, or perhaps because it is immediate, I valued the wrong gift. I should not think of the fish as the more important gift. Instead, I should value the education more. Changing perspectives is one of the many keys to being a great social studies teacher. If one is able to change another's worldview so they may envision a brighter future, then that teacher has not just fed their student knowledge they can reflect on for a day, but rather a lesson they will remember for a lifetime.

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