Three Wondrous Questions
A man in distress ran toward them. The emperor responded to save him. The next morning the man told the emperor that he was coming to find him and kill him for killing his brother and seizing his property. But he was grateful that the emperor saved his life.
The emperor was overjoyed and made amends to the man. He then found the hermit in the garden and for the last time asked him to answer the three questions.
Which he did: The best time was for the emperor to save the man; the most important person was the man in distress; and the most important thing to do was to save the man.
Tolstoy invites us to stop and think about what is the “best time.” It is now. Yesterday has past, tomorrow may not come. We recognize that our students are “the most important people to work with.” We understand we are privileged to be with them.
We hear criticism and sometimes disrespect for being a teacher. We live in a culture where some people think they know more about what we do than we do. We need to remember that teaching is “the most important thing to do.”
There we are, every day, with our students, oftentimes more than they are with their parents. We should honor ourselves, stay in the game, and when in doubt remember Tolstoy’s answers to the three wondrous questions.
I think about these questions often. How easy it is to forget that what’s in front of us is the most important. I often rehash the past or try to anticipate the future. Not bad thoughts, but when you get down to it, its what’s in front of us that should be our focus.
In the classroom, teachers invoke Hanh’s wisdom every day. It’s nearly impossible not to stay with our students, impossible not to be teaching (whether talking or listening), and impossible not to understand that we are doing is the most important thing in those moments.
What is needed beyond the classroom is to convince others that our work in schools is “the most important thing,” that educating (not indoctrinating, not propagandizing) needs to be done now. And it isessential that the public support teachers and public schools.
