Notes on Being an Instructor
In the role of the instructor, due to your own conceit there
is much damage that you can do to a student. At the same
time, due to your own sense of charity, there are many
possibilities that you can open for the student. In the
former case, it is possible to do well by a student to show
them how to prepare for the future in an explicitly
formulated manner. However, in all cases you must
consider the short-term future versus the long-term
future. Students need to make their own mistakes on their
own terms. Any hints you can give them quickly expire as
they have left you. Independence cannot be taught.
Charity is an important quality for an instructor. You
continue to give all that you can in terms of your at-thatmoment
insight, your future ideas, and opportunities that
might be available to you that you share with your
students. The new instructor quickly realizes the difficulty
to this approach. That is a difficulty wrought of human
ego. For instance, you might suggest to a stuck student a
particular direction. He/she will grudgingly adopt the
approach, and then sometimes succeed. Most likely, in a
rush of passionate creation he/she has forgotten that it
was you (the originator) that suggested the idea. Your ego
is hurt; their ego is nurtured. And it can become even
worse when the student later tries to impress you or claim
creative equality to you by sometimes literally rubbing it
into your face. My advice is to move on.
People who have ideas, continually have new ideas. You
are better off letting go of your ideas as it means that you
no longer have to do them anymore. You are living life in
the most efficient manner.– John Maeda, 2003