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november 2, 1999
With all my respect to you, Jet, I wish you good luck everywhere on your way!
I have a question: what are the relationships supposed to be between a Teacher and a student according to tradition and to your point of view?
Thank you!
Eugene Sirovsky
Russia
Jet's Response
In my opinion, the teacher should be the student's friend first. In this respect, I think China has a lot to learn from the West. Teachers and students need to know each other very well. My teacher knew me very well because he understood what kind of personality I had.
Some people need fixed schedules and told exactly what it is that they need to do before they'll take the initiative to learn. Actually, some students will never voluntarily learn anything on their own. Any teacher with at least ten students knows that most of them will probably have to be coerced into studying, but also that two or three won't need to be forced at all. With these students, all you need to do is give them a few hints and they'll use their brains to study or train on their own. This has to do with every student's different capacity for absorbing new information and their enthusiasm for learning. Therefore, for a teacher to properly instruct a student, it's crucial for him to understand how the student learns best. It's also very helpful for the students to think about this, so that they can know how to train themselves.
To be a student -- not just in wushu, but in all other disciplines as well -- one must understand this point: the master opens the door, but it is the disciple who must walk the road. A teacher can initiate you, but individuals have to rely on their own intelligence and diligence. This is why every classroom will produce some great students and some not-so-great students. All of the students are given the same foundation; in order to build upon that base, though, they have to make an effort to awaken their own power of understanding. In doing so, they can figure out how to understand -- and then further understand.
Good students learn everything the teacher has to offer, and then go further. Let's say a teacher instructs you in 1,2,3 -- and so you learn 1,2,3. Then the teacher offers an advanced course in 4,5,6 -- so you master 4,5,6. If the teacher's knowledge stops at 10, you will only be able to learn that much from him. Do you stop there? What if you feel like you can reach 100? You may have to rely on your own realizations and your own strivings to accomplish it, but it is possible. With hard work and insight, each new generation of students gradually transcends their teachers.
I have also been asked what responsibilities teachers and students have to each other, and what a teacher can learn from a student. Well, from the standpoint of technique or skill, the teacher cannot learn anything from the student. By definition, the teacher's skill is greater, that's why he transmits it to others.
What kinds of lessons can he learn from his student, then? Only how to be a good human being. If a teacher carelessly drops a piece of trash on the ground and his student picks it up to deposit it in the trashcan, that tiny action is a lesson that the teacher deserves to learn. It's a tutorial in moral character.
Nobody has reached the point where they have nothing left to learn.
"Sanren tongxing biyou wo shi." This is a Chinese saying that can be translated as: "If three travel, one will find a teacher." It means: no matter where I go and what types of people I encounter, I will find that one of my fellow travelers is bound to possess something of value to teach me. This "teaching" will most likely not belong to a large specific discipline. Instead, it will probably be a very subtle lesson, but worth learning nonetheless.
A teacher will not be your teacher for your entire life. At the most, he will only be your instructor for a few years. Afterwards, you continue learning on your own. Perhaps in several years you've outstripped your teacher. If a teacher thinks he can be your teacher for life, that teacher is not a teacher! He is the student. He needs to start learning again from the very beginning!
