What Education Should Really Be About

       In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Phaedrus is plagued with doubts about his ability to teach. He works at a college in Montana and, one day at the office, is asked by one of his colleagues about his teaching the right way. That is to say, he is teaching the way the book teaches. As he puts it, he is teaching "rationally.""He felt there was something wrong with it...The wrongness was in the old ghost of his dreams-rationality itself. (p. 228)"
     It becomes clear that Phaedrus does not believe in what he is teaching. This brings up an interesting question: should teachers believe in what they teach? Even more importantly, should this be the goal of education?
     I think that teachers should teach what they believe. It's obvious that Phaedrus suffers because he cannot teach what he believes is important. He is trying to combine his beliefs with his profession. He wants to fulfill his calling. We are all looking for our calling, something in life that we can pour our lives into along with our beliefs. Phaedrus feels dissatisfied because he does not know how to fulfill this desire in his teaching position. He wants to teach, but he doesn't know how to teach what he believes. He sinks into depression as a result.
     If teachers cannot teach what they believe, I think they will lose their passion. If a biology professor believes that the world was created by God, but must teach evolution in order to make a living, that teacher will eventually grow frustrated with his profession. They might try to fight the system, yet it's likely they will become like the members of the Church of Reason who "just teach and teach and teach until their minds grow dull and their creativity vanishes and they become automatons saying the same dull things over and over...(p.182)"
    That isn't real education. True education should inspire the student to learn and study more. The education process is not just about taking down facts. It is about absorbing the beliefs of your professor. I experience this "absorbing" with my piano teacher and adviser, Dr. Linda Beckman. In the past four months that I have been learning from her, I have already seen a dramatic change in the way I practice,  and also in the way I myself teach other people. This is because I am also absorbing my professor's beliefs and attitudes as she teaches.
     Pheadrus is right to be depressed over his teaching. By not teaching what he believes, he is passing on his frustration to his students, when he really should be passing on his curiosity for and interest in the world around him. This is what education should really be about.

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