How the Tao’s concept of “unlearning” makes me a better teacher

Poems from the Tao Te Ching that I use in my work with kids

Tao Te Ching: the sci-fi connection

When Ursula Le Guin, the science fiction writer, died last year, I was surprised to learn she had published a translation of the Tao Te Ching.

I took a look, and was amazed to find it resonating with me with ideas and even humor that seem fresh. It’s hard to believe it was written 2500 years ago, and not in, say, 1990’s California!

Several passages spoke to me especially as a parent and a teacher.

Reading these for the first time, it helps to understand that for author Lao Tzu, “doing nothing” and “getting smaller” are good things. As I read more, I started to see that “getting smaller” didn’t mean becoming passive or small-minded, but becoming more focused, present, direct, and clear; and less brash, frantic and careless.

Less frantic? Have you seen my day?

Of course, sometimes there’s no way to avoid being frantic! Often, my frustration as a parent all that gets my kids out the door in the morning and me to work on time.

But I have had moments of clarity, both in the classroom and at home, when I’ve suddenly realized that my frustration and anxiety about herding my kids around are not actually serving any purpose.

My careful plans are great, but they’re only great because of their potential to work well for these kids, right now, right here. Some days, that means the best way to fulfill the spirit of my plans is to scrap them!

“The Uses of Not”

Thirty spokes
meet in the hub.
Where the wheel isn’t
is where it’s useful.

Hollowed out,
clay makes a pot.
Where the pot’s not
is where it’s useful.

Cut doors and windows
to make a room.
Where the room isn’t,
there’s room for you.

So the profit in what is
is in the use of what isn’t.

“Unlearning”

Studying and learning daily you grow larger.
Following the way daily you shrink.
You get smaller and smaller.
So you arrive at not doing.
You do nothing and nothing’s not done.

To run things,
don’t fuss with them.
Nobody who fusses
is fit to run things.

“Acting simply”

True leaders
are hardly known to their followers…

To give no trust
is to get no trust.

When the work’s done right,
with no fuss or boasting,
ordinary people say,
Oh, we did it.

— Lao-Tzu, as translated and adapted by Ursula Le Guin and J. P. Seaton

This was lovingly written by Ben Wheeler in Brooklyn, NY. If you like it and want to get his subscriber-only articles in your inbox, please subscribe at robotowl.co !