THE STUDENT'S PRAYER
Don’t impose on me what you know,
I want to explore the unknown
And be the source of my own discoveries.
Let the known be my liberation, not my slavery.
The world of your truth can be my limitation;
Your wisdom my negation.
Don’t instruct me; let’s walk together.
Let my richness begin where yours ends.
Show me so that I can stand
On your shoulders.
Reveal yourself so that I can be
Something different.
You believe that every human being
Can love and create.
I understand, then, your fear
When I ask you to live according to your wisdom.
You will not know who I am
By listening to yourself.
Don’t instruct me; let me be.
Your failure is that I be identical to you.”
Umberto Maturana
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The young son of a Chilean biologist, Umberto Maturana, became unhappy at school because he felt his teachers were making it impossible for him to learn. They wanted to teach him what they knew, rather than drawing out what he needed to learn. As a result Maturana wrote “The Student’s Prayer”. It perfectly expresses the spiritually intelligent individual’s response to the conforming pressures of parents, teachers, bosses or the crowd.
ReplyDeleteA poem that I can truly identify with... this poem strikes many chords in my heart... reminds me of many things from my childhood. I enjoyed it :)
ReplyDeleteI feel almost every youth experiences the massive pressure to conform to the do's and dont's of society.. The poem not only expresses the mental trauma of a student who is forced to learn from his elders rather than learn something by his own explorations. Learning is not a one sided mechanism where you just inject intellectual stuff to the poor learners. Every body should be given the freedom to be their true self.. False identities or rather pretentions just for the sake of social acceptance will not provide long lasting satisfaction to individuals.. So better be yourself.. And there is no point in asking someone to be like you.. Because both 'you' and 'me' are unique..
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