Backstory
I attend school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. About twice a year I need a cab ride to and from the airport. In my freshmen year my mom recommended me “Black Cab and Limo”, since they have amazing yelp reviews. I was indifferent at first, but after one ride with the driver, Malik, I have been using the service ever since. I don’t quite know how to explain it, but Malik has an amazing talent; he always knows the right thing to say. Every time I ride this cab I feel calm and relieved when I get off simply from the conversations I have with Malik. He is many ways part of the family I have developed while at UIUC. One time I got my onsite interview date mixed up and it was actually one day earlier than I thought it was. I realized this at 4am and the only way I would get to my interview on time is if I took a train at 430am. I called Malik at 4am while purchasing my ticket. He seemed like he just woke up, but he was by no means bothered by the fact that I was calling at an hour that no one should be awake at. He heard the nervousness and frustration in my voice and immediately told me that everything was going to be ok. He told me that he would be at my place in a few minutes and calmed me down on the drive over. I made my train and he gave me solid interview advice. I made it on time for the interview for the company I eventually interned at. Giving me a ride at a last minutes notice at 4 in the morning was something that can not be explained by “good customer service”. Malik has an amazing heart and I have remembered all of my conversations with him. This blog post is just about one of them.
The Locksmith and the Locked Door
I told Malik that I like teaching and he paused to give me a very genuine smile. He then told me that he was a high school teacher before he was a taxi cab driver. I asked if he had any advice for a novice. He told me that every student is like a locked door. Behind the locked door is a room of potential and it is our job as instructors to unlock that potential. Like every student the doors are always a little different, but luckily we have our resources. He told me to imagine that all my ways of teaching students are like keys on a ring and that I am a locksmith. In the real world when a locksmith has a ring of keys and is approached with a locked door they start by trying a key. If that key doesn’t open the door, then it’s obvious what they are going to do next; they try the next key. He then pointed out that this is like teaching. Every student is a little different and learns differently. It is our job as instructors to figure out what is the best way for them to learn and we always have to adapt.
Malik told me that this analogy applies to life. With the locked door and locksmith analogy it’s obvious to see that the locksmith should try all their keys. However in life a lot of people fail to see this. They give up too easily and fail to exhaust all their resources. They fail to apply themselves. They fail to try the next key.
No Free Meal
Malik then asked me the following question “If I took you to a fancy restaurant, ordered you a steak, and paid for the meal, then is the meal free?”. I looked in confusion and hesitantly said “Yes.”. Malik gave me the smile I knew he would give and said “Don’t worry. It was a trick question.”. He then told me that there is no such thing as a free meal. If I was to take him up on the steak I would have to put in my time, cut the steak up into small pieces, and finally chew on it. Why? Because I want to enjoy my steak and I don’t want to choke on it. Malik then asked me “Do you chew your food?”. Obviously, since I want my food to digest well.
Malik then pointed out to me that this is exactly like learning. When I want to learn something the best way is to put in the time required to digest the material. I don’t want to cram the material, because that would be equivalent to rushing my meal and swallowing my food before chewing. If I did this my food wouldn’t digest well. I don’t retain information well if you just cram it. On top of that, even if I went to office hours and the instructor just gave me a printed out solution to my homework, which is like a steak that is already paid for, then I wouldn’t actually learn anything by just submitting that verbatim. Just like my food I need to chew on the material. I need to think about it. I need to let it all digest. This almost seems like common sense for eating, but I wondered why it wasn’t so obvious for learning. There have been plenty of exams that I crammed for. Plenty of assignments that I have put off until literally the last minute. Malik also had an answer to that …
Life Is About Making Sacrifices Early
I was shocked to see how much connection there was between eating and learning. But Malik had that in the lesson plan all along. He told me that eating is nature to everyone. Nobody really procrastinates on it. The consequences of poor eating decisions come very soon after the decision itself. If I swallowed big pieces of steak, then I would immediately choke on it. If I didn’t take my time eating, then I wouldn’t enjoy the meal. If I didn’t chew on my food, then it wouldn’t digest well the next day. However the consequences of a bad learning choice don’t immediately follow the choice. If I procrastinate on an assignment, then I won’t feel the consequence for weeks. It’s essentially future me’s problem. If I don’t take the time to learn the material in a class well, then I might not even feel the consequences that semester. I have had plenty of times that I pulled through on exams from last minute studying. In fact I have never actually suffered from procrastinating on an assignment, since I have never missed a deadline (I got lucky a lot). So I never learned from that. Only once I get to a follow up course do I realize how little of the prerequisite material that I understood. Only until I miss a deadline will I really understand the consequences of procrastination.
Malik told me that learning in school is a just like a longer eating cycle. Instead of a 30 minute meal we have semester long classes. Just when I thought I couldn’t be more mindblown Malik pointed out that life is just a summation of really long eating cycles. Going to college for 4 years is like chewing your food, since you invest the 4 years now to get a better job for later. The most successful people in life are those that make sacrifices early on in order to make life more enjoyable in the later on. Now whenever I don’t feel like making sacrifices early on I just ask myself “Do I chew my food?”.
We Are All Learning From Each Other
I told Malik that I really appreciated all the lessons on life and teaching that he has given me throughout the years. I told him that I have a lot of students, but I am happy to call him my teacher. And he gave me some words of wisdom. He told me that “We are all learning from each other” and that the student-teacher relationship is not always as clear cut as it seems. He said in life I will meet many people who are my teachers, many who are my students, and many that are both. However all that matters is that we are learning from each other. I am sure that Malik learned these lessons from someone before and now he is passing them down to me. And I look forward to the day where I can teach someone else these lessons. Maybe I will even be able to teach Malik something in the future. The cyclic nature of learning is one of the many beautiful things about life that I take for granted and I am glad that Malik gave me appreciation for it.
Discussion
Contact Me
Email: bschong2@illinois.edu