Dao and Zen of Teaching: Classroom as Enlightenment Field

Abstract

One spring day, the two of us were sipping tea together, and comparing notes on our experience in classrooms, first as learners and now as teachers. We were well into another semester of teaching, and our minds were preoccupied with classroom experiences. The challenges and struggles we faced as classroom teachers were being played out against the backdrop of our own schooling experience of oppressiveness, coercion, fear, anxiety, and boredom. There was a tragic atmosphere surrounding the recollection of our own classroom experiences.