I think that truly great teachers are invisible in their role. They may be actual teachers, casual teachers, and so on… but they have avoided the stereotypes in a brilliant caper that attempts to exceed the protocols. So what actually happens is that they form ‘the travel body’ with their students, and these students learn to advance the entire domain of play, with the teacher, and even with others outside the place of learning.

So a kind of game happens, where both wings raise the bird together, and there isn’t a lot of concern about rank, or who is the teacher here.

But one thing common to all human relationships, whether between teacher and student, counselor and client, or friend and friend. In good learning relationships, perhaps even in ordinary friendships, it is crucial to understand that not everything should be stated, and context and mood may determine what is nourishing to share. A good teacher knows what must be withheld until the contextual underpinnings have been established, as well as what will be exciting to explore and develop in a given situation.

This is a common social sense related to the appropriateness or usefulness of sharing, and also the costs, which can be significant when that which is shared is either dangerous, inappropriate to the situation, or overtly toxic. For humans as social animals, everything depends upon the actual situation at-hand — the people, the places, the animals… the history of the dream we are in…

An example: I do not have to share something that really shocked me and made me sad with my friend who is already in a crisis of his own. I can carry this ‘news’ without giving my friend the ‘burden of empathy’. Especially since I know my friend will have similar feelings to my own, and thus ‘verify’ or authorize them. A good teacher or friend, or counselor or parent… or child… knows when and what to share that maintains the balance of the learning-play. And so withholds as intelligently as they provide.