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The Surprising Life Lessons I Learn by Teaching

And how maybe we can bridge this year’s divisiveness


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Elaine Grant

3 years ago | 3 min read

Three years ago, I had the privilege of teaching a class called “Digital Health Narratives” at the University of Colorado Denver. It was a seminar for a dozen students — some undergrads, some graduate students.

Several came from China, one from Saudi Arabia, and there were three Americans. We were studying the importance of telling stories of medicine—those of patients, those of providers, those of family—and to learn to do so in writing, video, and podcasts.

At the time, I was largely a creator, a writer and podcaster. I loved teaching but was new to it, especially in a university setting. Teaching brought many challenges, and one completely unexpected gift, one that could be a key to unlocking the hardened cultural and political divides we’ve experienced since then.

One evening, at the end of class, I walked down the hall with two grad students — one Chinese, the other from Saudi Arabia. They told me, laughing and amazed, of the differences between how students relate to professors in their countries versus in the U.S. In Saudi Arabia, my student said, they would never leave the room with their teacher, but would always walk behind in deference.

In China, the other woman said, “We always bow to the teacher” — like this, she showed, bowing deeply at the waist — “whenever we speak, from primary school on!” And neither would ever address a teacher by her first name, they told me, eyes wide in disbelief that their American instructors could be so informal.

Our conversation continued like that until we parted, the two new friends from different countries going off together, laughing and talking, looking forward to the next week’s class. I remember the scene vividly, as if it were yesterday.

And my feeling is visceral today of exactly how lucky I felt in that moment to be learning about daily life in other places, just as important, if not more so, than the formal teaching I was employed to do.

In Saudi Arabia, my student said, they would never leave the room with their teacher, but always walk behind in deference. In China, the other student said, “We always bow to the teacher” — like this, she showed, bowing deeply at the waist — “whenever we speak, from primary school on!” And neither would ever address a teacher by her first name, they told me, eyes wide in disbelief that their American instructors could be so informal.

At the time, I described this moment, this epiphany, as sharing “the small things of daily life.” Today, in the environment we’re in and that we have grimly endured for the last year (and more), I realize that this personal, cultural exchange may have been no small thing, but the biggest thing I learned.

Today I am teaching podcast and storytelling students through my production and training company, Podcast Allies. I am lucky to do what I love. And every day I am amazed and grateful for the surprises and lessons I learn from my students, and for those they are learning from each other.

What is the way forward to understanding each other and each other’s cultures? Toward empathy with each other, despite what can feel like impossible differences, differences instilled by the fact that we live in our own cultural, geographic, political and internal universes—but unless expressed, we are unaware of how different our universes are?

Maybe it is exactly this. Constant learning, whether you’re the teacher or the student. Sharing our perspectives and our stories about what seem to be the smallest of things. What we call a teacher or professor. Whether we bow, follow, or go out for a drink with our teacher. What we eat, what we call our parents, how we express ourselves within our families. All in a spirit of learning, collaboration, and—like my two students that night—wide-eyed amazement.

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Elaine Grant


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