One of Barack Obama’s great contributions to the world-at least so far—may be that the term “teachable moments” is now in common usage.
Indeed, this “teachable moment” thing could be gaining momentum.
Hot on the heels of Obama’s recent teachable moment on racial profiling came another one that made the news: On July 31, the Hawaii Warriors coach, Greg McMakin, was suspended for thirty days for making a slur on gay people. According to AP, “Wiping away tears from his swollen-red eyes, McMackin said he’s offended the gay and lesbian community and now he wants to work with them to use the incident as a ‘teachable moment for me and hopefully others.’"
It’s not clear what McMackin said that was so bad, or what exactly he learned, so this teachable moment really remains a private one, rather than a public one. But it has made me wonder just what makes for a good teachable moment.
I hope that teachable moments are not one-way encounters. I hope that that don’t just involve someone “learning his lesson” — like a bad boy being slapped on the wrist—or someone being told the “right” way to think or speak. Surely the really great teachable moments must include some learning for all involved.
MSN Encarta defines a teachable moment as “a moment of educational opportunity: a time at which a person, especially a child, is likely to be particularly disposed to learn something or particularly responsive to being taught or made aware of something.”
In other words, for a moment to be considered teachable, someone has to be “particularly disposed” to learn something. This suggests that the most important factor in making a moment teachable is our attitude. Which means that there would be a lot more teachable moments in our lives if we were each more disposed to learning. Indeed, maybe they should be called “learnable moments.”
Now, this is especially important in situations of conflict, because in these situations, there may be no obvious teacher. There may be no one around who has “the answer” or is even respected as an authority. There may just be two or more angry people, each absolutely convinced that he is right, and who disagree, sometimes violently. In such cases, adopting an attitude of learning is vital, for without an obvious teacher, we can only try to learn from the moment itself—with all of its terrible, wonderful, ambiguity.
If Obama’s popularization of “teachable moments” manages to make us a bit more likely to stop for a moment, during a moment of conflict, and shift our attitude toward learning, well then that is a very big contribution indeed.
But this attitude of learning doesn’t have to be reserved for moments of conflict. There is always an opportunity to wonder what we are bringing to this moment, to consider how we are responding in this moment, and to question what we are taking away from this moment. There is always an opportunity for us to be a little bit more humble, a little bit more curious.
In other words, when we approach each moment as learners, we realize that each and every moment is a teacher.
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