First Contact

The moment of the introduction of a teacher to new students and new students to a teacher is one of excitement; but also one of fear. The students commonly do not realize that the teacher – exactly like Harry Potter – has prepared for them some magic; and he is very worried about whether his new magic formulas will work or not. He has not tested these spells before, and can only hope that they will strike a chord with the students; and that something unexpected and wonderful will result. It is absolutely no good if the teacher does not strain to imagine – right from the start, something wonderful and unexpected. But it is also absolutely no good if the students are not ready to be taken away a thousand leagues from here – by means of the teacher’s magic carpet. Students visit many classrooms; to the experienced student, one lecture is very much like the last. There is nothing worse than experienced students. They are like those mothers you sometimes get who are extremely good at shopping. They know the price of everything but the value of nothing. And these experienced and inexperienced students – some evolve rapidly from one extreme to the other (!) – are also a shade nervous because they hope to like the teacher. Nothing is worse than a teacher you can’t like and respect – and are mentally checking off whether this course looks like it is going to be demanding or not... Because simplest kind of student will then like the course if it looks easy but hate it if it looks difficult... I hope you are not like that. I hope – too – that you will stop being driven by exams; which are doing so much unseen damage, rather like air pollution does... At the heart of this course lies some magic – and a secret I won’t explain yet. I need to get to know you first. But it tells us that language itself is like a weapon: but a weapon for doing good. If you need a weapon to do good, it means that you must be on your guard from the start and appreciate that bad and good are all around us. We must always choose the good. We must reject the bad, the lazy option. We must choose the good weapon. We must submit to Magic. We must choose Language.