Sunday Service: The Heart of a Teacher

What does it mean to be a teacher? Are you a teacher certainly had great teachers? What role do teachers play in our lives? What role could they play? What role are they play? Those are some of the things that we will figure out today. Welcome to the Sunday service is this concept of first teacher. And you can think about it in a lot of different ways. But in many cultures, figures, people like Confucius and Socrates, ancient scholars, and philosophers, those are thought of as foundational first teachers who had significant influence on the people around them. But then their wisdom and influence and impact has echoed throughout time, as here we are thinking and talking about them right now. There’s also religious leaders, who are highly considered and thought of as, as first teachers, people like the Buddha, and Jesus Christ. So lots of different people. Confucius was just to talk a little bit about each one of these was a Chinese philosopher and educator. He lived during what’s known as the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history, which was around 551 to 479 BCE. He talks a lot about morality, ethics and importance of education as a means to improve your life from a personal and a social standpoint. Socrates lived from 469 to 399 BCE. And credit is one of the founders of Western philosophy. So Eastern philosophy that’s more Confucius and then Western school of thought, which is the United States today. Socrates was one of the primary thinkers, one of the first thinkers in regard to philosophy and the values that we still live with today. So pretty extraordinary. And he thought and talked a lot about critical thinking skills, questioning, and dialogue and the pursuit of knowledge. No doubt, you’re familiar with the Socratic method, which is just his process of asking questions if he ever read, Socrates. Plato, used Socrates as Plato was Socrates is pupil at Plato uses Socrates and a lot of his writing. And Socrates would just ask questions, and he continued to ask questions and pull and draw more out of people and by asking, for the most part, pretty simple questions, he allowed people to self discover and figure it out on their own. Plato, obviously the disciple of Socrates, and he was around from 427 to 347. He founded the Academy of Athens, which is one of the first earliest institutions of higher learning in the Western world. He explored metaphysics. Aristotle was a student of Plato, and one of the primary figures in Greek philosophy to live from 384 to 322. He focused on logics and metaphysics and ethics and politics and natural sciences, extraordinary person. The Buddha was thought to live around 563 to 483. He talks about compassion and mindfulness and his pursuit of enlightenment. And we’ve talked about Buddha on the Sunday service before the Four Noble Truths and the middle way. There’s so much wonderful things to be learned from Buddha. Lao Zi is a legendary Chinese philosopher. He wrote the Dalit die chick Tao Te Ching, foundational text of Taoism, he talks about living in harmony with nature and simplicity, and the cultivation of inner virtue. And Jesus Christ is regarded as certainly one of the first teachers within the context of Christianity. The New Testament of the Bible, he’s often referred to as Rabbi which means teacher, and he’s depicted as teaching crowds of people through parables and sermons and personal interactions. He talks about morality and ethics, spirituality, love and forgiveness and the kingdom of God. And he did that in a lot of different ways. Through storytelling and symbolic acts and just and direct instruction as well as Sermon on the Mount, which you could find in Matthew. five through seven is one of the most famous examples of his teachings. Overall. Teaching was central to Jesus’s ministry. And, obviously Bible is the most widely read book in the world. And so today, we rely on Christ’s teachings and his interpretations to make sense of the world and our own lives and to find meaning and purpose. Contemporary, there have been a lot of people who have made significant contributions to education. Sir Ken Robinson was a British author, speaker and educator known for his views on creativity and innovation. He’s got a really famous TED talk called Do schools kill creativity. Jaime Escalante is Bolivian American educator known for his work in high school math at Garfield High in East Los Angeles, maybe saw the movie Stand and Deliver I think he was played by James, Edward James, almost amazing movie if you’ve not seen standard deliver, reader Pearson, also, motivational speaker and educator had another really popular TED Talk. The Golden Age of TED talks when they were a really great thing, I’m sure they still are. And it was called every kid needs a champion. Wendy comp is the founder of Teach for America. It’s famous nonprofit that brings college kids all over the United States to teach, and certainly had a big impact on educational reform and recruiting new teachers. So extremely powerful. Sal Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, and nonprofit that provides amazing free online educational tools and resources that cover just about everything that’s brought learning to all corners of planet Earth, we had on a young lady on the show, within the last year in Pakistan, who, when the Taliban took over control again of the country that banned women girls from being educated. And through Khan Academy, she was able to learn math and science online. So these impacts and these contributions, it’s just extraordinary. Angela Duckworth. So psychologist and author focused on grit and resilience in fewer things more important to in life, then those two things. So incredible. You know, a great teacher may possess so many wonderful qualities that enable them to effectively Encourage, inspire and educate their students. Can you think back to your great teachers, hopefully, you’ve had more than more than one. But I think at least, all of us have had at least more than one great teacher in life. Recently, and I can’t remember if I’ve shared this story or not, I receive a newsletter from my, my high school. And I also went, I went through seven through 12 at the same school. And today that takes different forms. I’m mildly confused on the breakdown of Junior High in high school these days. But that’s a me problem. Not necessarily you problem. But my one of my favorite teachers name was Mr. Pearson. And I read recently that Mr. Pearson had retired. And he was great guy as a math teacher. And I’m 90% Sure, which is really funny in the context of math, that I never got to 90% in anything that it was in ninth grade. And I had Mr. Pearson for geometry. And I just don’t math. Just don’t do it mean numbers do not get along. I’m more of a word. Yeah, than a numbers guy, which is sort of silly. But that’s just is what it is. And if it’s lack of IQ or overall intellect, or know how, whatever it was, I was not getting geometry, and Mr. Pearson would work with me after class a lot. He would invest lots of time and attention energy to help me figure this stuff out. basic geometry. And I just love I love this story. We had a big test and I busted my butt to be ready for it. And I really thought that I was and finished the test. I was last finish it and I rushed back to Mr. Mr. Pearson’s desk, and he gets out his his pen or whatever, and he starts grading it. So I wanted to know how I did it was probably a two sided piece of paper. And he’s going through and he’s going through it and he writes down 78 And he looks up at me says b minus. As it was amazing. I can’t remember if he cracked a smile or not but

it was just such a such A wonderful moment now looking back on it, because obviously it’s a C, maybe that’s not obvious when I was in school, that was a C. But he said b minus just because he wanted me to, to stay with it, you know, he wanted me to stay engaged and to keep working, because I’m sure it was improvement. So great teachers are passionate about their subject matter. And they’re genuinely interested and enjoying what they know and their knowledge and their topic with other people. It’s an enthusiasm, it’s being genuine. It’s all these things that go into creating a positive learning environment, which is what we’re looking for. The idea of teaching is that we learn. And if we’re in an environment that’s conducive to that, we’ll probably learn more. We’re in a bland environment, content and the delivery of the content is vapid, well, nobody’s gonna learn it, nobody’s gonna be excited about learning it. So it’s so important. Clearly, they need to be able to explain complex topics in a way that’s accessible and understandable to students, regardless of what their background or their current ability is, you need to be able to meet students where they are and meet people where they are, you have to be able to listen and encourage open communication. Like Socrates. If you think about Socrates as one of the most famous and influential teachers, ever, and he’s famous for asking questions, he’s not famous for talking or lecturing, or answering questions. He’s famous because he asked them, and that’s such a powerful thing. Great teachers are flexible, enough to adapt how they teach, to meet the needs of their students. Some days, require one method, maybe it’s been really serious, or it’s funny, it’s light hearted, maybe it’s going on a field trip, or bringing in an experiential thing, whatever it is. I think one of the fundamental things is that they really care about their students, as people as individuals, and they take the time to understand their strengths, challenges and interests. And that’s way easier said than done. No doubt about that. Some of these class sizes have ballooned, and people are overworked and underpaid. Now, that’s talking about somebody who has made teaching their profession. But so many of us are also teachers, and I’ll talk more about that. And teaching happens everywhere, doesn’t happen just in the classroom. Great teachers have high expectations for their students. They believe that everyone has the potential to succeed and to excel to get the life that they want. And they do their best to create the conditions necessary for that flourishing. Think about what a farmer does. Farmers needs to cultivate their field needs to plow, make sure that all the conditions are right. They plant they nurture, and they, they tend to their fields and make sure there’s no pests, or they do everything that they need to do in order for their crop to be successful. A lot of ways that’s been a teacher does as well as what a parent does. So I think that to be a great teacher, we also have to be reflective and thoughtful. Now, you know what, been doing this for a long time this way, but doesn’t seem to be going through anymore, doesn’t seem to be connecting? What do I need to be to, to change that? And they have to have a good positive relationship. I think too often, we get wrapped up and think that we have to be friends with everybody. We don’t. That’s not the idea. That movie boiler room. It was about stock trading. And one of the scenes that has always resonated and always stuck with me was the main character was having a cup of coffee with his dad and his dad was very much suspicious of the work that his son was doing. And his son was sort of lamenting and whining that his dad wasn’t supportive of him and that the doc said, listen, Seth, I’m not your buddy. I’m your dad. And that always stuck with me. No teacher, you’re not supposed to be a very buddy. If that can be if that’s if that’s also if that’s also passed. trouble with that, then that’s great. But that’s not your job as a teacher, not your I my job to be your best buddy, my job to be your teacher, and to get through, and to have a relationship that’s based on trust, mutual respect and care, but not friendship, not buddies. My job is to teach you so that you learn the information that I am in trying to impart to you. That’s my job to get that across. You’re familiar with the same that people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care. And it is a nicety and a cliche, but that it was 1,000% True. That’s the math guy me again, coming out. 1,000% true. People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care. You can be the most brilliant human being full of all the knowledge of the world. People don’t give a shit till they know that you actually care about them. Think about what makes for a good boss, friend, coworker, coach, parent, sibling, whatever. It’s caring and kindness. Does this person care about me? Are they kind a teacher’s job, again, is to facilitate learning to help other people learn what it is they’re trying to teach. And to put to work that important information. Talking about Socrates, teaching versus talking about teaching is getting people to learn talking as just spewing out words spewing out spewing out information. And if people are not picking it up and internalizing it and learning it, then you’re not really teaching, you’re just talking. You’re spouting information to how you communicate information is really, really important. Simply sharing info isn’t good enough, it’s not effective. If it were, the best teacher in the world would simply be an encyclopedia, it would be Chet GPT, it’d be open AI, that might be the same thing. You get the idea. And for some people, I think a pretty small amount of people. That’s a great way to learn. I mean, that’s that’s all you need. Just the facts, give me the information. But for others, we need to we I need to be inspired and moved and excited. I need to learn in a way that’s different than just the raw data or material. So do you have the heart of the teacher? Do you possess commitment to learning, commitment to improving yourself and others to make the world a better place? I hope that you do. Because we all have the potential to be teachers, you don’t have to be not going to ask you to do something extra or more. But you have the potential each of us does. And to do that you must be caring, loving and kind. If you do consider yourself or you desire to be an influential person, not an influencer. Although that word doesn’t have to have been co opted to be slinging crap on the internet or on social media. Let’s think back 20 years to what an influencer was to teacher, caring, loving and kind. And I think a lot of the people today a lot of other people right now in the world are not that we’re not operating with care loving kindness. Too many of us have opinions that we want to express versus ideas that they want to convey. Say that again. We’ve got too many opinions that we want to express versus ideas that we want to convey. Where do you find them? Where do you most commonly fall? The more we can internalize the ideas that we think are most true and most important, and then work to better convey them to others versus you shouting or banging on your keyboard to the world. Because that’s just falling on deaf ears. So think you’re a teacher. Whether you’re actively doing it, or you’re not. People are watching. We’re all observing. You’re teaching one of those or observing you at Starbucks. You’re teaching when you’re playing pickleball you’re teaching at work.

And if you’re a parent, you’re absolutely teaching every die. My question is, are you doing it with caring, and kindness? And wouldn’t it be better? If you did, if you were, as always, do your part doing your best

george grombacher 16:00
So if I want my iPhone, and my Tesla and my Bitcoin to work, we need to get the metal out of the ground.

Pierre Leveille 16:07
Absolutely. Without it, we cannot do it.

george grombacher 16:13
Why? Why is there a Why has production been going down.

Pierre Leveille 16:21
Because the large mines that are producing most of the copper in the world, the grades are going down slowly they’re going there, they’re arriving near the end of life. So and of life of mines in general means less production. And in the past, at least 15 years, the exploration expenditure for copper were pretty low, because the price of copper was low. And when the price is low, companies are tending to not invest more so much in exploration, which is what we see today. It’s it’s, it’s not the way to look at it. Because nobody 15 years ago was able to predict that there would be a so massive shortage, or it’s so massive demand coming. But in the past five years, or let’s say since the since 10 years, we have seen that more and more coming. And then the by the time you react start exploring and there’s more money than then ever that is putting in put it in expression at the moment for copper at least. And what we see is that the it takes time, it could take up to 2025 years between the time you find a deposit that it gets in production. So but but the year the time is counted. So it’s it’s very important to so you will see company reopening old mines, what it will push also, which is not bad, it will force to two, it will force to find a it will force to find ways of recalibrating customer, you know the metals, that will be more and more important.

george grombacher 18:07
So finding, okay, so for lack of a better term recycling metals that are just sitting around somewhere extremely important. Yeah. And then going and going back to historic minds that maybe for lack of technology, or just lack of will or reasons, but maybe now because there’s such a demand, there’s an appetite to go back to those.

Pierre Leveille 18:33
Yes, but there will be a lot of failures into that for many reasons. But the ones that will be in that will resume mining it’s just going to be a short term temporary solution. No it’s it’s not going to be you need to find deposit that will that will operate 50 years you know at least it’s 25 to 50 years at least and an old mind that you do in production in general it’s less than 10 years.

george grombacher 19:03
Got it. Oh there we go. Up here. People are ready for your difference making tip What do you have for them

Pierre Leveille 19:14
You mean an investment or

george grombacher 19:17
whatever you’re into, you’ve got so much life experience with raising a family and doing business all over the world and having your kids go to school in Africa so a tip on copper or whatever you’re into.

Pierre Leveille 19:34
But there’s two things I like to see and I was telling my children many times and I always said you know don’t focus on what will bring you specifically money don’t think of Getting Rich. Think of doing what you what you like, what you feel your your your your your, you know you have been born to do so use your most you skills, do what you like, do what you wet well, and good things will happen to you. And I can see them grow in their life. And I can tell you that this is what happens. And sometimes you have setback like I had recently. But if we do things properly, if we do things that we like, and we liked that project, we were very passionate about that project, not only me, all my team, and if we do things properly, if we do things correctly, good things will happen. And we will probably get the project back had to go forward or we will find another big project that will be the launch of a new era. So that’s my most important tip in life. Do what you like, do it with your best scale and do it well and good things will happen.

george grombacher 20:49
Pierre Leveille 21:03
Thank you. I was happy to be with you to today.

george grombacher 21:06
Damn, tell us the websites and where where people can connect and find you.

Pierre Leveille 21:13
The it’s Deep South resources.com. So pretty simple.

george grombacher 21:18
Perfect. Well, if you enjoyed this as much as I did show up here your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciate good ideas, go to deep south resources, calm and learn all about what they’re working on and track their progress.

Pierre Leveille 21:32
Thanks. Thanks, have a nice day.

george grombacher 21:36
And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.