T.S Eliot and Jonathan Lear: Insights on Education and Leadership

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of the earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning
--- T.S. Eliot

The ceaseless exploration that T.S. Eliot depicts in the poem above describes an attractive journey. It takes us (if we are willing to partake of the "we" in the "we shall not cease from exploration) into uncharted territory. We set off unaware of a final destination. We should try, the poem also suggests however, to find our way back to home, the place where the journey began. We can thus come to see what is belonging to our home- what is familiar- with new eyes. The new knowledge we acquire finds its way to the depths of our identity, our starting-point.

Now let us consider another sagely counsel described in the dream of Young Plenty Coups of the Crows tribe in Montana. In this dream, Young Plenty Coups is taken up and counseled by the Dwarf-chief, the head of the Little People, legendary creatures who lived in the hills and valley near Pryor, Montana. This account is found in Jonathan Lear's brilliant book Radical Hope.

"He will be a Chief," said the Dwarf-chief. I can give him nothing. He already possesses the power to become great if he will use it. Let him cultivate his senses, let him use the powers which Ah-badt-dadt-deah[God] has given him, and he will go far. The difference between men grows out of the use, or non-use, of what was given them by Ah-badt-dadt-deah in the first place... In you as in all men are natural powers. You have a will. Learn to use it. Make it work for you. Sharpen your senses as you would sharpen your knife. Remember the wolf smells better than you do because he has learned to depend on his nose. It tells him every secret the winds carry because he uses it all the time, makes it work for him. We can give you nothing. You already possess everything necessary to become great. Use your powers. Make them work for you, and you will become a chief"(p. 125).

"We can give you nothing": at first, this sounds odd to me. Teachers surely do have something to give; otherwise, we students would not seek their help. But, upon closer introspection, I realize that Dwarf-chief expresses a profound insight. He knows that Young Plenty Coups, like the rest of us, already has the raw material to work on- his natural powers. What he requires is a willingness to depend on what he has- like the wolf who uses his senses to learn the secret of the winds. Attunement to, not overcoming of, what we already have within ourselves is the key.

The Dwarf-chief's perspective is not far from that of T.S Eliot. Both urge us to look back at our starting-points- our senses, natural powers and convictions- in the midst of a perilous journey of educative exploration. Upon looking back, we will be equipped with new insights about ourselves. We will also be more willing to take up new quests and bring new gifts to the house of our being. These gifts are not things that decay or perish with time- like money, status and might. They are rather values that connect deeply with the innermost part of our nature- our curiosity, desire to sharpen our skills and yearning to understand what is around us, for example, the last piece of the earth, the secret of the winds or how best to take care of the public realm.