The teacher used every part of the chalkboard to explain about vast new discoveries to the class. The students stayed on the lesson until each one truly understood the concepts, albeit not all of them accepted the new ideas. In fact, one student in particular completely refused to be open to the subject, since it conflicted with what he had already been taught.
The teacher then realized it was time to teach a new lesson, so he started writing the new lesson overtop of all the other words; however, the students couldn’t make out anything coherent since every letter of the new lesson was enmeshed with the words from the first lesson. Finally, the particularly inflexible student said to the teacher, “I can’t make out anything you’re writing right now.”
And the teacher bewilderingly asked, “Why not?”
The exasperated student replied haughtily, “Because all the words are jumbled together!”
So the teacher inquired, “Well then, what should I do?”
The student, first looking around to his classmates with his eyes rolled said, “Erase the board first.”
The teacher smiled at the student in a loving and compassionate way as he replied, “That is the lesson.”
The obstinate student now mumbled that the teacher was crazy and knew nothing before asking loudly and clearly, “What is the lesson?!”
The class seemed to be taken aback that their classmate would not only talk in such a disrespectful way to the teacher, but that he could corner the teacher so easily; so the teacher waited until the class settled down before he replied. When he did reply, he said to the headstrong student, “Your mind is like this chalkboard. As long as it is completely full, you will have no room for new knowledge. You must first erase the chalkboard in your mind before you will be able to learn anything new.”
Many in the class instantly understood, but the troubled student didn’t. And that’s okay, because that is the way of the world. Often the most poignant and meaningful lessons miss the ones for whom they are intended. Still, it is important to teach those lessons, because others can benefit greatly from them.
Erase your mental chalkboard: Prepare yourself to learn something new.