There's a story, perhaps legend, about Michelangelo - the famous Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor…and much more. Apparently, someone asked Michelangelo how he carved such a magnificent statue of David out of a block of marble.

 

Michelangelo said something like, "I could see David in the marble block and I uncovered him by removing the pieces of marble that didn't belong".

 

This story about Michelangelo 'gets me thinking'.

 

Certainly, Michelangelo did David a great favour...releasing him from the marble block and allowing him to be seen and enjoyed by millions of people for at least hundreds of years.

 

Great teachers face a situation similar to the one Michelangelo faced with his David. Great teachers can see the unique talents embedded in people. Because they are great, great teachers are able to help people chip away the pieces of stuff that covers and sometimes buries the unique talents and skills.

 

To some degree, most of us try to teach...

• we try to teach our family members [particularly our children],
• we try to teach our co-workers [particularly, those who report to us], and
• we even try to teach strangers [for example, people who do things like steal 'our' parking spaces].

When we try to teach we should remember:

 

We can help people chip away at their block of marble to help them uncover their ‘hidden Davids’. And, to the extent we desire to do that, wouldn't it be awesome if we had even half the talent and skill of Michelangelo!

 

Michelangelo’s David