The Purpose Of Adult Education

In My Early Professional Years I Was Asking The Question: How Can I Treat, Or Cure, Or Change This Person? Now I Would Phrase The Question In This Way: How Can I Provide A Relationship Which This Person May Use For His Own Personal Growth?

It Is The Client Who Knows What Hurts, What Directions To Go, What Problems Are Crucial, What Experiences Have Been Deeply Buried.

The State Of Empathy, Or Being Empathic, Is To Perceive The Internal Frame Of Reference Of Another With Accuracy And With The Emotional Components And Meanings Which Pertain Thereto As If One Were The Person.

The Degree To Which I Can Create Relationships, Which Facilitate The Growth Of Others As Separate Persons, Is A Measure Of The Growth I Have Achieved In Myself.

Each Person Is An Island Unto Himself, In A Very Real Sense; And He Can Only Build Bridges To Other Islands If He Is First Of All Willing To Be Himself And Permitted To Be Himself.