How can we teach humility?

A craftsman’s journey to mastery never ends. A craftsman will never run out of opportunities for improvement. Because of this reality, it’s important that craftsmen remain humble students, forever improving their craft without becoming overzealous nor overwhelmed.

This lesson proves to be a difficult one to introduce in a modern apprenticeship. Whereas practices and skills highlight a craft’s explicit knowledge, humility is what’s called tacit knowledge—it’s a lesson that you can observe, but cannot easily transfer from one person to another through lessons or books. A mentor cannot teach humility: a mentor can only provide opportunities for the apprentice to acquire it.

One popular example of this process comes from the 1984 film “Karate Kid.” At the beginning of Daniel LaRusso’s apprenticeship, Mr. Miyagi made LaRusso wax his car and paint his fence. LaRusso felt used, and resented Mr. Miyagi for using him for manual labor.

Eventually, Mr. Miyagi revealed his intentions. By waxing and painting exactly as Miyagi had instructed, LaRusso had already internalized the basic motions of a proper self defense. Miyagi flipped the two different concepts of knowledge: he made his implicit teachings (humility) explicit, and his explicit teachings (defensive maneuvers) implicit. Upon revealing this paradox, he achieved something profound in his student. LaRusso’s frustration was funneled into humility and appreciation for the skills he’d learned, as well as respect for the one who taught them to him.

This paradoxical approach is atypical, though. Traditionally, mentors have sought to teach humility by increasing the apprentice’s workload; by making the apprentice buckle underneath the gravity of their craft. Apprentices performed the menial tasks that freed their mentors to perform their craft at its highest level. Then, they would then benefit from working in this same environment, and by receiving lessons from a craftsman who is performing a craft at its highest level.

Our model of modern apprenticeship at 8th Light has always tried to implement a similar policy toward teaching humility. Apprentices are responsible for office upkeep—loading and unloading the dishwasher; taking out the garbage; setting up, recording, and cleaning up after 8th Light University events; and performing regular small talks for student apprentices; in addition to other miscellaneous tasks that come up in our office. They do the work that creates an ideal working environment for our craftsmen and for themselves.

Last summer, we moved to a new office that has required an even greater commitment to the miscellaneous tasks of office upkeep. Apprentices were responsible for organizing and unpacking much of our office furniture and supplies. They assembled tables and chairs, set up monitors and A/V equipment, and continued performing their same daily duties across an office that had doubled in size. Throughout this transition, the academic rigors of their apprenticeship were ongoing.

All of this made me question whether our apprenticeship program was still teaching humility effectively.

As tacit knowledge, humility is demonstrated through service. But although adding another rock to somebody’s backpack can build character, it can also have an adverse effect. Every time you volunteer someone else for a task, you’re treating humility like explicit knowledge that can be taught. And when you fill someone’s day with menial labor, you open yourself to resentment unless you can prove its utility.

That’s why I think it’s so important to ask whether we’re teaching humility effectively. The best way to teach tacit knowledge is by demonstrating it for others to observe and absorb. Are you teaching humility by being of service to others?