This chapter recounts an experience that crystallized Carl Rogers’s views on education. Invited to present his ideas about student-centered teaching, a method based on therapeutic principles, he felt that a contrived demonstration would be artificial. Instead, he again cites the influence of existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, whose writings inspired Rogers to present his own honest, personal conclusions about teaching and learning. He hoped this would provoke a genuine discussion.

Rogers’s paper argued that he cannot teach another person how to teach and that anything that can be taught is “relatively inconsequential,” having little significant influence on behavior. The only learning that matters, he claimed, is self-discovered and self-appropriated truth, which cannot be directly communicated to another person. Trying to communicate such an experience turns it into “teaching,” which renders its results inconsequential. As a consequence, Rogers stated that he had lost interest in being a teacher and was only interested in being a learner, concluding that the outcomes of conventional teaching are either unimportant or harmful.

The presentation caused a tumult. Many attendees felt their profession was being threatened, while a few quietly voiced their appreciation. Rogers did not defend his position when taking questions but applied his therapeutic principles, accepting and empathizing with the group’s anger and frustration.