Pride is not only a hindrance on the spiritual level, keeping us from perfecting our own souls, but it is just plainly a nuisance when you’re trying to teach someone a skill or art. I have a friend who is having trouble with a sphygmomanometer (blood pressure meter) and won’t show me how she uses it. I have no trouble with the machine. But I can’t tell what’s wrong unless I see it fail.
All right, she has a Master’s degree and feels humiliated that somebody has to tell her what she’s doing wrong in using that machine. So there goes my teaching moment, out the window. It’s the story of my life. I’ve been trying to teach for more than fifty years, and pride always interferes. I think what I really should teach is humility. I think I might have enough of that to go around.
Civilization 