Below are some of my follow up thoughts to the initial piece I wrote. I have really appreciated engaging in this conversation with so many of you.
[
blogs.timesofisrael.com]
<<
I would suggest that perhaps we can re-center what education should look like. At its foundation are the values of respect, humility, responsibility and trust that I previously wrote about. But how do these qualities manifest themselves in practice? I am not an expert in the field of education, but I would like to offer my thoughts about two features that I deeply believe are important aspects of developing healthy approaches towards teaching.
The first is an emphasis on positivity. Teachers and institutions have a right to teach their philosophies and to teach them passionately, but they can and should be taught from a positive perspective. Expose your students to the beauty of what you believe in. Allow them to see and experience why you have made the choices that you have. Let them discover ideas that they never knew existed. Present them with the opportunity to consider choices they didn’t think they could want. Education includes sharing ideas, texts, thoughts, and feelings. But a good educator works hard to share all this in an uplifting way.
Fear is an easy “go-to,†as is guilt. But using them is like a comedian resorting to mocking someone in order to get a good laugh because he or she can't be more creative. It takes hard work to formulate for yourself and for others what is so compelling about your message, and it is definitely easier to simply poke holes in someone else’s. And you might see quick results, but pervasive negativity and fear ultimately bring people down. They can lead to frustration, resentment, a feeling of being lost and to real and deep anger.
The second aspect is to continuously be looking to foster independence. Our students, even the most loyal, will not be with us forever, and helping them develop the skills to navigate life’s difficult choices when they are full, responsible adults must be the ultimate goal of our efforts.
Students don't always appreciate this in the moment. As they are struggling through tough life decisions or dealing with questions on their minds, they often seek out and even pressure their mentors to tell them what to do and what to think. While an educator can and should be there to raise ideas, considerations, and even hesitations and to share thoughts, I believe that the primary role is to listen closely and to help the student figure out what they want for themselves after they have carefully deliberated and examined all the possible outcomes and consequences.
…
To outsiders, who measure success of a teacher or an institution based on quick, rapid, external change, it might look like there is failure. But those on the inside know how far someone has come, how much they have truly learned, what is internalized and what will last a lifetime.
>>
The full piece appears at [
blogs.timesofisrael.com]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2016 09:13AM by mlb.
