Currently I am reading a book which came highly recommended to me this summer when I was working in Philly. It's called The COurage to teach by Parker Palmer, and it's a very refreshing look at what it is to teach. The subtitle of the book is "Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher" and Palmer's main purpose behind writing the book is that teaching is a heart thing, not a brain thing. He talks about how teaching needs to be a harmony of intellectual, emotional and spiritual enterprises and that identity and integrity come before content.
Parker says that "identity and integrity are not the granite from which fictional heroes are hewn. They are subtle dimensions of the comple, demanding and life long process of self-discovery. Identity lies in the intersection of of the diverse forces that make up my life, and integrity lies in relating to those forces in ways that bring me wholeness and life rather than fragmentation and death." I think this is a very personal and tangible definition of these two words. And while I love the Parker's insight into both the heart and profession of a teacher, I can't help but examine myself and wonder how my identity and integrity will hold up in the classroom.
Identity is tricky because it's not only what you believe to be true of yourself, but it's what others perceive to be true of you. More and more I'm finding that my own view of myself does not alway align with these outside perceptions. Sometimes the perceptions are off, but other times I find I'm the one who is mistaken; that my actions aren't quite measuring up to the bar I've set for myself. So that's something I am definitely trying to work on, but I think that either way this is where integrity comes in. I've been blessed to come fro ma family that ha modeled integrity for me since I can remember. My parents, my grandparents, both of them have always taken the hand the were dealt and played it the best they could, and they did so without compromising their own moral code.
Thus far in my classroom experience I have had no trouble getting kids to like me. My energy, personality, sense of humor they all play into this persona that the kids really gravitate to. Yet if I were to die tomorrow, I can't say my actions would have inspired any of them to live better. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not judging myself to harshly, I have only been in the classroom for 2 months so obviously I'm not perfect, but it's something to think about. I mean regardless of your profession i think you have to have a strong sense of who you are and you have to do your job with a certain amount of integrity. Anyway, I don't really have much insight for you, all I can say is I'm trying to be better and I hope that I never stop trying to be better. Here's two videos that I think speak to this rather well.
This blog post gave me a lot to think about. I would have to say you would be surprised at the amount of people you have encouraged to live better. Even kids in your classroom. You haven't known them very long but I am sure they consider you a role model. It is funny I was just talking about you to two of my friends and I was saying how even though you are my "little" brother I am still very inspired by you and consider you to be a role model to me. I have been working a lot lately on trying to improve myself and grow as a person because we all can become so much more. I think its cool that we both have been pondering this.
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