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| Caliban |
Anyway, here's a poem: Teacher Answering Young Radicals - Stephen Dunn
Sunday, October 17, 2010
An Invitation, More Than Anything, Really
Whenever we talk about the outrage of good teachers, it can be intimidating. I can see wanting to do your best and give your students every possible advantage, every opportunity for high level learning, but sometimes I find myself thinking, What if I don't have enough of that passion, that teaching fire, to make me into one of Taylor Mali's miracle workers? What if I fall into complacency, content to just do my job and survive the daily grind? Maybe I haven't yet gotten completely comfortable with the idea that I am somehow capable, somehow privileged enough to be able to teach these kids anything. Who am I to say what's important or what they should know? It's hard, being expected to have all the answers, especially as someone who's just figuring out their own life. Thoughts like this get me into trouble. Sometimes I feel like I might not be able to muster up that desire to teach students for their own sake.
Tonight, though, some thoughts connected, their vaporous ends drifting together and then hardening into ideas. Maybe I shouldn't worry about teaching them for their own sake. Not every Terry or Sam has to know everything when they leave my class. The end of their year with me doesn't mean they will be thrown into the unwilling arms of the world. I don't have to fan a classroom full of sparks into bonfires, consuming information like kerosene. I don't have to make every single one a lifelong learner, I can't. I can show these students my passion for stories, for prose, poetry, and the written word. I can invite them to walk onto the page with me and together, crunch through that crisp white field like snow, trailing our fingers against the wrought iron letters until worlds erupt from beneath that icy surface and Caliban and Harry Potter stroll among us. This more than anything is what I think will keep me going. Really, I'm teaching myself the joys of writing and coaxing them to follow.
Anyway, here's a poem: Teacher Answering Young Radicals - Stephen Dunn
Anyway, here's a poem: Teacher Answering Young Radicals - Stephen Dunn
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I really like your last statement. It will be impossible to reach every student every day, but I really like the idea of furthering our own learning while having our students follow our lead.
ReplyDeleteYou couldn't be more right. It would be nice to be the one that turns each kid onto the written word, but reaching out to every kid? We can't think that every kid who doesn't love words when he/she leaves our classrooms is a failure on our part. I think my goal will be for students to at least appreciate English, if they would rather do something else. I definitely want to further my own writing as well.
ReplyDeleteMike, you are a lovely writer! Your respect for the written word will come through to your students, and you will teach them to respect it as well. Not everyone will fall is love with English- but I think respect is a wonderful thing as well.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this blog and believe and agree with everything you said. As teachers we can only touch so many students and provide what we can. Although those students who you do touch and inspire, will most likely always remember you, because I have never forgotten my freshman and sophomore english teachers! P.S. The tempest was required for a course I took and I enjoy your picture of Caliban
ReplyDeleteI have had this thought about "what if I don't have the passion" a lot, and each time, something jolts me back into being excited to teach. My biggest problem has never been finding something I like; instead, it's been finding something I love enough to keep me from thinking about the other paths I haven't taken. Still, every time I feel in doubt, something revamps my excitement, and your line about walking onto the page with students is one of those ideas.
ReplyDeleteI think Passion is important but it can only get me so far. When I fear I will run out of the spark, I just remember that I'm human and so are the students I will be teaching. They will understand when I have down days, and I will try my hardest to keep the inspiration coming.
ReplyDeleteLove the Caliban and Potter bit
Alex Rummelhart
I definitely have the same fear that I might not have even same passion or fire to motivate my students, but Alex is right- we're human. I agree that we can't help all of our students, although that is our goal, but we have to be able to accept it. I think by the end of the day if we know we did our best and keep doing our best, we are bound to inspire some students.
ReplyDeleteI think every teacher has the fear that they will fall into complacency and not teach to the best of their abilities. It's the good teachers, though, that have this fear. The ones who actually do lose interest and just teach because it's their duty, not because they have passion, are the ones that stopped worrying about this question, or never worried at all.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty obvious how honest and powerful your post is, everyone loves it! I have been working in the real world for three years, and I will promise you that you will have that passion. There may be a day or two, but I don't think any of us would ever be able to drop to a level of complacency. We believe in our students, and we believe we can make a difference in their lives.
ReplyDeleteMike,
ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you for this entry. It is beautifully written and so eloquently expresses what we all feel at one time or another as teachers. My favorite line is "I don't have to fan a classroom of sparks into bonfires..." I think you'll do just fine as an English teacher. I think it's when we quit questioning and cannot recognize our own complacency, that we fail as teachers.