Today’s Thought
Posted: April 5, 2012 Filed under: Mapping | Tags: humanity 2 CommentsThe guiding question that informs our conversations is activating an awareness in me to remember to think bigger, to zoom out into a broader perspective. Today I am hearing that we either are or need to be collectively impassioned about refocusing attention on teachers experiencing their own humanity more deeply so that they can better understand how to teach and reach the whole child. Yes, a teacher may be skilled in teaching a particular age group and a particular content area, but her primary focus is or can be teaching what it is to be human.
Mapping the Next 10 Years 
I think this question is crucial. How can we support teachers so they have the spaciousness to think creatively, to be fully present, to be able to reach the whole child? Having shadowed several teachers in various public schools over the past few months, I’ve been able to see the overwhelm that can take over as teachers struggle with not just presenting content in an engaging manner, but also addressing the emotional and physical needs of students from challenging environments.
How can we make space for them to think out of the box, to feel safe with their jobs in this tight competitive economy, and to feel it’s okay to collaborate with teaching artists in hand?
Growing and affirming humanity would be a huge, welcome turn around. The crisis that unfolds each day in each class in several ways can not be ignored or diminished. To acknowledge the big work that it is is an important step.
I think you are right to want to go larger. I think good communication up and down the pipeline is one way to be inclusive and transparent with these bigger thoughts. It is one think I have liked about this ‘conversation in a box’
and another big connecting like:
Access to creativity is often a good healing match for difficult circumstances.