Pierre Bonnard, "The Open Window" (1919)

ONE TEACHER’S ALPHABET

A – allow

This year I would like to do more allowing, and less preventing. I would like to do more “letting things happen”, more permitting, as in, “This year I will permit you to develop wonderful ideas.” Too often in the past my students have seen me as someone who spends more time impeding, or correcting, faulty academic work than enabling successful work. They’ve seen me as more red light than green. This year I want to be an enabler in the best sense of that word. I want to give authority to my students – tell them that they have my permission to show all of their brilliance each day. I want to give them the means, ability, and opportunity to blossom in their own distinctive ways. I want to authorize and empower them, and thereby allow them to be the infinitely competent and gifted people they are.