Teaching, Living, and Learning

Monday, May 12, 2008

FOLLOWING INSTEAD OF LEADING

Monday, May 12, 2008

Today I would like to do more following than leading. It’s actually strange that I would think leading is even a possibility, since what is called “I” is not a separate physical entity, and is therefore, in fact, incapable of any kind of leading. The truth is that “I” am an inseparable part of an infinite Universe, and therefore the only option truly available is to follow this Universe as it works out its plan. The Universe knows what’s best for everything (it’s been taking care of its creation for immeasurable eons), and consequently “I” am in the best of hands. Like a drop of water in a measureless ocean, there’s no leading involved for me. All I have to do is ‘go with the flow’ -- and today, like any day, the flow will be harmonious and wholly advantageous for one and all.

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I found this quote (below) in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. She's describing Fanny Price's home at Mansfield, but the words exactly remind me of the atmosphere I try to maintain in my classroom:
" ... no sounds of contention, no raised voice, no abrupt bursts, no tread of violence, was ever heard; all proceeded in a regular course of cheerful orderliness; everybody had their due importance; everybody's feelings were consulted."

...........

The following quote is from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I would like my classroom to be like Dr. Strong's school:

"Dr. Strong's was an excellent school...It was very gravely and decorously ordered, and on a sound system; with an appeal, in everything, to the honor and good faith of the [students], and an avowed intention to rely on their possession of these qualities unless they proved themselves unworthy of it, which worked wonders. We all felt that we had a share in the management of the place, and in sustaining its character and dignity."

If I replaced "agent" with "teacher", this passage from a short story might, I hope, describe me in my classroom:
"The agent spent his days in following what seemed to many observers to be only a dull routine, but all his steadiness of purpose, all his simple intentness, all his gifts of strategy and powers of foresight, and of turning an interruption into an opportunity, were brought to bear upon this dull routine with a keen pleasure."
-- from "The Gray Mills of Farley" by Sarah Orne Jewett