Teaching, Living, and Learning

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

WHAT GOVERNS?

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Today I want to keep in mind the truth about “government”. The policies that I will put into practice today are not made by a separate ego called “Ham”, but rather by the infinite Universe (a term I use interchangeably with “God”). The Universe is the ruler, monarch, sovereign, and head of state. Like the governor on a car, God will control the speed and magnitude of my life today; it will regulate everything so all runs smoothly and efficiently. The Universe will control my behavior, and will restrain me when I need restraining. In each moment, it will exercise a deciding and determining influence on me.

So what is there for “me” to worry about? I live under the government of a perfectly benevolent monarch. The measureless Universe is in its heaven (harmony), and all’s right with the world.

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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