"Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the springs of life"
Those words are about what Thomas Merton said: "Everything that is, is holy." Don't miss that. Accept that. It takes away the impulse to be judgmental; accept that, and you won't stereotype, generalize, label; accept that, and you see every person is sacred, too sacred to lose. Accept that, and you'll see each student has her or his own beauty. Accept that, and you'll become a nurturer and shun being a weeding gate keeper. It's about understanding that It's about seeing great potential and opportunity in an otherwise impossible student. It's talking about faith, hope, and love being living and breathing things. It requires that we honor the complexity of both the classroom as a whole and each individual. It is a conscious-raising that awakens that disparity between the real human complexity and the fabricated abstract over-simplicity. It asks that we abide by the complexities and engage them rather than being seduced into trying to understand and unwind them with distorting simplicities. It means we accept that the complexities have to be and will always be, and, thereby, avoid resorting to the dehumanizing trap of stereotype, generality, and label for understanding. It means we realize that a classroom is a gathering of diverse, unique, noble, and sacred "ones." In a sense, it means we teach to discover each individual and help that individual discover her/himself. Teaching is a process about that adventure; it's not just information transmission and skill development for the sake of test-passing, grade-getting, and credentialling. It is talking about realizing that we live inside out, about how we have to sort through the vast stuff of life, about what is held and what goes, about asking questions that lead us to meaning and purpose, about understanding why and how to live each moment, about how to live in each classroom moment. It is talking about alchemizing faith and hope and love into vision, conscience, and action. It's a simple idea to have, but a hard reality to live.
"Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the springs of life"
Make it a good day
-Louis-
Louis Schmier http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org
203 E. Brookwood Pl http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Valdosta, Ga 31602
(C) 229-630-0821 /\ /\ /\ /\ /\
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/\"If you want to climb mountains,\ /\
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