The Courage to Teach in Practice

Have you ever had those moments that when you opened your mouth and nothing changed?

This is how I felt about a particular student who still lives in my heart.  He was a quiet, lovable soul, but he refused to complete some of tasks presented to him.  I provoked, nudged, pleaded, scolded, and begged this child to change their behavior, but nothing worked.  

This reminds me of Parker Palmer's argument about learning is not about teaching techniques. It is about the person doing the teaching. His central claim is that good teaching cannot be reduced to method, because it emerges from the identity and integrity of the teacher. His catch phrase is: we teach who we are.

This moment made me reflect on who I was as a teacher.  I was practically begging this child to be the model learner, but I had yet to discover the reason behind his behavior.   This connects to Palmer's thoughts about identity and integrity. 

Identity is not your job title. It is the crossroads between the forces that have made you who you are: your lived experiences, fears, loves, wounds, and convictions. It is the self you bring into the room whether you intend to or not.
Integrity is not morality in the conventional sense. It is integration to the degree to which your outer life matches our inner one. A teacher with integrity is about being authenthic and is not performing who they would like to be to their students. 

This made me really think about myself.  Am I should show authentic identity at school?  Are my learners given the space to show their authentic selves?  

My learner was being his authentic self in my classroom and I was not honoring it.  Instead, I wanted him to act according to my identity and sense of integrity.  This awakening really had an impact on my behavior going forward. 

One of the things I began implementing was giving the learner two choices of activities. This was the hook.  Soon, he was creating more work than I had seen in several months, because he felt like he has some choice.  At times, he voiced how he wanted to do it and I let him.

The change was not in my learner, it was in me.  I had to let go of my identity of the learner and lean into his.