Recently, while at a workshop I was struck by the claim of a participant that our focus in education must be to design schools for those who want to learn and that some students have no desire or capability to be successful in their learning.
I've always struggled in articulating what my heart wants me to say in moments like these. So now as I reflect, I know precisely what I would have spoken up and said, "Sir, you are 100% correct. Students will aspire to the expectations we inspire!!"
If we already walk into our classroom and assume that only half of our students are capable. You know what, half our students will seem like complete duds no matter what they do for us. Don't set the bar low for students...see the greatness in each and every one of them. Inspire them to that inner greatness. Yes, I'm an idealist and I'm unrepentant of that fact. Yet, I also recognize that the only aspect I can directly control in a students' life is my attitude towards them.
The students who walk through that door are in the process of becoming masterpieces for a work we truly have no conception of...so how dare us assume we know (oh how stained is my guilt of this!!).
Our students arrive in this world as blocks of the finest marble and we are entrusted as Michelangelo, but fleetingly in their life. Let the mark we leave be a chip towards helping them realize their masterpiece, not a brazen whack that splits the whole.
Okay, thank you. I really needed to get that off my chest! :)
Have a wonderful rest of the week and let us aspire to inspire those around us!
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