I am who I am

Getting back into a new school year is tough work.  The same thought keeps coming back into my head, “should have done this last year”!! Can a old dog learn new tricks? Is what we are so ingrained in us that we can’t change?

What we have before us each year is a group of students who we hope to mould and change so that they become good citizens. Let say they don’t want to change? Do we just leave them to their own devices and concentrate on the ones who “will comply”?

Does compliance= education?

It seems as though we hear every week that we are in an ever-changing world and we need to raise our children to be life long learners and good global citizens. If we try to teach compliance we are going against the very fabric of who we are as humans.We are created to make choices and not to be robots. To be in relationship with each other creates conflict because we can be selfish. Our attitude should be to help our students see the options of the path they are travelling and one option is, it could be destructive. If they still choose that path then that is their choice.

Does this make you as an educator a failure?

I think not, our job is not to tick off our greatest triumphs and laud over our own achievements but to give the opportunities for our students to understand who they are and who they can become. It’s not about us but them. Choice is a marvellous thing, it allows us to find diamonds in the rough but also can create the most intense pain. With the right to choose, comes the responsiblity to accept the outcome of that choice.