Chapters 3 & 4

3 Very Meaningful Quotes:

"Such teachers are surely aware of the constraints and imperfections of schools. Somehow they see the possibilities more clearly than the impossibilities."

Throughout my high school years, and then into some of college, I saw firsthand how the education system is failing the students. Frustrated that the emphasis was on the superficial (grades, doing only what is asked of us) rather than the intellectual, I often wondered whether I should put my own children through this broken system, or teach them at home myself. However, I always held to my overriding belief that, despite the bad, there is still a lot of good. I decided to become a teacher to be a tool in fixing the system, and that ideal has stuck with me. I have been privy to conversations where the subjects want to condemn the entire system as well as everyone who is a part of it, but I try to choose another route of rising above those impossibilities and seeing education for what it is at its core: giving others the opportunity to achieve their potential.

"They live what they know."

Just like the 10% of an iceberg that sticks out of the water, while the rest of it remains unseen beneath the surface, many of us only apply a small portion of the knowledge we have. As humans, we are filled with experiences and information, so it seems only natural that we would use what we have. The same goes for teachers. In reality however, we tend to use only part (sometimes a very small part) of our rich library. Knowledge is power, yes, but only if that knowledge is used for action. It takes a lot of thought and work to apply the principles we know, but naturally it pushes us to greater heights.

"From the first day of class until the last, environment will quietly but potently form a line of communication from teacher to student, student to student, and student to teacher. Environment will support or deter the student's quest for affirmation, contribution, power, purpose, and challenge in the classroom."

The truthfulness of this quote struck me, just based on my own personal experiences as the student. I was unaware of it during my grade-school years, but realize now that the teachers with whom I connected worked hard to create a safe environment, and the teachers that I didn't value or respect neglected that vital aspect of teaching. A classroom communicates. It either says that students are valuable resources for learning, or that they are just merely there to soak information in. It either welcomes children by engaging their interest, or repels them by focusing on adults. A classroom can have a warm, friendly atmosphere, or it can have a hostile, anxious one, and it is that atmosphere that determines the level of potential the students will reach while in the class. Children are little opportunities walking through the classroom door, and if we as teachers stifle the potential of those opportunities by failing to create a supportive environment, then we are stifling the future of this world.