I would like to know why people feel that they can judge others so much. It happens more in schools, it seems. I mean, how many doctors and lawyers and others in just about any other profession get taken to task in the way teachers are?
In the comment-turned-article to be published after this one, Nathaniel describes his experience as a teacher this past week. But what he wrote could have been written by anybody who truly puts their heart into this change, because they will ruffle feathers. Anybody who wants to change the status quo’s week will upset some apple carts. Any one of us on this blog could have had the kind of week, and many of us have.
I certainly have. About ten times. With a lot less class than Nathaniel shows here. Because I was afraid.
Here’s Nathniel’s scenario:
1. A student is afraid to learn more deeply, and seeks nothing but the safety of hiding under a rock in Nathaniel’s interpersonal skills based classroom. No blame, she thinks she signed up for Verb Memorization 101 and Nathaniel smilingly informed her that the class is actually on Be More Human 550 where he informs her that the national standards in foreign languages don’t actually call for classroom instruction as it was done in the last century. The girl balks about the Be More Human part, strikes out at the adult male (she learned it from her mom) and goes to the principal.
2. Said principal knows in his heart that troubled girl has no leg to stand on, but does his principal thing anyway. Actually he doesn’t know what to do, but the Principal’s Manual said to work on lesson planning with teachers who show genius and can’t be put in a box. That’s his best card, so he plays it.
3. In this triangle, Nathaniel decides to deep breathe through the whole thing. So he takes a few days worth of deep breaths, with help, and calls on an inner strength born not just of life on this planet but born also of being a teacher in a school building in America circa 2015, which is in some ways a far more intense version of life than the one found outside of school buildings, if you want to be any good at it. (Insert Laurie Clarcq quote here.)
4. Nathaniel wins this one. He says to himself, “I am not going to let people who don’t get what I do mess me up. I am just fine. I’m aligned with current research. My change, my path as a teacher to comprehensible input instruction is not weird and it is not a fluke. (Unlike so many younger teachers who cave in this situation and resolve to get a new job next year, Nathaniel says, hell no, hell no, and hell no.) Why? Because he knows he is right and that language education is in a time of fervent massive boiling change and eventually the young fembot, who just wants to memorize, and the dufusterious manual-following principal, who just wants power, are not bad people and can be left alone.
5. So Nathaniel protects and bathes his heart in something that all teachers get heaps of because they are teachers – a kind of divine safety that is more prevalent in school buildings, because so many angels work there, because they are needed so badly, and he protects himself. He thus shows what we in this community already know about him – that he is among a new breed of super talented teachers who may be challenged by robotic darkness but WILL NOT BACK DOWN.
(see next article for the comment that Nathaniel that prompted the above thoughts. Nathaniel is to be honored for writing what he did, for sharing it with us. How many other teachers would? He will not let building shame pollute his life and his image of who is as a teacher. He knows that building shame is largely the result of a bunch of petty, small-minded control freaks who are scared by real things like real teachers who really teach because they want to align their teaching with light. And light in a dark place scares people. It scares principals, that category among principals, maybe half of them, who should not be principals. Nathaniel just dealt a blow to darkness. He struck hard. But it rattled his hand. But he felt the pain and is moving on. That’s why he shared what he went through this past week in such an open way. Because he is afraid of no one and nobody and he is willing to endure the hard parts, those hard days that break hearts, in the interest of a greater good.)