PEACE
Our Public Life and Our Private Life
When my students enter the classroom I can see in their eyes that they are hoping that I am going to create a terrific class lesson that will be exciting. They first want me to recognize them by name, recall the dynamics of the last class, and teacher to their soul nothing superficial. There are many in my classes that do not have the respect of the faculty or other students. They feel like second class citizens. Do I, as their teacher, value them although they are not excellent students? Do I give up on them because they are not striving to be number one in the class? Do I forgive them for behaviors of past classes and move on?
Students live very stressful public lives. They are looking for some strength and encouragement in their private lives. Students bring their private lives to class, but only their public lives are active. Many shove down their feelings and shove down their thoughts for fear that they will be embarrassed or put down by others. It is amazing how different students are with their teachers in a one-to-one situation. There are no other students around to impress; thus, communication is direct and honest.
Teachers are the best hope for students. If there is going to be a mentor who clicks with a students outside the home, chances are it is going to be a teacher or coach at school. Hopefully, teachers know how sensitive this potential relationship is and how easy it is for the student and the mentor to not show up. There has to be some openness, honesty, and caring about each other for the mentor/student relationship to work. It also takes some time and trust for the bond to be real.
What a teacher sees in the classroom is a result of what the student is thinking and feeling in their private life. If there is fear about the teacher or the class environment, the symptoms can range from disruption to aggressive behaviors towards other students and the teacher. If there is confidence, students are relaxed, organized, and expect a sequence of events that will lead to learning, success, and joy.
Both students and teachers need to be prepared for life in the classroom: their public life. If every student has 60,000 thoughts per day and 32 emotions per day, we are experiencing approximately 2,000 thoughts and 2 emotions per class per student. In a class of 25 students this is a tremendous amount of non-verbal activity that challenges the teacher to keep the attention span of each student on task from class to class.
Schools and churches struggle with the topic of spirituality and thoughts that requires one to teach inside to their center where there private life takes place. One can use a variety or words to describe one's center. Some see God, meditate, pray, chant, speak in tongues, and other behaviors that allows one to focus on their feelings and thoughts on a higher plane. Only when one detaches from the daily emotions of human life can one be at peace with themselves and the world. Life cannot be about the events on radio and television news. Life cannot be about the reactionary approach to law, medicine, and education. Life has to be more than the shell that houses the real person inside. Death is too soon and too tragic for too many people young and old to take too seriously.
We all have a mission in life. The goal is to find it. We all have gifts and talents to share with our families. We all have a genetic history that traces back in history farther than we would like to imagine. Our destiny is a part of the bigger universe and is more out of our control than we want to admit. There are many little miracles in our lives everyday. The question is “does anybody see the miracles in our lives daily?” Children keep us close to God. They are about innocence and honesty in their true form.