The power of teaching

I was speaking Spanish with a student and his old teacher made a statement that he knew this student could speak Spanish if he would have only tried in his class.  My heart just broke for this student.  The student tried to pick up his pride with a rhetorical statement but the hurt had been done.  I turned to the student to say how proud I was of him.  And I have the rest of the year to remind my students how amazingly gifted they are.

“I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.”

Haim G. Ginott

I found this statement in the first office I had as a teacher and it is still my favorite teacher quote.  Back then I didn't have a teaching certificate or any experience, but this quote gave me guidance.  14 years later; knowing, understanding, and living this quote is more valuable to me than my teaching certificate.  

 

I have had this student in my Spanish class for three days and he was speaking Spanish with me.  He didn't need to 'try harder', he just needed the right tools.  Oh, do I have the power or what.