Quotes that inspire my teaching
I have worked in education for over fifteen years, first as an elementary teacher, then as a college administrator, and now as a tenured college faculty member. Along the way, many quotes have influenced my teaching, from Theodore Roosevelt’s statement, “People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care” to Harry Wong’s belief that “the number one problem in the classroom is not discipline but the lack of procedures and routines” to Tupac Shakur’s message of poverty, inequity, racism and the need “for us as a people to start making some changes.” Nothing, however, has impacted my teaching like these words of Haim G. Ginott: “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.
I have worked in education for over fifteen years, first as an elementary teacher, then as a college administrator, and now as a tenured college faculty member. Along the way, many quotes have influenced my teaching, from Theodore Roosevelt’s statement, “People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care” to Harry Wong’s belief that “the number one problem in the classroom is not discipline but the lack of procedures and routines” to Tupac Shakur’s message of poverty, inequity, racism and the need “for us as a people to start making some changes.” Nothing, however, has impacted my teaching like these words of Haim G. Ginott: “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.”
Ginott’s quote, which can often be found tacked to my cork board or taped to my office door, captures exactly how I feel about my role as an educator. His words bring perfect clarity to what I’ve known in my heart for years—my success or failure as a teacher is more about my attitudes toward students and the way I treat each one of them personally than nearly anything else. I am the “decisive element” who “creates the climate” in my classrooms. I have “tremendous power” to bring great healing or great harm. This is indeed a “frightening conclusion” that brings with it profound responsibility.
I have made it my passion to live up to this responsibility through intentional, respectful interactions with students, from young children in elementary schools to adult students in college classrooms. I know the tone I set will engage, motivate, and value, or it will alienate, distance, and shame. It will promote success or it will promote failure. No matter who my students are, what their lives have been like, how they struggle academically, or the attitudes and behaviors they bring into the classroom, it is up to me to be “an instrument of inspiration” who helps them grow into the people they are meant to become. My goal is not only to create a climate of compassion and genuine care in my own classrooms but to teach other educators to do the same in theirs. It is what all of our students deserve.
What quotes have inspired your teaching?