Week 3

What connections can you make between identity, integrity, the undivided heart, and the message of the poem “Now I Become Myself”?

     A purpose in life is something that all people search for. Some realize their purpose early in life, while others spend a lifetime looking for it. Too many of us get someone else’s purpose thrust upon us. Maybe it’s the dreams and ambitions of a parent, peers or society. This is something that is mentioned by Sarton in her poem when she talks about wearing ‘other people’s faces’. It’s similar to the concept of the undivided heart as mentioned in the bible. If you are being what you were meant to, doing the job that you were meant for, then you have no regrets. There is no part of your heart that is longing for something that you don’t have. Instead the whole heart is joyful for being exactly where you were supposed to be.

     A teacher can teach the content knowledge just fine without the inner conviction that they were meant to be a teacher. But someone like this usually cannot last long amidst the trial and tribulations of many teaching years. Instead, a person who has answered the called to teach and see it as their purpose in life can become more than a teacher, but an inspiration.

Week 2

Identity and integrity are related concepts. How do you understand their relationships and distinctions? What does each concept mean to you?

Identity is knowing who we truly are. Palmer talks about the “teacher within”, that inner self that calls us to the profession. Without communing with it, or making sure that there is one there in the first place, a teacher will not be able to find spiritual fulfillment in their work.

Integrity is the pride that we have as teachers. This is a sense of knowing the value of being a teacher and striving to be the best at what we do. Teachers who lose touch with their integrity will allow themselves to become mediocre at teaching and reaching their students. They will no longer care about the impact they make but rather be satisfied in getting through yet another school year without getting fired.

 

I know my identity is to be a teacher. A year ago, amidst a summer full of rejection from all the schools I applied jobs for; I was on the brink of calling it quits. My mind started to fill with thought of what I “ought” to do, as Palmer puts it. Why am I busting myself trying to get a job that pays less than most entry level office work? Shouldn’t I just get any job to provide for my family?  But in the middle of this mental struggle, my integrity came bubbling up. It was my teacher within which said in a small, but firm voice “I am a teacher. This is why God placed me in this world.” Immediately, the debate in my head ended and I knew what I had to do. I wasn’t getting a job because I didn’t have a credential, due to working so long in a Christian school that didn’t require it. So I determined to get one. I trusted that God will provide for me and my family and started the program at APU.  

Week 1

"Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.  I will praise you, O LORD my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.  For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave." (Psalm 86:11-13)

     An undivided heart is completely focused on just one thing, that every fiber of its being is in-tune with it. The psalmist above is seeking a heart that is focused on God, that every thought and action be of him and for him.
     But what does this mean for a teacher? Palmer in Chapter 1 of The Courage to Teach talks about how some teachers, through many years of teaching fatigue, start developing a wall which separates them from their students. They no longer want to spend the energy required to connect with their students, but rather rely on their content knowledge to let them just get through the material. He uses the image of a cartoon speech bubble as a way of showing how lifeless this method of teaching can be.
     Teaching, at least good and effective teaching, needs to come from an undivided heart. Just as the psalmist sought to have their entire being be focused on God, teachers have to also be focused on their teaching everyday. Students need to get more than the day's content knowledge, but rather they need to be stoked into a burning passion for learning, just as the teacher is passionate for them to learn it. This is not easy be any means, but this is what teacher are called to do. In other professions it is okay to be "off your game" a day or two a week. When I had an office job I remember many days in which I wasn't too productive, but this didn't hurt the company's bottom line too much (I was much too unimportant to have any affect on it either way). But every day that I blow off as a teacher is a day in which my students lose a valuable day of learning. What teachers do in the classroom has a profound affect on their students' lives, therefore they can't simply "phone it in".
     This is what makes teaching the most difficult, yet rewarding profession.