I am her because I want to be here. It is entirely likely that you are here because education is compulsory--you are required to be here. However, I am here by choice. I elected to become a teacher because I wanted to work with young people. You and I both know that only the brave and daring would do something like that! I chose to teach.
Let's make every minute count. We must make our time together worthwhile. To do so, I will need your help. There is so much to share and so little time. And all too frequent are the distractions and interruptions. Let's keep busy and spend wisely what little time we are given.
Let no one interfere with your opportunities to learn. Class rules will be clear and understandable. And you should know that we have rules in order to benefit and protect your interests as a student and as a person. Anything that gets in the way of your learning to think critically is against the rules.
It is humanly impossible to be absolutely fair... but don't let that stop you from trying! I try to be as assertive and consistent and impartial as is humanly possible. But I am not a machine. It is impossible to be absolutely fair in all cases, but I promise to try. Even when it is thought I am unfair, I teach a valuable lesson: Life is inherently unfair!
Learning is not a spectator sport! Our worst enemies are ignorance, indifference, and apathy. Learning is not something that is done by someone else to you or for you.
Help me ask "Is this worth knowing?" It is very hard to determine what is important for you to learn and what is necessary to me to teach. Just like a tiny child must first learn to walk and then run, so too are some things that seem unimportant at the time most critical to your development as a person. Knowing that it is difficult, I promise to ask, What I am teaching... is it something worth our investment in time? Is it worth knowing?
Learn how to learn. I insist that you learn the subject matter. I want you to grow. But it is equally important to me that you depart feeling like a real human being, knowing that you've developed critical thinking skills that can be nurtured the rest of your life. The most useful of all learning is to have learned how to learn.
Thinking is hard but profitable. Too bad more people don't try it! Remember this: We all have to begin somewhere. And it so happens that in this classroom somewhere is a place between the right ear and the left ear! The brain is a muscle--it must be exercised if it is to grow! Do all you can do to get those little gray cells moving.
Learning is like breathing--you've got to do it on your own! Just like you now, I've been a student for what seems like centuries. And after all those years of elementary and secondary school--and the university--I can tell you that there is not one teacher, not one course from whom and from which I failed to learn something. True, some were poor teachers. But I made it my responsibility to learn in spite of them. Make a concerted effort to make even your poorest teachers better than they are. It is you who must make a commitment to learn. The ultimate responsibility for learning is yours. No one can do it for you..
You have a right to your own mind! I have a right to insist that you use it! Thinking is not something that you should ever rely on anyone else to do for you. In this classroom, we live by what can be called the principle of habeas mentem, the right of each individual to his own mind.
Can do is to motivation what do do is to manure! You are just as capable as anyone else! You can accomplish academically what you decide to accomplish. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise. If you've been categorized as a "slow learner," it's probably because you've given your teachers little evidence to believe otherwise. Think about this: There's often a real difference between what you can do and do do!
Get excited about learning! A classroom can be boring, or it can be exciting, vibrant, and filled with imagination. I know. I've been a student. I've experienced many a classroom. I've sat on the other side of the desk. Our class will be as exciting as we make it.
Give learning a chance, will you? I've got to be up front about this: I do not know everything. No one does. No one can. But what I do know I will gladly share with you.. .if you will give me a chance.
Leave yourself open to consultation. Someone once said something that I very much agree with: The mind must be consulted in its own development. I pledge to work with you in your continuing development as a human being.
Give it your best shot! On your behalf I want to be the best guide and leader and facilitator that I can be. But it's characteristic of humans to give their most to these who give them the most. I give my best to those who give me their best.
First person who says, "But Mrs. So-and-So never counts off for spelling!" is dead meat! Every person has a right to he unique. I value individual differences in my students! But I also want to be accepted as an individual. I've a right to he different! So don't expect me to be or to teach exactly like your other teachers!
Let's be there for one another--let's lend a hand. These are difficult times. We both know that. But I want you to know that I know how difficult it is to he growing up in today's world. Just tune into the nightly news any evening and you know what I mean. The world is pretty complex these days. And your generation is having a harder time of things than perhaps any other generation during modern times. I know it. You feel it. I can do so very little to change the national or world situation.. .and I can't do much about your home environment. In those matters I have little control. But in our classroom I can make all the difference in the world! That is, with your help I can. We can do a great deal together to help one another out.
Strive to be the best you can be. As a student I want you to ask, "How does how I am compare with what I might be?" I will he asking myself the same question and striving to be what I know I can be if I give it my best.
Reform? If we're not doing it it's not happening! With the exception of the most important person in the education process, everyone has heard of the education reform movement. Listen up, because I'm talking about you. All over the country people are trying to improve teaching and leaming. But let me tell you how it is: The legislature and the state department of education and the teacher unions can try to bring about any changes they like, but true reform happens only when students and teachers, working together, decide to make their classrooms the very center of the reform movement. Everything else is mostly just talk.
Rich soil makes for stronger roots! Every person in this classroom is different. Every person is unique. Represented here are individuals of virtually every nationality, race, creed, ethnicity, and political persuasion. And that is good! Each of us is an important part of the beautiful mixture that is America. Each of us can take pride in what we are and who we are. Your roots are good roots, just as good as anyone else's! They don't make bad ones! But it's good to make absolutely sure that your roots are planted in rich soil!
Be proud...inside and out! Every student in this classroom should be proud of what I call your "inherited exterior," the things over which you've had little choice--when and where you were born and to which family, your race, ethnicity, national origin, eye color, and so on. But your "developed interior" is every bit as important. The things you have leamed. Your acquired skills. The quality of your thinking, and feeling. How you behave and refuse to behave. The things you stand for. So be proud of your exterior self and--because you alone have fashioned them out of what life has dealt you--be even more exuberant regarding your accomplishments within.
You can be any flavor, shape or size...but I'll still get on your case if you don't shape up! Although I will not always succeed, I will attempt always to let fairness and concern for the dignity of each human being to influence my behavior in the classroom. What makes a class a good class is the sense of equal belonging. I believe in equality of responsibility just as much as I believe in equality of educational opportunity. Each individual is responsible for helping create an environment conducive to our important work.
You get out of something what you put into it. Did you hear the one about the educated cat? As the story goes, this educated cat--to avoid the laborious and time-consuming task of catching mice--purchased a mouse trap. (Finding an easy way out seemed to him like the smart thing to do.) Not having even a bit of cheese for bait, he came upon the idea of clipping a picture of some cheese out of a magazine. He set the trap in this fashion and spent a lazy, restful evening in the comfort of his master's bed. The next day he awakened to find that indeed he had caught something- -a picture of a mouse! The moral? You get out of life exactly what you put into it. No more. No Less.
You will be as happy as you decide to be. Let's all take what we are doing in this classroom very seriously. But let's have a good time, too! I will ask you to work hard and I will expect you to work hard. But we should play just as hard! It is, after all, a short life. To the degree possible, we should strive to be happy.
Dare to care. And finally (should I risk writing this?) in our classroom, dare we acknowledge that if there is to be a better future, we need to help one another today: might we dare to reach out and love one another?
There, I've said what I wanted to say. But there is so much more inside of me that I cannot communicate, that words cannot express. You won't understand this the first time through, so read it often. Perhaps someday--maybe even years and years from now--some of what I've shared will make sense to you. For now. just know that you've got a teacher who cares, really cares, about you and about your future.
Sincerely,
Your teacher.