The Teacher and the Poet

3. On being yourself

The more a teacher is able to fully be himself or herself while teaching, the easier it is to do everything. The more their teaching relates to their own beliefs and embodies who they really are, the better teacher they are going to be. Paradoxically, putting 100% of themselves into something often makes it seem like they are putting out less effort. Sometimes just being themselves actually makes everything a lot easier. When they do put themselves fully into what they are doing, it doesn't lead to exhaustion. In fact, it actually makes everything a lot easier. Because they're not in conflict-trying to be a different person than whom they already are. They are totally congruent about what they are doing.

Teachers are given a lot of choices about how to interact with people, but these choices are restricted by beliefs about what teachers are allowed to do. It's those beliefs that tie teacher's hands. It's not that they actually run out of choices with students. It's that their beliefs tell them, "That door can't be opened. You're not allowed in that door because teachers aren't allowed to act that way." And this is what is happening every time a teacher thinks to themselves, "But I can't do this with my students." The challenge seems to be for teachers to leave their own preconceived ideas about what teaching and learning is all about and to begin to teach in a meaningful way.