There is no seeping fear like the first year you teach school. Reading Frank McCourt‘s Teacher Man brought it back to me. There are no easy secrets to get you through, just doing it until you can smell the type of class you have as they walk in. Just doing it until there are some moments that worked and stories to tell.
It wouldn’t have helped my teaching if I had read this book back then at 23 when I first taught, but I would have recognized the fear when I wondered at night just what I thought I was doing.
I’ve had to ask myself what the hell I’m doing in the classroom. I’ve worked out an equation for myself. On the left side of the blackboard I print a capital F, on the right side another capital F. I draw an arrow from the left to right, from FEAR to FREEDOM. (p. 253)
A quote/story from the Kennedy interview which also appears in the book,
my favorite poem was “Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep, and doesn’t know where to find them. Leave them alone. They will come home, wagging their tails behind them.” I think that sums up philosophy. Just don’t bother people! Let them wag their tails. (From the interview.)