Monday, June 4, 2012

I love this quote from Allen Shawn:
"A species in which everyone was General Patton would not succeed, any more than would a race in which everyone was Vincent van Gogh. I prefer to think that the planet needs athletes, philosophers, sex symbols, painters, scientists, it needs the warmhearted, the hardhearted, the coldhearted, and the weakhearted. It needs those who can devote their lives to studying how many droplets of water are secreted by the salivary glands of dogs under which circumstances, and it needs those who can capture the passing impression of cherry blossoms in a fourteen-syllable poem or devote twenty-five pages to the dissection of a small boy's feelings as he lies in bed in the dark waiting for his mother to kiss him goodnight...."
As I read this quote, I thought about how no one is expected to approach life in the exact same manner as someone else, yet we often hear comparisons of teaching styles, leadership styles, or learning styles as if they should be the same as someone else's -- that is not you! We have to embrace our differences and use them as strengths. If we did embrace differences, than the judgements of each other would be eliminated and true team work could really begin. Just a thought or maybe a goal?

2 comments:

  1. What a great quote! James Dukes is an amazing place to be both a student and teacher because of how different we can all be. It is the differences that make teachers unique from one another. There is no one right answer, just the variety of possibilities to get to the right answer and being able to embrace different teaching styles allows that. :) Nora

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    1. I love the thought that being different is not wrong but right!

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