Growing up with parents who were teachers was exhausting. I felt like I was always under the microscope when it came to my grades and I often felt like my parents treated me like I was one of their students rather than their child. I was a kid at the time, so I know I was overly dramatic and fixated on a few key things, but that was my truth and my reality. Like most kids, I was focused only on myself. My underdeveloped prefrontal cortex didn't really allow me to look beyond my own ego, so instead, I pushed back and tried to rebel. When I did this, however, I ended up getting a heavy dose of "teacherisms" that were meant to get me back on track and make me think about how my actions and choices were ultimately going to determine my consequences, both positive and negative. If you aren't familiar with teacherisms, they are the words and phrases that teachers use with their students on a daily basis and become so commonplace in their lexicon that they are remembered by every student that ever was present in that teacher's classroom. Every teacher has them. If you don't think you do, just ask your students and they will be happy to tell you what they are.
I was indoctrinated at a young age on teacherisms that have had a long lasting impact on my life and have helped shape me into the person I am today. This past weekend, I found myself uncovering one of the most important teacherisms I ever learned from my mother as I was watching the presidential election results come in and at the same time, thinking about the pandemic education experience that I am currently living through. At one point, I found myself thinking, "when you point your finger at someone else, always remember that you have three others pointing back at you." As soon as I thought it, I realized that my mother had successfully channeled herself into my adult mind and that is a scary proposition if you know my mother. The thing is, her teacherism rings true. She was a special education teacher who worked with a variety of students who exhibited a number of different behaviors and she was constantly trying to teach her students that instead of pointing fingers at others, they needed to focus on their own actions that led to the behavior and pay attention to the three fingers pointing back at them. It is a simple visual representation to stop, take stock of the situation, and change your perspective.
At this very moment, we are living in a world that is divided and the chasm seems to be growing by the day. Whether we are talking about COVID-19, election results, how schools are operating in a pandemic, or reflecting on our mental health and well being, we would all be better served to stop the finger pointing and do an inward reflection first. Placing blame on others is easy, but taking ownership of what we contribute to the issue is extremely tough, but necessary. If we don't do this reflection, we cast ourselves as the victim and expect that others will come to our aid at the drop of a hat. What we might not take into consideration is that in some cases, we are making the issue worse by our own actions, but we refuse to acknowledge it.
It is not in my nature to be an alarmist. I have learned over time that things tend to work themselves out if I give it a little bit of time and am intentional about the words I use and the actions I display. I am not perfect and do point my finger in the direction of others from time to time, but the voice of my mother brings me back to reality very quickly with the most important teacherism I ever learned. My fear, however, is that if we don't have a whole lot more people learn this principle, we are going to be hosed. We need to change that finger pointing to an open hand instead and be willing to do the tough work of coming together for the greater good. After all, as educators, we have a lot of eyes on us right now and we have control over the teacherisms we deliver to our students that will be remembered by them for a long time. What will your's be?
#ONWARD
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