Can we change the world from our classroom?
“I´ve come to the frightening conclusion that I
am the decisive element in the classroom. It´s my daily mood that makes the
weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child´s life
miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of
inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is
my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and
a child humanized or de-humanized.” There is a lot of truth in Dr. Haim Ginott´s words. Most of the times we can make a situation better just by
changing our attitude, by changing the way in which we see a problem, by showing
our students the right path.
We need to teach our students not to focus on
the “don´ts”, on what they do not have or on what they do not know, because if
they do that, their lives will be filled with endless dissatisfaction. Instead,
if they could learn to try to find the good in different situations and to
overcome their obstacles not only inside the classroom but in life in general,
we will be leaving an unforgettable footprint in their lives.
We are not only teachers, we are also
architects of our students ‘futures. Therefore, we need to build good and
strong bases to help our learners become autonomous and to give them the
necessary strategies to become better students, better citizens, better
persons.