What I’ve been struggling to say and do

Posted by Chad Sansing ⋅ March 11, 2011 ⋅ 10 Comments

Filed Under Curriculum, Educational Philosophy, Inquiry, Relationships

I will value my student’s natural curiosity and emotional well-being more than I value teaching as I was taught.

I will value the curriculum that my student brings to school more than I value my curriculum.

I will uncover my student’s curriculum rather than unpack my own.

I will dedicate all of the time I share with my student to co-learning.

I will spend any time taken away from learning on conflict resolution rather than classroom discipline.

I will measure myself by how much learning we enjoy in our classroom, rather than by how much order other adults see in it.

I will learn to facilitate and value my student’s print and non-print learning, as well as my student’s virtual and physical learning.

I will protect my student’s flow.

I will help my students constructively challenge management practices that don’t help them learn.

I will make something from what I do and share it with others.

About Chad Sansing

I teach for the users. Opinions are mine; content is ours.

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Discussion

10 thoughts on “What I’ve been struggling to say and do”

I am so glad I found your blog! I am also a teacher, and this particular post touched me. thank you!

Posted by soufflebibingka | March 11, 2011, 7:26 am

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- I am glad you found this post, too – your generous response is inspiring.
  
  Best regards,
  C
  
  Posted by Chad Sansing | March 11, 2011, 9:56 am
  
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Hi Chad,

I love this…resonates so much with what I’ve been exploring in my own school in terms of emotional and mental health!

Thanks for sharing this. I really needed to read it today.

stephen

Posted by Stephen Hurley | March 11, 2011, 11:08 am

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- Thanks, Stephen – I felt it was important to write for my emotional and mental well-being this week. These affirmations are a third draft of arguments I didn’t have the word to make any other way.
  
  I plan to come back to them frequently.
  
  All the best,
  C
  
  Posted by Chad Sansing | March 11, 2011, 8:37 pm
  
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Chad, I soo love what you declare here! To me this is not just a teacher’s manifesto, but a declaration for life in support of learning — and we all need to have some declaration like this for the things we love and are passionate about!!

Thank you so much for breathing hope for parents like me that there is value in education but not immediately obvious as that value comes from the teachers who are willing to make themselves vulnerable and plug themselves into the learning together with their students!

Posted by kima | March 11, 2011, 2:26 pm

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- Thank you for your kindness and hope here, Kima. I think that if we all can be honest and hopeful and really understand how far beyond the status quo our roles go as students, parents, teachers, and supervisors, then we’ll have a much healthier and more joyful system of public education.
  
  Yours in the journey,
  C
  
  Posted by Chad Sansing | March 11, 2011, 8:34 pm
  
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Love this, Chad. It comes at an important moment for me as I try to disentangle myself from a thick web that threatens to put blinders on me obscuring what’s truly important. I may just steal the form of this entry and post my own version on the Coop Catalyst. Thank you.

Posted by Elisa Waingort | March 13, 2011, 10:08 am

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- Go for it – anytime we can articulate what it is we’re trying to do, we should, and it’s fun to play blog tag.
  
  Thanks, Elisa –
  C
  
  Posted by Chad Sansing | March 14, 2011, 8:15 am
  
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Thank you Mr Sansing for saying what I’ve been trying to do (and occasionally succeeding) despite a systemic pressure to do otherwise. Your word « struggling » is no exageration for me. Reading this post inspires me some courage to « hack away at the unessential » (http://recit.org/ul/23l ) to create meaning.
(I apologise for my very rusty english.)

Posted by mariejobin | March 13, 2011, 2:17 pm

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- Thank you for your work, too! I’m positive that your English is better than my French.
  
  Hacking is a great way to think of this kind of work. If we can get the lid off the status quo in education and modify our systems to be more free, open, and fun, we’ll be leaps and bounds closer to schools that value learning more than complying.
  
  All the best,
  C
  
  Posted by Chad Sansing | March 14, 2011, 8:17 am
  
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