For a short time last summer, I kept a second blog of other people’s quotations called Signature Thoughts. Words have a powerful effect on me, and I hope that this weekly entry will be a springboard for my own signature thoughts. I have decided to add this post to Sundays with discussion following by me. Please add your own signature thoughts by posting comments.
“This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”
- Walt Whitman, from the preface to Leaves of Grass
I decided to become an educator after reading this passage during my freshman year of college. I came across it again recently, and its meaning is still the same some seventeen years later. Despite my frequent cynicism, I have a passion for what I do. Teaching is a fulfilling career. Although I have moved out of the classroom and gone to the “dark side” of administration, not a day goes by that I don’t make a difference with a student, a parent, or a staff member. Yes, the focus has changed somewhat. I am still in charge of the classroom and the students therein as I seek to maintain positive behavior among students and to ensure that teachers deliver effective instruction. Outside of the classroom, I seek to increase parental involvement and staff morale. I affect change in the lives of others each and every day. What a powerful feeling it is to be a leader! Passion is power!
