Teacher Tips : Now What ?
By Charlie Housiaux
The words of Rainer Maria Rilke came to my mind after reading and considering the ideas in this issue of Connections : “ Be patient towards all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves .” We are again faced with an educational landscape that gives us much more uncertainty than not . Knowing that this world — one that is difficult even to define — is our current reality , we must hew to our individual and collective ability to pose excellent questions and joyfully seek their answers .
As teachers and school leaders , we have to embrace the sometimes uncomfortable path of not knowing . Thankfully , this issue ’ s writers share wisdom to help us have patience and to live the questions themselves .
• How does your school — and by extension your classroom — exist within a liminal space this year ? We know what was before the pandemic , and we have some ideas of what will be after it . Our understandings of the future remain in flux , and we have to acknowledge that we don ’ t yet know . Teachers and school leaders must model this humility and embrace the in-between as a essential step in making positive change .
• How can we center our mission statements as a lodestar in identifying needed change ? School ’ s often have the gift of aspirational and institutionally specific language about their nature and purpose . Teachers and school leaders must winnow and sift through these documents to identify that which matters most for their particular community , make this process public , and share widely what they learn .
• How can we humanize the other ? Any such process of discernment will unearth divisions that have heretofore been under the surface or give space to the clearer divisions within a community . Finding common ground , and partaking in shared experiences like meals , retreats , athletics , and the arts , can bring people together and ought to be prioritized .
• How can our schools be a place where post traumatic growth is possible ? The traditions and practices of mindfulness provide guidelines for us as individuals to identify heated moments as a “ bell to mindfulness ” in David Mullen ’ s words . We need to embrace this mindset of pausing and being non-judgmentally aware of ourselves so that when our collective emotional thermometers escalate , we can model measured , controlled responses . •
Charlie Housiaux is an English teacher and Upper School Dean of Students at the University School of Milwaukee . He is a 2021 – 2022 CSEE Visiting Scholar .
CSEE Connections Fall 2021 Page 27