Ridiculous Opinions #222
You have to accept a lot as a teacher. The concept of grace is something that you have to learn over time. One of my all-time favorite films is Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. There are some good lines about this in the opening of the movie:
When I was young the nuns taught us there are two ways through life: the way of Nature and the way of Grace. You have to choose which path you’ll take.
Grace doesn’t try to please itself. It accepts all things. It does not mind being slighted, forgotten, disliked, insults, or injuries.
Nature only wants to please itself…
The concept of grace is a tough pill to swallow, especially for me. As a teacher of students, I am constantly having to navigate between my very nature (which usually consists of an undefined, simmering rage) and the concept of grace (which is a idea that I can barely fathom some days). Whether that is students scoffing at the things you say, pushing the boundaries of what they can do, and finding excuses for their own behavior; to parents, fellow teachers, and administration behaving in ways that serve their own self-interests, there is a lot that we teachers have to accept in a passive way, and that can be difficult.
But with current world events, I’m kind of tired of being neutral. I’m sick of adhering to the (ridiculous) version of educational neutrality that we have been taught to display to our students. This goes against the very fabric of what is happening to educators in the US, where one is not supposed to have an opinion; where a teacher is expected to both-sides everything that comes through their classroom door.
But fundamentally, we all know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. And right now, there’s a lot of wrong happening in the world. Why should my students not know about what I feel is right and what I feel is wrong?
I’m sure I will contradict myself often in what I have to say in today’s newsletter. I certainly would not want some conservative creep standing in front of my own child’s classroom, espousing their views of what they believe is right or wrong. But I do feel that, fundamentally, my beliefs lie on the side of good rather than evil. And conservative ideology seems to me to be leaning toward the side of evil at the moment. Unlike your average conservative in today’s society, I feel that what I believe in lies in what is best for humanity rather than what is best for myself. And I think that the students that I teach need to know these things.
Yesterday in class, I had a student ask me about my opinion on the current issues in the Middle East. I knew that one of them was going to ask me this at some point, and considering the notion that I teach both Israeli and Palestinian students in my classes, it is, of course, a charged issue.
What I said was that I fundamentally disagree with the use of violence as a means to an end. I also said that I have very strong feelings on this issue, and that, because I am a teacher, I am not allowed to say what those feelings are. A lot of eyes were on me in that moment and my answer was vague enough that both sides could have walked away thinking that I was taking their side. At the same time, those students could have easily walked away thinking that I wasn’t on their side.
I hate that.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with saying that the killing of innocent Israelis in a terror attack is a horrible thing. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with saying that the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians in response to that terror attack is a horrible thing.
But what I truly believe is that the abuse of power by the people who currently hold those seats of power is a matter of gross negligence on the part of society as a whole. The self-serving nature of everything that seems to surround me on a daily basis has left me feeling a little bit hopeless about the near-future.
I am no saint, of course. I do things that serve my own self-interest every day. But I get sick of the ticky-tacky way in which people look to constantly skirt the rules and norms of society. Because that constant disregard for rules and norms has gotten us to this place that we currently find ourselves in.
I don’t have some pithy conclusion to this newsletter today. It’s merely the ramblings of someone who woke up cranky. I’m tired of the way that society is functioning at the moment and I really wish that someone…anyone with a voice…could fix it. Sometimes, these problems seem insurmountable.
So I guess, to end on a positive note, the only thing that I can do is to continue what I’m doing. Sure, I teach the subject of film to the students in my class, but what I also do is try to lay the seeds of what it means to be a good person. That’s the manipulative part of what I do as a teacher. I don’t espouse my political views and turn my classes into a forum for my political ideology. But I do try to provide examples of what it means to be a fundamentally good human being. I try to be a good person myself, and provide an example of what that means to my students.
And maybe…just maybe…those examples will ripple out to the future like throwing a stone into a still lake. The instant results that I want (my nature) will cede itself to a long-term future of goodness that I might never see (the concept of grace). I have a lot of faith in the kids that I teach. I hope they live up to it.
Next week, I promise to compose a newsletter that is solely created to entertain you. Scout’s honor.
