Keeping the Fire in the Belly

03/13/2019

Keeping the Fire in the Belly

The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn.
Sir John Lubbock

"When I became a kindergarten teacher," explains Margie Carter in the book, From Teaching to Thinking (that she co-authored with Ann Pelo), "I was eager to know who each child was, to share a heart connection with each child, to find a window into how each child put together ideas and made meaning out of their early encounters with the physical world of ideas. In 1964 I didn’t have the fierce pressures for instruction toward assessment and school readiness...but neither did I have thinking partners or mentors to move me into deeper considerations for my work...

As a new teacher, mostly left to my own floundering devices, I fell into looking for effective techniques to 'manage' my classroom. I lost track of my earlier philosophical considerations for daily teaching...Before long I became discouraged, my longings and vision for my work dislodged...

What would have helped me find my footing, kept a fire in my belly, and not narrowed my thinking to a search for strategies?...I needed an environment with colleagues and leadership that shared questions and stories…All teachers need an organizational culture where there is space to find your intentions, your questions, and agency."

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