I am reading a book called Three Cups of Tea, by David Oliver Relin about a man named Greg Mortenson, who after failing to summit K2 stumbles into a small village in Northern Pakistan called Korphe and promises to build the people of the village a school. Reading this book coupled with my friend Jason’s work with his school the Daraja Academy has got me thinking. What am I doing? What is my purpose?
The last few days have been a series of intensive soul searching journeys for me to find out the answers to these questions. While it may appear that I am being a bit melodramatic about the whole affair, I do take my life goals and plans very seriously. I have never wanted to simply live your average middle class life. Even as a kid, I imagined that I would do bigger things. I imagined that someday, someone would write books about things that I had done, or better yet I would write them myself.
While I am not shy about admitting that I have had my share of self aggrandizing feats, I still feel like my life is building. I haven’t done enough.
That is when it hit me; tonight, here in bed, as my wife lay sleeping reading about how this guy Mortenson had a huge set back in his plan, and his girl friend dumped him, I realized just how alone and miserable he must have felt in the Richmond district of San Francisco. I felt sorry for him. He was not some hero out changing the world. He was a mortal who was broken. I felt connected to him.
I guess what I am trying to say is that we needn’t change the world all at once and all alone. We can allow it to change us, back and forth, until we become something we can recognize and live with. I have been racked with guilt that I came to Doha to make money, and that being fired was the price I paid for turning my back on my true nature, but my true nature is to simply be the peace that I want to spread. The kids I interacted with here needed education and guidance just as much as the kids in Kenya or Korphe, and I was, until the plug was pulled, getting through to them.
I am a teacher. That is what I was born to do. I was put on this earth to interact with people and try to better understand each other. I prefer working with young adults, because that is the age I felt I needed someone most, eighth grade to be specific. I am realizing that I do not need a classroom to teach. I simply need to be the peace I seek here and now. Where ever I am, interacting with whomever I meet. I am not angry at myself or others for how they perceive my actions. Perhaps there is a hint of hostility in the way I see the world, and that is where I need to start the change.
I may not be building schools in Pakistan or Kenya, but I am on a path that will lead me some place worth being. Actually this very path, my journey is in itself the most amazing thing I will ever experience. And if there is no one there to write the book about it when it is done, you could say you were reading it here all along.
End note: For all the edubloggers out there, here is my question. This was originally written for my personal blog, as a way for me to sort out my thoughts and share my thoughts with the small community of people that I have built there, but I also see the value of posting it here. This is where I am having a hard time separating private from professional. Wouldn’t other teachers or perhaps parents who would read a blog post like this not benefit, from seeing this side of a teacher? I guess I will just double post till I figure it out.
Hello Jabiz,
I am a teacher/coach in Holland and have your blog in my reader. I know what happened and read some of the posts of your students.
Your private is in your home. That is your world. Outside your home you are exposed. When you blog you expose yourself to the world.
I am not a professional, I am personal. Me and my students are one of a kind. Teacher can be student v.v.
What happened to you is about fear I think. Not yours, but organization and parents.
What you where doing, was trying to prepare your students for THEIR future. Was there anything you where not sincere about?
So, cheer up.
Here in Holland we have a remarkable lady, Marja de Vries. You can read here http://marjadevries.nl/index-english.php
Cu,
Wietze
Jabiz,
“Three Cups of Tea” was chosen for the One Community, One Book project in my area, and I hope to read it in the near future. Perhaps then we can have an online discussion and see if it affects us both in the same way.
Right now, though, I like to address your End Note. When you posed this question on Twitter, I responded that I have one active blog and it’s a blend of personal and professional thoughts.
So much of my time is invested in my career, both inside and outside of the school calendar, that I find it difficult to separate work from home from play. I feel like an educational alchemist, transforming all the information I touch into a resource for my classroom. The blogs I read offer entertainment and enlightenment. The blog I write, hopefully, does the same.
I will admit that I consider carefully what I will write about and how I will present it. But I would do the same on a strictly personal blog, since public soul-baring is not something with which I’m usually comfortable. The closest I come to loosening up online is on Twitter, where I interact with my virtual circle of friends.
Your sense of purpose and personal commitment to education is inspiring. Your story is still being written, and you are both the hero and the author!
Best wishes,
diane
As a fellow teacher, I understand the desire to separate one’s personal life from one’s professional life. At the same time, I think it’s a rather arbitrary divide. There are obviously some things I keep private about my personal life, but those things are only my most personal details. As for me as a person, I’m more than comfortable mixing my travels and my views on politics, history, art, music, and so much else with my teaching life. I’m fortunate that I teach in a Quaker school where being one’s self is valued and important.
And the most basic and important reason why showing your human side is that it makes it easier for students to connect with you as a teacher. If you are simply a teaching machine, students will treat you like a machine. If you are a human who happens to teach, students will treat you like a human. The question is not if our personal and professional lives should mix, it’s a question about where the divide between personal and professional should be.
I run the professional blog Web 13.0 and a separate one on Running and life.
At the end of each month I pull them together offline so I have an electronic version for me.
cheers Martin (Web 13.0) or Plu ( Life and Running)
For me my teaching job/career takes over an incredibly large part of my life that I have sometimes thought of teaching of more of a ‘lifestyle’ than a job. It is hard to separate private from professional sometimes, but like Bram said in his comment, letting some of the private out helps you to connect with students. Well, it helps me! Of course parents and teachers will benefit from reading about your more personal thoughts. We all have them and it’s so nice to know that others have doubts, insecurities, fears etc as well as the successes and happy moments!
I have read Three Cups of Tea and LOVED it. Greg Mortensen is an incredibly inspirational man and I appreciated the reminder of what is really important in life.
Jabiz,
I wondered into your blog via the 31-day Comment Challenge wiki. I haven’t quite figured out your story, but can tell you are passionate about teaching. I wish you luck in finding another assignment, hopefully one that will allow you to teach for social justice.
I’ve picked up Three Cups of Tea several times when browsing my local bookstore. Next time, I’ll buy it.
I teach World History in Texas and have read 3 Cups of Tea several times and my students are currently reading it. They were skeptical at first, but have come to enjoy it for the treasure it is. I agree that we can’t expect to change the world all at once, but as teachers, we can change the minds of the young to see life, liberty and the promise of the future we can all embrace as a worthy aspiration. There are some that say Mortensen is misguided and his building of schools is somehow inconsequential, but violence, inability to talk with those with whom we disagree, and even silence needs to be readdressed. Something has to change. The youth you wish to teach is our first step. Best of luck to you.