TEACHING

“I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom.

It’s my personal approach that creates the climate.  It’s my daily mood that makes the weather.  As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous.  I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.  I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.  In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized.”

—Haim Ginott, clinical psychologist, child therapist and educator (1922–1973)
This is a disturbing thought to me sometimes.  The one constant element in my classroom over the years has been me.